Cosmic Competition: Win A Deluxe Edition of 'Lungs'

It's been a remarkable twelve months for Florence & The Machine, who've triumphantly delivered on the hype that surrounded their music this time last year, earning rave reviews for debut album 'Lungs' and amassing a considerable fanbase along the way.

Florence Welch and her bandmates have proved particularly popular on these shores (thanks in no small part to THAT advert) and won over Irish festival crowds with breath-taking performances at both Oxegen and Electric Picnic earlier this year.

And so, it's somewhat fitting that the band should cap off the year with a sold-out show in Dublin's Olympia Theatre this Monday, December 7th. They could easily have packed out The O2 several times over but the more intimate surround of The Olympia should serve as an infinitely more atmospheric setting for the band's incredible live show.

If you weren't among the lucky few to nab tickets before they sold out in minutes, fret not, because Universal have kindly given me a 4-disc deluxe edition of 'Lungs' (that may potentially even be signed by Florence) to give away, which should help to ease your pain. Even if you're already a proud owner of the album, it should serve as a fantastic Christmas present.

To be in with a chance of winning, please click here and enter your details.

[Image: Shamil Tanna]

Mucho Muchuu

Muchuu's rather excellent single 'Somebody Tell Me' was officially released yesterday and, to celebrate, they're giving away the title track from their forthcoming album 'Adventure We Go'. Click here to download.

Here's the video for 'Somebody Tell Me':



The song is now available on ITunes and you can hear more of Muchuu's dreamy electronica here.

Lobster Bebes

The Bubble Boy's old foe Lobster Boy is back in The Bernard Shaw tonight for his monthly session of crayon-fuelled debauchery. This time he's managed to rope in blog-favourites Attention Bebe to play some of their trademark big-band 90's covers. The best part? It's all free. The madness kicks off at 8pm.

Attenion Bebe, who've recently undergone a line-up reshuffle, are also doing a slightly bigger gig on Saturday night in Tripod. If you fancy coming along to that, give me an e-mail thebubbleboyblog@gmail.com before Friday at noon and I'll do my utmost to get you on the guest-list.

Digitalism & Marina Go Green

My cyber-mates at Heineken Music have come up with the goods once again. They've only gone and organised a special gig featuring elecro titans Digitalism with support from blog-favourite Marina & The Diamonds.

The latest in their series of Heinken Green Energy gig takes place in Dinn Rí, Carlow on the 12th of November, the night after Marina's debut Dublin date at The Academy. Yes, Carlow is a little bit out of the way (for people like me, at least) but think how amazing it would be to catch these two rather different but equally brilliant acts in such an intimate venue.

Tickets for Heineken Green Energy gigs are free but you have to 'register your interest' here in order to be in with a chance of winning some. There's also tickets up for grabs for Pete Doherty in Galway at the moment, so be sure to enter if he's your 'bag'.

In other Marina news, Mowgli's Road has been confirmed as her first major release. The song's been floating around for a while but Marina reckons it's been one of the tour favourites and that it'll lend itself to an amazing video. The song is being tweaked for the release but you can hear the original version here:

Bebe On Board

The wonderful Attention Bebe play Tripod, Dublin this Saturday. The group have earned a cult following for their big-band reworkings of nineties pop tunes and you may recall me raving about them before.

The gig promises to be a boogie and a half so, if you fancy checking 'em out and haven't already been invited, e-mail me before 4pm today and I'll try my darndest to get you on the guest-list.

Mean Green Music Machine

I was only saying last week to Eimear that I knew very few people heading to Oxegen this year but, all of a sudden, everyone seems to be trying to muscle in on the festival fun (myself and Eimear included.)

I know most people are smashed broke and, as such, keeping their eyes peeled for competitions to win free tickets. So, I thought I'd draw your attention to a competition being run by the brand spanking new Heineken Music website.

Heineken Music are giving away four VIP camping tickets here but you'd want to act fast because the deadline for entries is tomorrow at 4pm. There's actually a lot of decent content on the site if you care to mosey around, including Oxegen day-by-day highlights from respected music journo, Jim Carroll.

'R' Is For Royksopp, Robyn, Robot, Remixes.

A couple of free remixes of 'The Girl & The Robot', courtesy of Stay Loose.

The Chateau Marmont Remix is a particular favourite of mine and was one of the tracks Liana and I played during our first DJ set at Soundcheck last week.

'Lily & The Robot' meanwhile, sees the original track being 'mashed up' with Lily Allen's 'Not Fair'. Lyrically, the two tracks fit together qute well and the transitions are pretty smooth.

Aces.

[Image: Royksopp]

This Is A Gift...

I've got a Daisy Dares You track for free download. Oh, and you needn't worry about Eircom coming knocking at your door if you click the link because it's 100% authorised.

'Number 1 Enemy' is the song that first brought Daisy to my attention, after the Guardian described it as "a sure-fire hit, the sort of exuberant guitar-driven rush that will make top record company executives scratch their heads and wonder why they hadn't thought of the idea of a British Avril Lavigne before".

Amen.

[Image: Myspace]

Let Sleepy Dogs Lie

The brilliant Neon Gold is offering a free download of Run Toto Run's charming version of Passion Pit's 'Sleepyhead' that I was fawning over a few days back.

Click here to download the track and see what Mr. Gold has to say about it.

[Image: Best Web]

Lily In The Mix

Click here to download a remixed version of Lily Allen's current album 'It's Not Me, It's You' free of charge.

It's all very lo-fi and the kind of thing that would make it acceptable to play Lily Allen in Urban Outfitters. I particularly like the 'Uncool Mix' of 'Not Fair'. Check 'em out for yourself.

[Image: Washington Post]