Hot off the newswire…

Vertigo Smyth – Future Happiness

It’s taken a while, but we’re happy to confirm that Penny’s helping the world hear the debut recording by Tim O’Mulline aka Vertigo Smyth. Recorded and produced by the exceptional Ian McNulty (he of The Terribles fame), “Future Happiness” fuses pop melodies with spritely guitar, ukelele and warm double-bass. Add to that the sonorous Jeff Buckley-esque croon of Mr. Smyth and you have a record that’s still one of our faves of the year.

Vertigo recently opened for the wonderful Juana Molina on her Irish tour.

Listen on AimeStreet.com

Vertigo Smyth on Myspace

The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet

Formerly The Billy Tipton Memorial Sax Quartet, the Tiptons meld second-line, afro-cuban and post-bop through the unique voices of alto, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones, all combined with the inventive chops of drummer Chris Stromquist. We came across them via Jessica Lurie, the stunning saxophonist who recently signed up to work with us, who’s a member of the group. The maverick inventiveness and raw groove of Jessica’s music infects much of the Tipton’s music.

Their new record, Laws of Motion, is set to hit in late 2008 with the quartet embarking on a UK tour in April ‘09.

“The Tiptons have built a solid reputation as a stellar live band, capable of alternating ferocious with delicate, driving with subtle.” PULSE!

Listen to The Tiptons on Myspace

Tom McShane Supports…

While continuing to meld his first full length, Mr. McShane has been on some tasty bills lately. Slots with Portland’s White Hinterland, Brooklyn’s Nell Bryden and South Belfast’s Kitty and the Can Openers have made for some interesting music-making.

Tom McShane w/ White Hinterland, Tuesday Oct. 21st

Tom McShane is opening for Portland’s wonderful White Hinterland (http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1429/white-hinterland) next Tuesday, Oct. 21st at Auntie Annies in Belfast.

“White Hinterland recalls pieces of Guaraldi, Sufjan Stevens, and Joni Mitchell at once, as Ms. Dienel’s endearing voice skates over that instantly familiar bassline and playful, jazzy piano shuffle, resulting in one of the best songs of this year” – Gorilla Vs. Bear

Escape Act release Debut Album via MP3 Blogs

Belfast rock trio Escape Act, who recently released the first single of their album “Loosley Based on Fiction” with Penny Distribution via a split 7″, are taking a novel approach to the release of their debut full-length.

Over 10 weeks, all tracks off the new album will be delivered via various music blogs – MP3Hugger, Amuze.me and BoxSetGo have kicked off the release. Click here to download the tracks for free…

Having been lucky enough to hear the album in it’s entirety, it’s an absolute corker – get on that Escape Act email list and in a few weeks you’ll have one of the best Irish albums of the year…

still can’t decide whether to go to SF or LA. Dang!

Great to see Hooray for Humans last night – even if their show was cancelled. http://ping.fm/3tbfX

Vertigo Smyth^is recording his second EP in a super-secret yet v. important recording facility. http://ping.fm/BEKjm

Road trip! Hard working class heroes here we come!

my test of ping.fm – status updates look simple enough, but what about full blog posts? We shall see…

You did WHAT?

How’ya been? It’s a wild and wonderful summer here at the Penny offices – here’s a few quick hits as to what’s been happening:

Tom McShane Tour / Hard Working Class Heroes

July saw Tom hit the road for 6 dates in support of the Fighter/God Says split 7″. Escape Act also joined Tom on the tour. Check the recaps over at the Penny Blog, or Tom’s very own musings at his Log-O’-The-Web. Some nice pics from Tom via his Flickr, too. He’s off back down to Dublin in September for that city’s premier new-band showcase festival, Hard Working Class Heroes. Check out the stellar lineup!

Buy “Fighter/God Says” from iTunes

Buy the Limited Edition 7″ Vinyl

The Terribles Featured on Rumblefish

Sonic-branding company Rumblefish recently featured The Terribles “Mistake-Do Over” E.P. on their Music Licensing Store (musiclicensingstore.com). Penny partnered with Rumblefish to help connect our catalog to music supervisors, independent film-makers and other creative-types in need of the perfect musical addition to their work. Current licenses are in the works!

Partnership with Covet Music

In more licensing news, Penny has partnered with Covet Music – http://www.covetmusic.com. Covet will place Penny’s catalog in a variety of media – from web tv, to films & commercials – and Penny in return will use it’s digital distribution platform & marketing programs to raise the profile of Covet’s burgeoning roster of world, hip-hop and indie artists.

New Signings

We’re proud to be helping the amazing Jessica Lurie and her band, JLE, bring their new album to the world! A mix of jazz, world and funk, Jessica’s worked with Nels Cline (Wilco), Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco) and Erin McKeown. Check out the tunes at http://www.myspace.com/jessicaluriemusic, especially the tracks Panther & No. 6.

We’re also incredibly honored to be helping with The Oh Yeah Sessions.  Made with the support of Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol) and Tim Wheeler (Ash), it’s a compilation of the best new music from Belfast, recorded to benefit The Oh Yeah Centre, a multi-use creative space in the heart of Belfast’s cathedral quarter.  The record is out now.  Check out the official site for more info and if you dig any of the bands, let us know!

Buy The Oh Yeah Sessions from iTunes

Enjoy the sun while it’ hear! We’ll chat next month…

Penny Artist Roundup!

Image via Wikipedia

• Overview are in the studio, demoing a bunch of new material. I’m personally champing at the bit to get a hold of this stuff, but they’re being doggedly tight-lipped about it all.  Bound to be great, mind you, so I’ll keep you posted.
• Although The Terribles are no more (alas!), leading light Neassa Doherty has released her own record – again on the wonderful Poltergeist Records.  You can have a listen over at Neassa’s MySpace or pick up a copy via http://www.roadrecs.com – search for Neassa Therese Doherty.
• The erstwhile Vertigo Smyth is also demo-ing a bunch of new music and continuing his live shenanigans – last night he opened for Penny favorite So Cow in Cork’s Cyprus Ave.  Speaking of which…
• Tom McShane will be joined by Vertigo Smyth (as well as Escape Act) in both Cork (July 11th, The Quad) and Limerick (July 12th, Baker Place) as the all-Ireland trek  in support of their split 7″ continues.  Tom’s opening slot for Holly Golightly was also a HUGE success (thanks for coming out, btw!)
• And speaking of great support slots, we’re all positively bursting with excitement about Tom sharing the stage with the fabulous Mumblin’ Deaf Ro this Sunday @ Whelan’s in Dublin.

Sign up to the news feeds or forward this on to some folks if you found it useful