The Upgrades were a third wave ska band from Dublin, Ireland. Goldenplec.com named them as their "band of the week"" during March 2009 and hailed them as

Probably the best known unknown band in Dublin.

In 2006 they opened the Irish date of the International "Taste of Chaos Tour", sharing the stage with well known bands such as Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday is a rock band from Long Island, NY, formed in 1999 by guitarist Eddie Reyes. Current members of the band are Adam Lazzara , John Nolan , Eddie Reyes , Shaun Cooper and Mark O'Connell ....

, Alexisonfire

Alexisonfire

Alexisonfire was a five-piece, Juno-nominated post-hardcore band that formed in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in 2001. The band consisted of George Pettit , Dallas Green , Wade MacNeil , Chris Steele , and Jordan Hastings .They describe their music as "the sound of two Catholic high-school girls...

 and Anti-Flag

Anti-Flag

Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...

. They announced their split-up on March 26, 2010 on their myspace blog. They played two farewell shows in April in Dublin one on the 4th with American punk rockers The Lawrence Arms

The Lawrence Arms

The Lawrence Arms are an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999. They have released five full-length albums and toured extensively.-Pre-history:...

 and another on the 8th with Dublin Pop-Punk band Jody Has A Hitlist.

Album

The Upgrades debut album was released in 2009 on May 4. The album, titled Take A Risk, has 12 tracks on it. The band played in Dublin venue The Academy to support the launch of the album.
Tracklisting

1. The Thing Is...
2. Rock’n’Fuck’n’Roll!!!
3. Square One
4. You Should Know
5. Nothing
6. Angel Horror
7. Bukkake
8. Wrong About Me
9. Better Way
10. Somethin, I Dunno
11. Friends & Idiots
12. This Is Us

Exposure

As well as playing alongside the likes of Taking Back Sunday and Anti-Flag the band were also selected to open the main stage at Europe’s biggest ska-punk festival - MIGHTY SOUNDS 2008 in Prague. They also performed at one of Ireland's biggest music festivals, Electric Picnic

Electric Picnic

The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...

.

External links

• http://www.myspace.com/theupgrades The Upgrades MySpace page
• http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1358016713 The Upgrades Bebo page