alanwhelan

Albums of the year 2011

2011-12-31T19:28:00.001Z

1. Feist, Metals
2. Bon Iver, Bon Iver
3. Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
4. Tune-Yards, Whokill
5. Kate Bush, 50 words for snow
6.Laura Marling, A Creature I Don’t Know
7.The War on Drugs, Slave Ambient
8.Adele, 21
9. Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
10. Radiohead, the King of Limbs
11. Lykke Li, Wounded Rhymes
12. Gillian Welch, the Harrow and the Harvest
13. Wilco, the Whole Love
14. Joan as Policewoman, the Deep Field
15. Jape, Ocean of Frequency, September
16. The Horrors, Skying
17. Tom Waits, Bad as me
18. Florence and the Machine, Ceremonials
19. Lisa Hannigan, Passenger
20. Anna Calvi, Anna Calvi
21. The Strokes, Angles
22. Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys
23. Gemma Hayes, Let it Break
24. James Blake, James Blake
25. The Middle East, I Want That You Are Always Happy

Milka: One Woman's Story

2011-06-21T23:29:00.003+01:00

Milka: One Woman's Story from Nuru International on Vimeo.

Love what they've done with photos in this video from Nuru International.

Albums of the Year 2010

2010-11-28T18:47:00.014Z

So loads of people have been asking me to put this list together, well two people to be precise, so here it is and me blathering on about some of the albums below it.

1. The Archandroid, Janelle Monae,
2. I Speak Because I Can, Laura Marling
3. Total Life Forever, Foals
4. High Violet, the National
5. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
6. Go, Jonsi
7. Halycon Digest, Deerhunter
8. Heartland, Final Fantasy
9. Lucky Shiner, Gold Panda
10. Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene
11. Infinite Arms, Band of Horses
12. Plastic Beach, Gorillaz
13. Transference, Spoon
14. Contra, Vampire Weekend
15. Fields, Junip
16. Have One On Me,Joanna Newsom
17. Queen of Denmark, John Grant
18. The Lady Killer,Cee Lo
19. Heligoland, Massive Attack
20. Band of Joy,Robert Plant
21. Odd Blood, Yeasayer
22. How They Are, Peter Broderick
23. The Fool, Warpaint
24. Big Echo, The Morning Benders
25. The Courage of Others, Midlake
26. The Family Jewels, Marina and the Diamonds
27. Revolutions Per Minute, Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek)
28. Congratulations, MGMT
29. Swanlights, Anthony and the Johnsons
30. Jasmine, Keith Jarrett & Charlie Haden
31. There is Love in You, Four Tet

The Archandroid (Suite II and III), Janelle Monae

A visionary, imaginative, bold, varied, daring, boundary pushing record absorbing hip hop, funk, rock, jazz, soul, classical and hollywood showtunes. It eclipses ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ as the most impressive genre straddling R’n’B based album by a female artist in the last twenty years. The Archandroid puts Monae on course to be up with the greats like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. That good.

I Speak Because I Can, Laura Marling

Laura Marling’s album blew me away - with strong echoes of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, it's a chillingly precocious truly great work. Sounds like: The best female folk singer songwriter in ages. Her first album was promising but who could have expected this?

The Suburbs, Arcade Fire

Maintains their usual level of brilliance. Still arguably the greatest rock band in the world.

Total Life Forever, Foals

An absolutely stunning album of epic rock - one of the albums i’ve played the most this year. Sounds like early U2, Talking Heads, Radiohead with African guitars.

Lucky Shiner, Gold Panda

A stonking electronica album, thrillingly imaginative and inventive, it keeps moving and shape shifting. Reminiscent of Ulrich Schnauss and the Field at their best.

High Violet, the National

Burrowing under the skin even more so then their last one, Boxer, a moody, gloomy, smokey late night album. Sounds like: the Tindersticks.

Halycon Digest, Deerhunter

These guys really get rock music, there's something indefinably effortlessy cool about their sound - Deerhunter make me feel like i’m a teenager again hearing My Bloody Valentine or the Stone Roses for the first time. This their most accessible, focused album to date.

The Lady Killer, Cee Lo

Fantastic, fun, party, soul record, had forgotten what a great voice Cee Lo has.

Heartland, Owen Pallet

Owen Pallet (formerly Final Fantasy) is a true original. This is his first album that comes close to matching the consistent magnificence of his live shows. Sounds a bit like: Beirut, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird.

Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene

A classic indie-rock album, like all their stuff, it’s sprawling and messy and ramshacke but in a very loveable way. Their best effort yet.

Fields, Junip

It’s Jose Gonazalez with a prog rock band behind him, what’s not to like?

Go, Jonsi

A poppier, uplifting variation on Sigur Ros - a consistently super album. Sounds a bit like: eh Sigur Ros? Duh!

Vampire Weekend, Contra

Much synthier than their first album, not quite as many killer tunes but still quality and in Run, Horchata, and Giving Up the Gun its got some of the best tracks of the year.

Heligoland , Massive Attack

This slightly patchy album had some of the strongest tracks of the year with Horace Andy guest vocal-ling on the blinding Girl I Love You and Hope Sandoval on the gorgeous Paradise Circus.

Have One On Me,Joanna Newsom

Her last album, Ys, was possibly the album of the decade for me, this isn’t as compelling but still brilliant.

Transference, Spoon

One of the coolest US bands around, with one of the best rock voices in Britt Daniel, very under appreciated here in Ireland, this is a stripped down, minimalist gem - a bit of a reaction to its more accessible predecessor

Odd Blood, Yeasayer

Wow, Yeasayer went seriously retro 80s for this, not as good as their more ambitious first album but strong, very populist, very catchy.

Infinite Arms, Band of Horses

Just great classic American rock, classic songwriting, beautiful melodies and singing. Sound like: Neil Young.

The Family Jewels, Marina and the Diamonds

She’s a cooler, British Lady GaGa

How They Are, Peter Broderick

A seriously talented bloke - moving music and a lovely mix of folk stylings and classical

Rumer, Seasons of My Soul

What a beautiful voice, like a fusion of Dusty Springfield and Carole King, most of the songs are pretty strong too.

Queen of Denmark, John Grant

Backed by Midlake, this soul baring album sounds like a slightly less miserable version of Midlake’s current album, the Courage of Others

Band of Joy, Robert Plant

Another great rootsy album to follow ‘Raising Sand’, his voice sounds as good as ever on this, who needs Alison Krauss?

The Fool, Warpaint

Lovely drumming and great bass lines on this, great atmosphere and meandering songs remind me of the Verve and PJ Harvey with a bit of Kristin Hirsch thrown in.

There is Love in You, Four Tet

Some fantastic electronica on this record, he's back making records i can connect with, lost me for a while.

Big Echo, The Morning Benders

Lovely record, has a very poppy start gets progressively less so - like a fusion of Vampire Weekend, Deerhunter and Grizzly Bear, it's produced by their Chris Taylor.

Peter Broderick

2010-10-24T16:19:00.008+01:00

I love this guy. His music is a mix of folk and classical, imaginative and moving work. He's also brilliant on the violin and piano. Very warm stage presence and good rapport with the crowd too.

His new album, 'How They Are' is on itunes.

This was my first time in the new music venue Workmens Club beside the Clarence in Dublin. Nice small room and friendly staff. Thumbs up.

Ill fares the land

2010-07-29T21:03:00.001+01:00

The great Tony Judt's last book, a passionate defence of a politics based on equality, justice, and social democratic values, even this old cynic was temporarily geed up when reading it. A review from a sensible Tory here.

Aviva Stadium

2010-07-03T16:52:00.013+01:00

Formerly Lansdowne Stadium, the new and improved home of the Irish international Rugby and Football teams.

The Middle East

2010-07-02T11:39:00.005+01:00

Bree Tranter from the band, The Middle East. They played the Sugar Club, Leeson St, Dublin on Saturday, June 26.

Here's the gorgeous video for their song 'Blood', one of my favourite tracks of the last few years.

Rufus at the Grand Canal Theatre

2010-04-29T01:15:00.017+01:00

This photo was taken at Dublin's new Grand Canal Theatre a few hours ago. Rufus is in the early stages of his tour for new album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

For this tour he's having venues make an announcement pre-show requesting no applause during the first half while he plays the new record in its entirety. The audience are also asked to note that Rufus' walking on and off stage is considered part of the performance. Tonight, they very nearly managed to pull off the feat of quietness but then one over enthusiastic punter sitting near the edge of the venue couldn't contain their accumulated store of pent up clapping, letting rip as Rufus had almost completed his theatrically slow exit.

The new album was recorded with the knowledge that Rufus's mother, the fine singer songwriter Kate Mc Garrigle, had little time left to live. It is sombre, dark, deliberately harsh, sometimes unmelodious. It occupies a place in Rufus's canon similar to Sinatra's desolate, inconsolable 'Only the Lonely.' The theatrical presentation of the new material and his decision to present it as one piece is spot on; most of these songs wouldn't work inter-spliced with his back catalogue. The first half worked well for me initially through songs like 'Martha' addressed to his arguably equally talented sister, but after a while the unrelenting gloom becomes wearying, particularly through the batch of Shakespeare sonnets adapted to music. Still, Rufus can't be faulted for staying true to his vision and where his heart is at the moment; he is still, clearly, naturally, in mourning.

I enjoyed the second half of the show a lot more, where Rufus, still alone at the piano, played a selection of songs from his previous five albums. Even during this section, it was the sad (but this time beautiful and wistful) tracks like Dinner at Eight, Leaving for Paris, and Memphis Skyline that he played the best.

This, the fifth time I've seen him live was a stark contrast to the joyful showmanship of his Oxygen performance in 2007. I've been lucky enough to see him play Vicar Street with his mom and Aunt Anna McGarrigle, and Martha, and also to see mesmerising shows at Vicar Street during the Want One and Two tours. I'll be back for more next time he's in Dublin. The man is truly a musical treasure to be cherished.

Oh and the new venue Grand Canal Theatre? Very impressive.

Great photo of Rufus and really interesting article here.

The Swell Season @ Vicar St. Dec 15

2009-12-19T17:52:00.002Z

Super gig from Glen, Marketa et al. Really loving their second album, Strict Joy, think it's one of the best things they've done including the Frames albums.

Lisa Hannigan @ Vicar Street, December 3

2009-12-19T17:48:00.003Z

A fine gig from Lisa Hannigan with excellent covers of Dylan, John Martyn and most incongrously Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. And the new songs she played bode well for the second album.

Matured 2009 Albums of the Year List

2009-12-01T20:32:00.017Z

The final, final albums of the year list with late entries from Bradford Cox's very trippy Atlas Sound album, Dave Rawlings' heartwarming 'Friend of a Friend', to tide us Gillian Welch nuts over till she comes out of her extended hibernation. Also added Fanfarlo, recommended on Nialler 9's blog - very Arcade Fire meets Beirut meets Ra Ra Riot. Another late entry coming from the Swell Season's 'Strict Joy', plenty of sturdy songwriting on there. And i've also added Devendra Banhart's enjoyable if not essential new album.

Plus there's been a bit of rejigging in the order mainly to reflect how deeply Local Natives and Alela Diane have burrowed under my skin.

As for the top ten, it's been a great year for America again, hasn't it?

1.Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

2.Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca

3.Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion
4. Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
6.Anthony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
7. The Swell Season, Strict Joy
8.Passion Pitt, Manners
9.Alela Diane, To Be Still
10.Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
11.Florence and the Machine, Lungs
12.Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
13.Doves, Kingdom of Rust
14.Wilco, Wilco the Album
15.Atlas Sound, Logos
16.Julie Feeney, Pages

17.Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
18.Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
19.Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms
20. Fanfarlo, Reservoir
21.Dave Rawlings Machine, A Friend of a Friend
22.David Kitt, the Nightsaver
23. Dangermouse and Sparklehorse, Dark Night of the Soul
24.Devendra Banhart, What Will We Be
25. Vetiver, Tight Knit
26. Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires
27. K'Naan, Troubador
28. The Dodos, Time to Die
29. Mos Def, The Ecstatic
30. Arctic Monkeys, Humbug
31. St Vincent, Actor

Rodrigo y Gabriela @ the Olympia

2009-11-21T15:29:00.000Z

Grizzly Bear @ Vicar Street

2009-11-02T15:15:00.000Z

Another premature Albums of 2009 list

2009-11-01T19:28:00.017Z

Following Q magazine's ridiculously early albums of the year list (in October) and the bizarre spectacle of Kasabian winning their Album of the Year, here's my premature albums of the year - haven't heard Devendra Banhart, Flaming Lips or Edan's new albums yet though.

1. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest

2. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca

3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
4. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion
5. Florence and the Machine, Lungs
6. Passion Pitt, Manners
7. Anthony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light

8. Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

9. Julie Feeney, Pages

10. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
11. Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
12. Doves, Kingdom of Rust

13. Wilco, Wilco the Album

14. Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
15. Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
16. Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms
17. Alela Diane, To Be Still
18. David Kitt, the Nightsaver
19. Dangermouse and Sparklehorse, Dark Night of the Soul
20. Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires

Photos from Uganda

2009-10-30T11:41:00.001Z

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

2009-10-30T00:20:00.010Z

This is a really fine, euphoric debut album, an amalgam of Ra Ra Riot, Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire with great harmonies, melodies and percussion. Late arrival for those albums of the year lists.

Kelcey Ayers of Local Natives playing at the Academy, Dublin in September 09

Dirty Projectors

2009-09-17T23:04:00.011+01:00

Excellent set last night in Whelans from the Dirty Projectors, makers of Bitte Orca, one of the most original, fascinating and downright brilliant albums of this year. Great drummer! Didn't manage to get a decent photo of him or indeed most of the band so you'll have to make do with these two of Angel and Dave. The Dave one's got a touch of the Ian Curtis' about it and the Angel one is well, just look at her, and she sounds good too. Here she is singing the very fab Two Doves from Bitte Orca which is something of a tribute to Nico's classic 'These Days' - Two Doves has amazing treated strings on the album, sadly not present in the live version. You tube audio clip below of the song.

Angel Deradoorian, Dirty Projectors

Protecting the Taxpayer from NAMA

2009-09-10T00:34:00.002+01:00

Labour party's new doc on disastrous NAMA plans, quote below, full doc here.

'The bill to establish the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is one of the most significant pieces of legislation that the Dáil will ever debate. It involves setting up an agency that will acquire some €80 to €90 billion in property-based loans from Irish banks.

The risks to the Irish exchequer are enormous and irreversible. Overpayment by NAMA for these loans will impose a huge financial burden on the State, yet it is clear that this is the inevitable consequence of the current Government’s approach'

Jogging Playlist Vol 3

2009-09-09T23:46:00.010+01:00

Island, IS, Volcano Choir, Unmap

Anonanimal, Andrew Bird, Noble Beast

Ronnie's Theme, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, The Hare's Corner
Beijing, Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms
Weird Fishes, Radiohead, In Rainbows
Crystalised The XX, XX
Dull Life, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
Nothing Ever Happened, Deerhunter, Microcastle
Golden Age, TV on the Radio, Dear Science
Five Fingers, Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass
Little Girl (ft Julian Casablancas), Danger Mouse and Sparklehouse, Dark Night of the Soul
If I Ever Feel Better, Phoenix, United
Crying Lightning, Arctic Monkeys, Humbug
Stillness is the Move, Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
Naked Eye, Luscious Jackson, Fever In, Fever Out
Iceblink Luck, Cocteau Twins, Stars and Topsoil
Hearts on Fire, Cut Copy
Life in Marvellous Times, Mos Def, The Ecstatic

Electric Picnic 09 Review

2009-09-07T23:25:00.010+01:00

Some real gems in the Irish Times photo slideshow here.

The perfect Electric Picnic 09 festival experience for me was Passion Pitt in the Little Big Tent. They absolutely tore the roof off, crowd and band went nuts for the whole set. Glorious.

In the body and soul arena.

Florence and the Machine's performance was explosive. And the crowd were very up for it.

Loved every minute of Jape's wonderful gig. Just love what this guy does full stop. New song Scorpio very fab and the one he started with that wasn't from Ritual. Anyone know what that was? The bit where he got the guy up to sing along with him was a really funny, heart warming moment.

Julie Feeney's performance was a wonderfully theatrical delivery of tunes from an exceptional album. And she looked fab. Quite besotted with her now.

Fleet Foxes reminded me again why i adore them so much.

Blitzen Trapper and the Acorn were lovely.

And David Kitt was in flying form subbing for Bat for Lashes.

Flaming Lips were brilliant, the lights, the balloons, the singer encased in a giant ball, the tunes...but i was too tired to get the full whack out of it.

Main gripes at festival organisers - Please bring back the tables at the back of the main stage to sit and chill out - made that whole area much nicer in previous years.

Please make sure the Heineken bar qs are properly divided - they were absolute mayhem near the main stage on Friday night, with lots of crushing and flying beer.

Please don't put all the big acts on on sunday evening!

It's still a wonderful festival tho.

Finally given all the muck, grime and hassle carrying stuff to the camping site, this 34 year old old fogie is seriously considering the B&B and taxi option for his next EP.

Electric Picnic 09 Recommendations

2009-08-28T12:33:00.010+01:00

Some hard, tough, challenging choices had to be made. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Here's where and when i'll be at the Electric Picnic. Consider them recommended so.

Friday 4

22:30 Orbital - MS
20.45 MGMT – MS
19:45 Efterklang - CS
19.15 Zero 7 – MS
18:45 Lykke Li - CD
17:30 The Temper Trap CD/17:45 David Kitt
16:30 Peter Broderick - CD

Saturday 5

03.30 Tulla Ceili Band BS
02.15 Four Tet BS
00.30 2 Many DJs MS/Moderat LBT
23:45 Four Tet CS
22:15 Explosions in the Sky CS/22.30 Madness MS/22:45 Lamb BS
22:00 The Field LBT
20.30 Imelda May CS/20.15 Brian Wilson MS
19.00 Bat for Lashes EA
18.30 Lisa Hannigan MS/The Walkmen CS
17.15 Jape EA
16.00 Marina & the Diamonds CS
14:45 The XX EA/15.00 Low Anthem CS
14.00 Julie Feeney CS
13.30 Tunng MS
12:30 One Day International CS
11.50 Chequerboard Live BS

Sunday Sep 6

1.15 Beach House BS
22:15 Flaming Lips EA
21:00 Passion Pitt CS
20:30 Royksopp EA
18:45 Fleet Foxes EA
17:30 Florence & the Machine EA
16:15 Simian Mobile Disco EA (so I can get a decent spot for next four acts)
15:30 The Acorn CS
14:00 J Tillman BS
13:15 Villagers CS
12.30 Dublin Gospel Choir MS

Tasty Gig Schedule

2009-08-21T19:50:00.006+01:00

Possibly the tastiest Autumn gig schedule i've ever had lined up, kicking off tonight.

DEAF fundraising gig with Jimmycake, Dark Room Notes, Spilly Walker et al, Aug 21 Meeting House Sq.
Wilco, Friday August 28, Vicar Street.
Electric Picnic, Fri Sep 4 - Sun Sept 6, Stradbally.
Dirty Projectors, Wed Sep 16, Whelans.
Hockey, Tues Sept 22, Academy.
Local Natives, Tues Sep 29, Academy.
Julie Feeney, Thurs, Oct 15, Sugar Club
Grizzly Bear, with St Vincent, Sunday Nov 1, Vicar St.

Happiness in the Guardian

2009-08-19T21:58:00.008+01:00

I liked the couple of articles in last weekend's Guardian covering positive psychology and the work of psychologists like Martin Seligman.

Oliver Burkeman nicely summed up the advice in the literature. Sure, as he says, some of it might sound corny or like familiar folk wisdom but it's of value overall i think. So those main points:

Remember to be grateful.

Spend your money on experiences not objects.

Volunteer.

Nurture your relationships.

Spend time in nature.

Make sure you encounter new people and places.

Never assume that you know what will make you happy.

And the Stuart Jeffries article on being happy at work (or not) quotes Richard Layard as saying, 'There is a creative spark in each of us and if it finds no outlet, we feel half dead. This can be literally true: among British civil servants, those who do the most routine work experience the most rapid clogging of arteries.'

And the quote from Studs Terkel who referred to work as 'a sort of Monday to Friday dying' caught my eye too.

Photos from Germany

2009-08-12T20:51:00.003+01:00

Jogging Playlist Vol 2

2009-07-17T00:17:00.003+01:00

1. Jump in the pool, Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires (2009)
2. I heard wonders, David Holmes, The Holy Pictures (2008)
3. Untrust Us, Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles (2008)
4. The Rat, The Walkmen, Bows & Arrows (2004)
5. Sweet disposition, The Temper Trap, Conditions (2009)
6. Electric feel, MGMT, Oracular Spectacular, (2007)
7. Liztomania, Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)
8. Moth's wings, Passion Pitt, Manners (2009)
9. Boulevard del l'Independence, Toumani Diabate, Boulevard del l'Independence, (2006)
10. Alone like that, David Kitt, The Nightsaver, (2009)
11. Royal Gregory, Holy Fuck, LP, (2007)
12. Love is you, Ofo the black company, Last King of Scotland soundtrack (2006)
13. Swimming, Florence & the Machine, Lungs, (2009)
14. T.I.A., K'naan, Troubador, (2009)
15. Rock You, The Roots, Phrenology, (2009)
16. Spellbound, Rae Christian (featuring Veba), Northern Sulphuric Soul, (1998)
17. Love, J Dilla (featuring Pharoahe Monche), The Shining (2006)
18. Hercules, Neville Brothers, Tell it Like it is, (2000)
19. 2120 South Michigan Avenue, Rollings Stones, 12 x 5, (1964)
20. Eat, Regina Spektor, Far, (2009)

Albums of 2009...six months in

2009-07-08T23:58:00.009+01:00

Joining the ranks of music nerds not content to wait a decent 12 months before they start hastily compiling best of the year lists, using the feeble excuse that we're em, just over the half way through the year mark and it's time to 'take stock'. And joining the general blog consensus that Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective have produced extraordinary albums, here's another list.

I'll be rummaging around On the Record and Nialler 9's to unearth a few more gems, some other interesting half year round ups here from music for ants and pop tarts suck toasted.

Besides what's in the list, two EPs that have to get the nod, Bon Iver's Blood Bank and Deerhunter's Rainwater Cassette Exchange. And the Dark Was the Night compilation for its jawdropping combo of America's finest talent.

1. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
2. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
4. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
5. Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
6. Anthony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
7. Doves, Kingdom of Rust
8. Passion Pitt, Manners
9. Julie Feeney, Pages
10. Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms
11. Dangermouse and Sparklehorse, Dark Night of the Soul
12. Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
13. Wilco, Wilco the Album
14. Alela Diane, To Be Still
15. David Kitt, the Nightsaver
16. Florence and the Machine, Lungs
17. Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires
18. Royskopp, Junior
19. K'naan, Troubador
20. Regina Spektor, Far

Electric Picnic 2009: the Verdict

2009-06-30T21:25:00.011+01:00

A shame to see the company behind Electric Picnic, Pod Concerts is going into liquidation. 'Taxman could pull plug on Electric Picnic promoter' says the Irish Indo but they quote a press release from POD concerts saying the Electric Picnic is now owned by EP Republic Ltd, which is 61pc owned by UK promoter Festival Republic so Pod's financial troubles won't lead to the plug being pulled on the festival. Em, I hope!

Jim Carroll says there's 14 more acts being announced this Thursday but so far this year's EP lineup is the weakest in years. It's short one or two more major league acts but also short on what used to be its strong suit - hot new, brilliant but not very well known acts. Oxegen has continued the trend of sweeping up some of the best new artists that previously would have been more likely to play EP, last year Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer playing Oxegen were a good example of this, this year Passion Pit spring to mind.

For major league acts EP 07 had Bjork, Beastie Boys, LCD Soundsytem, 08 had MBV, Sigur Ros and Wilco but 09 has the Flaming Lips alone in that sphere.

Having said all that, i am still really looking forward to EP - there is still a lot of quality acts due to play over the September 4-6 weekend in Stradbally.

Really lookin forward to seeing the Flaming Lips live for the first time and Fleet Foxes are one of the best bands in the world so those two should be the highlights.

I saw Royksopp do a great festival set at Witnness many years ago and their new album is strong - Lykke Li guests on that and she's also playing, her Youth Novels album last year was brilliant.

Amadou and Mariam should make for great pop festival fare, saw them at the Olympia and Amadou is one of the best guitarists ever.

Plus MGMT should be good.

Bat for Lashes' second album is superb and a step forward from her debut so she could be one of the highlights.

Jape, Lisa Hannigan and Bell XI are bankers for good gigs.

Julie Feeney's new album Pages is one of the albums of the year and i read good reports of her recent Crawdaddy gig.

Liking what i've seen of Imelda May, even if she is rockabilly.

Should be entertaining to see if Fionn Regan still thinks he's been reincarnated as Bob Dylan circa 1966 and Blonde on Blonde.

Marina & the Diamonds - don't have a proper album out yet but the stuff from her EP sounds great - (think Kate Bush meets Lykke Li meets Fiona Apple).

There's some strong techno/electronic acts on the bill with Orbital, Moderat, The Field and Four Tet playing.

Other acts i'm lookin forward to catching

The Walkmen - a fine American band that sound a bit like the Strokes and the National having a baby.

Tunng - an excellent folktronica/electronic folk (?!) act

Bell Orchestre - an instrumental 'post-rock' band who do strings for Arcade Fire, they're a bit like a Canadian Jimmy Cake

Efterklang - are more 'post-rock' - like Sigur Ros meets Arcade Fire meets something more experimental

Villagers sound like a promising young Irish band.

Low Anthem - are a good American Alt country act

Other stuff worth checking out - Roots Manuva, A DJ set from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, and on a nostalgia trip, 80s rockers - Echo and the Bunnymen, 80's pop Madness, 60s legend Brian Wilson, and Disco stars Chic.

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, Album of the Year

2009-06-29T22:53:00.008+01:00

I've been listening to Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest for about a month now and my brain is still reeling with pleasure and wonder everytime i play it. It's not just the album of this year, it's one of the best albums of the last few decades, a Pet Sounds, an Ok Computer, a seminal record, its thaaat good.

Grizzly Bear have the classic folk stylings of Fleet Foxes or Sufjan Stevens but married to the experimentalism and sonic adventure of Animal Collective and Radiohead, the melodies and harmonies are extraordinary but so too are the subtly and complexity in everything else here - the strings, the production, all very prog rock to be honest, but in a good way. This year surely marks the return of respectable Prog rock in the shape of this, the Animal Collective and Patrick Watson album!

It's hard to believe if John Lennon or Arthur Lee could hear this, or more realistically Brian Wilson or Paul Mc Cartney, they would not recognise their worthy successors. And well, we know Radiohead adore Grizzly Bear anyhow.

Yellow House

Veckatimest is so good it sent me back to reevaluate Grizzly Bear's last album Yellow House - and it's a very different beast of a record, much more introspective, avant garde, downbeat, very eerie, sad, haunting, oppressively so for many i imagine, reminiscent of the Beatles White Album in places. It's the Grizzly Bear album that people who don't like their bands selling too many records will point to as the 'true' classic should 'Veckatimest' go on to sell a bucketload. But they'll be wrong. As excellent as Yellow House is, and i'll admit i didn't stick with it long enough when it first came out, deeming it too 'difficult' and 'impenetrable', its not the raging masterpiece Veckatimest obviously is.

Department of Eagles, In Ear Park

Looking for more Grizzly Bear material i belately came across Grizzly Bear singer Daniel Rossen's project with his mate Fred Nicolaus - Department of Eagles' In Ear Park came out last year - a quieter, more reflective record than Veckatimest and it's also really excellent. So all in all a talented and mildly prolific bunch of buggers!

Really looking forward to their Vicar St show, November 1.

Here's the wrly amusing video for Two Weeks from the Veckatimest album

Grizzly Bear, Two Weeks

Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid, Aid Blogs, Aid Debates

2009-06-17T01:06:00.008+01:00

Unsurprisingly as someone who works for an aid agency, i don't think Dambisa Moyo's idea that pulling the plug on all but emergency aid to Africa within five years is a good idea. Her notion that aid is only helping to perpetuate patterns of corruption and dependency in Africa is unconvincing and as several reviews of her work have pointed out, her thesis argues with a strawman version of the case for aid.

But following the debate on her book i've stumbled across some blogging and you tube clips of excellent vigorous debates between Moyo and others. These debates lead me to hope that the main effect of the media spotlight on Moyo will not be buttressing the argument for turning our back on aid to africa but reinvigorating the case for its defence. I find Bill Easterly a much more constuctive and powerful critic of bad aid so its great to see he's not just regularly blogging but twittering too. Duncan Green has also weighed into the Moyo aid debate, Green's from poverty to power blog has to be the best blog from an NGO type on the issues of aid and development, bar none, and his post on Moyo has a rake of links to strong rebuttals of the Dead Aid argument.

Elsewhere Paul Collier's Bottom Billion is possibly the best general introduction to the problems of aid and development i've read, and refreshingly he lies somewhere between the polarised extremes of Moyo's 'aid is the problem' and Sach's 'aid is the solution,' what Collier calls 'theatrically opposed polar positions'. He falls more in to the 'aid can do some good, it can be more effective, but cannot be expected by itself to produce major economic development.' school. And this clip of him debating Moyo is worth a look.

Collier's follow up to the Bottom Billion reviewed in the New York Times here.

Finally, in this clip of Moyo's debate with Alison Evans on BBC's hard talk , Evans goes a long way to discrediting the idea that aid is actually responsible for African poverty.

Local Natives

2009-06-03T22:27:00.003+01:00

The Guardian's new band of the day - they say they sound like Vampire Weekend meets Fleet Foxes. They're not wrong there. I likee. No album out. Three songs on My Space.

Google Wave, Paradigm Shift, Game Changer, much?

2009-05-31T17:32:00.004+01:00

An excellent review of what Google Wave will offer here. From the same developers that designed google maps, Google Wave comes out later this year, and does enough exciting new things to justify all the game changing, paradigm shift talk.

It

- fuses instant messaging and e-mail,
- allows for live concurrent, collaborative editing of mails and docs - i.e. it allows edits from multiple users with all users seeing the changes at the same time
- has collaborative building and editing of image galleries concurrently
- lets you embed you tube clips within mails and drag images into mails
- has real time language translation for instant messaging

Plus it's open source with an API for other developers so it's bound to get lots of extra functionality and will link up with other sites like Twitter without the user having to leave Google Wave.

It looks seriously useful.

Jogging Playlists, Part 1

2009-05-25T23:46:00.008+01:00

As i slowly crank my lazy blogging ass back into gear, the first of a regular series, music to jog to, tried and tested, the rules are simple.

1. Nothing too melancholic and definitely not straight out morbid or depressing
2. Nothing too slow
3. But not too many fast songs or you'll burn out.

The Talib Kweli, Kings of Leon and Futureheads tracks make me run like the clappers but you get a breather in between. Anyhoo, tracks and links to vids on you tube/tracks on my space below

Talib Kweli Move Somethin

1.Your Ex-Lover Is Dead,Stars
2.Christopher and Anthony, Jape
3.Poison Cup, M. Ward
4.I Feel Just Like A Child, Devendra Banhart
5.Free Money, Patti Smith
6.California Waiting, Kings of Leon
7.Ghost Under Rocks, Ra Ra Riot
8.F.E.A.R., Ian Brown
9.Cassette, Oh No
10.Move Somethin', Talib Kweli
11.Hounds of Love, Futureheads
12.Crawl, Kings Of Leon
13.I Believe In You, Cat Power
14.Revolution Blues, Neil Young
15.Dancing Barefoot, Patti Smith
16.You Never Know (Domino Remix), Hieroglyphics
17.This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), Talking Heads
18.Bizarre Love Triangle-94, New Order
19.Iceblink Luck, Cocteau Twins

20.Finer Feelings, Spoon

All Names Have Been Changed

2009-05-22T00:34:00.012+01:00

Faber & Faber released Dublin novelist Claire Kilroy's excellent third novel, 'All Names Have Been Changed' last week. The novel is set in recession struck, dirty, gloomy, eighties Dublin and charts the course of a writing workshop attended by five embryonic writers and their hero, Glynn, an alcohol soaked, legendary Irish writer.

What makes this novel really exceptional is the joy in language and verbal playfulness that suffuses every page. There is a greater focus on the aesthetics of language here than most novelists display, possibly at a small expense to the strength of plot and characterisation, although it would be unfair to say the novel is shabby in those areas either. The result is a page turner, but not as we know it captain. I found myself turning the pages not so much in a rush to find out what happens next but because what is said, is said so well. Banville is an obvious influence here.

I really liked the constant stream of arch, dry humour - mostly affectionate but pointed mockery of the insecurities and delusions besetting writers and the creative process. There is a strong sense of place too, the novel veritably reeks of Dublin and that's down to more than the proliferation of Dublin street names. In time ANHBC may be regarded as part of the pantheon of fine Dublin novels taking its place alongside Doyle, Bolger, Plunkett, and Joyce. Certainly the added relevance the work gains by evoking an historic recession era Ireland as we find ourselves reeling again in a brand new trough should help it find the wide readership it most definitely deserves.

Here's the Irish times review and Irish Independent review

The return of Patrick Watson

2009-04-28T23:23:00.004+01:00

The magnificent, criminally obscure, prodigously talented, bizarrely overlooked etc.... Patrick Watson is back with a new album Wooden Arms.

No Dublin gigs planned yet. Patrick, sort it out please, the last gig in the Sugar Club was incredible.

Some reviews of Wooden Arms and downloads, streams, here

http://www.herohill.com/2009/04/reviews-patrick-watson-wooden-arms.htm

http://www.wooden-arms.com/

http://sixeyes.blogspot.com/2009/04/patrick-watson-wooden-arms-mp3.html

http://www.gigwise.com/reviews/albums/50610/Patrick-Watson---Wooden-Arms

Drifters from Patrick Watson's Close to Paradise, (2006)

2008 Albums of the Year

2008-11-27T01:26:00.006Z

Can't believe its that time of year again and the music mags have already put out their Album of the year lists. Anyhow here's mine.

1. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
3. Elbow, the Seldom Seen Kid
4. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
5. Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals
6. Sigur Rós : Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
7. Joan as Policewoman, To Survive,
8. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
9. The Jimmy Cake, Spectre & Crown
10. Martha Wainwright, I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too

11. Portishead, Third
12. Laura Marling, Alas I Cannot Swim
13. Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree
14. Deerhunter, Microcastle
15. Jape, Ritual
16. Ra Ra Riot, The Rhumb Line
17. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus! Dig!
18. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Pt 1: 4th World War
19. Lisa Hannigan, Sea Sew
20. Lykke Li, Youth Novels

21. Keane, Perfect Symmetry
22. The Verve, Forth
23. Kings of Leon, Only By the Night
24. Cat Power, Jukebox
25. Santogold, Santogold
26. The Dodos, Visiter
27. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
28. She & Him, Volume One
29. The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely
30. Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair

31. Foals, Antidotes
32. The Killers, Day & Age
33. Peter Broderick, Home
34. Peter Broderick, Float
35. Gemma Hayes, The Hollow of the Morning
36. Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
37. Vetiver, A Thing of the Past
38. Amadou and Miriam, Welcome to Mali
39. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Cardinology
40. Chequerboard, Penny Black

41. The Roots, Rising Down,
42. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
43. R.E.M., Accelerate
44. Emmylou Harris, All I Intended to Be
45. The Breeders, Mountain Battles
46. Tapes’n’Tapes, Walk it Off
47. Ray Lamontagne, Gossip in the Forest
48. The Last Shadow Puppets, The Last Shadow Puppets
49. Beck, Modern Guilt
50. Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul

Fleet Foxes at Vicar Street

2008-11-10T20:39:00.014Z

I had high expectations on the way to Vicar Street last Friday night. Fleet Foxes are one of the most outrageously talented bands to emerge in a long long time. Their eponymously titled debut album is an instant classic and the Sun Giant EP that preceded it is flawless too.

Its great to be able to say I thought they were even better live. I went with three friends and we all thought they were amazing - Ciara did think they needed a wash and some fattening up though.

The songs sound timeless and the harmonies are beautiful. There’s no potential here, its all in place, a fully realised act. They are the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young of our time, only better.

Some good photos from the gig.

And two videos of the singles from the album below.

Fleet Foxes - He Doesn't Know Why

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Lisa Hannigan Sea Sew and Whelans

2008-09-22T23:29:00.006+01:00

Really like Lisa Hannigan's new album Sea Sew a lot now but it was a grower, like Vampire Weekend's debut, its general cheery upbeatness can make it sound a little too innocuous on first listen. On repeated listens the quality of the songwriting stands out particularly Ocean and a Rock, I Don't Know, Pistachio, Teeth and Lille.

Saw her in Whelan's on Saturday and she was excellent but there is definitely more potential there. At the moment she's like the Irish musical equivalent of Arsenal's Theo Walcott if you follow. I think she's still to realise quite how good a singer she is. She's goin to be the Irish Feist.

There were two songs, Teeth and a song before it i didn't recognise where she really let her guard down and the vocals were magnificent. Oh and the Iron & Wine cover was superb.

Lisa Hannigan singing Teeth on Other Voices

Post Electric Picnic Musings

2008-09-01T21:55:00.007+01:00

So, this was my second time at the Electric Picnic following on from 2007.

It was an absolutely incredible three days. Michael Franti said it was the coolest festival in Europe. I’ve only the execrable Oxegen to compare it with, but its hard to imagine a better festival.

I cannot get over the amount of rubbish being talked about the music line up being weak this year, I felt spoilt for choice.

The Music

Sigur Ros

I got up front at the main stage for this moving and magnificent performance, sheer perfection. One of the best sets I’ve ever had the privilege to hear.

The Dodos

In a criminally half empty tent, the Dodos gave a thrillingly exciting, percussion driven monster of a set. So, so good.

Elbow

Faultless stuff. Newborn, Station Approach and On A Day Like this were pure magic. I was almost crying tears of joy for this one. Almost!

My Bloody Valentine

Couldn’t believe my luck to actually get into the Electric Arena for this, had presumed there would be an oversubscription as for the Beastie Boys last year.

They were amazing, the whole bloody set. Visuals were cool. And hearing Soon live is just something I never thought I’d get to do. Seriously special. Reminded me they are indeed one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands ever. Now Kevin, give us that third album already.

Franz Ferdinand

Was very pleased and surprised at how easy it was to get up front at the main stage for the Franz, Wilco, the Roots, Michael Franti. Also surprised that Franz Ferdinand’s set had me jumping up and down with joy. I had kind of forgotten about them in the last couple of years.

Cut Copy

An absolute blast - these guys went down a storm in a packed tent, a killer set, don’t know why they aren’t huge here already. A guy beside me said, ‘these guys are amazing, never heard of them before, they sound like New Order meets Depeche Mode.’ He was right.

The other Irish acts

The Irish in general did themselves proud

Lisa Hannigan

Based on her set on the Crawdaddy stage, its hard not to see why Lisa Hannigan isn’t destined for megastardom. She was fantastic in an uncomfortably crowded tent. Can’t wait to buy the new album.

Jape

It was great to see some of my friends realising how great this guy is. The sound was very muddy for this but great energy. I Was the Man was a festival highlight no doubt.

Cathy Davey

First, that black dress, struth, has to be the visual highlight of the week. I heard she’s a nervous performer but she must have gotten over that, really assured performance. ‘Moving’ and ‘Sing for your Supper’ were two more highlights.

Gemma Hayes – quality set from Gemma Hayes too, haven’t seen her live in about 6 years. And she is still pretty much the most ridiculously attractive looking women on the planet.

Goldfrapp and Joan as Policewoman

Goldfrapp totally owned the main stage, gutted I missed ‘Utopia’ as I couldn’t drag myself away from Joan as Policewoman.

The Roots, The Breeders Kila, Michael Franti and George Clinton were a lot of fun too.

The Low Lights

John Lydon/Rotten – wins the Arsehole of the festival award hands down. I had to endure his sneering, homophobic rants while queuing for pie minister. The Sex Pistols should never have been booked for EP, they are a panto act, an irrelevant money chasing, cultural corpse.

The Chill Out Stage was plagued with sound problems which meant I missed sets by Vyvienne Long and Martina Topley Bird. The gobsmackingly talented Laura Marling had her set ruined by broken strings and ill health.

The Dance stages were too far away from everything else!

So many good bands, couldn’t see them all - gutted I missed Santogold, Tindersticks, Foals, Dobet Gnahore, Modeselktor, A-trak, Juana Molina, Tinariwen, Underworld and many more.

The Vibe

The vibe was fantastic, besides one idiot barging into me in the Heineken bar, I didn’t meet one other rude person all weekend. All the staff were really friendly and efficient. The food was fantastic, even more choice than last year and while I didn’t make much time for the non-music side of things it was great to see how much was there for people who wanted an alternative to music.

Plus the weather was freakishly good!

Enjoyed the Ticket EP updates, so fair play to all involved.

Autumn Winter Gigs 2008

2008-07-30T20:41:00.002+01:00

Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Whelans, Tuesday Sep 7
Shearwater, Whelans, Friday Sep 19
Bon Iver, Tripod, Tuesday Oct 7
Spirtitualised, Vicar Street, Sunday Oct 19
Holy Fuck, The Academy, Monday Oct 20
Lambchop, Tripod, Saturday Nov 1
Mercury Rev, Vicar Street, Sunday, Nov 2
Okkervil River, The Academy, Friday, Nov 7
Goldfrapp, Tripod, Friday, Nov 7
Fleet Foxes, Vicar Street, Friday Nov 7
The Jimmy Cake. Vicar Street, Friday, 21 November

Best of 2008 to July

2008-07-13T21:22:00.008+01:00

3 Five star bonafide truly great albums destined to be regarded as absolute classics by a lot of folk in the years to come

Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

7 flirting with future classic status

Elbow, the Seldom Seen Kid
The Jimmy Cake, Spectre & Crown
Sigur Rós : Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree
Portishead, Third
Jape, Ritual
Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Pt 1: 4th World War

5 consistently excellent albums

Lykke Li, Youth Novels
Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus! Dig!
Laura Marling, Alas I Cannot Swim
Martha Wainwright, I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too

2 Quality albums

Cat Power, Jukebox
The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely

7 intermittently excellent efforts

Santogold, Santogold
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Beck, Modern Guilt
The Dodos, Visiter
Gemma Hayes, The Hollow of the Morning
My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

7 good, solid but not amazing albums

Coldplay, Viva La Vida
R.E.M., Accelerate
Foals, Antidotes
The Breeders, Mountain Battles
Tapes’n’Tapes, Walk it Off
The Roots, Rising Down,
Vetiver, A Thing of the Past

Electric Picnic Line Up Final Verdict

2008-07-09T23:07:00.012+01:00

An almost final verdict on the Electric Picnic line-up - can’t see them adding too many acts in the next month or so.

The line up features as has always been the case, less hugely well known successful artists than Oxegen but a lot of acts that have released brilliant albums over the last year or so including rock royalty Sigur Ros, Wilco, Elbow, the Breeders and Tindersticks.

Some of the best electronic artists out there in Modeselktor and Crystal Castles, and lets not forget Underworld. Great dance oriented acts in Cut Copy, Santogold and Hercules and Love Affair. Backed up by lesser known quality electronic/dance in Digitalism, the Presets, and Midnight Juggernauts.

Plus Goldfrapp whose new album is amazing. And the legendary My Bloody Valentine.

Some of the best DJ’s in the world with A-trak, Diplo, and David Holmes.

One of the best hip hop acts bar none in the Roots.

A strong selection of Irish talent with Jape, Gemma Hayes, Cathy Davey, Lisa Hannigan, and Adrian Crowley.

Some very fine acts in the singer songwriter folk/alt country range with the Dodos, Bright Eye’s Conor Oberst, Stephanie Dosen, Juana Molina, Louise Rhodes and Terry Callier.

Franz Ferdinand, Foals and Gomez filling out the supply of decent guitar bands.

Plus you’ve got the Balanescu Quartet, Tinariwen, and the Congoes so its not all indie rock/dance.

All in all there’s over 40 acts I’d like to see playing at the Electric Picnic.....*

Sigur Ros
My Bloody Valentine
Wilco
Goldfrapp
Elbow
The Breeders
The Dodos
Cut Copy
Laura Marling
Santogold
Gemma Hayes
Modeselektor
Franz Ferdinand
Hercules and Love Affair
Jape
Stephanie Dosen
The Roots
Underworld
Dan Deacon
Crystal Castles
Tindersticks
David Kitt
Balanescu Quartet
Juana Molina
Martina Topley Bird
Cathy Davey
Foals
Conor Oberst
Lisa Hannigan
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
Tinariwen
Joan as Policewoman
James Yorkston
David Holmes
Terry Callier
Louise Rhodes
New Young Pony Club
A-Trak
The Congos
Diplo
Adrian Crowley
Midnight Juggernauts
Booka Shade
Pivot
The Presets
Digitalism
The Herbaliser
Nitin Sawhney
Gomez
CSS
Duffy
Kila
Rachel Unthank & The Winter Set
Josh Ritter
Autamata
Vivienne Long

*updated July 21

Fair enough it is too dear this year but I really can’t knock the line-up.

Oxegen

2008-07-09T00:14:00.005+01:00

As Oxegen looms I’m wishing I had the stomach to take all those puking, mud throwing, food dropping teenagers that it attracts. And for the same strange, music nerd urge that motivates all these posts, I feel the urge to deconstruct the Oxegen and Electric Picnic line ups!

This year’s Oxegen line-up is definitely the best one I can remember.

MCD obviously have a huge amount of money and the Oxegen approach says ‘forget about the scummy environment and feel the line up.’ The line up excels in bringing together some of the best mainstream rock bands in the world - REM, the Verve, the Raconteurs, Kings of Leon, Band of Horses, the National, Interpol, Manic Street Preachers.

Two of the best new bands out there in the fantastic Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer and a few other next big/current big things with White Denim, Black Kids, MGMT. Plus Battles and Cat Power adding a bit of extra ‘alternative music scene’ quality.

Its got a decent representation of dancey stuff - Justice, Hot Chip, Aphex Twin and Chemical Brothers, Go Team!

Some of the best of Irish talent in there with Glen Hansard’s Swell Season and Bell XI

All in all you’ve got about 30 quality acts in there with...

Vampire Weekend
The National
My Morning Jacket
Kings of Leon
The Raconteurs
REM
Yeasayer
Band of Horses
Cat Power
Editors
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
The Verve
Interpol
Bell XI
The Go! Team
White Denim
Black Kids
Aphex Twin
Hot Chip
Delays
Battles
Justice
The Zutons
Manic Street Preachers
The Charlatans
The Ting Tings
Richard Hawley
Chemical Brothers
Roisin Murphy
MGMT
Deus
Holy Fuck
Rage Against the Machine

BUT the Electric Picnic lineup is much, much better than pretty much everyone I’ve talked seems to think it is. More on that in he next post.

Future Days - Jape, Dan Deacon, Deerhunter.

2008-06-15T23:57:00.004+01:00

Fair play to the Foggy Notions peops for an excellent night at Vicar St on Saturday. Was going to the gig thinking, 'darn, i really should not be missing Fleet Foxes' but Jape was great fun. The only thing i'd heard from him before last night was the ubiquitous 'Floating' but he puts on a great show aided by that hilarious comedy moustache - photos on Nialler 9's blog.

Downloaded Jape's new album Ritual from itunes this afternoon and its a breath of fresh air - brilliant - hard to categorise this guy - electrorock seems to be the term bandied about for him online - add pop to that and it just about works. Comparisons to Hot Chip and David Kitt are fair. There's a lot of humour and an unpretentous vibe but serious songwriting craft here too. Categories aside, there's lots of catchy tunes and Ritual has made me smile a good bit today. Oh and it feels like a Summer album so good timing.

Dan Deacon lived up to the hype i've heard about his live gigs - i didn't know they were like going back to pre-school with running around the circle type 'exercises' though. Definitely helps loosen people up a bit!

Deerhunter were excellent - hadn't heard any of their stuff before - they're like a mix of Animal Collective/Velvet Underground/Krautrock/Jesus and Mary Chain/BRMC/Sereena Maneesh.

White Williams and High Places did nothing for me at all but 3 out of 5 is pretty good and at €22, the gig was great value.

Electric Picnic More Acts Announced Tomorrow Maybe

2008-06-05T12:59:00.004+01:00

According to Jim Carroll, King of irish gig leak news and folks on the EP forum, Electric Picnic's organisers will announce a bunch of acts tomorrow.

There's already a few crackin acts who've put the EP on their My Space page but haven't been announced by the festival organisers.

Elbow
Gemma Hayes
Modeselktor
Cut Copy
Crystal Castles

Fleet Foxes

2008-05-31T02:10:00.003+01:00

Jaw droppingly, scarily brilliant debut album coming out from these Fleet Foxes guys next week. They're streaming the whole album on my space.

Big sixties influences - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Love at times. And for newer stuff, If you like Midlake, My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, Bon Iver - you'll love this. On first listen, this album sounds better than anything all of the above have produced thus far but maybe i'm being a bit rash in my judgement.

They play Whelan's in Dublin on June 14.

The Great White Hopes

2008-04-08T01:12:00.004+01:00

So as we enter the second quarter of the year, of all the newly trumpeted artists, who’s lived up to the hype?

The one album from a new band that is as brilliant as the world and its wife’s music critics say it is, is Vampire Weekend. It's all been said - the songs might sound throwaway and trite at first, but they’re intricate and indispensable after a couple of listens. And they do sound like Paul Simon’s Graceland meets the Strokes or the Smiths. It's all true.

The other stand out for me is Laura Marling’s Alas I Cannot Swim. It is absolutely bizarre that a teenager has delivered an album as accomplished and mature as this. Marling has been underhyped in the blogosphere, partly because she hasn’t got her album released in the US yet, but she's got a fair bit of coverage in the British music press. My impression of the scattering of British reviews I’ve read is that people are seriously underrating her. 'Alas' is a classic grower album, and while the initial impression for most people hearing it for the first time may well be. ‘hey, there’s nothing as catchy as the opener, ‘Ghosts’ on this',sticking with it really pays off . She’s not a million miles away from Beth Orton or earlier Joni Mitchell if you’re looking for comparisions. There's a real depth there.

The American critics are getting worked up by this Bon Iver guy. In the rush to compare him to Iron & Wine and Bonnie Prince Billy, how come nobody’s mentioned John Martyn?! Fine album whoever he sounds like.

Hercules and Love Affair’s debut is also worth the hype. And Foals' Antidotes didn’t blow me away but it is good - essentially Bloc Party's first album meets a bit of Fela Kuti meets early U2 though I’m sure they hate the last comparison.

Goddamn, that's beautiful: 5 songs to stop you in your tracks.

2008-04-08T00:57:00.006+01:00

Four tracks from this year that made me think, ‘goddamn, that’s beautiful, I want to play that again and again’. Sadly only the Laura Marling one has an ‘official’ video. It is fab though.

Restacks by Bon Iver

Jesus wept, how gorgeous is this song?! Good album too, though nothing else touches this.

Clowns by Goldfrapp
Its like Kate Bush or the Cocteau Twins at their best (with really silly lyrics).

Starlings by Elbow

Some of the finest lyrics I’ve ever heard and a startlingly original arrangement.

Go Slowly by Radiohead

Thom Yorke’s vocals on this - bloody hell!

Ghosts by Laura Marling

From her debut Alas, I Cannot Swim

Electric Picnic Line Up: the Verdict

2008-03-28T00:07:00.006Z

Well, it strikes me as a good if not great line up to coin a dunphyism . Its about 7 or 8 acts short of being a great line up.

The Positives

Sigur Ros, Wilco , and MBV are on there and they’re three of my favourite bands ever. The new Goldfrapp album is super so she’s getting a special mention too.

Pretty pleased to see the Breeders, Tindersticks, the Roots, Juana Molina, Balanescu Quartet, Lou Rhodes, Lisa Hannigan, Cathy Davey and Underworld there. And Franz Ferdinand even though its obviously not the done thing to admit to liking them anymore!

The Negatives

Would be interested to see if these Foals guys live up to the hype and Micah P Hinson too, but overall there seems to be a distinct lack of fresh new acts compared to previous years line-ups and quite a few acts in the 'I’ve never heard of them category' - One Day International, The Yard Dogs, Tobias Froberg, Boss Volenti, Dawn Landes, Constantines, Yacht, Lionheart Brothers, Large Mound, Emmy the Great, Kormac & the BSQ Band, Silver Apples. Nope, new to me.

There are a few acts that fall into the well past their sell by date/not my cup of tea front on here too- most obviously Christy Moore, Sex Pistols, and George Clinton.

What does the line-up need to go from good to great?

So not naming acts that played last year, or acts playing at that hideous puking teenagers festival at punchestown, or those that don't have a new album to promote, who are we left with?

Of course Portishead would be a pretty great start - the new album is excellent, they’ve still got it.

And how about some quality indie fare? Panda Bear, Beirut, Patrick Watson, Elbow, Feist, Iron & Wine, Spoon, Tapes’n’Tapes, Midlake, Joanna Newsom, Martha Wainwright?

Some good newish acts - Hercules and Love Affair, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, Laura Marling maybe?

Nick Cave appearing with the bad seeds and playing his brilliant new album instead of the tedious bad joke that is the Grinderman’s oeuvre would help.

Another quality dance act? Modeselektor, Field.

Some hip hop? Del tha funky homespun, Dizee Rascal maybe?

I'd like Kittser and Gemma Hayes in there too.

Edan at the Tivoli

2008-03-16T16:30:00.005Z

Absolutely blown away by the Edan and Dagha gig in the Tivoli last night. Jaw droppingly brilliant. The gig was even better than recent Dublin performances from EL-P, Aesop Rock, and Talib Kweli. He's the best rapper on the planet for me. Here's a clip from a show he did last month at the Knitting factory in New York. Last night was pretty much like this.

Good support from Irish hip hoppers the infomatics too and some quality DJ sets. All for about €22. Result.

Lisa Hannigan recording an album

2008-03-12T22:49:00.004Z

Great to hear Lisa Hannigan is in a recording studio working on an album. I'm sure I'm not alone in being willing to pay to hear this woman singing the phone book but I hope the material isn't too mellow. On the Damien Rice albums, she tended to sing the beautiful mellow bits and then Damo would move in to deliver his angry, angsty schtick.

Got my Edan ticket

2008-03-04T21:40:00.002Z

Really looking forward to the Edan and Dagha gig in the Tivoli, March 15.

I wonder if it will be blessed with dancing like this though.

I'm seeing a President Obama now

2008-02-22T00:53:00.003Z

While i've been off sick, the Obama bashers have got increasingly desperate in their attempts to find bad things to say about him - the whole 'Obama's supporters resemble a spooky cult' argument is pathetic, then there's the Obama is a crazy left wing extremist argument - we're going to be seeing a lot more of that one. And finally, there's Hilary's he's all talk and no substance argument which isn't doing her any favours.

Amazingly, Hilary's done now - stick a fork in her - there will be no Ohio/Texas comeback. And there's no doubt he can beat McCain - it might be close but its very possible.

Meanwhile Obama's on fire - the most effective speech i've seen from him so far here in Wisconsin a few days ago.

Obama: Yes, he can, maybe.

2008-02-07T22:45:00.001Z

It now looks like Obama has a chance of winning the Democratic nomination and the whole thing is going to go right down to the proverbial wire with the super delegates having the final say. But why is Obama the better choice than Clinton for those of a liberal/social democratic persuasion? Anthony Barnett has a good level headed article which sums up why this fairly pragmatic, centrist, and in some ways conservative man is the best option.

Two of the obvious reasons are that it would be healthy to break the Bush-Clinton stranglehold on the presidency and to not give the Republicans a chance to rally around their favourite figures of hate - Hil and Bill - Republicans generally find it much harder to hate Obama.

But Obama is not a liberal. He appears to be in that murky third way territory occupied by Bill Clinton and Blair before him. Tomasky nails it in a review of Obama’s Audacity of Hope calling him a civic republican and quoting Obama:

‘The victories that the sixties generation brought about—the admission of minorities and women into full citizenship, the strengthening of individual liberties and the healthy willingness to question authority—have made America a far better place for all its citizens. But what has been lost in the process, and has yet to be replaced, are those shared assumptions—that quality of trust and fellow feeling—that bring us together as Americans.’

Elsewhere Obama has said:

“I’m probably more humble now about the speed with which government programs can solve every problem. For example, I think the impact of parents and communities is at least as significant as the amount of money that’s put into education.”

In a profile of Obama from Larissa MacFarquhar that featured in last years New Yorker - one of the more insightful articles I’ve read about him - she spends a lot of time emphasising Obama’s centrist, consensus seeking tendencies. And his pragmatic nature, she says:

‘Obama is deeply conservative. There are moments when he sounds almost Burkean. He distrusts abstractions, generalizations, extrapolations, projections. It’s not just that he thinks revolutions are unlikely: he values continuity and stability for their own sake, sometimes even more than he values change for the good.’

I think for non-Americans, the biggest reason to hope Obama wins is his stance on International affairs. His views on Iraq make a lot of us hope his presidency would see a more decisive shift away from loopy neoconservatism than Clinton’s would. This quote from Obama in 2002 is a pretty good advertisement for his presidency so.

"I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.’

Radiohead on Jools Holland Last Night

2008-02-02T16:45:00.000Z

The greatest band in the world play the best song released last year. In a word, fantastic.

Facebook’s Dark Side

2008-02-01T00:36:00.003Z

Today, a friend of mine put me wise to some seriously unpalatable facts about Facebook. Briefly, here’s the deal before i break it down. There's a video link which covers a lot of what i'm going to say below if you don't want to read me blathering on.

1. Facebook’s main mover Peter Thiel is an odious neoconservative.

2. Facebook’s got some seriously dodgy sounding investors with links to the CIA.

3. Facebook make it really difficult for you to delete your data from their site

1. Facebook’s main mover Peter Thiel is an odious neoconservative.

The following may sound longwinded but it is a summary of Tom Hodgkinson’s very long (but excellent) article in the Guardian. Hodgkinson says

‘Thiel is a member of TheVanguard.Org, an internet-based neoconservative pressure group that was set up to attack MoveOn.org, a liberal pressure group that works on the web.’

And

‘This little taster from their website will give you an idea of their vision for the world: "TheVanguard.Org is an online community of Americans who believe in conservative values, the free market and limited government as the best means to bring hope and ever-increasing opportunity to everyone, especially the poorest among us." Their aim is to promote policies that will "reshape America and the globe". TheVanguard describes its politics as "Reaganite/Thatcherite". The chairman's message says: "Today we'll teach MoveOn [the liberal website], Hillary and the leftwing media some lessons they never imagined."

I don't have time to go into how much of the above is stomach churningly offensive but the bit about the free market and limited government being the best means to help the poor is particularly yuch.

2. Facebook’s got some seriously dodgy sounding investors with links to the CIA.

Hodgkinson goes on to reveal that Greylock Venture Capital have invested $27.5m in Facebook. One of Greylock’s senior partners is Howard Cox who’s on the board of In-Q-Tel. Now, In-Q-Tel is the venture capital wing of the CIA. No really - look, it says so on their site. Also part of In-Q-Tel is Anita K Jones, former director of defence research and engineering for the US department of defence.

3. Facebook makes it really difficult for you to delete your data from their site and doesn’t care about your privacy.

you’ll need a guide on how to do delete your data, if you wish to do so - here it is essentially it’s a hack because Facebook don’t want you to delete your data. I don't really understand this because their terms tell you they've backed your data up so even if you do delete, they have, in google style, backed up your info anyhow.

Now most Facebook users will be aware that Facebook uses the personal details on your account to target you with tailored advertising - and I guess their reluctance is related to that.

Finally, read the part in their terms and conditions section that none of us read when we signed up and ask yourself if you feel comfortable with it.

‘By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. ‘

What have the unions ever done for us?

2008-01-31T01:07:00.000Z

Seeing as Life of Brian is my favourite comedy and I'm a newly appointed trade union committee member, i would like this, wouldn't i?

Bye bye Rudy!

2008-01-31T00:23:00.000Z

Good to see an end to Giuliani's campaign last night. Check out this disgusting fearmongering campaign message if you need a reminder why.

And must say I am dissapointed and surprised Edwards didn't endorse Obama in his bowing out speech. Can't wait for Super Tuesday. The illogical part of my brain is still hoping Obama can work a miracle.

Cherry Ghost

2008-01-29T21:02:00.000Z

Another one that i didn't get around to last year - Cherry Ghost, whose debut album, Thirst for Romance reminds me of Doves, Richard Hawley, Elbow and Oasis mixed with a US alt country influence - although i can't see the Wilco comparisions most reviews have mentioned.

I particularly adore 'People Help the People' though - this is the kind of track Noel Gallagher would sell his granny for - shameless, sentimental, big chorus, stadium anthem stuff. A classic.

People Help the People, Cherry Ghost

Cat Power Jukebox

2008-01-29T00:57:00.000Z

First super album of 2008 - predictably - Cat Power's Jukebox. She's done it again. Superb stuff. Its still got that late night, bluesy soul thing that the Greatest had but a little rockier in places. Who else could cover New York, New York and not sound like a twat?

A couple of Mp3s from the album are available on the Matador site.

Stephanie Dosen

2008-01-28T23:39:00.000Z

If you don't like sensitive female singer songwriter schtick, look away now.

Stephanie Dosen sounds like Harriet Wheeler from the Sundays only smoother. Her folky american songs could be described as Joanna Newsom-lite but that would be a bit harsh. There's some excellent songs on the album and her voice is pretty superb. Ok its all a little lilith fair and terribly tasteful but she is good.

Her debut album is called A Lily for the Spectre.

And here she is on Jools Holland, which is where i first heard her. Jools returns for a new series on friday with his 200th show and a lineup that includes Radiohead, Feist and Cat Power. Jools, you had me at Radiohead!

Aesop Rock - The One That Got Away

2008-01-15T23:31:00.000Z

A little bit of unfinished business from last year's Top 50 albums of the year. The major omission was Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass - a hip hop masterpiece - not a bad track on this record.

Aesop Rock, video for album title track - None Shall Pass

He plays Crawdaddy on February 2.

2007 Round up of Album of the Year lists

2007-12-22T20:11:00.001Z

Haven't had a chance to check them all out but from the British music mags, here's Q,MOJO, Uncut. Oh and also the Observer Music Mag.

And from online sources, Pitchfork, stylus , and Nialler 9's.

Radiohead Discbox

2007-12-09T15:04:00.000Z

Mojo have a review of the extra tracks here and the Observer have a band interview here.

The Top 50 Albums (I've heard) in 2007

2007-11-07T00:41:00.001Z

Dropping this before the deluge of Albums of the year lists starts. I always find a few gems i haven't heard of in other's people's lists - Band of Horses and Midlake spring to mind from last year. Neil Young and Caribou might have made this one had i got around to listening to them yet. So, in particular order..

1. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
An indisputable classic. It is more commercial than their debut and perhaps has slightly less of Funeral’s frenetic sense of urgency but its also a deeply ambitious, exciting and accomplished record with a smorgasbord of all kinds of rock’n’roll ghosts and legends influencing the sound - from Orbison and Johnny Cash to Springsteen and U2.

2. Feist, The Reminder

Right up there with Joni Mitchell’s Blue as one of the best female singer songwriter albums ever; varied in style and consistent in quality. The voice, the songs, the arrangements. I’m blown away by how strong this is.

3. Radiohead, In Rainbows

Radiohead’s most focused record since Kid A and their most accessible since OK Computer. This is a fantastic piece of work with some of the finest moments of their career in Nude, Weird Fishes, and Reckoner. Its accurately been described as their most romantic album yet with the fairly heavy duty appearance of strings and harmonies and, by their standards, some occasionally soppy lyrics. Shock, horror!

4. Patrick Watson, Closer to Paradise

Patrick Watson’s voice is as good as Jeff Buckley or Anthony Hegarty's and Closer to Paradise is a supremely confident and complete work, chock full of great ideas. It sounds like Pink Floyd meets Rufus Wainwright meets Erik Satie meets Tom Waits meets late Beatles meets Animal Collective meets Coldplay. A woozy, psychedelic delight.

5. The National, Boxer

The National’s sound is essentially Tindersticks meets Interpol and that is as miserable as it sounds, but in a very enjoyable way. Boxer is an exercise in restraint - you can hear them holding off from the obvious big anthemic choruses and crescendos that could come out of these songs. The result is a subtle delight - an album of warm, doomed songs - and a classic grower. And what are the bets the Killers wish they’d written ‘Mistaken for Strangers’?

6. Panda Bear, Person Pitch

On this solo effort, Animal Collective's singer/drummer Noah Lennox adds a poppier and more melodic aesthetic to Animal Collective's avant garde, barmy Beach Boys on acid type sound to produce this absolutely gobsmacking, jawdropping wonder of an album. A little reminiscent of Manitoba/Caribou's work but better.

7. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

LCD Soundsystem finally find their heart and soul to become more than the irony laden clever, clever, New York scene band they once were - but dont' forget to produce a savage dance-rock cracker in the process. Put this on and try not to dance around your house like a deranged idiot. I can’t. A huge step forward.

8. Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Does any other rock band swagger and strut while making it sound quite as effortless as Spoon? I don’t think so. Singer Britt Daniel has one of finest rock singers drawls ever and the band are very tight. This, their best album, is pop genius. Why aren’t they huge? I don’t know.

9. The Good, the Bad and the Queen, The Good, the Bad and the Queen

Yet another masterstroke from Damon Albarn. Its a grower but probably the best evidence of Albarn's ability to mine sweet melodies. And what an atmosphere! Dubby, smoky, melancholic. He keeps surprising us with things we don't know we want to hear till we hear them.

10. Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars

The pre-album buzz from Rufus had him talking about stripping down his sound and doing something more intimate, you know? Smaller. But Rufus can’t do small. So we got another HUGE, over the top sounding album from this preposterously over the top and gifted man. I’m not complaining.

11. Pharoahe Monche, Desire

Possibly the best rapper of all time, Monche's flow has to be heard to be believed. This is his first album in almost a decade. Enough said.

12. Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger

Finally a filler free effort from alt country’s 32 year old enfant terrible genius. The man has talent oozing out of his fingertips and now he’s got the quality control back on.

13. Kings of Leon, Because of the Times

Kings of Leon start trying to sound like U2 to sell more records and guess what? It works, both commercially and artistically, an excellent trad rock album and probably their best album yet.

14. Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog

A huge improvement on 'Our Endless Numbered Days', its pretty but somewhat anodyne predecessor. Iron & Wine were perhaps a little too laid back for their own good. There's a lot more going on here instrument wise, particularly on the percussion. Combined with Sam Beam’s soothing voice, its a really strong album.

15. Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare

The Arctics faced the Supergrass dilemma for their second album - when you're initially famous for short sharp punk-pop songs how do you mature and develop? Favourite Worst Nightmare initially takes the Oasis route, i.e. just not developing - but there's quite enough on the second half of this in the likes of 'Do Me a Favour' and '505' to show they have the talent and imagination to be around for a long time.

16. Black Milk, Popular Demand

An irresistibly catchy, inventive album from this Detroit based hip-hop producer turned rapper. Fantastic beats all the way through and great samples. On 'Sound the Alarm' Black Milk says, 'this the one gonna make you go live in the club' - resistance is futile, believe me.

17. Band of Horses, Cease to Begin

They still sound an awful lot like My Morning Jacket and this isn’t as good as their criminally neglected debut, Everything All the Time. But its still urgent, heartfelt, great American rock music.

18. Oh No, Dr No’s Oxperiment.

Oh No outdoes his brother Madlib at the bollywood meets hip-hop game in this bangin collection of short instrumentals. A lot of fun

19. Common, Finding Forever

Kanye West produced most of this and for me its better than Kanye's own album. 'The Game' is the best hip hop track of the year, and the Nina Simone sampling cracker 'Misunderstood' isn’t far off either.

20. Bjork, Volta

A partial return to form from a musical treasure. Wanderlust and the Dull Flame of Desire are superb. When she's good she's very good.

21. PJ Harvey, White Chalk

White Chalk’s sparse piano textures can get a little monotone but there’s enough strong material on here from one of rock’s greats to give this the thumbs up.

22. Wilco Sky Blue Sky

Like many, I was slightly saddened to see Wilco produce such a conventional album after the relatively experimental likes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. But you can’t argue with songs like ‘You Are My Face’.

23. Talib Kweli, Ear Drum

Some amazing stuff on here - Listen, Say Something, More or Less. Sadly its too long and should have been shortened down to an excellent 50 minutes or so but lets not nit pick, there's quite a lot of one of the best rappers in the business at his best here.

24. Editors, An End Has a Start

Formulaic British stadium rock - Joy Division meets U2 meets Coldplay but its really well done. 'Bones' in particular is superb.

25. Kanye West, Graduation

Wouldn’t it be great to report this unbearably arrogant big head had released a dud album? But darn him, this is actually a pretty fine piece of work.

26. M.I.A., Kala

M.I.A.'s mix of dance-hip-hop-bhangra-and many more genres is pretty darn original and that's what she gets most of her brownie points for. Like Kanye West, her album is ideal if you want something that makes you feel obnoxiously confident. Like Kanye, you'll probably feel like telling her to shut up after twenty minutes. But it'll be quite an enjoyable twenty minutes.

27. Devendra Banhart, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

An enjoyably rambling, hazy shaggy dog story of an album from freak folks' king hippie.

28. Animal Collective, Stawberry Jam

Animal Collective are by turns mindblowing and - when they indulge in too much high pitched yelping - annoying - and there's no change here. Their musical imagination is amazing though.

29. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand

The unexpected pairing of two of the finest voices in modern music. This is a lovely mix of country, blues, bluegrass, skiffle, and rock. And its always nice to hear Robert Plant singing softly.

30. The Go Team! Proof of Youth

The exact same musical overload formula as their last album - a hyper mix of TV themes, My Bloody Valentine-like guitar distortion, horns, rapping, and lots of shouting. A fine formula it is too. Still working.

31. Bruce Springsteen, Magic

Broooce finally delivers a shameless crowd-pleaser of an album. E Street Band? Check. Lots of big choruses? Check.

32. Keren Ann, Keren Ann

Great late night stuff. It reminds me of Cat Power and a little of the Cowboy Junkies in their Trinity Sessions era but with a little less country going on.

33. Sigur Ros, Hvarf/Heim

A stop-gap rehash album. This has only three unreleased songs with the remainder of the album taken up with new takes on old songs. Its still a new album by one of the best bands of this or any other time so its going in the top 50.

34. El-P, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

A dense, sprawling, dystopic monster of an album from one of hip-hops least commercial propositions. Compelling if uneasy listening.

35. KT Tunstall, Drastic Fantastic

She may well be utterly middle of the road but she’s got a great voice and some fine songs here.

36. Cinematic Orchestra, Ma Fleur

This melancholic, moody jazzy, string laden album has one of the finest songs of the year - ‘To Build a Home’ has a jaw dropping vocal from Patrick Watson. The rest is strong too if a little samey. Like Zero 7 but marginally cooler and quite a bit jazzier.

37. Jose Gonzalez, In Our Nature

More of the same from Jose - more flashbacks to hippie 60s/70s songwriters. Strong guitar picking, singing and songwriting.

38. King Creosote, Bombshell

Another fine album of Scottish folk rock from Kenny Anderson following last year’s rather lovely KC Rule Ok. The man has a beautiful voice and a fine line in witty, grounded lyrics.

39. Aqualung, Memory Man

More ‘sensitive’ bedwetters music! Matt Hales has a great ear for a good melody. If you like Coldplay, you should get this.

40. Travis, The Boy With No Name

Middle of the road indie-rock bedwetters music. I like Travis. Fran Healy's got a good voice. So, sue me!

41. Jens Lekman, Night falls over Kortedala

This is Disco-folk and its as funny peculiar, funny funny as that sounds. If you like Final Fantasy, Beirut, and Rufus Wainright you’ll like this guy.

42. Amiina, Kurr

Sigur Ros’ string section make an album. It sounds rather like their fellow Icelandic compatriots Mum, if they’d been forced to make an album stripped of all the electronics

43. Tiniariwen: Water is Life

Bluesy funky Tuareg vibes, they’re like an army of Ali Farka Toures.

44. Beirut, The Flying Club Cup

Reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet who guest vocals on this. A good effort from the young fella. One for the future as Alex Ferguson might put it.

45. Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

More post-rock from the Texan Mogwai. Glorious in places.

46. White Stripes, Icky Thump

Not their best, a bit patchy but better than Get Behind Me Satan.

47. Justice, Cross

A squelchy, rougher version of Daft Punk. To me not as good as the critics say it is but better than the Chemical Brothers new album.

48. Josh Rouse, Country Mouse, City House

More warm, laid back 70s sounding songs from the prolific Mr Rouse.

49. Gruff Rhys, Candy Lion

Gruff, the Super Furry Animals singer releases a solo album in the same year his band have an album out. Essentially its like getting a more intimate Super Furry's record. Its also a better album then the band produced themselves.

50. Super Furry Animals, Hey Venus

They've been round so long, we take them for granted but not many bands can make melodic songwriting sound as effortless as this.

PJ Harvey Ticketmaster Rip Off!

2007-11-06T21:57:00.000Z

Was on the verge of buying tickets for PJ Harvey when i realised the total price including ticketmaster's notorious 'handling' fee was over 70 euro!!! Somebody's being very very greedy.

Sigur Ros Heima

2007-11-05T23:09:00.000Z

On Friday, myself and Charis went to Heima in the Irish Film Institute equipped with a naggan of whiskey.

Heima documents the return of Icelandic post-rock quartet Sigur Ros to their heima (yes, that's right, their home) to play a series of free, unannounced gigs around the country mainly in tiny village halls and windswept fields near fjords.

I had a rather strong hunch that I would find the combination of whiskey, exquisitely shot Icelandic landscapes, and Sigur Ros’ epic, other worldly music preposterously pleasurable altogether, and bejaysus, i was bang on. Heima is a beautiful and humble celebration of Iceland’s people and landscape - an anti rockumentary if you will - an anti-Spinal Tap. Because the concerts were free, they attracted all sorts from kids to grannies and the cameras focus on the people at the concerts as much or more than the band. Smart move. No rock star megalomania on show here. The band also sneak in some protest against rapacious environment-wrecking industrialists but without labouring the point.

I emerged from the cinema in a sort of blissed quietude and went in foolish search of a suitably quiet Dublin pub. So in short, I loved this, a magic film from a magic band. And the Icelandic tourist board must be very pleased too. Sadly it was only on in the IFI for a couple of days but the DVD is out now.

Other rhapsodic reviews here

The Times (UK)
The Guardian
Total Film

That shockingly brilliant Patrick Watson gig

2007-09-23T23:16:00.001+01:00

So, I went to Patrick Watson at the Sugar club last night and it was one the most beautiful gigs I’ve ever been to. Josh who came with me can back me up on this one as he was also blown away.

The band are from Quebec, fronted by Patrick Watson, who has an AMAZING voice – traces of Jeff Buckley, Anthony and the Johnsons, and a more soulful thing going on too – bits of Little Jimmy Scott in there.

They were incredibly tight, all great musicians. They had lots of imaginative, creative stuff going on with percussion, effects pedals, sampling and improvising. The drummer in particular played a blinder.

They play a kinda space rock/jazzy/cabaret/indie rock fusion thang. For soundalikes, they’re not easy to pigeonhole but you could say they sound like (deep breath) Pink Floyd meets Rufus Wainwright meets Erik Satie meets Tom Waits meets late Beatles meets Animal Collective meets Esbjorn Svensson Trio and, though they hate this comparison, Coldplay, on the more piano driven numbers.

They come back to Dublin again on November 13 to play support to Cold War Kids (sorry but these guys are way too good to be playing support to Cold War Kids) in the Ambassador.

So go see them live and buy their super Close to Paradise album now!

P.S. In true music trainspotter style myself and Josh went up to Patrick at the end of the gig to generally gush and enthuse and ask him to sign our CDs and he was a real nice fella!

Autumn/Winter Noteworthy Albums

2007-08-16T00:42:00.000+01:00

Manu Chao, La Radiolina, Sep 3
Go Team! Sep 11
Kanye West, Graduation Sep 11
PJ Harvey, White Chalk Sep 24 UK Date
Devendra Banhart, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, Sep 25
Jose Gonzalez, In Our Nature Sep 25
Iron and Wine Sep 25
Band of Horses Cease to Begin October 9
Lupe Fiasco, The Cool, November 30

Music - What's left in 2007

2007-06-11T00:32:00.002+01:00

What's coming out this year music wise that i'm looking forward to? the list of definites first i.e. they're recorded, mixed, produced, and most of them have a release date.

On the hip-hop front, Talbi Kweli's 'Eardrum' album is coming out in July and if there's a few more tracks as good as the ones i've already heard - 'Say Something' and 'Listen' - it could be a cracker. Kanye West's 'Graduation' comes out in the Autumn/Winter and Common's got one done and dusted. The Beastie Boys are back too but its an all instrumental album.

On the indie boys with their guitars front there's Editors 'An End Has a Star' this month, their better American equivalent, Interpol with 'Our Love to Admire' in July. White Stripes with 'Icky Thump' this month too and Ash's 'Twilight of the Innocents' also in June. And Spoon's Ga Ga comes out sometime later this year.For electronica - there's Ulrich Schnauss's 'Goodbye' round about now.

On the Alt country front Ryan Adams, there's 'Easy Tiger' this month.

So that's

Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger

Beastie Boys, The Mix-Up

Talib Kweli, Ear Drum

Editors, An End Has a Star

White Stripes, Icky Thump

Spoon, Ga Ga

Ash, Twilight of the Innocents

Interpol, Our Love to Admire

Common,

Kanye West, Graduation

Ulrich Schnauss

And on the surely they must have finished that album by now front, there's

Radiohead,
Massive Attack
Portishead

Finally on the, isn't it about time they recorded something front?

PJ Harvey, Doves, Gillian Welch

Revisionist Albums of 2006 List

2007-06-09T19:07:00.002+01:00

Joanna Newsom, Ys
Arctic Monkeys, Whatever they say I am, that’s what I’m not
Band of Horses, Everything All of the Time
Fionn Regan, The End of History
Tapes’n’Tapes, The Loon
Cat Power, The Greatest
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
Thom Yorke, The Eraser
Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor
K’Naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
King Creosote, KC Rule OK
Damien Rice, 9
Keane, Under the Iron Sea
Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
Lily Allen, Alright Still
The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics
The Raconteurs, Broken Toy Soldiers
David Kitt, Not Fade Away
Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
The Guillemots, Through the Windowpane
Si Schroeder, Coping Mechanisms
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones
Razorlight, Razorlight
The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth
Jose Gonzalez, Veneer
Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, The Swell Season
Muse, Black Holes and Revelations
Beck, The Information