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• Next gig: Friday August 5th - Stoat album launch, with special guest Mumblin Deaf Ro, The Sugar Club, Leeson St., Dublin

• The album launch date has been confirmed for Friday August 5th in the Sugar Club. Admission will be around the €8 mark, and we might even have a few t-shirts for sale
• Got played on Pet Sounds last night! Thanks to anyone who texted in to say they liked us :) ... we've put out a new radio promo, so hopefully we'll pick up a bit more airplay over the next couple of weeks.
• Watch out in the press for Stoat stuff over the next week or two - we should have reviews/articles appearing in The Ticket in the Irish Times, Day and Night in the Irish Indo, Mongrel, Hot Press and possibly Totally Dublin
• I'm currently working on a new website, so hopefully this old thing will look a bit snazzier in time for the launch - also you'll be able buy the album online

• As you may have noticed on the front page, the album is finally finally finished. Hooray! We're planning to release it during the summer.
• Got some reviews for the new single, they're on the press page.

• Launch date for the new single is confirmed for Friday Feb 18th in The Lower Deck. The single will contain the tracks "The Saltee Tango" and a (pretty ropey) live recording of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" from our Ballroom Of Romance gig on Jan 21st.
• If you want to help us out with airplay (we've picked up a little already but we want more), contact some (or all, or anyone else you can think of) of the following and request Stoat:
  Tom Dunne Mon-Thurs 7-10pm Today FM (text 085-4100102) petsounds [at] todayfm [dot] com
  Alison Curtis Sunday 8-10pm Today FM (text 085-4100102) acurtis [at] todayfm [dot] com
  Jenny Houston Mon-Thurs 10-midnight 2FM (text 087-7720000) jenny [at] 2fm [dot] ie
  Cormac Battle Sunday 9-midnight 2FM (text 087-7720000) cormac [at] 2fm [dot] ie
  Dan Hegarty Tues-Thurs midnight-2am (text 087-7720000) dan [at] 2fm [dot] ie
  John Walsh Sunday 10pm-1am FM104 (text 087-6797104) johnw [at] fm104 [dot] ie
  John Kelly Mon-Thurs 8.30-10pm Radio 1 mystery [at] rte [dot] ie
  Spin1038 (text 085-7111038) (especially during Eva Stack's show on Sundays 10.45-11.45am)
  Phantom FM (text 087-6195171) studio [at] phantomfm [dot] com
  Edel Dooley Beat 102 103 (text 086-3880102) studio [at] beat102103 [dot] com
  Thanks very much!

• Hot Press says this about tonight's gig:
  "If your New Years resolutions for 2005 included 'more rocking' you could do far worse than stroll towards The Lower Deck, Portobello, for the 36th Ballroom Of Romance. Stoat have been causally knocking out Beefheart tinged oddball pop gems for more years than they may care to remember now, leaving a slew of excellent EPs in their wake. As the release date for their long awaited debut album draws ever closer, now would be a great time to get a sneak preview of what gems await us therein. Supported by two lots of North Dublin's favourite sons, the acoustic finger picked loveliness of Paul O'Reilly and the razor sharp indie punk of the Delorentos. A better night's rocking you'd be hard pushed to find." There'll be video and audio footage taken tonight, so if you want to appear in a future Stoat video or b-side come along.
• Single launch confirmed for Feb 18th in the Lower Deck. The song will be "The Saltee Tango"

• Had the album wrap party last night! Sorry we didn't invite you (we didn't invite anyone, it was just the 3 of us telling each other how great we are) ... of course in typical Stoat fashion we had the wrap party before the album is finally finished, there are one or two mastering tweaks (things like fadeouts on songs) left that will happen very soon. We're still a little hazy about what we're gonna do with it now that it's finished - the current plan is to put out a low-key single or two over the next few months to generate a bit of interest and then put out the album itself in the summer. If you just can't wait that long mail me and I'll make you a CD-R copy to tide you over ...

• Mixing due to be finished on Wednesday next week. Mastering (also in Scandinavia, decided not to go for Brad in Memphis after all cos Svante was slightly cheaper and this way we're able to get more time on mixing) booked for first week in Decemver.

• Well, mixing has begun and we've had rough mixes of 4 tracks so far ...

• Some progress on the album - recording is all finished (for real this time) and we're sending the album off to Finland to be mixed at the beginning of next month - that's right, Finland (long story). So it looks at last like it'll be done sooner rather than later - mixing should be finished in October sometime, and mastering should be a quick process so we're expecting to have it all ready in November (one year behind schedule!) ... we'll probably not release it until after the Christmas rush but you can expect it in Jan or Feb.

• Most of the finishing touches to recording (some guitar and vocal re-tracking, some piano, re-amping guitars) are now done, probably just one evening's work left. Looking on schedule to have mixing finished by the end of the summer. We're probably gonna get Brad Blackwood in Memphis, Tenessee to master when we're done.

• Editing is finished on the album, and mixing has finally begun with the first set of rough mixes. Have a few finishing touches to make to the actual recording which should happen soon, then hopefully we'll be on schedule to get things finished by the end of the summer

• So, following the birth of John's daughter, Stoat slowly begins to return to public life. We're doing Thomas Dunning's Hoot Night again on June 11th, also we're playing at the wedding of some friends in June. And, yes, we're still working on the album ... <sigh> if I'd known it was gonna take this long I don't know if we'd ever have begun, and it's not as if we're slacking, it's being worked on pretty much every second day for the last year. At this stage it looks like it'll be ready sometime during the summer, can't be anymore specific than that. The end result will be worth the wait for you, the listener and hopefully worth the effort for me, the producer.

• John has had a brand new baby girl, called Lily :)
• Work on the album is progressing - recording has finished, mixing is about to begin. Hang in there.

• Phantom FM has got a temporary licence is back on weekends until mid-January ... listen out on 97.3FM and you might hear a Stoat recording you've never heard before.
• Nearly finished the recording of the album, believe it or not. Just my (Cormac's) vocals and some patching up and bells-and-whistles to see to, then it's on to mixing!

• Some of the old Phantom FM djs are now on 2FM (Dan Hegarty, Cormac Battle, Jenny Houston), and it seems they've been playing our stuff, bless them. If you listen to any of these shows, do us a favour and request Stoat.
• The album is progressing on schedule. Basic guitars and bass mostly done. Some vocals done. Starting drums this weekend.

• We're playing the Ballroom of Romance birthday party on August 3rd in The Sugar Club. The Ballroom of Romance is a live music club that runs monthly in Dublin and it's deadly - great atmosphere, great music. Also appearing at the birthday thing are Drat, Settler, Steerage, Halfset, The Last Sound, Herv, Mumblin Deaf Ro, Holy Ghost Fathers, Dinah Brand, Papercop, Formika, Boxes. There'll be a CD compilation of lots of the acts that have played the Ballroom in the last year free to the first 200 people in - included on it will be a live version of Gillette Man that was recorded when we played in January.

• Phantom FM has been busted by the authorities and is now off the air - this is a Bad Thing cos they're Stoat's most consistent source of airplay. Please go to www.phantomfm.com and register your support for them, which hopefully will help them get a licence.
• Progress on the album continues, despite having to move the recording venue around a bit. It's slow but more or less on schedule so far.

• We have finally begun work on an album ... yes, folks, having released 4 singles Stoat finally decides to bite the bullet and take the next logical step. We're aiming to have recording finished by the end of September ... mixing and mastering etc will take an indeterminate amount of time after that, we'll keep ye posted on progress.

• Just discovered we're on the front cover of this year's Hot Press yearbook!
• We're also in the latest issue of Hot Press, and our name's on the cover ... see the press page.

• The Things You're Missing national tour kicks off today in Letterkenny - Things You're Missing (www.thingsyouremissing.com) is "a group of people scattered around the island of Ireland, all involved with our local independent music scene(s), who are co-operating in order to make the various headaches involved with independent music more easy to deal with." The group of people mentioned includes Stoat, and we're playing on the Galway leg of the tour on Friday March 28th (in Pacino's). There's an article about TYM (together with a picture of Stoat) in today's Irish Times (in The Ticket), also the tour was mentioned this morning on 2FM and last night on John Kelly's show on Radio 1. John Kelly played a Stoat song too ... 'Acunamanacana' it was, he expressed shock afterwards and said he had actually meant to play "something more delicate - a song called 'Rivethead'". He says he's gonna play that tonight instead so listen out.

• That Fanning Session (Resistolero, Periscope Down and Gillette Man) will be broadcast THIS SUNDAY (March 23rd) on 2FM on the Fanning on Sunday show (8-11pm) and the Jay Aherne show (11pm-2am).

• We're recording a Fanning Session on Monday - for those of you who don't know, Dave Fanning is the 'underground' DJ on 2FM, the state pop station. He used to be a very significant figure as far as independent Irish music is concerned, his importance has diminshed over the years but he's not a spent force yet ... anyway he runs 'sessions' where a band goes into the 2FM recording studio and records 3 songs, which get broadcast later on his show. It's kind of like the Peel Sessions in the UK, only not quite as cool (Pixies or Bob Marley or Bowie never recorded a Fanning Session). Anyway it's something that's been on the radar screen since I first joined a band, so it's nice to finally get to do it.
• Phantom played 'I wish I was stoned' for the first time last night. Be sure and listen out for it (91.6 or 88.1FM).

• Some new reviews, both of the new single and of a recent gig, up on the press page.

• Lots of gigs coming up (see the gigs page), including a slot in The Ballroom of Romance, a really cool live music club in Dublin (free CD-R to the first 100 in, get there early or you might not get in), our first 'big' support with Calexico (a really cool band from Arizona, some of their members also play in Giant Sand and OP8) and two nights on the ThingsYoureMissing tour.
• Still in the PhantomFM airplay chart after six weeks, now at number 4.
• 'I wish I was stoned' which we recorded in The Central Hotel is finally mixed and it came out really well (thanks to Greg!). We're going to release it as a single in Whelan's on Sunday Feb 16th.

• Happy New Year to you all! Hope this is a particularly good year :)
• Got a mention in Kevin Courtney's Best of Irish 2002 in The Ticket just before Christmas, read it on the press page.
• There was an article about us in last weekend's Sunday Tribune (again, read it on the press page) - three mentions in the national press in the last month, things are going pretty well publicity-wise for Stoat these days!
• We're currently no.3 (and the number 1 Irish act) in PhantomFM's airplay chart.
• We were number 4 in the category called "Most Outstanding New Act on Irish Scene" in the cluas.com end-of-year poll ... the 'new' is pretty funny considering how long we've been on the go
• We're mixing the latest recording of 'I wish I was stoned' from the Central Hotel tonight. If it comes out well it'll be on the new single (other tracks will be 'Fat Pig' and possibly an acoustic version of 'Periscope Down') which is due to be released in February.

• Some reviews of the new single, from the Irish Times, eclectichoney.com and kaboommusic here.
• The new single makes its first appearance in the Phantom airplay chart at number 7.

• Our final gig of the year is just before Christmas (Fri Dec 20th), with our friends Drat in our old stomping ground Eamonn Doran's.
• Well, the launch was a success - a real nice friendly happy atmosphere, a good crowd (including children!), deadly support acts, and we sold a bunch of CDs. Thanks to Graham and Valerie on sound, Niamh, Grainne, Janis and Ed for doing the door and selling CDs, Eoiny for playing keyboard, Padraig and Ed for flyering, Things You're Missing for doing the stall, Fiachra for the design on the single cover and anyone else who helped out.
• The single is now on sale in Road, Freebird and The Record Store (formerly known as The Secret Book and Record Store), and will be in Tower from this Wednesday.
• The recording on Sunday went well - thanks very much to Greg for doing the recording, and thanks to everyone else for coming along and singing. Hopefully we'll hear how it came out by the end of the week or so.

• Settler (Neil Young-y Americana) and Mumblin Deaf Ro (really good singer-songwriter) are confirmed as 'support' acts for the launch gig on Saturday week. Doors open 2pm, admission is €5 and all ages are welcome.
• We did an interview and a few acoustic tunes for Spin 103.8 yesterday that will be broadcast on Sunday (24th Nov) between 5.45 and 6.45 ... and the interview is in Irish. Came as a bit of a shock for us when we showed up to do it - silly me forgot to ask what language we were going to be interviewed in. It's going to require some heavy editing on the part of the station to cover up the fact that we're reading our lines ...
• We're going to attempt once again to record 'I wish I was Stoned' in a pub, this time with a proper sound engineer so hopefully the result will be better. It's happening the day after the launch, in the afternoon of Sunday Dec 1st (around 2.30), in The Central Hotel on Exchequer St - you can make a whole Stoat weekend of it. For anyone who missed the last time we did this, we're recording the song as a pub singalong - there's a piano in the pub and we'll have a guitar and a few drums and a big crowd of people (you!) to sing along in the chorus. We videotaped it last time, dunno whether we'll do that again cos we can just use the old footage (but we might). Should be good fun and shouldn't take more than an hour or two.
• The single we released in June is now available in all the shops listed here and at a ThingsYoureMissing stall that can be found at various independent gigs in Dublin and Belfast.

• Getting a date for the launch of the new single proved to be difficult - all the good venues are booked solid between now and Christmas - but it's finally sorted for the afternoon of Saturday November 30th in Whelan's. The songs are Acunamanacana and Rivethead. We don't have the rest of the bill confirmed at this stage, we'll let you know.
• We got nice review of the current single from eclectichoney, see the press page.

• The current single is now available in Trash and Soundsaround in Derry, as well as in Tower and Road in Dublin, and at a mobile stall you'll find at various independent gigs around Dublin. All this distribution is courtesy of Things You're Missing.

• There's a new review of the single up on independentsounds.net. See the press page.
• Planning a new release very soon, the a-side will probably be Acunamanacana. We have two possible launch dates - Saturday Oct 26th in Eamonn Doran's or Wednesday October 16th in Whelan's. Watch this space.

• The pub recording came out pretty well - finished mixing it yesterday. We're going to sit on it a while, see how it sounds then, and if it's good enough get it mastered and think about releasing it. Watch out for an MP3 either here or on thumped.com

• The recording-in-a-pub has been confirmed for THIS SUNDAY (August 11th) at 3pm in the Library Bar of the Central Hotel in Dublin. The Central Hotel is on the corener of Exchequer St and George's St. Come along and laugh and carouse and, most importantly, SING. It's being filmed as well as recorded so if you're there (and everything goes according to plan) you'll be on a Stoat record and in a Stoat video.

• We're planning to record an old song of ours ("I wish I was stoned") in a pub in Dublin using piano, acoustic guitar, a drum kit made out of pots and pans and a BIG CHORUS of all our friends (that's you). We don't have a venue confirmed yet, but we're going to try and have it in the afternoon of Sunday August 11th somewhere in central Dublin. We'll keep you posted.
• 'Boys and Girls' has been getting its first plays on Phantom FM, and FM104 has been playing 'Oh Happy Day'.

• Dropped out of the Phantom FM airplay chart last week, back in this week at number 6. We gave them a new song today (Boys and Girls), so hopefully you'll be hearing that on air soon too.

• We got some more nice reviews of the single - see the press page.
• We're in the Phantom FM airplay chart again this week, at number 7.
  

• News just in ... we're currently number 4 in Phantom FM's airplay chart.

• The launch on Friday night went really well. Thanks a million to Drat for playing, to Risteard on sound, to Eoiny for his keyboard playing, to all the people who helped out on the door and selling CDs, and to everyone for coming.
• The single is now available in Tower Records in Dublin. It will be available in Road Records (Dublin) from today, and from next week (all going well) in more shops in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Cork (thanks to the Things You're Missing distribution network) ... our old CD single is now, incidentally, sold out.
• The single was reviewed in The Ticket (a weekly entertainment supplement with The Irish Times) and Hot Press on Thursday. See the press page.

• NEW SINGLE We're releasing a new CD single, containing the songs 'Oh Happy Day' and 'Boys and Girls'. The launch will be on Friday June 7th in Mono, which is beside Whelan's on Wexford St., Dublin. Playing with us is a band called Drat which contains two of the former members of Watercress, and they're brilliant so it should be a very good night out for €5. Come if you can at all, you'll thank yourself for it.
• Those of you who live in Dublin should listen to PhantomFM (91.6 and 88.1) on the morning of Saturday June 1st to hear us being interviewed.

• Two MP3s from the new recording - Acunamanacana and NuPants (AKA 'Oh Happy Day') have gone up on http://www.thumped.com

• Anyone who's been (or tried to get) in touch with us recently will know that we've been very busy indeed, practising very intensively in preparation for an adventure in a 'proper' studio called The Works. Finished mastering yesterday (Bobby Boughton in Richmond - thank you!), and the whole thing has turned out really well, thanks in no small part to Rod Callan (producer and engineer) who really put us through the mill (and it shows), and who turned out to be an all-round great guy, going beyond the call of duty in every way. So now we have six newly-recorded tracks ready for your listening pleasure - Acunamanacana, Fat Pig, Boys and Girls, Rivet Head, Gillette Man and Oh Happy Day. Dunno what we're gonna do with it yet really - possibly put out a few singles or a mini-album type effort - watch out here anyway for a couple of MP3s and listen out on Phantom FM if you're in Dublin (had its first airing on there last night).
• We finally have some copies of the American compilation that we're on sitting in my house. If you want one, give me a shout - it's actually pretty good, mostly poppy-punky type stuff

To see our archive of old news, click here.