After eighteen months of exclusive interviews and music updates, Éist offers you a selection of highlights in this month's 'Éist Retrospective'.

Featuring chat and music from Gemma Hayes, The Coronas, Jinx Lennon, Caoimhín O Raghallaigh, The Saw Doctors, HAL, Valerie Francis and The Flaws.

All podcasts available at www.irishpodcast.com

This month Éist chats with incomparable lead-singer Mick Pyro, from Republic of Loose!

Republic of Loose are an Irish funk/soul band, based in Dublin. They formed in 2001, and have since achieved the status of third most-played Irish band on the nation’s airwaves, behind U2 and Bell X1.

Mick Pyro is the band’s enigmatic lead singer. While Mick may be a man of few words, in this podcast we gain an insight into the band’s formation, musical style and their methods, and the background to some of their most famous songs. As well as three previous hits, we’ve also got two great songs from Republic of Loose’s most recent album, ‘Bounce At The Devil’!

Songs featured:

1. Comeback Girl

2. The Steady Song

3. We People (Who Are Darker Than Blue) ft. Sinead O’ Connor

4. The Lamp

5. What Kind Of Man Would I Be?

* Artist's Website: http://www.republicofloose.com/

* Éist on ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

* Éist on Facebook: http://bit.ly/bndwFH

* Éist Blog: http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

This month Éist chats with Cork musician extraordinaire, John Spillane!

John Spillane is a musician like few others. His singular vision and unforgettable persona have endeared him to many a listener since his first musings and solo album, Wells of the World, in 1997. As his website states, 'in a world filled with strife and upheaval, a time-out with John Spillane is enough to ease the load a bit on anyone lucky enough to bask in his light.' Indeed, like.

In this, our first download of 2011, John chats about his early life and banking career in Cork, as well as his first bands, including a jazz outfit called The Stargazers! We chat about his 2003 Meteor award for Best Folk Act, the true story behind his hit single 'The Dunnes Stores Girl', plans for 2011, and as ever we've got our 'Ask the Artist' segment...plus you definitely won't want to miss the fascinating stories behind John's four chosen songs!

Songs featured:

1. Passage West

2. Lover's Leap

3. Cúnla (with Christy Moore)

4. Magic Nights in the Lobby Bar

* Artist's Website: http://www.johnspillane.com/

* Éist on ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

* Éist on Facebook: http://bit.ly/bndwFH

* Éist Blog: http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

In our first Winter Special, Éist podcast is joined by 2010 sensation Crystal Swing!

Mary Murray-Burke and son Derek talk about their band, highlights of the year 2010, and their hopes for the future. We also play Crystal Swing's hit song, 'He Drinks Tequila', as well as their new single, 'Time To Swing'!

* Artist's Website: http://www.crystalswing.com/

* Éist on ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

* Éist on Facebook: http://bit.ly/bndwFH

* Éist Blog: http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

This month Éist profiles singer-songwriter Adrian Crowley!

Adrian Crowley was born in Malta, raised in Galway, and is now based in Dublin. He won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2009 for 'Season of the Sparks', a highly-acclaimed follow-up to his third album, Long Distance Swimmer (2008).

Adrian recalls his first tentative steps into the music industry, and how he ended up recording his second album with Nirvana producer Steve Albini. He details all his albums to date, as well as granting us an insight into his songwriting methods. Plus we have our ‘Ask the Artist’ feature, this time with a question from Michelle Maiolo in New York!

When I spoke to Adrian Crowley, we began by chatting about his approach to music and how Simon Cowell has impacted his career!!

Songs featured:

1. Horses Like To Dream All Night

2. The Three Sisters

3. Long-Distance Swimmer

4. The Wishing Seat

* Artist's Website: http://www.myspace.com/adriancrowley

* Éist on ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

* Éist on Facebook: http://bit.ly/bndwFH

* Éist Blog: http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

Julie Feeney is performing in Washington DC on Tues 9th Nov at the Gibson Guitar Room!

To whet your appetite, Éist10 presents highlights from Julie's Éist interview from earlier this year...

For more information about the concert, go to http://www.solasnua.org/juliefeeney.html

or visit our Éist blog at http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

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Artist's Website:

http://www.juliefeeney.com/

This month Éist profiles Monaghan rock band The Flaws!!

It’s been 3 years since The Flaws’ debut album, the hugely successful Achieving Vagueness. Oct 29th sees the band return with their highly-anticipated sophmore effort, Constant Adventure, and so it’s only fitting that this month Eist catches up with lead singer Paul Finn to chew the cud!

The Flaws came to the public’s attention in 2007 with standout songs such as 16, 1981, Out Tonight and Slow Dance. They toured relentlessly. They were nominated for the prestigious Choice Music Prize, and the band were cited in many ‘best of the year’ album lists. And now’s it time to deliver the follow-up.

Lead-singer Paul Finn chats with me about the band’s formation, early success and the background to two songs from the debut, 1981 and Out Tonight, as well as new songs Part of You and Constant Adventure. We also discuss The Flaws’ songwriting routine, the making of the new album and what the future might hold for this Monaghan quartet…oh, and does Paul think ‘Out Tonight’ sounds a bit like the Killers?!

In addition, this month also features our News Section with Dublin journalist Anne Sharkey, who’s updating us on all things music-related in Ireland…plus we’ve got a new feature for the podcast beginning today!! You can ‘ask the artist’ each month by sending us your questions via Facebook - and this month we have listener Conchubhair MacLochlainn pitching his question to Paul Finn! Enjoy, and make sure to subscribe on ITunes and check us out on Facebook too!

Songs featured:

1. 1981

2. Out Tonight

3. Part of You

4. Constant Adventure

* Artist's Website: http://www.theflaws.com/

* Éist on ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

* Éist on Facebook: http://bit.ly/bndwFH

* Éist Blog: http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

We recently introduced a bonus ten-minute podcast, titled 'Éist10', which appears randomly through the year...

Today on Éist10 we chat for ten minutes with Irish duo The Guggenheim Grotto (Kevin May and Mick Lynch), currently on tour in the USA and performing at the 930 Club this week. The band have a strong following in the States, and have garnered high acclaim for their three albums, the most recent of which was released in June of this year.

Tune in to learn more about the Guggenheim Grotto, and find out what these exponents of 'dark folk' have in store for DC later in the week!

Songs featured:

1. Wisdom

2. The Universe is Laughing

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Artist's Website:

http://www.guggenheimgrotto.com/

As you probably know, we recently introduced a bonus ten-minute podcast, titled 'Éist10'. This podcast will crop up at various times throughout the year, with short interviews featuring our favorite new Irish acts!

Today we have David Allen from Dublin-based band HAL joining us...though you'd be forgiven for thinking these guys were resident on America's West Coast! Listen in to discover this wonderful 'Beach Boys-Phil Spector-sounding' band, and hear about this week's comeback gig at Dublin's Hard Working Class Heroes festival. What's more, the band has given us an exclusive track to play, from HAL's long-anticipated sophomore album ...and it's a gem of a song too!

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Artist's Website:

http://www.myspace.com/hal

This month Éist chats to Simon Fagan, a classically-trained musician from Navan, Co. Meath.

Simon’s uplifting and catchy tunes could be described as acoustic rock, with elements of gospel and folk, and it's easy to see why he's been compared to the likes of Ray Lamontagne, Ryan Adams and Paolo Nutini. We listen to four of Simon's songs, one of which, 'Never Really Cried', picked up Best Performance at this year’s International Songwriting Competition, from more than 15,000 entries!

Ronan chats to Simon about his debut album, 'Outside Looking In', as well as about using a whip in the recording studio and buying Viagra in Egypt...but we begin by finding out how Simon first got involved in music!

Songs featured:

1. Water's Edge

2. Damn Honey

3. Never Really Cried

4. Plastic Compass

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Available for download now:

ITunes: http://ht.ly/1FONx

Podomatic: http://solasnua.podomatic.com/

Blog:

http://newirishmusic.wordpress.com/

Éist Podcast on Facebook:

http://bit.ly/bndwFH

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Artist's Website:

http://www.simonfagan.net/