The Frames Recent News

The Swell Season Television Appearances

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0700

Tomorrow, the Swell Season (The Frames' Glen Hansard plus partner Marketa Irglova) will perform on what is arguably the most watched morning show in the U.S, at 8:45am EST. The band is also scheduled to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live next Friday, April 25th. More details to follow...

Glen Hansard Covers Van Morrison's "Into The Mystic" on 'Later... with Jools'

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0700

Oscar winners Glen Hansard (The Frames) and Marketa Irglova¡ treated 'Later... with Jools' last Tuesday to an exclusive cover version of Van Morrison track Into The Mystic. - click here to view.

The Frames latest album, The Cost, out now!

Glen Hansard to perform on BBC's "Later... With Jools Holland" on April 8th

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0700

Glen Hansard - frontman with Ireland's acclaimed band, The Frames - and the Czech singer and pianist Marketa Irglova will be appearing on BBC 2's "Later... With Jools Holland" show on Tuesday April 8th 2008 at 10.00pm.

Hansard and Irglova will be performing their signature duet "Falling Slowly" from the hit movie "Once", the song which was awarded with an Oscar for the Best Original Song earlier this month.

The song appeared originally on Hansard and Irglova's collaborative album "The Swell Season" and is also featured on The Frames' sixth studio album "The Cost." The single "Falling Slowly" will be released by Anti Records on the 14th of April.

Check out The Frames version of "Falling Slowly" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGJ8dY_IcgE

ANTI- RECORDS CONGRATULATES GLEN HANSARD OF THE FRAMES FOR AMAZING OSCAR WIN

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:02:00 -0800

"Falling Slowly" From the Hit Film Once Takes Award for Best Song

(Los Angeles) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova took home the Oscar last night for best original song for their moving rendition of "Falling Slowly" from the hit indie film Once.

"This is amazing! What are we doing here? This is mad!" said a clearly overjoyed Hansard to a cheering audience as he accepted the award, adding that the film was made on two Handi-Cams in three weeks for $100,000. He wrapped his acceptance speech by urging "make art! Make art!"

Hansard, who before the runaway success of Once was perhaps best known as the front man for the Irish quintet the Frames, performed "Falling Slowly" earlier in the broadcast on his signature well-worn guitar, accompanied by Irglova on piano.

The song also appears on the Frames' 6th studio album, The Cost, which was released on Anti- Records last year, and was called "sophisticated and layered with deft orchestration. And yet, the band's songwriting and delivery display an earnestness and lack of pretension that's pure rock" by the Boston Globe.

Click here to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova peform "Falling Slowly" at the 80th annual Academy Awards.

Click here to see their acceptance speeches.

Click here to see Hansard perform the song with the Frames.

Glen Hansard of The Frames announces solo CD/tour!

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:09:00 -0700

With a new Frames record off in the horizon for early 2007, Glen Hansard has announced a solo project and tour to begin in October.

You can get music, news and more at the link below:

www.myspace.com/theswellseason

The Tour:

UNITED STATES (glen w/ the swell season)
12 october 2006 :: iota, arlington, VA
tickets: on the door [info]
info: www.iotaclubandcafe.com

13 october 2006 :: tin angel, philadelphia, PA
tickets: $15 [Buy online]
info: www.tinangel.com

14 october 2006 :: tonic, new york, NY
tickets: tbc
info: www.tonicnyc.com

15 october 2006 :: southpaw, new york, NY
tickets: $15 [Buy online]
info: www.spsounds.com

17 october 2006 :: triple door, seattle, WA
tickets: $12 advance / $14 day of show
info: www.thetripledoor.net

18 october 2006 :: doug fir, portland, OR
doors: 8:00PM
tickets: $12 advance / $12 day of show
info: www.dougfirlounge.com

20 october 2006 :: caf� du nord, san francisco, CA
doors: 8:30PM
tickets: $15 [Buy online]
info: www.cafedunord.com

21 october 2006 :: largo, los angeles, CA
tickets: tbc
info: www.largo-la.com

24 october 2006 :: schubas, chicago, IL
tickets: tbc
info: www.schubas.com

See The Frames Performance at Lollapalooza!

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:08:00 -0700

Didn�t get tickets to Lollapalooza? You can STILL watch The Frames perform LIVE as it�s happening from Grant Park in Chicago.

Don�t miss out! Click here to go to the AT&T blue room and enjoy hours of free, uninterrupted, live streaming coverage from Lollapalooza Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 4th-6th.

The webcast will feature live performances from The Frames and more! So check it out!

The Frames are covered by Thestranger.com

Tue, 31 May 2005 00:05:00 -0700

The Frames
w/the Pixies, Modest Mouse, Kanye West, guests
Sat May 28, the Gorge, $55, 11 am, all ages.

In America, the Frames are only marginally more successful than Seattle�s willfully challenging A Frames. Ireland, though, greets the Dublin-based band with platinum sales. In this case, fatherland knows best. The Frames� latest release, Burn the Maps, betters not only recent Irish imports such as Snow Patrol but also anything U2 has issued in the past catorce years. This quartet should be playing its passion-drenched anthems at Super Bowl halftime shows, and singer Glen Hansard should be at a farmer�s market with some elegant actress, searching for organic produce after which they could christen their child.

Hansard appeared as guitarist Outspan Foster in 1991�s inspirational indie film The Commitments, a tidbit that�s probably in heavy rotation on the preshow trivia screens at Ireland�s multiplexes. Instead of playing soused soul covers like his fictional character, Hansard injected distortion-reinforced volume into traditional folk structures.

Domestically, 1996�s brilliant Fitzcarraldo appeared on Elektra under the name Frames DC, eluding possible trademark-infringement obstacles while robbing the group of its exotic overseas appeal. (The DC stood for Dublin City, but the research averse likely wrote it off as a knock-off from the nation�s capital.) On 1999�s Dance the Devil, the song titles chart the album�s fate: Its hooks reached for universal approval (�God Bless Mom�) but achieved only esoteric success (�Pavement Tune�). In the U.S., that is. Back in clover country, critics were bronzing the band, and fans were fainting at its gigs.

The Frames turned to producer Steve Albini for 2001�s For the Birds, though the icon�s references suggest he�s much better at alienating the audiences of established acts than luring listeners to underappreciated artists. This disc contains �What Happens When the Heart Just Stops,� during which Hansard uses words like �beseech� and �bereavement� without losing emotional immediacy and eventually proclaims in confident tones that, though he�s profoundly disappointed, his wounds aren�t fatal.

This track would have fit perfectly on the Closer soundtrack (which introduced countryman Damien Rice to instantly infatuated romantic-misadventure connoisseurs) or the Garden State collection (Natalie Portman could have touted it as life changing). Alas, earnest indie songwriters were not yet the compilation cloggers of choice, and that year�s alienated-teen vehicle (Ghost World) filled its slots with dusty blues 45s.

Set List, the Frames� 2003 Dublin-set concert album, demonstrates what might happen if Dashboard Confessional could fill 30,000-seat halls. The high-decibel sing-along factor is both annoying and astounding, drowning out even roaring choruses. The group might have trouble packing American venues, but it never fails to dazzle the spectators that show up. People still post on Damien Rice message boards about how the Frames stole their hearts as the opening act for his 2003 Pacific Northwest dates.

The Frames have a violin player at their disposal (Colm Mac Con Iomaire), which adds symphonic gravity to their crescendos. His solos bring a baroque charm to the bridges and make the choruses soar. The group�s guitar solos are purely decorative, scattered shards of shimmering sound, but their riffs ring with overwhelming resonance, like bells placed directly on listeners� heads and struck with a steel mallet.

All of this comes through to some degree on Set List, but there�s no way to bottle the Frames� live lightning. Sound waves visibly distort the air, like summer heat warping the horizon, and the group�s spontaneous shifts get swallowed in these sonic blasts. Subtlety isn�t the point of a Frames� performance, but there is something to be said for their slow-simmering builds to boiling points, the way Hansard�s voice rises and falls with respiratory regularity. This year�s Burn the Maps provides the most awe-inspiring studio documentation of these epic progressions. On such topographic tracks as �Dream Awake� and �Ship Caught in the Bay,� the group�s soft/loud dynamic shifts reach exhilarating extremes.
Irish Eyes Are Smiling

These tunes will never grace the Grammys, but then, the group gets enough of that back at home, where they earn nominations for Meteor Awards (the Irish Grammy equivalent) and headline festivals so large that they warrant their own zip codes. The Frames now reside on Anti Records, home of acclaimed artists that are as big as they wanna be (Nick Cave, Neko Case, Tom Waits). Their inability�so far�to cross over with American audiences might be inexplicable, but it�s not necessarily unwelcome. Here, Irish music royalty can masquerade as commoners, a time-honored fantasy just as compelling as any Cinderella story.

The Frames drop anchor in Portland

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:04:00 -0700

The Portland State University Daily Vanguard
April 05, 2005

As we move through our lives, musicians come and go. We create and relive memories through the songs that serve as momentary soundtracks to our lives and the concerts we went to that sustain them. And when we leave, the musicians and the band move on, the tour bus departing for another city and show. It's a life Glen Hansard, lead singer of Irish rock band The Frames, knows well.

In town last month, Hansard spent some time in his cluttered tour bus before a show at the Aladdin Theatre talking to the Vanguard about touring the U.S., their new CD Burn the Maps and making a spot on CMJ's top ten list.

Hansard compared touring to a pirate ship, his Irish accent lending a charm to his comfortable honesty.

"This is our home. The ship docks into a new town, we all get off, we go to the venue, we sing songs, we drink as much beer as we can, we rate the local women and we get back on the ship and take off. That sounds more like a metal band really then the kind of band we are. We sort of come into town and go the local cafe, drink Earl Grey, smile at the local women."

The question of what kind of band The Frames is has been a blessing and the curse. Despite comparisons to U2 and Coldplay, pigeonholing what kind of music the band plays is hard enough for the members let alone music critics and fans. Hansard said the U2 comparisons drawn in the U.S. come from two superficial things, "We're from Ireland and we sing emotional music. Marketing people had a real problem with The Frames because we weren't indie rock, we weren't a pop group, we weren't folk, we were all those things."

But Hansard said the industry has changed a lot since the band's forming in the early '90s, with the waning domination of marketing bands like The Frames are allowed to grow into a position where people can finally accept their music. But that position of acceptance, especially in the United States, was a long time coming.

First The Frames were dropped from their first record label, Island Records, the first of many barriers to any hope of success. "It was really hard. Like any band that's been dropped from its first label it can really hurt you and it's a great kick, it's the biggest kick in fact," Hansard said. "If you survive then I think to a certain degree you're worth your salt, or you're stupid. It can be one or the other."

And with Hansard and The Frames, eventually it proved itself to be the former.

The band stuck it out and made its second and third albums, Fitzcarraldo and Dance the Devil with the English label ZTT, in what proved to be an unharmonious relationship. Both records were immediately shelved. Hansard said they weren't given a chance and the band eventually left ZTT.

But during that time, The Frames toured and Hansard said it was then that they carved themselves a tiny but loyal following.

It was with their fourth album, For the Birds, that The Frames finally had control over the band's image, and were able to make a record without having to cater to anyone outside of the band. They worked with Craig Ward, ex-dEUS member, and Steve Albini, who's worked on notable albums like the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Nirvana's In Uturo, creating what Hansard calls their black and white album.

"We purposely made it a very stark and simple record and we thought to ourselves, anybody who likes The Frames only vaguely won't like this album. So what we're going to do is cut away anyone who half likes us and we're going to keep everybody who really likes the band."

It was a brave move and one Hansard said they made to know where the band stood. And it worked.

"We gained a whole new audience, which for us was really exciting, and the kind of audience who really seemed to get the joke at last, the kind of audience who seemed to go, 'I really like this band top to bottom, everything they do, not just this or this, I like all of what they do.'"

It was a period of positive change for The Frames. Part of the stepping blocks towards acceptance and a changing attitude from the U.S. media, which Hansard said came at just the right time.

"We were never in the press, so it's almost like a blessing. We never had our shot, we never had a title. You know how sometimes the press will get behind you and go, this band will be the next big thing and six months later they'll kick the shit out of you?"

Their tenacity garnered them a Meteor award for best Irish band, a tour with Damien Rice and stage time at major festivals throughout the world. Whether or not their formula for success works in the U.S. still remains to be seen. Hansard says it's not an easy place to break into.

"America's basic truth: America loves the dollar. If you have the dollar you're going to get played first and it's just always been the way. If you want to break it down to simple terms it's the major label bands that get the radio play because it's the major labels that have the money to put into advertising and radio stations. America is black and white, two extremes. You find people who are absolutely on your side and people who couldn't care less if you died tomorrow. It has the most innocence in that way, and the most enthusiasm and the least enthusiasm."

That enthusiasm can be found in college radio, where The Frames recently found themselves with a number ten spot on the CMJ chart - exciting news for them because, according to Hansard, they're the people playing what they want.

"That will always be the place we gravitate towards rather than being number one."

The Frames' latest album, Burn the Maps, is a repetition of the black and white formula that worked so well for them with For the Birds, a formula ironically reminiscent of Hansard's view of the United States as black and white.

The two extremes Hansard spoke of are visible in this album. The record has a unique sound of melancholy: dreamy, dark melodies whose influences range from David Gedge's The Wedding Present, 10-CC and the Pixies to HBO's "Sex and The City."

"With this album the only real criteria, the only real agenda that we talked about before making it was to just have a really colorful record, to make a record that has a sense of dynamic and sonic comfort," Hansard said.

Initially comprised of half-written songs, tracks and demos that Hansard wrote, the band then worked together, manipulating and fleshing it out.

"It's a bit like the A-Team, where Mr. T comes and brings the bit of scrap metal in and they go and win the battle," he said.

Its successful end demonstrates the band's original, hard-to-nail-down vision. They're no U2, they're no Coldplay, they're just The Frames. They're a band whose music, Hansard said with a laugh, is best described as music made for people breaking up.

"It's funny because that's the best description of what we do that I could come up with. We're all here living this life and some of us are enjoying it and some of us aren't. All a band really offers is the same questions you ask yourself. There's no promises. That's really fucking important. It's just a band. They're just songs and it's just music."

Stephanie Ryan

www.dailyvanguard.com

The Frames to play World Caf� session!

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 00:04:00 -0700

The Frames World Caf� session will air April 28th, 2005!

The World Cafe with David Dye can be heard on more than 180 stations nationwide. Fans can find their local station by going to the World Caf� website:

http://worldcafe.org

The Frames first US TV appearance this March.

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:03:00 -0800

The Frames taped what is to be their first US television appearance on March 1st in New York City! The band pre-recorded a performance on Last Call with Carson Daly which will air tomorrow night, March 10th! Last Call is on NBC at 1:36 AM Eastern and Pacific time and 12:36 AM Central and Mountain time. Be sure to tune in!