Guitarist Noel Hogan revealed today on Twitter that The Cranberries will embark on a European promo (media) tour at the end of the month. Dates are still to be confirmed.

The Cranberries Press intends to keep you informed about this promotional tour. Please check out the new  “Promo tour” section frequently for updates about the media to be visited, the dates and the links for live feeds and podcasts, when available. Frequent updates will be available on Twitter, @Cran_Press .

The Cranberries and Noel also confirmed on their Twitter account that the artwork revealed yesterday is the official cover art for the “Tomorrow” single. There are no words of a physical (CD, Vinyl?) single yet (cross your fingers!).

Update: On November 7, Noel’s tweet message about the promo tour was deleted from his account.

Sources: Noel Hogan’s and The Cranberries’ Twitter account (@noelhogan2 @The_Cranberrries)

San Diego-based radio station 91X WREX revealed “Tomorrow” cover art on its website.

Earlier this week, Brad Savage from WCNR confirmed us that CD promos had been sent out to radio stations in the U.S. Will this also be the graphic style for the album? We’ll have to wait and see!

Thanks again to Rick from the cranberries.me community for the info!

Back in January 1992, The Cranberries recorded a four-track studio session for the John Peel show, more than a year before the release of their first studio album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?. No songs from that session were ever commercially released, but things might change in the next months…

EMI, in partnership with the BBC, released the first volume of a series of Peel Sessions compilations this week. There are no words yet about the release date for the volume covering the early 90’s, nor if a track from The Cranberries will be included.

For their Peel Session, The Cranberries recorded slightly different versions of “Linger”, “Wanted”, “Waltzing Back” and “I Will Always”.

Few years ago, a medium-quality tape recording of this session was featured on an unauthorized bootleg entitled Be with You. Slightly better quality audio files – but nothing compared to the real thing – also circulate in the fan community. Here’s a link (no longer available) for those Cranfans who want it!

For almost 40 years, emerging artists and bands recorded sessions specially intended to be broadcasted on the John Peel show at the BBC. To learn more about the Peel Sessions, visit the Keeping It Peel website.

In Ireland, radio host Dave Fanning from RTÉ (Irish public service broadcaster) gave a similar opportunity to emerging musicians. The Cranberries recorded two sessions for his show in 1991 and 1993. These sessions were (sadly) never commercially released neither. The 1991 session was broadcasted a couple of times in the last few years on the Dan Hegarty show.

Sources: emisessions.com, bbc.co.uk, wikipedia.com

According to allaccess.com, KMTT (Seattle) and KINK (Portland, OR) radio stations have already selected “Tomorrow”, The Cranberries first single for Triple-A radios, as one of this week “hot picks” more than 3 weeks before its official radio release date.

Brad Savage, Program Director at WCNR (Charlottesville, VA), also told The Cranberries Press that his station already began airing “Tomorrow” as well. WCNR made a lot of Cranberries fans happy today by posting on its website an acoustic set that Dolores O’ Riordan performed in December 2007.

As for “Show Me the Way”, WRFF (Philadelphia) has been airing it since October 23.
Is “Tomorrow” or “Show Me the Way” playing at your radio station?

Sources: allaccess.com, Brad Savage from WCNR, radio1045.com

All Access Music Group posted a (radio?) edit version of “Tomorrow” on its website. The edit version, which is 3:43-long, has a shorten musical intro. The remaining part of the song is unchanged. The length of the album version, or at least the version posted on Rollingstone.com, is 3:56.

You can listen to the edit version at allmusic.com, on the Triple-A Future releases page under “November 21”. (link no longer available)

Thanks to Rick from the cranberries.me community for the info!

Source: allaccess.com

Rolling Stone magazine website posted today an exclusive stream of the full studio version of “Tomorrow”.

Rolling Stone describes the song as “a crisp, catchy number that serves as an ideal showcase for frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan’s lovely, heavily accented voice”.

You can listen to the full version of “Tomorrow” here.

Source: Rollingstone.com

After days of speculation about The Cranberries’ first single for Roses, it looks like we are starting to get some answers. At least, for the U.S. market…

According to Allaccess.com, the band will release “Show Me” under the Alternative radio format on November 8 – as reported yesterday, while “Tomorrow” is to be sent out to radio stations two weeks later (November 21), under the Triple-A format (Adult Alternative).

It looks like Americans will get lots of Cranberries, just in time for Thanksgiving. Turkeys, beware!

Thanks again to Rick from the cranberries.me community for the info.

Source: Allaccess.com

Just when we thought that The Cranberries had finally selected their first single for Roses, things became a bit more uncertain today!
After several reports indicating that “Tomorrow” will be the official comeback single for the band, Allaccess.com now lists “Show Me The Way” for a radio release on November 8 under “Impacting Songs”.

Is this a change in the marketing strategy due to the many positive reviews of “Show Me The Way” online since its giveaway release? Is North America getting a different single than the rest of the World? Too many questions, so few answers…

Thanks to Rick from the cranberries.me community for the info!

Source: allaccess.com

Italian website SpazioRock reports that “Tomorrow” could be released on radios around the world as soon as November 18.

Two weeks ago, German website Rockszene was suggesting a late January date for the (commercial?) release of this song.

No dates have been confirmed by the band or the record label yet.

Thanks to irishsoul from IStillDream and alexverveboy from the cranberries community for the info!

Source: spaziorock.it, rockszene.de

Halloween is just around the corner and it looks like zombies are crawling back from the grave! We have found today a slightly rougher studio version of The Cranberries 1994 hit, “Zombie”, which seems to have been forgotten by most of us.

The Radio 1 FM Sessions Volume 2 – Cassette artwork

Recorded for a BBC Radio 1 Evening Session in 1994, this version of “Zombie” was released in 1995 on a giveaway cassette (yes, cassette!) with UK magazine Vox. To our knowledge, this is the only release of this Evening Session version.

Back in 1995, two other songs from the Evening Session (“Empty” and “I Can’t Be With You”) were released on an “I Can’t Be With You” single. The Cranberries’ Evening Session was first broadcasted on September 26, 1994 on BBC Radio 1.

Here is a downloadable mp3 file for the fans to enjoy!
(LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!)

Source: hopeless-m.blogspot.com

New bits of information on some Roses tracks

Cooking Vinyl has just updated its site with a section about The Cranberries, in which new information is revealed about some tracks from Roses. Here are some interesting excerpts:

The result is Roses, 11 new songs from The Cranberries. Produced by the band’s old friend and collaborator Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur and more recently Kaiser Chiefs) the songs on Roses sound like nuggets buried deep inside The Cranberries’ soul harking back to the freshness and acoustic originality of the band’s first two albums, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Cant We? and No Need To Argue.

The songs vary in pace and mood, from the soft and summery “Fire and Soul” to the reggae infused “Raining In My Heart” and the sweeping storm that rages within “Conduct Yourself.”

Some of the songs from the latest album date back to the days before they paused The Cranberries in 2003, like “Astral Projection” and “Raining In My Heart”. Others come from the sound checks in 2010, like “Serendipity,” “Conduct Yourself,” and the seize-the-day themed first single “Tomorrow.” But there were still a few surprises at the last minute during recording at Metalworks in Toronto in April and May of 2011. On an evening off as Dolores was going in to watch the movie Limitless, she listened to a melody Noel had saved for her. She loved it instantly and later that night wrote the lyrics to it calling the song “Roses”.

Thanks to Jury and Litsa for the info.

Source: cookingvinyl.com

In a tweet message today, Noel Hogan confirmed that “Tomorrow” will be the first official single from the Roses album and that “Show Me The Way” is only a free-download track. Some media falsely reported yesterday that SMTW was the first single of the upcoming album. Thanks to Dolitsa for asking Noel.

Earlier today, Hogan posted the first review of “Show Me The Way” published online on Indie Rock Reviews, which is quite positive:

If you have just recently crawled from under a rock then you might have missed that Ireland alternative rock legends, The Cranberries, are back and offering up “Show Me The Way”, their first single from the bands new album ‘Roses’, which comes out Valentines Day, 2012. Their 3 previous track samples have been quite the tease, but now they’ve gone and given us a proper dosage of pure Cranberries genius. ‘Roses’ is shaping up to potentially be one of the best albums The Cranberries have ever released and should have the band back in the limelight, and that’s just where we want them.

Sources: Noel Hogan’s Twitter (noelhogan2), indierockreviews.com

“Show Me The Way” is now available as a free download (link no longer available!!) on The Cranberries Facebook site. The file will be online for two weeks.

You can also listen to the song on Youtube:

The Cranberries – “Show Me The Way” – Promotional

Source: facebook.com/TheCranberries

While everyone in the Cranberries community was expecting the 1993 Dave Fanning Session tonight, RTÉ 2fm broadcasted the 1991 session, which was partly known from the fans.

Besides from “Dreams” “Uncertain” and “Reason”, which had been broadcast on Dan Hegarty’s show in 2010, the Irish radio host dug out of the vault “Put Me Down” for the first time since its first broadcast in 1991.

It looks like there was a bit confusion on the RTÉ 2fm site, which previously announced the broadcast of the 1993 session last Thurday.

Radiohost Dan Hegarty was kind enough to clear out the situation on air and told listeners that he will try to find the 1993 session and broadcast it eventually.

The 1993 Fanning Session includes two unreleased tracks entitled “False” and “Like You Used To”.

You can listen to the complete 1991 Session on the Fanning Sessions Archive website.

Sources: RTÉ 2fm webradio, fanningsessions.wordpress.com

Less than a couple of hours after a technical problem on TheCranberriesTV YouTube station, “Show Me The Way” leaked on Youtube via a fan account on Monday night/Tuesday morning (depending on where you live).

The video was deleted from the fan account on Tuesday.

Source: YouTube

What looks like another technical error on TheCranberriesTV YouTube channel possibly got “Show Me The Way” leaked. Late Monday night, subscribers to the YouTube channel received (yet) another notice for the upload of the “Show Me The Way” video online.

But this time, it looks like a lucky cranberries.me member (Cristian) got the chance to extract the song before the video became private again. Describing it as “Animal Instinct”-ish, Cristian wrote in the cranberries.me forum that he decided to keep the song to himself for a day, giving the band some time (and respect) to release it themselves sooner for everyone to enjoy.

Sources: TheCranberriesTV YouTube channel, .cranberries.me

In an article published today, MusicWeek.com reveals that British indie record label “Cooking Vinyl Records is shaping up for a major assault on the US next year after signing American-friendly The Cranberries“.

The article aslo mention that former Mercury Records chairman Danny Goldberg is “now steering The Cranberries’ career”. Goldberg previously managed O’Riordan’s solo career.

Source: musicweek.com

Late Friday night, a private video entitled “Show Me” was briefly posted on TheCranberriesTV channel on YouTube. Although it was not accessible to users to view (and hear), we can speculate that this track might be the next preview sampler.

According to the text in the picture presented for this preview, “Show Me” will be available as a free download at some point.

The song length is 3:26.

The private video was taken off the list briefly after.

Thanks to a_dri_ano and Maxcranfan from the cranberries.me community for the discovery and the screen captures!

Sources: TheCranberriesTV (Youtube), cranberries.me

A first chance in almost 20 years to hear back “Like You Used To” and “False”

RTÉ radio host Dan Hegarty confirmed tonight on his blog that he is going to broadcast The Cranberries’ complete 1993 Dave Fanning Session next Tuesday. This session was recorded shortly after the release of the band’s first album, Everybody Else is Doing so Why Can’t We?

During an interview with Dave Fanning few days before the first 1993 broadcast, singer Dolores O’ Riordan and drummer Fergal Lawler explained that they were recording a new version of “Wanted” for that session, plus three new songs. It is likely that those songs are “False”, “Like You Used To” and “The Icicle Melts”. The latter was recorded again a year after for the band’s second album No Need to Argue, while the first two were never commercially released.

Few weeks ago, some hardcore fans from the cranberries.me community joined forces to ask the Irish radio host to broadcast this session. Thanks to all who participated!!

And a big CHEERS to Dan Hegarty!

Be sure to tune in to Dan’s show, next Tuesday night (October 18) at 11 p.m. (Ireland time).

Note (October 18): There have been some confusion on RTÉ 2fm website. The session broadcast tonight was the 1991 session (“Dreams”, “Uncertain”, “Reason” and “Put Me Down”) and not the 1993 one, announced last Thursday.

Sources: 2fm.rte.ie, fanningsessions.wordpress.com, cranberries.me

Guys and Girls, give a listen to the third “Roses” preview, “Fire and Soul”, a soft-voice ballad with drum loops and light electronica elements. It’s Cranberries 2.0

The Cranberries – “Fire And Soul” – Preview Sampler

Source: TheCranberriesTV on Youtube

Back in August 2001, The Cranberries embarked on a U.S.promo tour, visiting several radio stations to promote the upcoming release of Wake Up and Smell the Coffee with live performances, most of them played in an acoustic format.

Thanks to a couple of e-mails sent to KBCO – World Class Rock, we are proud to tell you that you can now listen back to “Linger” and “Analyse”, the two songs the band performed at this Boulder (Colorado) radio station on August 16, 2001. A big thanks to the personnel of the 97.3 FM.

This version of “Analyse” was also featured on KBCO Studio C – Volume 13, a locally-sold charity compilation back in 2001.

During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, The Cranberries recorded many other acoustic performances during promotional tours, amongst them a MTV unplugged episode and unforgettable versions of “I Can’t Be With You” (2 Meter Session – 1993), “False”, “Sunday” (KCRW – 1993), “Animal Instinct” and “In the Ghetto” (BBC Radio 1 – 1999). The idea of releasing a compilation regrouping the best of these acoustic performances would surely please tones of Cranberries fans. Santa Claus, are you listening?

In the meantime, you can listen to both KBCO acoustic versions of “Linger” and “Analyse” and a short interview on the radio station website, and tell us about your all-time favorite acoustic performance by the ‘Berries in the discussion box below.

You can also listen to other Studio C performances here. (Link no longer available)

Source: kbco.com

According to German music site Rockszene, the release of Roses’ first single “Tomorrow” is scheduled for January 27, only 2 weeks before the album hit the shelves.
In a music industry more and more focused on digital singles issued months before the release of an album, it seems like a strange marketing strategy for a band that was absent of the musical scene for so long.

Remember that this information was not confirmed by the band. Later last week, O’ Riordan told Billboard the band has not yet made a definitive choice about the first single. First scheduled for an October release, “Tomorrow” was first pushed back in late 2011, according the the band’s official website.

Thanks to cranB82 from the cranberries.me community for the info!

You can hear a one minute preview of “Tomorrow” on Youtube:

The Cranberries – “Tomorrow” – Preview

Sources: rockszene.de, billboard.com, cranberries.com

While Roses release date continues to make the headline all over the world on various news sites -mainly reporting what had already been said on Billboard.com– Australian site AAABackstage published a new short interview with the band last week.

During this interview, guitarist Noel Hogan explained that he and lead singer Dolores O’ Riordan continued to share ideas for new music during the band’s six-year hiatus.

O’ Riordan also talked about how unique making music with the band and producer Stephen Street is. “Having recorded two albums with various different musicians during our hiatus, I could clearly see that Noel and Mike have a unique way of creating chords and Ferg keeps it together in a subtle way.  We had a blast in the studio, Stephen was in his zone and it came together rather quickly.”

Lucky Australians will be the first ones to get a hand on a copy of Roses – to be released on Shock Records/Cooking Vinyl on February 10, 2012 – and to hear the new songs on tour, in March 2012.

Sources: aaabackstage.com, billboard.com

Gossip guru Perez Hilton posted an article on his site, talking about The Cranberries’ comeback album. A pretty short post that sparked off a few improper comments about gay people and music tastes. Fragile hearts, beware!

It looks like Ireland has another “Reason” to love The Cranberries. After being broadcast a few times in the last year on Ireland’s national radio RTÉ 2fm, we have words that the 1993 b-side “Reason” was also played on Limerick’s Live 95 FM during Alan Jacques’s LimRock Special last May. The radio host has been nominated for a PPi Radio award last month for this special.

During his May 19, 2010 show, RTÉ 2fm’s radio host Dan Hegarty caused quite a commotion in The Cranberries fan community by airing three songs (“Dreams”, “Uncertain” and “Reason”) taken from the long-lost 1991 Dave Fanning Session. The Fanning Session version of “Reason” was broadcast a couple of times after that on Hegarty’s show.

“Reason” is not the only b-side which got a life on its own. In 1995 “Liar”, which was first released on the 1992 “Dreams” single, was featured on the Empire Records soundtrack and have been part of The Cranberries concert setlist for many shows up to now. Both songs are available on the complete session edition of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?

You can listen to the three songs from the 1991 Dave Fanning Session on the The Dave Fanning Sessions Archive website.

Sources: fanningsessions.wordpress.com, live95fm.ie

In an exclusive interview with Billboard.com on October 5, lead singer Dolores O’ Riordan revealed that Roses, The Cranberries sixth studio album and first since the 2001 release of Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, will be released on February 14, 2012 –just in time for Valentine Day– on Downtown Records/Cooking Vinyl in the U.S. and on Cooking Vinyl worldwide (February 13).

O’ Riordan also told Billboard that the band has not yet made a definitive choice about the first single although she favors “Tomorrow”. Earlier this summer, the band posted a preview clip of “Tomorrow” on their official website, mentioning that the song would be released as the first single later in 2011.

Finally, Billboard.com announced “Roses” tracklist, revealing two new songs which were not previously included in the list of songs recorded at the Metalworks studio (Toronto,Canada) in April and May. It is likely that those two new titles –“Losing My Mind” and “Waiting in Walthamstow”– were recorded during the London session last June.

Here’s the tracklist for “Roses”:

1. “Conduct”
2. “Tomorrow”
3. “Fire & Soul”
4. “Raining In My Heart”
5. “Losing My Mind”
6. “Schizophrenic Playboys”
7. “Waiting in Walthamstow”
8. “Show Me”
9. “Astral Projections”
10. “So Good”
11. “Roses”

Sources: Billboard.com, cranberries.com

Target is releasing a compilation album with 10 songs chosen by Avril Lavigne as part of their series, “Influences”. One of the songs listed is “Dreams” by The Cranberries. This may catch a few Cranberries fans oguard.

Another complete shocker is her decision to include “This Is The New Shit” by Marilyn Manson – seeing that this is a target release it will most probably be the censored version.

There are also the not-so surprising appearances by punk bands Blink-182 and The Distillers on the compilation.

US rock magazine Spin mentioned The Cranberries in the first paragraph of the August 2007 cover article on Interpol. The magazine mentioned that “Linger” played at a Dallas Hooters restaurant — where the interview took place — and later went on to contrast the two bands.

David Peisner wrote in the article,

The Hooters in downtown Dallas is not just any Hooters. It is, [guistarist Daniel] Kessler informs me, the largest Hooters in the world. In his black suit, black sweater-vest, and dark sunglesses, the chatty New York vegetarian strieks an odd figure in a chain restaurant known primarily for large-breasted, skimpily outfitted waitresses and chicken wings. Neon beer signs cover the walls, a rerun of the Coca-Cola 600 from Lowe’s Motor Speedway beams from the TV overhead, and the sound system blares inoensive radio-rock staples, including Blind Melon’s “No Rain,” the Cranberries’ “Linger,” and Dave Matthews Band’s “The Space Between.”

Peisner later goes on to write that Interpol are not (yet) at that same level of universal appeal as the aforementioned songs, but would like to be.

The middle of the country is where Interpol need to make their presence felt if they’re going to graduate from their post as New York City’s well-dressed, brooding indie-rock mascots and become, well, a band whose songs might be played over the sound system at the largest Hooters in the world.

It’s official: The Cranberries are getting their first-ever placement in a video game when Singstar 90s releases for the PlayStation 2 in August in Australia and other PAL territories. (Unless, of course, you want to count the Doors and Windows CD-ROM as a game.)

Sony has just confirmed the ocial lineup of songs for the latest in the karaoke series, which carries an impressive lineup of tracks from artists ranging from The Cure to The Cardigans. Even Radiohead, who are notoriously strict about licensing their music — albums like OK Computer and Kid A aren’t even on iTunes — appear with “Creep.” Here’s the confirmed lineup:

• » ALL SAINTS – Never Ever
• »  AQUA – Barbie Girl
• »  B-52’s – Love Shack
• »  BARENAKED LADIES – One Week
• »  BILLY RAY CYRUS – Achey Breaky Heart
• »  CRASH TEST DUMMIES – MMM MMM MMM MMM
• »  DIVINYLS – I Touch Myself
• »  EMF – Unbelievable
• »  GIN BLOSSOMS – Hey Jealousy
• »  LISA LOEB – Stay
• »  MC HAMMER – U Can’t Touch This
• »  MEREDITH BROOKS – Bitch
• »  M PEOPLE – Movin’ On Up
• »  NATALIE IMBRUGLIA – Torn
• »  NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Step By Step
• »  NICK CAVE & KYLIE MINOGUE – Where the Wild Roses Grow
• »  POISON – Unskinny Bop
• »  RADIOHEAD – Creep
• »  REM – Everybody Hurts
• »  ROACHFORD – Only to be with You
• »  SAVAGE GARDEN – I Want You
• »  SEAL – Kiss From A Rose
• »  SIR MIX A LOT – Baby Got Back
• »  SPICE GIRLS – Wannabe
• »  SPIN DOCTORS – Two Princes
• »  TECHNOTRONIC FEAT. FELLY – Pump Up The Jam
• »  THE CARDIGANS – Lovefool
• »  THE CRANBERRIES – Zombie
• »  THE CURE – Friday I’m In Love
• »  WET WET WET – Love Is All Around

The game will also include the music videos for every track that will play in the background for each level. Below is a shot grabbed from WorthPlaying of the “Zombie” level.

Singstar 90s is due out in Australia on August 7, 2007. The game has not yet been announced for North America or other territories, but Zombieguide will post in case that changes.