The Swell Season @ Vicar St. Dec 15

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

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

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

Grizzly Bear @ Vicar Street

Another premature Albums of 2009 list

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

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jogging Playlist Vol 2

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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)