Of the Five ArtLinks Bursary Awards of €8,000 awarded for 2008, two have been awarded to two young talented musicians; Joe Cleere, a contemporary singer/songwriter, from Co. Carlow and Alison Comerford, a violinist Co. Kilkenny.

The County Carlow ArtLinks Bursary recipient, Joe Cleere, is a young full time music artist living in Tinryland and has proven to be innovative, ambitious and self-motivated. In 2006, Joe won the Perri 2fm Song Contest and used the prize money to build his own studio, Fretless Records. Currently he works as a Sound Engineer for Fretless and is on the verge of releasing his debut album East/West, which will be launched in February 2009. The first single will be released in Radio City Dublin on September 13th and in a venue in Carlow. On receiving the ArtLinks Bursary, presented by Carlow Cllr Michael Doran, Cleere says “this award is of huge benefit to me and the album. For example just this week I’ve booked the CD mastering in New York with the same engineer as The Strokes, Sonic Youth, and Bob Dylan, what an opportunity! I’m so glad my two year project can be finished and launched with the attention it deserves”.

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Forever Promotions presents Klimek and Jimmy Behan, live in Whelan’s (Dublin) at 8pm on Thursday April 29th.

Sebastian Meissner (Klimek) works as a media artist using sound, video and photography. Employing multiple artistic personas (Autokontrast, Autopoieses, Bill Circuits, Klimek, Open Source, Random Industries, Random Inc.), his works deal with and negotiate urban / cultural / social scenarios, randomness, historical music archives and strategies of networking.

He works with computer music sources, sampling and moving photography, assembling their interrelation within geographic / historical / political discourses. His work has been released on many labels including Kompakt, Mille Plateaux, Sub Rosa and most recently, his album ‘Dedications’ on Anticipate Recordings.

Carlow native Jimmy Behan released his well received debut album ‘Days Are What We Live In’ in 2004, before taking two years out to study for a Masters in Music & Media Technologies in Trinity College, Dublin. His work uses computer processing of acoustic sounds and field recordings to explore sound’s role in our relationship with time, memory and our environment. He is currently completing work on his next album and a remix compilation. His new five-track EP will be released soon on the Zymogen netlabel. He has recently relocated to Carlow town after 16 years of living in Dublin.

Catch both acts live in Whelan’s at the end of April.

The 79Cortinaz new album, ‘Hopioki’, will be available in most good music shops from this Friday, January 25th. You can download their brand new single ‘She’s Awake’ from DownloadMusic.ie by texting music 578 to 57501.

For more details, see the band’s official website or visit their MySpace

The band that just keeps getting bigger, Fight Like Apes hit The Underground at Harley’s Cafe Bar (formerly the Music Factory) on Tullow Street this Saturday night. The band have four Irish shows scheduled for November including stops in Limerick, Carlow, Dublin and Waterford before embarking on a UK tour in December.

If you’ve not seen this Dublin four-piece before, drop along - you sure as hell won’t be let down!

A panel of local musicians, music promoters and people from the music industry will give informal presentations with loads of practical advice: local musicians/music stars of Kilkenny & Carlowmusic.com Ken McGuire, Ross Costigan, Alan Dawson, with Jimmy Trigger of Itchy Trigger Finger will discuss maximising the internet to build your audience, the best way to get your music produced in a studio, and effective ways of working with the media and getting noticed by record companies. Jimmy Trigger will give details on how he and his band worked with kkmusic.com to produce their first successful EP. Davy Holland (formerly Blue Ghost, now Good Tiger) will talk of the changing world of producing music today, along with special guests, Keith Johnson of IMRO (the Irish Music Rights Organisation) and Angela Dorgan (best known for her work with First Music Contact and the Working Class Heroes festival). Ken Allen, Faction Records, HotPress, will also be joining us. He formerly signed bands for Sony and Polydor, and at this event he will gladly take any music demos from the audience.

*ArtLinks Membership is Free, register now @ www.artlinks.ie! Then reserve a place on the Course Page of the ArtLinks website. Tell all your friends, and lunch is included!

The first event kicks off on Saturday, November 10th in the Parade Tower (Kilkenny Castle), registrations from 9:30am. The second event kicks off on Saturday November 24th in Wicklow, details available on Artlinks.ie. Non-members can attend the day for €20 (well worth the price of admission, including your lunch catered for!) and if you sign up on ArtLinks.ie for free in advance, you’ll get a five euro discount, bringing the cost of the day to €15.

The night is a fundraiser for the local Red Cross, trying to finance a new ambulance. If you’re in Carlow on Thursday it kicks off at 8pm, admission five euro.

We also pick out a selection of gigs to cover on the weekly podcast show, if you’re listings are in before Tuesday of each week then you could be featured on that week’s podcast.

The very first PodCamp Ireland hits Kilkenny this coming Saturday September 29^th in the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel.

PodCamp Ireland is a new media community unconference that helps to connects people with an interest in new media, podcasting, blogging, social networks and many of the other wonders the online world has to offer.

The one day event opens at 10am with an address from Junior Minister for Trade and Enterprise John McGuiness TD and will feature a series of informal talks and workshops with the emphasis on podcasting and new media.

The five-strong organising team of Bernie Goldbach (Tipperary Institute, Podcasting.ie), Conn Ó Muíneacháin (Edgecast Media, Imeall Podcast), Brian Greene (Doop.ie, Talking Voices), Krishna De (Biz Growth News, Todays Women in Business, The Podcast Sisters) and Kilkenny-man Ken McGuire (Event Ireland / KilkennyMusic.com) have spent the last few months putting Ireland’s first ever dedicated podcasting event in place, choosing Kilkenny as it’s location.

“It makes perfect sense to hold the event in Kilkenny.”, says Ken McGuire, “The city is rapidly becoming the creative capital of Ireland and with so much to offer in terms of history, tourism, music, arts, technology, culture – it makes sense to bring an event to Kilkenny that has the possibility to tie all of that together”.

On the day there will be plenty of discussion surrounding podcasting and new media where people will be able to learn what exactly a podcast is, how to use podcasts to promote the arts, building communities through blogging and podcasting and more. There will also be some practical workshops looking at audio production, sound recording, publishing audio to the web and everything else a podcaster or blogger would need to know to get started.

If you don’t know what a podcast or blog is then don’t let that stop you attending this free event. The day offers a chance for beginners and experts to discover and develop social media skills as well as share their knowledge with others on the day. The open environment of PodCamp allows you to arrive on the day and conduct your own talk should you wish to do so.

But the event isn’t just for the technical folk – musicians young and old, artists, teachers, business people, community leaders are all invited to attend and participate and learn about developments in new media and podcasting and how it can be of benefit to your activities.

Special guest to the event is renowned podcaster and author Neville Hobson of the ‘For Immediate Release’ podcast and co-author of ‘Everything With Podcasting’ who will be speaking on the day and signing copies of his latest book.

PodCamp is open to all who wish to attend and is a free event. Further details, along with access to free registration can be found by visiting PodCampIreland.com.

Last night saw the Heineken Green Spheres tour arrive in Carlow with Vitalic on the stage in the Dinn Ri - how was it for you? Any feedback you’d like to share with CarlowMusic.com? Early feedback from people suggested it was “worth it” and the “best gig ever”.

Anything you’d like to share?