Bloggy Prince Billy

Sorry for yet another bad pun in the title but I'm starting to get into the habit of it now and it's become a personal competition to try and insert the worst imaginable puns/gags into that little title space.
Got the new BPB album and it's great; really growing on me by the day. I've found his music comforting/intriguing/genius over the years and he's one of those artists who instantly chills me out and gives me that feeling of familiarity and, well, happiness I suppose. Even on the the darker tracks. Upcoming gigs are Times New Viking tomorrow night, supported by Giveamanakick, and Bon Iver is not too far away either. Obviously, Bonnie Prince Billy is playing as part of the Future Days festival so that's going to be incroyable.
On a personal note, I've just moved into a deadly little cottage near town with m'ladyfriend and so far it's going brilliantly. Nice to have a bit of space and even a garden-type area thingy. I was egging to play Guitar Hero at our recent house-warming but we couldn't get the bloody thing to work. Anyone know anything about PS3s? Let me know. I was primed to rock out too...
On the plus side, one of our guests was a bit of a headcase and developed a highly amusing drunken miaowing tic that he lapsed into every so often, so that kept me well entertained. In retrospect, he may have been in the midst of some form of mental breakdown but anyway..he's ok now.
See you in Andrews Lane Theatre tomorrow.

Man Yoo Nite Head

I'm a Man Utd fan so obviously after tonight's match I have whittled my finger tips down to 8 raw stumps (I don't chew my thumbs you iziot).
Anyway, woohoo.. Champo League in the bag.
On a seperate note, I was in Naas today at a meeting/work thingy and nearly got caught in the middle of an egg/waterbomb schoolkid fight, slap bang on the main street. It was myself and some wizened old ladies discussing the terrible misbehaviour of these young oiks milling around with their weapons-of-choice and I felt a sense of comraderie with the elderly dears. Time for some Horlicks and to eat the bunions off my feet.
And finally, No Age were class in Whelans the other night, as were Animal Collective and Atlas Sound the night before.
Animal Collective had a last minute gig organised after they had to cancel their Tripod jaunt and by all accounts there were many fans that were pissed off about the rescheduling at such short notice. To be fair, it was either gonna be no gig for anyone or a gig for some. Fuck begrudgery. Although I can say that coz i got to see them.
With No Age, it was cool to see some proper hardcore punky/rocky/metal in a tiny venue. Can't wait for Times New Viking next week, so if you're going, I'll see ya there.

Times New Vik....hello?hello?

I'll be attempting a second call to interview the fucking excellent Times New Viking tomorrow evening (they were asleep in their tour van last week when I called) and I'm quite tempted to buy a Fisher Price microphone and roar the questions down the phone at a tinnitus-inducing level, but with the sound of a wonderful question hidden beneath the layers of fuzz. Over the course of the interview, they will learn to like the fuzz and love the catchy questions beneath.
Unfortunately, this only works as a theory on this blog and if I were to actually do it, I would be a smart-arsed, self-satisfied wanker....grand so, I'm off to Smith's toyshop.

Mist-ical movie..(Christ that's a bad pun)

There has been a distinct lack of film blogging on this site and it really needs to be put right. I have been doing bits and pieces for Film Ireland mag for some time. When I originally did a few months work in their cramped but cosy little Filmbase offices a few years back, while I searched for gainful employment in the media world, I was lucky enough to get to alot of press screenings around the city to review for the mag's website.
This was, and is, my dream job.
There is a secret world (kind of) of journalists who get to flit from film to film, a few times a week, tucked away in the screening rooms of Dubln City. That is their job and it is a wonderful thing. After screenings, the hacks would gather together and yap about the film, what they'd seen recently and assorted film critic stuff that made me envious they actually got paid for it.
Someday I hope to do this job professionally (full time as opposed to freelance) but for the moment I try and keep up as best I can with the movie situation. I am still a major film head with a bag load of books and DVDs and can still proudly boast that my Masters dissertation was a study of Hollywood and the Vietnam War, specifically in The Deerhunter, Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver.
Anyway, this post was prompted by the fact that I recently saw Frank Darabont's The Mist, a horror film based on a Stephen King novella and released at the end of last year in the States. It is an excellent, gory, character-based, well-acted, Stephen King-y (that feel of a Stephen King work that can't be explained any other way), sci-fi/horror film that proved to be a great throwback to B-movie 50s sci-fi like Them or even to Hitchcock's The Birds.
It's not out here yet, and I'm not sure when it will be, but I recommend that you seek it out somewhere (the Internet..)and enjoy a gripping, sometimes cheesy, often scary film with a great cast, clever but not over-developed characters, melodrama, scares, spiders, chilling overtones, allegoric undertones and above all......mist. It's not often a horror film has as much to offer and engage as The Mist, perhaps not since John Carpenter's classic The Thing. And a non-traditional ending, that makes perfect sense, made sure that the film bombed in the USA, unfortunately.
It's certainly not for everyone, but if you have ever enjoyed the films mentioned above, alongside maybe Starship Troopers, Deep Blue Sea (an absolute classic), Dawn of the Dead (both versions, but particularly the most recent one), Planet of the Apes or The Fog (ONLY the original), Slither and Tremors, then this is a movie for you.

To Halves and Halves not..

Just a quick note on Halves, Ireland's answer to Efterklang/Mogwai/Sigur Ros and the like. I did an interview with them for drop-d yesterday, before they headed off to The Indie Hour to do a radio slot with Aoife Mac. Lovely guys, can't praise them highly enough and their new album, Haunt Me When I'm Drowsy, is out on the 16th of this month.
It's an excellent 7 tracks so make sure to get a copy. Even the album cover is beautiful, in its meticulously handcrafted glory. They play Whelans on the 17th and I urge you to go along to see them as it is sure to be a wonderful looking gig, aswell as a wonderful sounding one. They've even landed a plum spot on the Transmission festival line-up this summer. Another of Ireland's young & gifted musicians! Keep your ears peeled for Halves (if you can keep ears peeled)

Anticon sampler

Here's an excellent track from Buck 65, Sole, Circus, 6.2 & Cosmic Lovefuck. It's from an Anticon sampler called Anticon Presents: Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop and it's a snazzy example of the kind of hiphop this delicious label have produced. Get your ears around it.

Sunshine

Does anybody get that 'holiday' air floating around today and yesterday?
It feels like we are all wrapping up on our last day at school and arranging that final game of football on the school grounds before we all split up for a few months....
Then I read Charlie Brooker's piece in d'Guardian from yesterday and he makes sure I spend some time ruminating on the subject of our lives as zombies and our lack of action/motivation regarding the surrounding world and the inherent problems of it. He also makes me acutely aware of my tongue being in my mouth. It's a really uncomfortable thing to suddenly be aware of your big, lolling tongue bouncing around in your gob and now I'm gonna spend the day with no mouth-comfort at all.
And there was me about to get all 'Ron Manager' on it. Small boys, jumpers for goalposts..
I'm gonna dig out a summer song and put it up here later on. Any suggestions?

Actually, I found one...

A few things that should be said..

*Adrian Chiles, the genial presenter of MOTD2, is the most comforting presence on television I have ever witnessed. He's even good on The One Show which is, essentially, a bag of shit.

*Rollie 'Cadence Weapon' Pemberton is 22 years old and was reviewing music for Pitchfork when he was 18. He's ridiculously talented. I am bitter.

*Pubs in the countryside {i.e. the really rural Ireland that you only see if you are a)From one of those places or b)In a relationship with someone from one of these places} are often full of people from the area, who have lived there for a long time, usually 25-30 years, who are slightly cracked and get the kind of drunk that makes you go 'Holy shit, have i ever been that drunk? How is this person not dead?' Bank holiday weekends only serve to heighten this. It's an amazing thing to witness.

*Working on bank holiday Monday is a bleak, bleak prospect.

*Zaytoon kebabs are incroyable

That is all.

Holy Roman Army w/Capt. Moonlight

New track up on their myspace - a collaboration with Kilkenny's Captain Moonlight.
Have a listen to it.
They play Anseo on Sunday night with the excellent Storkboy tunes providing support.

Phosphorescent - Wolves

I've been kicking myself for missing Phosphorescent, who did an early show in Whelans last week on the same night as Why?
Phosphorescent is Matthew Houck from Atlanta, Georgia and toward the end of last year, the album Pride was released - I have only recently stumbled across it. If you have heard it already, that's great but if not, then this is one of the standout tracks. The Will Oldham comparisons are fair, but Houck brings his own slant too, as he overdubs his voice and layers many instruments on the excellent album. Enjoy.

Bonnie June Billy..Woohoo!!

Will Oldham is bringing his freakishly gurning mouth, beard and genius to Vicar Street on June 15th. So says Jim Carroll on his blizzog (hyperlink thingy not working so just go to On The Record). Not sure about tix yet but this is already my summer highpoint. Now I need Joanna Newsom to come back and I'll pop my clogs happy. I said clogs.

Oh and also, Fran Cosgrove is doing a DJ set in Zanzibar on Saturday night so warm up your flame-throwers people. Warm 'em up goooooood. toasted Franmallows for all.

Knowing meme knowing youyou. Aha.

So Gardenhead 'tagged' me for this MeMe thingy and I have become more interested than I thought i might on first glance. Many thanks for giving me the chance to snoop around other people's accounts and find out things about them. I'm gonna dispense with my cynicism and jump arse first into this.

Rules are..

Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about you in a blog post.
Tag six people in your post.
Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the taggee know your entry is up.

Here's my random dingleberries, hanging below:

1) I can fit the entire top of a pint glass in my mouth and usually drink most of the contents, without using my hands (to hold the glass, not to drink with...that would be mad, like the concept of Alien Nation). People who are pissed seem to enjoy this.

2) As a kid I convinced my little sister to get into a suitcase, which I then locked and brought downstairs to the sitting room and to my parents. She freaked out and it's something she recalls to this day when telling peeps about her older bruv. That and the fact that I hanged her dolls from her wardrobe..sometimes. I love her really.

3)Edward Furlong in Terminator 2 was my fashion idol when I was a teenager. I even had that fringe thing swooping across my head.

4)I have often been mistaken for Graham Hopkins (Boss Volenti, Therapy) over the years, when I am sporting a beard, and have had long conversations with people in nightclubs about my touring of the world and being a rockstar. One guy in Crawdaddy wouldn't let me go and made me tell him rock stories for at least an hour before. Secretly I loved it. I met Hopkins a few weeks ago in Whelans and we do kinda look alike. His friends thought so too. I'm sexier though. Ahem.

5) I do good impressions of many different accents; Scottish, and specifically Edinburgh, being my speciality. Actually, I also know the 'Alien Nation' word for pigeon so if you see me, ask and I'll say it for you. It sounds kinda like 'dork' but you have to cluck before you say it, like a chicken. Remember Alien Nation? Nice.

6) I once, many moons ago, pooped in someone's front garden on the way home from a nightclub and I'm not proud, but it happened and it's along time ago but it just happened and that's it so deal with it.


I'm tagging:
Off Her Rocker
ctrl/alt/delete
Two Wheels on My Wagon
red mum

I cannae do another one coz they're all tagged already and my intaynet connection keeps shutting down so i'm cheating, slightly. Sorry if you were tagged twice or thrice. Adios.

Crayonsmith interview

Hey, here's an interview I did recently with Crayonsmith (who supported Why? at ALT the other night and were excellent).His new album is cracking and he's a really nice fellow. Read the interview here

Vespers and the internet..a match made in the bowels of hell?

Read this today

The gist being that Polish Catholic priests are being chastised for plagiarising sermons of other priests, due to the younger generation of smock-wearing God-peddlers having access to t'internet where many sermons in this modern world end up.
Jaysus, isn't it bad enough being a Catholic priest these days hah? There have been a few stories knocking around about them for a while you know?..
Now they can't borrow a few thoughts and ruminations from the more experienced members of their ilk (thoughts and ruminations which have been stolen for many moons from the shitting bible!).
They panic on a Saturday night about having nowt to say on Sunday morning and they turn to the web for inspiration, like many students and professionals have been doing for quite some time.
Christ, at least they might find something decent to nick, mightn't they?
Mass was bad enough in my youth, having to listen to some decaying old gin-skulling virgin lament the state of modern society and cloak his contempt for everyone (except God, naturally) in some deathly dreary parable from whatever chapter of the not-ironically-titled 'Good Book' he had drunkenly bookmarked the night before.
Maybe young priests, stealing from the internet, can make those who still go to mass actually feel like they are doing something constructive in church, by perusing a selection of online sermons from their elders and picking something relevant and comprehensible to a younger audience. These people go to church every week. At least reward their efforts by keeping things interesting.
Jesus wept.

Sebadohmynostalgiabuttonhasbeenpressed

It seems that most of the bands I go to see live these days are starting out and plugging a debut album while establishing a new army of fans - thanks to the ridiculously fast buzz-building that goes on on the interweb - as opposed to playing to a crowd familiar with a vast canon of work.
Sebadoh last night in Whelans though was a different kind of animal altogether.
It's strange because you are watching guys in their forties who were around and participating actively in a scene that is very dear to my teen years - grunge.
Lou Barlow in particular has seen it all, in Dinosaur Jr aswell as in Sebadoh, and it was funny to watch a band of their pedigree tune their guitars between songs (because they had no tech to do it), swapping instruments with ease (because they are around long enough to have considerable practice on everything), and having those 'just out on tour' awkward moments where applause makes them grin and they try to crack jokes and sell a few t-shirts. I never got to see Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden or alot of the bands whose songs I would probably recognise from the opening note, even if they're from albums I have not listened to in many many years. Seeing Sebadoh definitely pulled at my musical heartstrings because so many of their songs have that Black Flag early 80s punk thing, crossed with that 90s grunge minor chord guitar crunch.
Will the younger new bands have the legs of some of these acts. Will they be part of a new scene that will change music? I'm not talking about the kind of all-encompassing fame and adulation of the Rolling Stones, but the steady fanbase that will want to see them in 15 or 20 years.This is a great time for new bands and new music as we are exposed every day to SO much stuff we may not have heard of the day before. But Sebadoh reminded me of the time I was given a tape with Therapy on one side and Rage Against The Machine on the other, of copying my cousin's Nevermind CD he had gotten for free because he worked in Dolphin Discs, of hearing the Jesus Lizard and Lard, of listening to NOFX for years without knowing what they looked like because...well, there was nowhere to get a picture.
The gig itself last night was excellent. And nostalgic...if I haven't made that clear. My thanks to Sebadoh.

In case you haven't come across Onion TV yet..

Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film

This
is the link for tons of other clips.

Music magazine articles over the last 30 odd years

Found this link in The Guardian's Guide on Saturday. It is a subscription service which seems to work out at 40 euros for the year - but Jesus, it seems well worth it. You get access to an absolute wealth of music articles from as far back as you would probably care to go. This is their archive and it is excellent. Some years are missing and if you really wanted something specific you might be unlucky but it has a serious amount of stuff..

Brasilintime - Tivoli, May 2nd

This seems interesting with the current penchant for Afrobeat in the indie music scene. Samba music has never been my favourite but Madlib is playing and if he manages to not smoke his own bodyweight in weed before the gig - actually it doesn't matter if he does or not, he will be just as good - then this could be an outstanding night of music. Has this been kept relatively quiet on the advertising front in Dublin or have I just missed alot of posters??


This is from the Tivoli website:
"This show will rely on the backbone of Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, Fela Kuti's drummer, recent collaborator with Damon Albarn on 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen'. Cited as creating the genre Afrobeat, Tony Allen is no ordinary musician.
Add two of Brasil's finest musicians Ivan Conti (Mamao) 1/3 of Azymuth, the collosal force in Brasilian music who sold 100s of thousands of records worldwide and Joao Parahyba renowned percussionist with samba rock band Trio Mocoto and backing band for Jorge Ben. Sprinkle this with...Producer, MC, instrumentalist extraordinnaire..MADLIB.. The BeatKonducta aka Quasimoto aka Yesterday's New Quintet aka Jackson Conti and producer of the new Erykah Badu LP. Add your JROCC...the founder of The Beat junkies, arguably the best club DJ in the world and place him alongside South America's DJ Nuts and this event becomes devastating."

Things that are wonderful indeed..

Charlie Brooker.

Elbow at Vicar Street tonight. Guy Garvey is probably the most affable frontman of all time.

Madvillain album. Should have gotten this for my ipod ages ago.

Berocca. Hangover cure to rule them all.

3 days off work midweek. Really looking forward to it.

Foals: live review (for drop-d)

I went to this gig with my staunchest ‘impress me you angular art bastards’ attitude, as a music fan weary of NME hype, fringe-floppage and drainpipe-jeaned automatons clambering for the best spot in the smoking section of (insert hip bar name here). Not to mention the reciprocal contempt that front man Yannis Phillipakis has shown for ‘lazy’ journalists, which has been well documented in the music press of the last nine months.

On arrival at Dublin’s Academy venue, it is wall-to-wall Skins fodder as I’m dazzled by haircuts and the stench of ripe hormones in the air. The place is packed and the crowd are really geared up by the time the band saunter on to crank up the electronics and, after some technical noodling, tear into album opener, French Open.

Their Antidotes album has received widespread critical acclaim and in a live setting their sometimes over-polished sound is messed with, giving a much scuzzier, edgier feel to their host of songs. They tear through Cassius, Olympic Airways is the weakest song of the set, and Heavy Water is decent but Two Steps Twice provides a real highlight.

With the gruff-looking front man facing sideways on stage, one gets the impression at times that you are watching an intricate jamming session that sonically falls somewhere between The Cure and Shellac. The Bloc Party comparisons are indeed lazy, as Kele and company have never rocked out as riotously as this, with the kind of math rock intricacies that the Oxford quintet display, and they certainly have never featured the kind of full on rave dancing that Foals’ keyboardist Edwin Congreave launches into spasmodically.

They rip through most of their repertoire and their encore is preceded by what looks like a roadie telling a highly dodgy joke about Rome, a hairdresser and the Pope.

With so much reprehensibly unimaginative dross around the ‘indie’ scene at the moment and with The Kooks recently opening their wet, straw hat wearing arses and excreting a new album into our world, it is fantastic and intriguing to see a young band emanate such energy and show as much real musicianship as Foals do. They are deliciously preoccupied with making the receptive crowd boogie and it is a hard rhythm to resist for the hour-and-a-bit they are onstage, at the end of which the crowd are still chanting for ‘one more tune’ as the house lights come up.

Foals as a live prospect prove to be extremely capable, jittery, musically able and groove-oriented and while their album is a fine offering, it will be interesting to see what they come up with in their next few albums, if they bring that raucous edginess to the recording studio.

Memories of the last ever Alternative Nation on MTV, a long time ago

Jeru the Damaja - ya playing yourself

Guided By Voices - bulldog skin

Wesley willis - alanis morrisette

Does anyone remember the programme?

Ironman

Robert Downey Jr. to get the attention he thoroughly deserves at last. Cannot wait for this. And for Ed Norton's take on the Hulk too.

Respect the cock

Check this out

Are we really all so afraid of the onscreen penis?
I mean to be fair, I'va seen Kevin Bacon's more times than I can remember. Keitel and DeNiro? I was happy to look at theirs, the pair of legends that they are. Let's just slap them in every film and we'll soon not care anymore eh?

Another Drop-D review: Daedelus at Whelans

It’s not every day you go to an electronica gig where the gent behind the laptop and Monome (more on that later) is dressed in Edwardian coat, tails and ascot, sporting Creedence-friendly sideburns.
Santa Monica’s Alfred Weisberg-Roberts chose the nom-de-musique of Daedelus after spending his childhood daydreaming of becoming an inventor and in the last 6 years there have been an impressive slew of albums as well as countless singles and side-projects.
This prolific musical output over the years has often combined samplings of 30s and 40s tracks with elements of left-field hip hop, outright dance music, soul and electronica and has led to work with such luminaries as Prefuse 73 and MF Doom.
Onstage he takes the unique step of using the afore-mentioned custom-built Monome, made by a friend of his in Philadelphia, he tells me after the show. This is a minimalist sample trigger box connected to his Macbook laptop which represents his showtunes-era samples as lights darting across the unit's display, while also giving him the chance to avoid the navel-gazing antics of some artists of his ilk and indulge in some nimble finger movement at high speeds.
As pill-gobblers five yards away swill back the Budvar, Daedelus cranks out the tunes, comfortably contrasting IDM flourishes with chest-pounding breakbeat and house. The tiny venue on the top floor of Whelans is packed in front of him and as he bangs out the music the crowd’s euphoric responses have him beaming like a kid at Christmas.
He flicks so fast between tracks and vocal samples that it is nigh on impossible to keep up, but his most popular tune, Fairweather Friends, is greeted with a huge roar by the up-for-it audience.
At the end of the set, a beaming Daedelus has his hand shaken by nearly every punter around his equipment and then he is away into the night to do whatever it is Edwardian DJs do these days.
A thumping, belter of a gig. Catch him next time he’s over.

Joe Pesci's rap. I'm saying nowt.