Our good friend Kevin of mp3hugger and Indiecater Records fame recently asked us to contribute a track for a World Cup compilation and the results are now online for all to hear!

Fast Forward is our most ambitious project to date and it has taken over a year to come to fruition. The premise was simple; we asked some of our favourite bands to write about one of the 32 countries participating in South Africa 2010, the only stipulation being that the song be themed on their chosen country and if possible be football related. As you can imagine this definition was interpreted in about 32 different ways but the results are as colourful, imaginative and exciting as the event they will be used to showcase.

We had the distinct honour of joining World Cup Group F as sonic representatives of footballing stalwarts Slovakia. We’re pretty pleased with the result, recorded and produced by our very own Michael.

To listen to all 32 tracks, or buy ‘em all for only €5 please visit Indiecater Records.

I’ve introduced some topics covering ideas about Video, Release Formats, Gigging, Collaborations, and the discussion has wound its way round all of them with some very interesting thoughts on packaging, compositions, iPhone apps and story-telling.

With most of the hard work on album number two coming to an end, we’ve been pondering our approach for next year. First on the list is definitely engagement. As we’ve grown and evolved as a band we’ve realised that we have achieved most when working together, initially just as a band, and latterly with inspiring and creative folks to generate results that are greater than the sum of their parts. Equally, we’re not afraid to test out some new disruptive ideas for delivering our music into the ears of music lovers. The Wave is a good spot for putting those ideas out there and getting perspectives from a range of people.

If you have a Google Wave account and you’d like to join in, just search Wave for ‘with:public escapeact’ – otherwise send me an email with your account name and i’ll add you.

Firstly, we’re proud to be playing the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival in Dublin. We’re playing the ’4 Dame Lane’ venue (map) at 8pm on Saturday 17th. Check www.hwch.net for full details and ticketing. Over 100 bands play throughout the weekend, so its worth every penny!

Next up is an excellent line-up for Radar at Queen’s Speakeasy on Thursday October 22nd. Headlining are our favourite melody merchants Cutaways, with Dublin’s Robotnik bringing some electro-tunefulness to the mix.

Lastly and by no means least is an exciting 17 Seconds Records line-up at Glasgow’s 13th Note venue, on Friday 30th October. We’re be playing alongside Aberfeldy’s Chris Bradley, X Lion Tamer and The Dirty Cuts.

Hope y’all can make it to some of these shows!

Rich

after organising Unconvention Belfast, the folks at the Trans festival asked me to help deliver a mini-conference event, and the result of that is happening this Thursday 9th, 3pm at the Waterfront Hall. It’ll take a ‘speed-workshop’ format, following on from the highly successful speed-networking at Unconvention. It means that folks will have the chance to speed time speaking with mentors in various areas including Touring, Recording, Marketing & Promotion, Labels, Music Management, and Publishing & Synch. [Trans Website]

The July Music Meetup happens directly afterwards at the Waterfront, so there’ll be plenty of time to have follow-up chats with mentors and other attendees. [Facebook Meetup Event page]

In Escape Act news, stay tuned for details of another release on 17 Seconds, pictures and notes from the recent session at Chem19, and also some video stuff too.

Rich

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l86kQVK8_LI

Will plans to record a series of songs under the ‘In Stores Now’ banner, so keep an eye on bandwidthfilms.com/instoresnow for more.

Enjoy!

We’re rather excited and more than a little chuffed that our friends at 17 Seconds in Edinburgh have offered to re-release God Says on their new label! We’ve been friends with Ed and 17 Seconds since he first reviewed God Says last summer and subsequently released Broken Chin during the Loosely Based On Fiction release period, so we’re really pleased that we can work together again.

Stay tuned for more details!

Rich

Its been an exciting year for us with first the single release and tour, and then the release of our album, Loosely Based On Fiction. We can’t wait for next year either with plans afoot for further releases, new recording sessions and very importantly, gigs!

We’ll have news on Dundalk and Dublin shows soon, but for now we’re really pleased to announce a gig next Friday 2nd January 2009 at the newly reopened Menagerie on Belfast’s University Street. We’ll be supporting the awesome Panda Kopanda, and after the splendid live music, Mr Barry Cullen (BEW) will be playing some dancing tunes. If you are in Belfast, this is the place to be!

Thanks for your support and encouragement, and here’s to 2009!

Rich, Chris, Alan

Earlier this week Ed over at 17 Seconds kindly released the last of our tracks – Broken Chin, head on over to read his thoughts on the album…

“Rather like the Strokes, here is a band who have realised that less is definitely more. Pure punky joy.”

Check it out here: www.cluas.com/indie-music/Blogs/Key_Notes/

Also, if you’re in Belfast this Wednesday 29th, head over to Charlies Coffee Shop at Bradbury Place – we’ll be doing a wee acoustic show at 7pm with Cutaways and Patio Sounds.

In other news, yours truly took part in the Digital Circle Podcast on Friday and I chatted with Davy, Ruairi and Michelle about the album release, the music industry and digital content. It and previous episodes are well worth checking out.

Don’t forget, you can help us out by pointing your friends here, or joining up to and inviting friends to the Facebook group, and if you haven’t already, please join our mailing list!

All tracks released so far can also be found on our bandcamp page.

Finally, we’ve confirmed two Belfast shows, an All Ages show at the Bunker on November 22nd, followed by Club NING on Saturday December 13th at Lavery’s Attic – add ‘em to your diary!