http://www.independentrecords.ie/news.shtml Independent Records is a Dublin based label which has been releasing records since 1994 specialising in licensing both U.S. and Irish albums for release in Ireland and beyond. en-ie Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:52:20 -0500 Copyright: (C) Independent Records 2006 60 http://www.independentrecords.ie/logo_2005.jpg http://www.independentrecords.ie/ starts this Thursday in Dublin

Every entrant gets a free Nation Of Heat EP.
You can hear the EP at www.independentrecords.ie

Joe has been recently tearing it up at the Cambridge Folk Festival and End Of The Road Festival and earned himself a Whispering Bob Harris BBC session on the back of the Cambridge performance. He has toured Ireland with Josh Ritter and Steve Earle but these are his first headline dates.

Thursday 16th September – Whelans , Dublin (upstairs)
www.ticketmaster.ie
Friday 17th September – Roisin Dubh, Galway
Saturday 18th September – Dolans, Limerick (upstairs)
Sunday 19th September – Cleere’s, Kilkenny http://www.independentrecords.ie/news/2010/09/77/ Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400 You can see Josh from Galway

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46wJh7lWCE

and

www.rte.ie/player/#v=1077386

(the second one may only be available in Ireland). http://www.independentrecords.ie/news/2010/07/76/ Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400 6:30pm Doors
7:00 - 7.45 Cathy Davey
8:10 - 9.05 Damien Dempsey
9:30 - 11pm Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band http://www.independentrecords.ie/news/2010/07/75/ Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400 Iveagh Gardens showtimes Sunday 18th July

Gates - 6.30
Villagers (solo) - 7.30 to 8.10
Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band 8.30 to 10.30 http://www.independentrecords.ie/news/2010/07/74/ Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400 JOE PUG
Messenger – out in Ireland 11th June

Chicago based songwriter / Recently toured Ireland with both Josh Ritter & Steve Earle.

Coming back to Ireland in September for headline dates

“If my thoughts are hard to gather / if I don’t know where to start / it ain’t my mind that matters / for I have an unsophisticated heart.” - Joe Pug, “Unsophisticated Heart”

It worked like this, for Joe Pug: The day before his senior year as a playwright student at the University of North Carolina, he sat down for a cup of coffee and had the clearest thought of his life: I am profoundly unhappy here. Then came the second clearest.

Pug packed up his belongings and pointed his car towards Chicago. Working as a carpenter by day, the 23 year-old Pug spent nights playing the guitar he hadn’t picked up since his teenage years. Using ideas originally slated for a play he was writing called “Austin Fish,” Pug began creating the sublime lyrical arrangements that would become the Nation of Heat EP. The songs were recorded fast and fervently at a Chicago studio where a friend snuck him in to late night slots other musicians had canceled. He was short on money, but his bare-boned sincerity didn’t require much more than a microphone and it dripped off of each note he sang.

The early rumblings of critical praise for the EP were confirmed when his first headlining gig sold out Chicago’s storied Schubas Tavern in 2008. As word spread, Pug struck upon an idea that would later prove to be one of the most significant in his young career. He offered his existing fans unlimited copies of a free 2-song sampler CD to pass along to their friends. He sent the CDs out at his own expense, even covering the postage. Inside each package was a personal note thanking the fan for helping to spread the word. The response was overwhelming, and to date he has sent out over 15,000 CDs to 50 states and 14 different countries. Without access to radio, Pug managed to turn his fans into his very own broadcast system. The offer still stands, and to this day it’s featured prominently on www.joepugmusic.com.

“Look, in the end, I just trust my fans, and the nature of people in general. I need to pay my bills like anyone else does. But I also don’t think it’s right to ask someone to pay $15 when they don’t know what they’re getting. So in a way by sending out these CDs, I’m wagering that they’ll like my music, and that if they do they’ll come to shows, buy CDs, and help me spread the word even further. And so far I’ve been proven right. Without question, the more sampler CDs I send out, the more music I sell.”

Nation of Heat took on a life of its own, passing from friend to friend and iPod to iPod. The crowds swelled and the media took notice. Tours in the USA with Steve Earle, M. Ward, and Josh Ritter followed, as did invitations to Lollapalooza and the Newport Folk Festival. He crisscrossed the country incessantly, traveling mostly alone in his 1995 Plymouth Voyager with no stereo or air conditioning. As the tours went on, he became closely linked to the burgeoning indie-folk scene that was coalescing loosely around Pug and his young contemporaries in bands such as The Low Anthem, Langhorne Slim, and Horse Feathers.

After over 200 shows, Pug took a brief respite to record his full-length debut. If Nation of Heat heralded the arrival of a talent to watch, Messenger assigns Pug a more deserved spot. From the opening notes of the title track that leads off the record, it’s clear that the artist has no intention of retreating to the comfortable or the familiar. While the scathing war indictment “Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)” and the sparse, poetic “Unsophisticated Heart” illustrate that Pug is still a master of the guy-and-guitar song, it’s the supporting cast Pug brought on board that truly brings out the record’s subtle beauty.

From the haunting, ethereal pedal steel guitar that sneaks delicately under “The Sharpest Crown” to the barrelhouse rhythm section that propels “The Door Is Always Open”, it’s clear that Pug is as comfortable exploring this new territory as he is solo. “The first record, it was a breeze,” he says. “Didn’t even know we were making it, just me and a guitar…the songs completely unadorned. This one, it’s like that thing where there’s an explosion and you realize how many options there are in the world.”

With his debut album finally out, the options only get more numerous for the 25 year-old-singer. He already made his Irish debut shows supporting Steve Earle (who has quite literally taken the young Pug under his wing) and Josh Ritter on tour in April and returns to Ireland in early September for headline duties (date to be announced).
http://www.independentrecords.ie/news/2010/05/73/ Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 -0400