Damien Rice – Woman Like A Man (Live)

A great oddity from Bonnaroo 2004.

Visit Damien at his official site.

MP3: Damien Rice – Woman Like A Man (Live)

Damien Rice & Vyvienne Long – Yoshimi…

A gorgeous Flaming Lips cover.

Visit Damien at his official site.

Upcoming gigs with Leonard Cohen here.

MP3: Damien Rice & Vyvienne Long – Yoshimi…

Catch both artists at:

June 13: Ireland (Dublin) – Royal Hosp Kilmainham
June 14: Ireland (Dublin) – Royal Hosp Kilmainham
June 15: Ireland (Dublin) – Royal Hosp Kilmainham

Visit Damien on MySpace.

MP3: Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter

Damien Rice – When Doves Cry

Acoustic Prince cover = amazing.

However, don’t expect to hear it live anytime soon as Damien isn’t too keen on performing this one anymore.

In fact, his setlists have been almost completely void of any covers whatsoever, as of late.

Those counting at home – the tune has also been covered by Patrick Wolf & Charlotte Church, Patti Smith, The Be Good Tanyas, Razorlight and countless others. For now I’ll leave you with Damien’s version below. Enjoy!

MP3: Damien Rice – When Doves Cry

What a shame, the dichotomy of Lisa and Damien’s voices was incredible…

The official statement reads: “After much thought and discussion Damien has decided that his professional relationship with Lisa Hannigan has run its creative course. As a result Lisa will not be appearing at any of the upcoming live shows. Lisa is embarking on her own artistic endeavours and there are no plans for them to work together in the foreseeable future. The current band on tour at the moment are Damien Rice, Joel Shearer, Shane Fitzsimons, Tom Osander and Vyvienne Long.”

I will admit she did look rather bored at the Hiro Ballroom show a few months back, in spite of sounding flawless. Our review of that gig can be found here. This is sad news.

MP3: Damien Rice – Dogs

He’s back! Pre-sale starts tomorrow (click here for more info from Ticketbastard); no word on what the password happens to be, but our sources tell us that for the European tour, Damien opted for ‘COCONUT’. UPDATE! PASSWORD FOR PRESALE IS 9CRIMES!!!

Seems like the premium seats will run you $50ish plus surcharge, yikes!

*Read our review of the Hiro Ballroom acoustic gig, here, or check out all the upcoming tour dates below!

24 Apr Canada Vancouver, BC – Center for the Arts
26 Apr USA Portland, OR – Roseland
28 Apr USA Oakland, CA – Paramount
1 May USA San Diego, CA – Spreckles
2 May USA Tucson, AZ – Music Hall
4 May USA Salt Lake City,UT – McKay Center
5 May USA Denver, CO – Paramount
7 May USA Dallas, TX – Majestic
8 May USA Houston, TX – Verizon
9 May USA Austin,TX – Bass Hall
11 May USA St.Louis, MO – Pageant
13 May USA Kansas City, MO – Uptown
14 May USA Chicago, IL – Opera House
15 May USA Minneapolis, MN – Northrop
17 May USA Detroit, MI – State Theatre
18 May Canada Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
20 May Canada Montreal, QUE – Olympia
21 May USA New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall
22 May USA Boston, MA – Opera House
24 May USA Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center
25 May USA Washington, DC – Constitution Hall
26 May USA Louisville, KY – Palace
29 May USA Indianapolis, IN – Murat
30 May USA Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
31 May USA Memphis, TN – Orpheum

MP3: Damien Rice – I Remember

Oh geez. KCRW & Starbucks are teaming up to release ‘Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project’. The album, which will be available on March 13th in most major cities, will include The Flaming Lips’ take on Radiohead’s ‘Knives Out’ and Damien Rice’s version of the band’s first massive single, ‘Creep’. For Radiohead enthusiasts, these covers aren’t exactly new but I have mixed feelings about hearing them at Starbucks, of all places.

Also, what’s probably more upsetting is that album sales will NOT be going to a charity. No, not even partially. According to Bitchfork, ‘proceeds from album sales will assist the station in digitizing its huge music library’.

Err, I love you KCRW, but I don’t know about this one. Anyone else as ambivalent as me?

MP3: Damien Rice – Creep (Radiohead cover)

Yes, it’s back. Somehow it’s already in its SIXTH YEAR (whoa!). Nominations and the celeb listmakers/voters should be announced very shortly (within the next 2 weeks). We will keep you updated, of course.

Also, last year’s re-naming of the prize to ‘New Pantheon’ is gone. The award will once again be titled The Shortlist Prize.

Past years’ winners:
2001: Sigur Ros
2002: N*E*R*D
2003: Damien Rice
2004: TV on the Radio
2005: Sufjan Stevens

I’m gonna go ahead and guess that the voters put The Decemberists, Joanna Newsom, TV On The Radio, The Knife and Thom Yorke in the top 5. Anybody wanna challenge me? And I think Joanna will take the top prize.

We just can’t get enough Damien here at The Music Slut.

We were thrilled to read this over at Billboard: Damien Rice’s “9″ cracks the big chart at No. 22 with 45,000, becoming his best charting and sales week; his 2003 album “O” only managed a No. 114 peak. 114, really? That’s so crazy.

We were very saddened see this over at Bitchfork in their ‘review’ of 9: “He undercuts himself with go-nowhere melodies and formulaic arrangements…so unimaginative it could’ve been self-parody…It’s as if Rice has conjured up every cliché from the genre’s past, only to immolate them all in a tepid MOR bonfire.”

In more Bitchfork news, keep an eye on Slate for a very in-depth interview with The Music Slut (coming soon) about our declaration as to why Pitchfork is dead to us.

MP3: ‘Cold Water’ (live on Conan)

What a night! Damien and his band turned Hiro Ballroom into a combination ‘Storytellers’/'MTV Unplugged’ and completely wowed all 250 in attendance (seated and packt like sardines in a crushd tin box, what was with that?).

Damien started the set with a group of familiar songs before breaking into some b-sides and even a song created on the spot with the aid of fans throwing out words to include in the tune. Considering that most of the lyrics revolved around the emotion someone shouted for (happiness), I’m going to go ahead and name the song ‘Happy’. I hope Damien doesn’t mind. People also shouted out ‘red’ and ‘nose’ which Damien incorporated quite beautifully into the tune. ’9 Crimes’ sounded flawless and was preluded by Damien’s ‘oldest song’ (all night people were requesting songs from O but it wasn’t until midway through the set that he complied with their wishes), ‘Delicate’.

Towards the end of the main set, Damien had each of the band members request a song of his to play (they didn’t follow any setlist whatsoever and apparently rarely do). While he was fearful that Lisa would pick a cover, she actually chose ‘The Animals Were Gone’ which was fucking stunning. One of my favorites of the night. To close the main set, the cellist (sorry, I don’t know her name) requested a rare old b-side but since nobody in the band remembered the words nor the melody, she chose ‘Cheers Darlin’ much to the crowd’s delight. Damien put a twist on the track but asking her to sing it, while drinking to accompany the sentiment behind the song. She was also forced into telling the story Damien usually shares when they play the song, it was quite hysterical since the cellist was attempting to speak with Damien’s diction. She managed to pull off most of the story and the first half of the song before Damien eventually finished it off.

She came back out with Lisa for the totally silly but lovable ‘Random Man On The Motorway’ played exclusively with the cello. Lisa then did her own song, which was breathtaking, of course. Damien closed the show by busting out 2 of his biggest singles to cap the night off. 2 hours later, as we were leaving Hiro Ballroom everybody was gushing. Why wouldn’t they be? This will surely go down as one of the best shows of the year.

Setlist: Grey Room/Cannonball/Me My Yoke And I/Woman Like A Man/Sand/’Happy’/Delicate/9 Crimes/Dogs/Rootless Tree/The Animals Were Gone/Cheers Darlin’//Random Man On The Motorway/(new unreleased song – Lisa singing)/Elephant/Volcano/The Blower’s Daughter

Qbertplaya has some great shots (she was in the second row!) and even a video of ‘Delicate’, pop over there!