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I've made the jump to Wordpress.

Mighty Stef album news

The eternally excellent Mighty Stef has announced the impending release his of third album, The Mighty Stef and the Baptists, on November 26.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but Stef revealed on MySpace that "album number three contains nine new songs of sin and redemption where hope and hopelessness walk hand in hand down the wet streets of Manhattans Lower East Side to the dingy graveyards of Berlin where the record was conceived, written and recorded.

"Stef travelled to Berlin to form the gothic-folk-rock congregation known as The Baptists before undertaking and executing this record. While drinking heavily in the bars of the city and romanticising about the potential of the project, The Baptists solidified a plan, did some days of rehearsing and embarked on an extreme recording stint with German punk rock legend [and mad-man] Tom Schwoll."

There's no single thus far, but a few days back I did spend an afternoon cycling through the videos on his Muzu page on repeat. The Phantom sessions are great, but the real gem is the video for 'The Mero,' a cover of Pete St. John (of 'Dublin in the Rare Oul Times' fame) with guest spots from Flogging Molly and the last recorded appearance (on record and on video) of the late Ronnie Drew.


The Mighty Stef Feat Ronnie Drew Plus Guests - TheMero

Drama at Crawdaddy on Saturday night

Clearly Crawdaddy was the place to be on Saturday night as fights broke out between bouncers and fans of local pop punk act Home Star Runner.

Nobody goes to punk shows to have a good time, so it's no real surprise that hardly anybody chose to challenge the security staff's "no moshing" rule. Inevitably, somebody did something to get the bouncers' collective goat and people were thrown out.

It was afterwards that the real trouble seems to have started. Allegedly, frontman Stephen Arkins' girlfriend was punched by a bouncer, causing Arkins to go into a rage and get himself arrested by the fuzz, who'd managed to stroll across the road from Harcourt St. Garda Station.

This appears to be a picture of the immediate aftermath of the alleged punch.

A Facebook group has been set up calling for a boycott of Crawdaddy until the situation is satisfactorily resolved. Another band have already pulled out of their planned gig there this week.

This could get interesting or it could go down with barely a murmur. Bouncers throwing punches at people half their size is not on, though, and it will be interesting to see if a formal complaint is made.

[Declaration of interest: I don't know the band and hadn't heard of them before this morning. And although I have been thrown out of Crawdaddy in the past, it was completely my own fault.]

Update: No great surprise that Nay has a much more in-depth write-up already.

Video: Villagers - 'That Day'

I have to admit I've never quite bought into the Villagers buzz.

I've listened to his/their album through several times, and while tracks like 'Becoming the Jackal' (easily the best), 'The Day' and 'The Pact' are immense, I don't really think it's deserving of the immense platitudes it's received.

I know I have to tread carefully here, but I've always gotten the sense that one of the reasons people were so enthusiastic about Conor O'Brien's new material was that they were so disappointed his first band, the Immediate, seemed to implode when on the cusp of something really big. I'd be interested to hear whether anybody agrees with me/hates my very soul.

Anyway, here's the video for one of the best songs on the CD, the slightly Simon & Garfunkel-tinged number 'That Day':



p.s. good luck to Conor when the 2010 Mercury Music Prize is announced tonight. He's the only Irish nominee on this year's shortlist.

Adebisi Shank revisited

Gabba @ Hardcore For Nerds raises a good point re: the Irish Times review of Adebisi Shank's second album by Leagues O'Toole a.k.a. Foggy Notions.

He wrote this rather good article on Popical Island (another sort of promotional collective) and has a few other reviews to his byline, but this is really the first to combine his role in the Irish music scene with opinions of a critical sort about the product of that scene.

As a declaration of interest, I don't know Leagues O'Toole in any shape or form, but general impression from his work is somebody who's not afraid to be ruthlessly critical when it comes to local acts. He's a concert promoter, after all - it's basically the job description.

Gabba goes on:

By contrast, a negative - and essentially not very serious - review of the same album in a free Dublin morning paper got its own Twitter hashtag yesterday. The insularity, self-congratulatory nature and consensus bent of Irish independent music does a disservice to the many great bands, Adebisi Shank included, that are part of it, as it sharpens the distinctions between praise and backlash, and between optimism and cynicism.

This is something I have noticed - the #eamongate scenario did strike me as a tad bit overprotective, as if our poor Adebisi boys were too precious to take a little bit of criticism. Mick's tweets on the subject show he was well able to laugh it off.

I might as well point out that my own review of the album was overwhelmingly positive and that I think it was a progression musically, but not quite quality-wise.

But if you check the ratings on Sputnik, predominantly from non-Irish people, you'll find the reception is again resoundingly popular, hovering around the 4/5 mark.

Quote(s) of the Day: Bono

Quote(s) of the week here from Bono, re: U2's unsuccessful 2009 album No Line on the Horizon:

This week, Bono described the album as “not very accessible, lyrically or musically”.

“We put out a really difficult record,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. “I would have to admit that. If I was a teenager, it would be like a European movie, it’s art house.”

This follows on from his comments last October when he described the February 2009 album as “a work that is a bit challenging for people who have grown up on a diet of pop stars.”

Pay attention to the bolded part. A year ago, Bono said the album was a bit challenging. He has now elevated the album the pantheon of great cinema. Bono can not be stopped. He can only get Bonoer.

There's a decent discussion of the merits of the album on Jim Carroll's blog, but my own impression of the album, based on 2 or 3 listens, was that it was an uneventful record. Not good, not particularly bad, but definitely not challenging or innovative. Difficult only in the sense that it's difficult to justify the effort.

This is the Something Something of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

Adebisi Shank released their second album (so imaginatively titled - I don't know how they came up with it) on Friday. My album review can (finally) be seen here.

The album is still available for streaming in full from Nialler9's blog, and it's well worth a listen or two. It took a while to grow on me, as I was so wedded to the frantic spasticness of the first record (and still am, really), but I'm glad they decided to break the mould and incorporate some new influences. Harmonically, it's miles ahead of the first record.

The record was officially launched the same night with a gig in Whelan's, which I couldn't attend because the entire world has conspired to destroy every opportunity for enjoyment in my life. Nay has a cracking review of the show up over at Harmless Noise, Alan Moore took some rather nice photees and the folks at Ruthless Imagery have put up a video of the set-closing stage invasion.

There was also a free gig on Monday night in Tower Records - I have no excuse for missing this, I just don't like going to gigs where I can't get muntered, and the football was on TV.

Here's my favourite track from the new album, 'Genki Shank':