Too Famous To Get Fully Dressed

One door closes...

2010-09-17T01:38:00.000+01:00

... another opens.

I've made the jump to Wordpress.

Mighty Stef album news

2010-09-13T16:29:00.004+01:00

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

2010-09-13T14:59:00.006+01:00

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'

2010-09-07T04:31:00.004+01:00

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

2010-08-28T03:38:00.003+01:00

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

2010-08-28T01:19:00.004+01:00

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

2010-08-24T03:10:00.004+01:00

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':

Eire Óg - 'Go On Home British Soldiers'

2010-08-23T01:32:00.003+01:00

I really have no words to explain why I like this song so much.

Critics may point out that the "IRA" chants at the start of the song, and the "you'll never ever beat the IRA" refrain, might potentially link the song with a terrorist organisation, I take a more liberal attitude. While it's true that a song celebrating the virtues of Hitler and the Nazis might be unpalatable, this song is more naive than it is fundamentally evil.

There's almost a nonchalance to the way singer Gary Óg (a Glasgow native) tosses out the words "go on home." As if it's not really real - as if the very real tensions that led to the hundreds of deaths in Northern Ireland are just a bit of craic.

Mask Mantra - 'Zombie' (Cranberries cover)

2010-08-23T01:12:00.003+01:00

This is a prelude to a longer post I'll be making, but this - Belfast band Mask Mantra covering the Cranberries' classic 'Zombie' - surely qualifies as one of the most awful things I've ever seen.

New BATS video: 'Star Wormwood'

2010-08-18T14:45:00.003+01:00

Given that it was recorded on a non-existent budget with a borrowed camera, this interstellar video for the one of the best tracks on 2009's Red in Tooth & Claw could probably be considered a massive success.

Pity I can never seem to get Vimeo to stream without a million hiccups, mind.

BATS - Star Wormwood from Digital Beast on Vimeo.

JimJim quits 2FM via hilarious video

2010-08-18T14:41:00.004+01:00

I say hilarious - I mean aggressively shit.

In hindsight, he'll probably regret naming himself after the most dreadful Star Wars character of them all.

Stray Cats - 'Be Bop A Lula' live in Paris

2010-08-14T19:34:00.003+01:00

Legend has it, the first time Elvis Presley's original band - Scotty Moore and Bill Black - heard Gene Vincent's 'Be Bop A Lula' on the radio, they were incensed. Vincent's voice was such a perfect approximation of Presley's tenor they were convinced he'd been moonlighting with other musicians.

Brian Setzer's always taken his cues from Eddie Cochran rather than Elvis or Gene, but this is a cracking performance of Vincent's classic from the Stray Cats' Live in Paris DVD from 1981.

Unfortunate reviews #1: Lady Gaga

2010-08-13T07:11:00.004+01:00

In my on-going effort to ensure that nobody is ever wrong about anything ever again ever, I'll be highlighting dramatically wrong predictions in the critical arts.

The inaugural entry in the series goes to Lauren Murphy of Entertainment.ie, who incorrectly wrote that:

'The Fame''s main problem is an obvious and fundamental one: it's simply too homogenous to have any huge significance on the musical landscape.

Unfortunately for Lauren, while I think her criticisms of the album are largely valid (though she doesn't give enough credit to just how funky a record it is), The Fame went on to profoundly alter the pop music landscape and Lady Gaga became the biggest pop star on the planet.

The legs of Tina Turner...

2010-08-13T06:42:00.007+01:00

Sensational quote from an interview with Fight Like Apes, on the subject of their new album The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner, in this week's Ticket:

A side effect of developing the thick skin needed to be in a polarising band such as Fight Like Apes is also the acquisition of a brass neck, something that came in handy when it came to the new album’s name. Permission to use [Tina Turner]’s moniker was granted relatively easy, but when it came to Turner’s trademark pins, it was another matter.

“We had to use someone else’s legs on the cover,” says Geraghty mock-incredulously. “She’s very precious about her own legs, apparently. We were like ‘What? We thought she’d be really into her legs being on an album cover again.’ ”

I haven't had a chance to fully digest the album having only just been granted access, but it does seem that it will have to be a grower rather than an instant hit.

Lead single 'Hoo Ha Henry' can be heard below, while another new track, 'Poached Eggs,' can be procured free in exchange for a tweet here.

Hoo Ha Henry by rubyworks

The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner is scheduled for release on August 27 via Model Citizen.

sigh's

2010-07-29T18:34:00.006+01:00

I can't believe that nobody has been shot for the decision to release a single named Sigh's. It would be one thing if it was some sort of ironic joke, but it just appears to be a case of a semi-literate band surrounding themselves with even semier-literate people.

The Revellions are launching the single in Sweeney's Bar on Dame St. on August 14th, but, seriously, if you don't bring a gun to the party you've probably wasted a good opportunity.

What's on Fintan O'Toole's iPod?

2010-07-24T03:57:00.004+01:00

Readers of my other blog will know I have strong opinions when it comes to the subject of Fintan O'Toole as a political analyst.

What I've never really considered is that Fintan started out as - and, indeed, was acclaimed as - an Arts critic. These days he confines himself mainly to the theatre and fine arts, so it was interesting to see him dip into pop music in this week's Culture section, for a hypothetical a Celtic Tiger musical.

I have to say I'm quite impressed.

There's some of the usual oul lad stuff like the Boomtown Rats and Smiths (former a bit dodgy, the latter very legit), but he had me at hello when he threw in Miley's 'Party In The USA':

Sung by Mary “Boston not Berlin” Harney, dancing with charts showing the Clinton boom: “Got my hands up, they’re playin’ my song/ And now I’m gonna be okay/ Yeah! It’s a party in the USA!/ Yeah! It’s a party in the USA!”

Even better, he also included Motley Crue, albeit the admittedly shit 'Planet Boom,' which even dedicated Crueheads have forgotten about. There was a recent Manics number, two (confusingly) from the Prodigy and Black Flag's 'Gimme Gimme Gimme.' But the best pick has to be Martha Wainwright's 'Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole':

Sung by the Plain People of Ireland as showers of excrement fall on their heads: “You bloody motherf***ing asshole(s)/ Oh you bloody motherf***ing asshole(s)/ Oh you bloody motherf***ing asshole(s).” Repeat ad infinitum.

Personally, I can't believe he missed 'Don't Stop Believing'...

Bad press releases #1: Victory Records

2010-07-23T04:55:00.003+01:00

I am continually astounded by the poor standard of writing in PR these days. In a new series entitled Bad Press Releases, I'm going to name and shame the worst offenders.

Exhibit #1: Ashley from Victory Records

Today’s premiere hardcore band, COMEBACK KID prepares for the release of their fourth studio album Symptoms + Cures on August 31.

1. "Premiere" is a noun - premier is the word you're looking for, and even so it doesn't really fit.

2. You need a second comma after "Kid".

3. You've confused your tenses. A band either prepares for its release or prepare for their release.

That's only the first sentence, but luckily I stopped reading at that point.

Congrats Nialler!

2010-07-16T20:06:00.004+01:00

Congratulations to nialler9 who's been welcomed into the Strangers in Stereo blog collective.

The rather lovely comic book art above is the handiwork of Belfast-based artist Left Overs and was designed specially for Niall's new podcast featuring HEALTH, Ratatatat and Oriol.

Adebisi Shank flyer

2010-07-14T23:05:00.003+01:00

This is just a fantastic flyer (via Harmless Noise).

On Road Records' closing

2010-07-14T22:09:00.004+01:00

Plenty has been written and plenty more words will be spilled over the coming days on the planned closure of Road Records, announced today.

A full statement has been posted on the shop's website, but this paragraph sums up the gist:

This time, I am sad to say, there is no alternative for us, we have literally tried everything in our powers to keep this place operating and nothing has worked for us. It hasn’t been an easy decision to make, if anything its even more difficult than two years ago, we have had amazing support from people but nothing we do seems to work anymore. With debts beginning to build again Julie and myself have finally decided that we cannot take any more risks personally and before things get any worse we will have to finally walk away from the shop for the last time.

Of course, much the same was said back in 2008, when owners Dave and Julie announced they'd close the shop for the first time, but they were persuaded to change their minds by the generous support (financial and otherwise) of the Dublin musical community and what appeared to be an altered business plan that would allow them to keep their heads afloat.

Unfortunately, little seems to have changed in the interim. The economy has continued to tank, people have even less disposable income and the owners have slipped further and further into debt. Personally, I had made a vow to shop there more often after the narrow escape last time, but in truth I've probably gone in there less.

The problem I always had with Road Records was its location, just off Drury St., was always a bit of a hassle to get to (it only really made sense for me when I worked nearby). I can understand why they'd stay there - they are a small business and rents are still ridiculous in this city - but I always felt that as long as the shop remained in that spot it was always doomed to failure.

Having said that, prime location didn't do much for Sentinel Records or Freebird, both of which have closed in recent months, so perhaps they did well to stick where they were. Hopefully Road Records can continue in some altered form (like Sentinel) in the future, but I don't think anyone would blame Dave and Julie if they decided to draw a line under the whole enterprise and move on with their lives.

It could be the album of the year...

2010-06-07T05:16:00.003+01:00

Cryptic article by Brian Boyd in this week's the Ticket.

It’s a stunning piece of work – one of the best things I’ve heard in the past five years. It’s by a big-name star – one of the biggest – but sorry, we’ve been asked not to say just yet. It’s not that there’s a veil of secrecy around the album, it’s more that nobody still really knows who played what or who wrote what on the album. News of the album’s later-this-year release date is out there, but details are weirdly scant. It will be top of many people’s album-of-the-year list, though.

So who is it?

He mentions that he listened to the album in "a city centre" and that members of the Australian press had flown over specially to listen to it. I'm guessing that means the listening event took place in London, so it's probably a British artist.

He says details are already out there, but they're "weirdly scant." I can't think off-hand.

But I just can't resist that Donegal accent...

2010-06-06T01:54:00.004+01:00

From Michelle Doherty's Wikipedia profile:

Musically she has expressed interest in a wide range of bands including Kings of Leon, The Raconteurs, Band of Horses, The Chemical Brothers and Róisín Murphy.

A "wide range".

KISS @ The O2, Friday May 7

2010-05-11T07:21:00.007+01:00

Eamon Sweeney appears to have mixed up KISS frontmen Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in his review of the New York band's Friday night show at the O2.

Gene Simmons has a habit of talking too much. That would be fine if he'd anything funny or interesting to say, but his onstage patter is restricted to banal platitudes that begin or end by bellowing, "Dublin!"

This wouldn't be quite so unfortunate, had he not earlier described each individual member's physical appearance in detail:

The Starchild (Paul Stanley), The Demon (Gene Simmons), The Spaceman (Tommy Thayer) and the Catman (Eric Singer) strut their stuff, rolling their tongues and generally behaving how a gloriously dumb rock band should.

Bit of consistency next time, please, Eamon.

Incidentally, my review of the same gig can be found at State.ie.

Picture courtesy of Loreana Rushe.

Oh dear

2010-05-10T08:22:00.004+01:00

It's always awkward when somebody who doesn't listen to rap music tries to appear knowledgeable on the subject.

Gerry Hassan, from a 2008 profile of Gil Scott-Heron, spoken word godfather and son of ex-Celtic footballer Gil Heron:

Scott-Heron’s work is politically conscious and emotionally literate — miles away from the bling and gun culture that characterises much of rap today.

Dude, it's not 1996 anymore. "Bling" hasn't been a word for almost a decade and the last gun in rap music died years ago with 50 Cent's ailing career.

Choice Music Prize Preview #10: The Swell Season

2010-03-03T07:33:00.005Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#10: The Swell Season - Strcity Joy (Anti-)

There'll be no Oscar this year for the Swell Season - first of all, they weren't in any films, and second of all the follow-up to the Once soundtrack retains little of the lustre without a story to propel it along.

There are generally two schools of thought on the Swell Season: one sees the collaboration of Frames mainman Glen Hansard (or "Outspan," as he should be known by everyone) and Czech musician Market Irglova as emotionally manipulative, diluted Damien Rice shit, and those who see them as the fulfillment of the potential Outspan only fleetingly hinted at with his band.

I tended to fall into the latter camp - particularly when Once was still a fresh memory - but Strict Joy doesn't really recreate any of the magic, and that has caused me to question whether I ever really liked it all, or whether I just liked the film and brought the music along for good measure. Of course, 'Falling Slowly' and 'When Your Mind's Made Up' are still fantastic songs, which makes it all the more disappointing that Strict Joy is stuffed with confused, bloated nonsense like 'Low Rising.'

The Swell Season will almost certainly miss out on the Choice Prize - in fact, in contrast to CODES, its very conclusion smacks of a compromise record that will feature on many lists, but prominently on none.

Choice Music Prize Preview #9: Laura Izibor

2010-03-03T07:10:00.003Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#9: Laura Izibor - Let The Truth Be Told (Atlantic)

Laura Izibor is the only one of this year's nominees to have produced her album with an audience primarily outside of Ireland in mind. She was groomed by the best US executives and producers to make an assault on the US nu-soul market, and while she didn't achieve that aim, she has produced a more-than-decent debut album that should be enough to guarantee her a second bite at the cherry.

Irish readers will doubtless be aware of Izibor's single 'Shine,' which has been the backdrop of countless Hibernian/Aviva ads over the past 18 months or so. It's a cracking tune to open any album, but it doesn't really set the tone, as the bulk of the album is more downbeat and introspective than the vivacious opener. Tracks like 'Don't Stay' and 'If Tonight Is My Last' are more representative - smart, if a bit over-blown laid-back soul tracks with plenty of melody to propel them along.

Izibor is undoubtedly a talented singer - and her singing is definitely the album's high point, as the production can be a little overbearing - but it's odd that she chooses to sing in such a strong American accent. Her pronounced underbite makes for a distinctive "shh" sound where an S would usually suffice, but it would still be nice to see her explore her own accent a bit more.

Nevertheless, Let The Truth Be Told is an accomplished record, and I have feeling that the strength of her vocal talent, the make-up of the judging panel and the recent domination of electronic artists might just make this Laura's year - she may have missed out on a Meteor, but I reckon she could be going home with a far more credible prize.

Choice Music Prize Preview #8: Valerie Francis

2010-03-03T06:56:00.005Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#8: Valerie Francis - Slow Dynamo (VF)

I make a lot of outrageous statements, but I'm fairly sure I can say without fear of rapproach that Valerie Francis is the only artists on this year's shortlist to be featured on Kanye West's own blog. Praise from Kanye's blog minions - is there any higher station in life?

Nevertheless, the Dubliner has made quite a name for herself in Irish music circles since the release of her debut album, Slow Dynamo, back in May, and has been installed as the bookies' favourite to win the 2009 Choicies. The album itself is lush and ethereal, mashing modern off-kilter electronics with more traditional instrumentation, including marching drums and blues harmonica on the Kanye-endorsed single 'Punches.'

Slow Dynamo is packed full of promise, and could well be a contender for the final award, but I'm not entirely convinced. She has all the makings of an artist who could scoop the award, but the past two years the prize has been won by an electronic artist and I think that may be just enough to swerve the judges away and towards something a little more traditional.

Valerie Francis - Punches from ξοgΙιαη κιdηεγ on Vimeo.

Choice Music Prize Preview #7: Julie Feeney

2010-03-03T06:28:00.006Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#7: Julie Feeney - Pages (Mittens)

Julie Feeney is the second past winner to adorn this year's Choice shortlist (a third, Super Extra Bonus Party, released an album this year but missed the cut), and one of three Galway acts.

Feeney worked for years as a contemporary classical composer and performerbefore releasing her first pop record, and it shows in both her 2005 Choice-winning 13 Songs and 2009's Pages, both of which are entirely self-recorded and produced. It's evident in the dense orchestration of 'Mr. Roving Eye Guy' and the rich layered vocals of 'Impossibly Beautiful.'

Pages is a fantastic record, and possibly more deserving of Choicie recognition than her debut. However, given that she's won the title before, and that she's likely to lose votes to similarly-styled ethereal pop musician Valerie Francis, Feeney is likely to miss out on this occasion.

Choice Music Prize Preview #6: The Duckworth Lewis Method

2010-03-03T05:57:00.009Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Duckworth Lewis Method (1969/Divine Comedy)

As one half of the Duckworth Lewis Method, Neil Hannon is one of two nominees this year to have won the award in years past: he won the award with the Divine Comedy in 2006 with Victory for the Comic Muse. In the Duckworth Lewis Method, he teams up with Dublin songwriter Thomas Walsh of Pugwash for a concept album about cricket - they released their first (and presumably last) record shortly before the Ashes last year.

The Duckworth Lewis Method starts well. It sounds more like a Neil Hannon album than it does a Thomas Walsh album: though the Dubliner takes up the vocal duties on cheery horn-driven single 'Age Of Revolution,' the Fermanagh man's more familiar vocals adorn the harpsichord swing of 'Gentlemen And Players.' However, for all of the virtues of the gentleman's game, the cricket theme starts to grate as the album goes on. There's only so long you can tolerate a track about facing the terrifying bowling attack of some legendary Aussie bloke - second time round, it's just irritating.

Nevertheless, Hannon has history in this competition and there's plenty of momentum behind the duo's "chamber pop" (I'm not entirely sure what that is but it seems to fit). Still, I think the judges will choose a first-time winner this year, and unfortunately for Thomas Walsh he won't be it.

Choice Music Prize Preview #5: Adrian Crowley

2010-03-03T03:58:00.006Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

Adrian Crowley - Season Of The Spark (Chemikal Underground)

(There's no particular reason why Adrian is 5th instead of 4th, except that I suck at the alphabet and screwed up)

Another man making his second appearance on a Choice shortlist, Galwegian Adrian Crowley has been knocking around the scene on both sides of the Atlantic for almost a decade now without quite getting the recognition he deserved, but his past few years have been almost universally acclaimed, although he is perhaps still awaiting his due in the commercial stakes.

Noted multi-instrumentalist that Crowley is, Season Of The Sparks balances sparse acoustic tracks with lush, organ-infused soundscapes and sweet melletron-driven numbers, but there's a satisfying consistency within the 10 tracks. This is brought about largely as a result of Crowley's steady, Nick Cave-like baritone and, it has to be said, a very prominent Leonard Cohen influence that is evident right from opening track 'Summer Haze Parade,' which bears some similarity to Cohen's 'Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye.'

While Season Of The Spark isn't the most original album in the world, it is perhaps the most original on the shortlist, and to my ears the most accomplished. Second time could well be lucky for Adrian Crowley and, for my money, it is between he and Laura Izibor for the gong. With Izibor unable to attend due to touring commitments in the US, could the time be night for the Galway singer to swoop?

Choice Music Prize Preview #4: Dark Room Notes

2010-03-03T03:36:00.006Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#4: Dark Room Notes - We Love You Dark Matter (Gonzo)

Following on from their excellent 2007 EP Dead Start Program, I had high hopes for Dark Room Notes' debut full-length, We Love You Dark Matter, released in April on the indie Gonzo Records.

Only two tracks, debut single 'Love Like Nicotine,' and 'Shake Shake My Ceiling' from the above-mentioned EP, were retained for the album recording sessions, which took place in London through late 2008. They arguably kept their two best tracks, but by the time the album came around, I was so attached to the originals that I found the increased production value a little difficult to embrace - the intricate, but relatively sparse, arrangements gave the originals a killer New Order/Depeche Mode vibe, but some of that was buried beneath the heavier arrangements on the album.

Similarly, the rest of the album seemed a little bit too slickly-produced and lacked the aloof cool that had made the EP and 'Love Like Nicotine' single so thrilling. Nevertheless, with top-drawer tracks like 'Let's Light Fires' and 'Each And Every One Of Us' thrown into the mixer, We Love You Dark Matter turned out to be one of the better pop albums released last year.

Dark Room Notes could be a decent outside bet for the Choice Prize, but I think they'll fall just short on this occasion. Their reviews have been glowing almost to the letter, but I'm not entirely convinced that this will be their year. We haven't heard the best of Dark Room Notes yet - they will surely make more accomplished albums than We Love You Dark Matter - and I think they have all the ingredients to wow the judges in 2 or 3 years.

Choice Music Prize Preview #3: CODES

2010-03-03T03:04:00.008Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

CODES - Trees Dream In Algebra (EMI)

CODES frontman Daragh Anderson is, vocally at least, a dead ringer for Geoff Rickley of US post-hardcore stalwarts Thursday, but the similarities stop dead right there. CODES play the stadium-sized variety of electronic rock that compares favourably with English piano douchebags Keane and calls to mind a softer, more sophisticated Muse.

One of two acts on the shortlist (the other is Laura Izibor) signed to a major label, CODES made serious commercial inroads in 2009, first opening for aforementioned douchebags Keane at their Irish dates in January and later sparking a bidding war that would end up in their signing to EMI Ireland. The inanely-titled Trees Dream In Algebra was released in September.

Much was made of them having recruited Manic Street Preachers Greg Haver to produce the record. It's confusing at first, but it makes perfect sense with the knowledge that Haver produced Lifeblood, the Manics' shittiest album to date, a brief flirtation with bleak, New Order-style electronics that was ditched almost as quickly as it took Nicky Wire to re-set his dress and Madonna wig.

Trees Dream In Algebra isn't so much bad as it is dull. The fact the tracks bleed together has been cited as a virtue, but to these ears it merely serves to reinforce the tortuous banality of the record. Too often the lack of melody is compensated for with excessive reverb and purposely "big" production, and the sporadic moments of inspiration are flattened by the same.

All in all, CODES' chances of scooping the prize must be ranked pretty low. As mentioned, the Choice judges have generally skewed away from mainstream records in deciding the overall winner, and CODES seems very much like the kind of record that would be hated by as many judges as would like it.

Choice Music Prize Preview #2: Bell X1

2010-03-03T02:34:00.005Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#2: Bell X1 - Blue Lights On The Runway (Belly Up)

Leaving the major label stable and forming your own indie doesn’t often work to raise a band’s profile, but in Bell X1’s case, that’s exactly how it transpired. A distro deal with US label Yep Roc (Paul Westerberg, Robyn Hitchcock) has substantially boosted the Dublin rockers’ profile on those shores, and Blue Lights on the Runway sees them gently and subtly expanding their horizons without losing the boat altogether.

The Talking Heads/post-punk influence on Blue Lights On The Runway is massive, all-consuming even, particularly on lead single ‘Great Defector (from which the title is taken), which apes the New York band's 'And She Was.' But there’s also a great deal of continuity in tracks like the electronic ‘The Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella’ and piano-driven ‘Blown In,’ both of which would sit comfortably beside material from 2006’s Flock.

Having said that, Blue Lights On The Runway suffers for long stretches from what we in the industry called "dullness" - large swathes of the album just fail to ignite the imagination, and they haven't helped themselves any by emphasising the synth/keyboard aspect and cutting back on the razor-sharp guitars and innovative percussion that made Flock, at times, a real treasure of an album.

With all that in mind, I'd rate the Bells' chances of picking up their first award (they were previously nominated, in 2005, for Flock) pretty slim. The popular acts tend not to get past the shortlist stage at the Choicies, and it's hard to see an album that is so obviously derivative get the nod ahead of more unique propositions (despite the populist bent of the judges).

Choice Music Prize Preview #1: And So I Watch You From Afar

2010-03-03T01:57:00.008Z

With the award of the Choice Music Prize 2009 mere hours away, I've taken it upon myself to present a preview of all ten nominees and their chances of scooping the €10,000 IRMA scholarship.

#1: And So I Watch You From Afar - And So I Watch You From Afar (Smalltown America)

It's been a year of great progress for Belfast four-piece And So I Watch You From Afar. After teasing us for a good three years, they finally put out their debut album, also named And So I Watch You From Afar on Derry-based Smalltown Records in April of 2009, and their brand of dynamic and abrasive instrumental rock earned them admirers on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the other side of the Pacific - or the Indian Ocean, depending on where you start from... Japan, basically.

Their debut album is a near-flawless amalgamation of all the great things they've been hinting at in recent years, and the highlights are too numerous to detail in full. However, opener 'Set Guitars To Kill' warrants a mention above them all, if only for sheer weight of a) an amazing title, b) that bone-crunching opening and c) the blistering finish. Other highlights include 'A Little Solidarity Can Go A Long Way' (isn't it so true that instrumental bands always have the quirkiest song titles?) and the phenomenal 'TheseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING.'

As for the group's chances of scooping the award... The momentum must surely be in their corner. They've booked a free show in the Mercantile Bar on Dame St. after the ceremony, so they'll be kicking up a fuss whether they win or not, but I feel they've got a genuine shot. They have perfect credibility - enthusiastic reviews across the board - and a genuinely hair-raising album, but they may suffer from the complete lack of Ulster-based judges on the panel.

Set Guitars To Kill:

My new favourite Irish band: Crystal Swing

2010-02-22T16:07:00.004Z

It's amazing that I've gone this long without hearing about Crystal Swing - they've completely changed my perspective on so many things (~~incest~~).

For the uninitiated, Crystal Swing are a mother/son/daughter trio from east Cork currently engaged in thrilling crowds at weddings and miscellaneous functions with a heady mix of (Irish) country and showband music. Son Derek and daughter Dearbhla duet on this track from their new album, an old country ballad entitled 'He Drinks Tequila.'

There are just so many things that are right about the video that I couldn't possibly list them all: the complete unsuitably of Derek's voice to his face and body type; the fact he alternates flirting with his sister and jumping in front of her with jazz hands; the fact that Mammy is clearly playing a totally different song to the one her kids are singing. It's all just perfect, and the production values are extraordinary.

2010-01-20T07:06:00.002Z

Hey, remember when In Rainbows had just come out and every publicist in the world felt it necessary to describe their token indie act as "RIYL: Radiohead"? Last year, it was Animal Collective, and this year, apparently, it's Jay Reatard. Happy days.

Meteor Awards 2010 Nominees

2010-01-12T14:35:00.003Z

I'm going to be honest, I don't give seven fucks about the Meteors.

Full list of nominees here, via State.

AFI - Crash Love

2009-09-23T18:29:00.002+01:00

I had a bad feeling about this record, coming as it did after the so-so Decemberunderground. It didn't make much of an impression at first, but after listening to it more closely, Crash Love turned out to be a big step up from the last record. 'Beautiful Thieves' may wind up being one of my favourite AFI songs to date.

From my review:

To call Decemberunderground an existential crisis might be a bit of an over-statement, but its effects were not lost on the band. Despite broadening their appeal substantially, Decemberunderground divided fiercely both the band’s casual and hardcore fan base. The Despair Faction will always keep the faith, but, even so, many were disillusioned by the changes. Though they’ve never explicitly admitted it, Jade and singer Davey Havok created the side-project Blaqk Audio as a vent for their electronic work in order to preserve AFI as a pop-punk project. As a result, Crash Love does sometimes feel like a step backwards, with loud echoes of 2003’s Sing The Sorrow and 2000’s Art Of Drowning, but they’ve also managed to incorporate enough new influences to keep things fresh, and the result is a far more subtle and accomplished record.

Read on...

The album was streaming in full on MySpace, but seems to have been downgraded to 30-second samples, but pick up a rather excellent unused track from Decemberunderground, 'Fainting Spells,' here.

Snoop Dogg: OWNED

2009-09-13T20:05:00.004+01:00

Snoop Dogg hasn't experienced a beatdown this horrific since the last time he was arrested for fighting at the airport.

From the the Fashion Fillers blog:

we also absorbed some Snoop Dogg rap, who was bragging about weed and a massive joint, which actually isn’t something to brag about as it’s legal.

Filed under: Snoop Dogg, Faux pas

BATS Album Stream

2009-09-09T22:44:00.005+01:00

Good bit of work went into this one, but it was well-worth it in the end. A great debut record from a great Irish band: stream Red In Tooth & Claw in its entirety at Sputnikmusic.

Virulent post-hardcore combines with the ruthless pursuit of scientific progress on Red In Tooth & Claw, the debut full-length record of Irish five-piece BATS. Emerging from the exciting stable of young acts at underground Dublin label the Richter Collective (Adebisi Shank, Marvins Revolt), BATS make their motives crystal clear from the outset: the first three songs tackle, in turn, theoretical physics, exploding stars and frontal lobe epilepsy, and that's just the warm-up. Might wanna make a pot of coffee before getting into this one.

Typical influences like Pixies, Circle Takes The Square and Don Cab are easily apparent, but dig deeper and you'll find smatterings of Faith No More, sprinklings of the Melvins and even the odd Maiden-esque galloping guitar riff, while a subtle electronic funk influence ensures a danceability factor underpins the entire experience.

Download: BATS - 'Credulous! Credulous! (MP3)

Buy link: Richter Collective

Worst headline ever

2009-08-29T20:38:00.006+01:00

Cheers to the Irish Times for this turd:

Oasis definitely, maybe split as Noel quits

Despite the unbearably straight-laced need to break up the (terrible) pun with punctuation, it's just all-round awful. Uck.

In celebration of Oasis's temporary break-up, here's one of the band's lesser-known singles in arguably its best form, live and Noelified.

Update: HAHAHA they changed the title. Evidently somebody agreed with me.

Frank Turner on illegal downloading

2009-08-27T06:55:00.008+01:00

There's something eminently lovable about Frank Turner.

First of all, he's a protest singer, but he's not a socialist- a fact he is at pains to point out given the relative oddity of his position. Second, he regularly gets involved in slagging matches with his- how shall I put it?- leftier internet fans. Third, he's actually a pretty good musician.

Oh, and he knew Prufrock before he was famous.

Turnere's latest foray into pissing off his fans/friends/everyone was a seemingly innocent re-tweet of a hilarious (and insightful) satirical article in the Daily Mash poking fun at file-sharing proponents that quickly got more heated.

Later, he gathered his thoughts and wrote this rather measured refutation of the increasing numbers who not only refuse to pay for music, but don't even understand why it's necessary to do so in the first place.

It's all well-worth a read, but I've pulled a couple of key passages out for emphasis:

et's put it this way: recording isn't free, instruments aren't free, session players, producers, engineers, artists aren't free. My time isn't free either - I work hard and I expect to get paid for it. Maybe we are heading for a world in which all recorded music is free, but if so, be prepared for gig and T-shirt prices to rise.

This is a favoured claim of the anti-copyright movement: "musicians make all their money from touring anyway" "I won't buy the album but I'll buy a t-shirt instead" etc. The fact is that all record contracts aren't the same, and while many artists make no money from record sales, others rely on sales and advances to pay for tours. Other artists make music that simply doesn't translate to a live setting.

the idea that by stealing music from the internet you're somehow crusading for justice against the big bad record labels is absolute fucking bullshit and needs to be stamped out. Britney Spears and David Geffen aren't going to downsize their condo's [sic] because you didn't pay for a Fugazi album. The people hit first and foremost are the low-level workers in the industry and smaller or independent artists. Telling yourself otherwise is, in my opinion, more often than not a lame attempt to salve a guilty conscience.

Impeccable logic, again, and phrased so well that it just demands to be quoted.

Anybody who's even worked on the edge of the music industry (as I have for some years) can tell you that the number of people you deal with on a day-to-day basis is declining, while the number of actual working musicians seems to grow exponentially. Look at the massive lay-offs in EMI and Warner over the past couple of years, or the (hopefully temporary) demise of Touch & Go Records as a publisher of new music.

Telling yourself otherwise is, in my opinion, more often than not a lame attempt to salve a guilty conscience.

This is worth quoting again.

But it's point number three that hammers home the utterly bizarre logic of those who hold up the Pirate Bay et al. as crusaders of modern morality.

This brings me onto point three: most people don't know very much about the mechanics of the music industry, but feel qualified to theorize about its economics at length.

Give this man a prize and bag full of money. Now, I'm not suggesting for a second that a) all musicians are expert on the economics of the industry, or b) all musicians are in the same boat as Mr. Turner.

But you have to take a step back and ask yourself who you are prepared to put your trust in: the musicians who deal with record industry politics day in-day out, watching the cash flowing in and out of their bank accounts, or the faceless logician behind a laptop screen in Sweden? It should be a simple choice.

Now, to digress for a moment:

Having worked in the music industry for a few years, I do a fair bit about it, and I think illegal downloading is a bad thing. As a point of proof, find me any indie record store or independent artist who thinks that file-sharing is a boon for them and their career. QED.

This is broadly true, but not strictly true. Coming from a PR perspective, it's not too hard to identify the artists who do benefit from illegal downloading, and many of whom do little to discourage it.

It's hard to imagine Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion making such a dent in the charts this year had it not been for massive blog buzz building all through late 2008. Ditto Person Pitch in 2007, or, let's just come out and say it- Girl Talk. Post-hardcore spazzes the Kidcrash were screwed over by their first label and few years ago, and have found the perfect way to get back at them: posting their entire first album (and the rest) for free (illegal) download.

So I'd just add a caveat to Turner's argument, one that he kind of hints at making himself: that the benefit of copyright ownership and whatnot isn't just the economics of how many records you sell, it's the fact that you can control the superficial aspect of how your music is distributed.

If The Kidcrash want to post all their music online for free, it's their perogative. Nobody would begrudge them the right, and they may even make some money from it (though it's not their motivation). Frank Turner, however, is a working musician who would rather like to make a career of the thing that he does so well. And good luck to him.

Frank Turner's third album, Poetry Of The Deed, is scheduled for release on September 7 (UK) via Xtra Mile and September 8 (US) via Epitaph.

Download 'The Road' from Poetry Of The Deed here.

Ghostface wears ugly clothes

2009-08-11T02:41:00.002+01:00

Seriously... baggy AND the colour of a filthy carpet?

Richter Collective Singles Club: Adebisi Shank & And So I Watch You From Afar

2009-07-30T12:17:00.003+01:00

Continuing today's Richter theme, I just had to post this insanely awesome promo poster for tonight's Richter Collective singles club launch:

It's something, innit?

Tonight's gig, which geography will not permit me to attend, is the first in a regular series of events on the last Friday of each month. Tonight's will feature instrumental rock powerhouse Adebisi Shank (from Wickla) and And So I Watch You From Afar (from Derry). The first 200 people in the door will get a free split cassette tape featuring new songs from both artists as well as a "lucky bag" (how lucky is yet to be determined).

You can hear one of the Shank's new songs, 'Oyasumi,' on MySpace right now.

I'll be sure to hit up subsequent nights, except for next month when I still won't be there.

BATS: Interview with Rupert Morris

2009-07-30T12:10:00.005+01:00

My interview with the delightful Rupert Morris of BATS has been posted over at Sputnikmusic. I've just become privy to the band's Kurt Ballou-produced debut album, Red, Tooth & Claw, and let me tell you it's a corker...

We’re well used to punk and hardcore bands raging against authority. Big business, big government, big bailouts... you name it, Anti-Flag have called it a fascist and written a song about it. By comparison, big Creationism doesn’t have quite so many enemies. Perhaps it’s because most lefty, musician-y types are more likely to be found ready Chomsky than Dawkins, and preach the gospel of class war rather than natural selection. Maybe it’s because the evolutionary theory is just a little bit 19th Century for today’s palette. Or maybe it’s because, for the vast majority of right-thinking people, the universal acceptance of the scientific method is a foregone conclusion.

Dublin post-hardcore-ish types BATS are under no such illusions. As singer/guitarist Rupert Morris explained to me, science is still under attack from the right and the left, and it’s apathy that allows the likes of (famed Young Earth Creationist) Kent Hovind and Mike Huckabee to avert young eyes from unnecessary distractions like reason and truth. “One of the main aims of BATS [...] is to fight against the rise in popularity of anti-science and pseudo-science like astrology, homeopathy, faith healing, psychics and other new age/old age practices." The band's name, no less, is a homage to the animal that opponents of evolution often declare to be too complex to have come about by "chance."

Read the full interview here.

R.I.P. Cork City

2009-07-28T06:56:00.004+01:00

A sad day for Irish football as, barring a last-minute rescue package, the club will be officially dissolved on Friday, the latest victim of the credit crunch and mismanagement. Story of this country at the mo.

Cork City facing closure (Irish Times)

Those New Weezer Songs Haven't Gone Down Well

2009-07-27T22:56:00.006+01:00

The live premiere of two new Weezer tracks, entitled 'I'm Your Daddy' and 'The Girl Got Hot,' has already generated some controversy in the indie rockosphere, with no less than Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney venting her dissatisfaction in a blog entitled "Weezer: The Ultimate Novelty Band."

Brownstein wrote: "I don't know if Weezer hates its fans or just the (apparently) stifling concept of sincerity, but you should listen to these two new songs if you weren't already convinced of Weezer's contempt for music."

I'm not entirely sure why this annoys me so much.

I am not, and have never been, a fan of Weezer. Aside from the odd track here and there, their navel-gazing nerd pop has never really done it for me, and even their efforts to transform themselves into something resembling a fun rock band with 'Beverly Hills' have been a total failure. Not least because the latter song sits uncomfortably close to the Marvelous 3's criminally underrated 'Grant Park.'

Back on topic, I think it's the indie rock notion of "sincerity" (as interpreted by me) that irks me most. I listened to the two new tracks with somewhat of a closed mind and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the melodies (if not the turgid lyrics, but that seems to be par for the course)- it's definitely a step up from 'Beverly Hills.'

I guess I just find something uncomfortable about calling into question a group's "sincerity" or credibility or whatever else based on a couple of pop songs. I love pop music- it's there to be enjoyed, and if that means more light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek lyrics or a less intellectual approach, I think there's as much room for that as there is the more introspective music they made their name with.

'I'm Your Daddy'

'The Girl Got Hot':

Popmatters On Vibe's Demise

2009-07-26T22:59:00.004+01:00

There's an interesting article in Popmatters on the topic of Vibe magazine. the main focus of the article is the question of what its demise means for both black cultural criticism and hip hop in general, but it does hit on some universal themes too, such as the declining fall in demand for paid cultural criticism.

I can't comment too much on the African-American angle as it's not my bag, but one point did jump right out for me:

"The Internet has been an important component in bringing so many more voices to light—voices that were largely ignored a generation ago—but the democratization of criticism has undermined the value of cultural and critical expertise. Thus figures like Stanley Crouch and John McWhorter can be pitched as credible critics of hip-hop culture, though neither man has expertise on the subject."

I can't ever remember being impressed by the likes of the Source or Vibe, mainly because the articles have always felt like fluff pieces, while the reviews fall too often on the side of cheerleading. Generalising, I know. Still, it's a sore state of affairs when much of the better hip hop criticism out there comes from people with very little understanding of the genre.

Aw shit...

2009-06-29T04:26:00.000+01:00

... now my previous Michael Jackson post just looks tacky.

Quote Of The Week/Month/Year

2009-04-27T21:31:00.004+01:00

"It is amazing how everytime Michael is mentioned in the media with regards to music, his back catalog gets a boost in sales. Which tells me that there are a ton of new/young folks out there who are still learning about who Michael really is. He keeps touching the new generations."

- MJJCommunity.com

BATS @ The Lower Deck, Portobello

2009-03-17T00:31:00.003Z

Yours truly was the ringmaster behind State's recent review of the BATS album recording fundraiser at the Lower Deck on February 21, as well as the cameraman behind the remarkably shitty image you see above you.

I also snagged an interview the following day with frontman Rupert Morris (the other members seem alright with leaving all the speaking to him): more on that in the coming days.

In the meantime, enjoy a rather good video of the new track 'Shadowfucker,' recorded at the same show, that I snagged from the gloriously-named Handjob Films on a series of tubes:

Introducing.... The Lonely Island

2009-02-09T06:00:00.004Z

My stateside readers (for Google Analytics tells me there are at least three of you) will, hopefully, need no introduction to the Lonely Island, but for the rest of us some introduction is necessary.

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is something of an institution in the US. It's been the breeding ground for some of America's most successful comedians- Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers (Canadian, but we don't know the difference), the aunt off Sabrina The Teenage Witch and many more!- and, indeed, it was from an SNL short that the idea for Wayne's World was formed.

SNL also has a reputation of not being particularly funny. At least, I don't find it particularly funny. One constant stream of awesome, though, is cast member Andy Samberg, who is probably better known as the curly bloke from Hot Rod, if he's known at all. He, along with writing partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, form the Lonely Island, a filmmaking collective-turned-rap group without whom my life would probably be a lot less dull.

What I love about the Lonely Island is that they're not just a bunch of sheltered Jewish blokes with no understanding of the genre taking off rap cliches from the comfort of their bedrooms.

They're a bunch of sheltered Jewish blokes who not only love rap music, but are actually talented enough that they can take off its worst excesses without coming across as condescending. From their bedrooms. With T-Pain. Need I say more? I won't.

The Lonely Island feat. T-Pain - 'I'm On A Boat'

The Lonely Island - 'Jizz In My Pants'

The Lonely Island feat. Justin Timberlake - 'Dick In A Box'

The Week In Bad Grammar

2009-02-01T05:06:00.009Z

Two pieces in the Irish Times this week that touch on the history of blackface minstrelsy: Peter Crawley's piece on a Chicago production of 'The Emperor Jones' fronted by a woman in blackface; and Fintan O'Toole (he of Question & Answers fame) penning an uncharacteristically interesting article about the attempts to claim Obama as an Irishman via the rather nauseating anthem 'There's No One As Irish As Barack Obama.' There must have been a really good book on minstrelsy laying around the break room.

///

For the benefit of those who happened to miss the album's review in the Huddersfield Post, Fight Like Apes' debut long-player ... And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion was properly released in the UK earlier this week. Their lack of press coverage in the England is a little surprising considering, by all accounts, they've made serious inroads on the domestic market there, but they'll appear at Texas' SXSW for the second time next month and are already in receipt of impressive press stateside.

I'm still not sold on the album, but I would be some sort of Uncle Tom if I didn't acknowledge the brilliance of latest single 'Tie Me Up In Jackets.' Perhaps it has something to do with my childhood as a TCC-addicted shut-in. Perhaps it's the unusually straightforward guitar intro. More than likely, it's the band's epic single 'Jake Summers' that gives me a fond sense of mid-nineties nostalgia every time I hear the band, and this song in particular.

There's a video! It's animated and epic, not necessarily in that order. Here it is:

Fight Like Apes - Tie Me Up In Jackets (MP3)

Farwell then, ambassador man

2009-01-21T01:10:00.004Z

An interesting opinion piece published in the Irish Times yesterday, by the outgoing US Ambassador, Thomas Foley. Foley is a Bush appointee who’s evidently seen Obama’s ascendancy (and his own impending marriage) as a cue to get out and back into the private equity game. I won’t slate him for being a Bush appointee, and I have no idea how good or bad an ambassador he was, but I couldn’t help be struck by a couple of keen insights from his parting gift, an occasionally hilarious open letter to whoever it is that reads the Times these days.

He criticises the Irish cynicism towards political institutions. A little naive, especially taking into account the past year or so, but it is probably informed as much by that innate American idealism as anything else. His knowledge of Irish history is surprisingly good, though, especially when he asks a fairly obvious question about our weird obsession with permanent neutrality:

For reasons that made sense at the time, Ireland didn’t choose to enter into an alliance with Britain during the Second World War. There was no historical or cultural precedent for Ireland’s neutrality – it was merely circumstantial. Circumstances having changed, and yet, acceptance of neutrality as a long-term policy persists.

It’s not often I find myself agreeing with either a Bush Republican or Kevin Myers, but Myers’s has long asked very similar questions and, give or take a gratuitous over-the-top statement or five, he's always more or less on the money. It’s a dogma that continues to bemuse most foreign commentators, and its powerful grip on the Irish psyche was brought up once again during the Lisbon debate, when the threat to our neutrality was offered as valid criticism of the Treaty. Like many of Libertas’s talking points during the campaign, it wasn’t just a distortion, it wasn’t even a good point to begin with.

But he raises another good point that I hadn’t really thought of. He reckons that Ireland’s bargaining power in the world is weakened by our self-enforced neutrality. Most people seem to agree that Ireland should have some role to play as a peacekeeper in places like Chad and the Sudan, but could our unwillingness to properly ally ourselves with the US and a militarised Europe screw us in the future? If the pathetic posturing over flights through Shannon and the like continues to get nods of approval from the Irish public, is it so impossible that one day somebody will call bullshit on our not so moralistic stance?

Choice Music Prize Nominees

2009-01-14T19:14:00.005Z

The nominees for the 2008 Choice Music Prize have been unveiled, and already the backlash has started, with Jim Carroll’s blog the host of a veritable food and drink feast of backlash, where instead of getting drunk and falling about, they just get upset and hate on the Script some more.

But, I mean, is it really all that bad? Having listened to (and reviewed) the Script, I can’t claim to be a mega-fan, but what exactly is the Choice prize supposed to reward? From what I can see, it’s a fairly open remit the judges are given and, as long as the album fits the timeframe and the requisite level of Irishness, anything goes. Surely, then, pop music has as much of a place as any other genre? The list's main flaw is fairly obvious- it's a "best of Irish" list with no trad!- but I don’t see how completely overlooking the one breakout pop album of the year would have improved things any. Perhaps it would make room for another bedroom electronic album, but apart from that...

Having said all that, I sort of agree... I just happen to think that the Script are one of the more eclectic choices on thar list. I’m no tokenist, but I have to question just how varied some of these judges’ tastes are. I’ll admit I don’t like all of the artists but, regardless of merit, surely there is no need for all of Halfset, RSAG, David Holmes and Jape? They're just too similar. Of all the music released this year, would a truly eclectic jury have plumped for both Mick Flannery and Lisa Hannigan, the latter of whom appeared on the former’s album? Perhaps Ireland just produces an inordinate amount of such music, but it’s still surprisingly narrow.

Given the people involved, I’d have been hopeful of seeing Adebisi Shank’s mind-blowing This Is The Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank and Heathers’ equally brilliant Here, Not There on the shortlist (if not lifting the award!). I’m aware that the Adebisis play a form of music that probably doesn’t appeal to everybody (the same can be said for the band I’m currently listening to, Primordial, who produced for my money the extreme metal album of 2007 and were overlooked), but shouldn’t allowances be made so that niche albums are as well-represented as critics’ darlings? So that, even if Adebisi weren't deemed worthy, then at least one other curveball would have a chance of making it.

I should close by reiterating that I think it’s an excellent group of albums and that, if nothing else, the furore that’s been created over the final list only serves to highlight the scope of excellent music produced in Ireland this year. Now can I hear it for MJEX?!?!!?

That list of nominees in full:

Fight Like Apes, Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion
Mick Flannery, White Lies
Halfset, Another Way Of Being There
Lisa Hannigan, Sea Sew
David Holmes, The Holy Pictures
Jape, Ritual
Messiah J And The Expert, From The Word Go
Oppenheimer, Take The Whole Mid-Range And Boost It
R.S.A.G., Organic Sampler
The Script, The Script

The Choice Music Prize

About Bono's New York Times Debut...

2009-01-12T05:59:00.006Z

"I've never been great with the full stops or commas. Let's see how far we can take this," admits Bono in the news releases unveiling his new op-ed column (published today) in the New York Times. He’s a fucking demon with the colons, though, judging by the donkey he randomly plumps in the middle of the first paragraph. I guess it’s true about sub-eds being the first to go in a downturn.

Yet it’s not so much Bono’s grammar that gripes me- I throw in pointless colons all the time and nobody seems that cut up about it. It doesn’t even bother me (that much) that his writing style seems to have been influenced entirely by Rolling Stone articles about himself. It is that pretentious, but it’s not that surprising. I mean, having been exposed to the guy’s music for my entire life, it’s hardly a major shock that he’d try and force the same kind of pompous grandiosity into every sentence and paragraph.

Like the way, all of a sudden, the sentences become fragments towards the end.

Of a paragraph.

Still, what bothers me, and what I think should bother any Irish person (not the intended audience, granted, but this is freely available online), is that he clearly thrives on his “Oirishness,” but in the context of the article that’s about as relevant as what he ate for breakfast. Or drank for dinner. Is there some greater point to a couple of vague observations about recession-era Dublin (which, sorry, he has absolutely no concept of) interspersed with a mildly interesting anecdote about how he was friends with Frank Sinatra “before he was dead” (not an actual quote.)? And another thing: since when does the private area in Lillie’s count as “the crush in a Dublin pub”? Fuck me.

I know we Irish have an elevated opinion of ourselves and our importance in the world and, as much fun as it is to vote No on Lisbon and watch the rest of Europe squirm, we’re ultimately an irrelevant island on the edge of Wales. Still, it would be nice if one of our very few exports could talk about the country in anything other than abstract, distant terms. He even uses “Celtic Tiger” as an actual noun . Who does that? Ever? The New York Times is a middle-class American newspaper- not exactly the worst hit by the US recession, but certainly an audience that is likely to identify with a realistic portrait of cutbacks and job losses in another country bearing the worst of the financial crisis.

He could have used this opportunity to talk about how unemployment is threatening to double within the space of a year; about how employees in the civil service and the private sector are living in unceasing fear of spending cuts and redundancies; about how the first name on the budget’s cutback list was overseas aid, when we’re one of the few nations, however insignificant, to provide effective humanitarian aid to the people who need it most. He could even have chosen to address the effects of the crunch on print media, where career journalists are being squeezed out so some disconnected rock star can shit on a piece of paper and call it copy. Fat chance!

But the point still stands: why bring up Dublin and the recession if all you’re going to do is point an easy finger at bankers and builders? Anyone can do that. I hate to bring up Bono’s personal finances (I love to bring up Bono’s personal finances), but since when do people who’ve shifted the bulk of their earnings to tax shelters abroad get to lecture everybody else on nefarious forces within our economy? Is it too much to ask that somebody as influential as Bono could actually come up with an incisive point or, preferably, just shut the fuck up?

I mean, fair play, he actually lives here, unlike most moderately successful Irish people. But for all intents and purposes, the Ireland Bono envisions is the same bullshit land of saints and scholars that every jumped-up emigrant and trashy airport novelist envisions: an island of stout-swilling budding artistes who could quote you passages from Yeats quicker than you could fart yet, bizarrely, harbour a deep-seated belief in Leprechauns and the healing power of mystical stones. If he lives in the same city as me, then I must be the most unobservant dickhead going. And I don’t think I am.

I admit it, I was never going to react favourably to this article. Bono makes my skin crawl, and I make no apology for that fact. Nevertheless, as an Irish person training into a field in which job prospects are virtually zero, and working in a field in which they’re rapidly receding, it’d be nice if our self-appointed ambassador had something to say other than “I’m famous!”

Bring back Roy Keane. Fuck.

Butch Walker - 'The Weight Of Her'

2008-11-12T04:21:00.004Z

Georgia's finest songwriter (yes, finer than Kelly Rowland) Butch Walker releases his fourth solo album Sycamore Meadows today.

His first proper album since getting off the major label thing and going independent, Sycamore Meadows is Walker's document of a year in which his house, along with basically everything he and his wife owned, was burned down in the Malibu bush fires and basically required him to start over (or as one of the album's best track explains, taught him "the difference between going back and going home").

Clearly, there was a lot more going in Walker's life around this period as, while many of the album's best moments, such as the aforementioned highlight, centre around losing everything, a lot of the album could be termed as break-up music, songs about lost love and a relationship close to breaking point. The best example of this is the gorgeous 'Here Comes The...' (stream here), which is almost without doubt at this point my favourite Butch song of all times, but it's raucous pop rock upon which Butch has made his name, and he's kindly made the album's lead track 'The Weight Of Her' available for free download from a bunch of web sources.

'The Weight Of Her' could almost be a lost gem from Elvis Costello's classic era amped up with modern recording techniques and Butch's inimitably superior vocalisin' skills. As with any Butch record you could care to mention (provided you don't care to mention the early ones), the production is very clean, very polished, but it only serves to underline the fact that polished doesn't necessarily mean lifeless. The arrangement is vibrant and full-sounding, propelled by jangly acoustic chords and heaving hammond organ, while the chorus screams out: "Don't let the weight of her world bring you down / Don't let her walk in the room and turn you inside out / Don't let the touch of her hand bring you down / No not now, no not ever."

Butch Walker - The Weight Of Her (Power Ballad Records)

Bonus download, for US residents only I'm afraid!

Butch Walker - That Side Of You (Power Ballad Records)

Dark Room Notes - 'Oh How Your Roses Wither Fast'

2008-11-12T03:00:00.007Z

I've been playing around with a couple of different layouts in an attempt to classy the place up a bit. Let me know if it looks great/terrible/vomit-inducing/you can't see it.

I tend to respond very well to things like good news and free music, and conveniently enough this post fits very neatly into both categories.

Dark Room Notes are a Galway-born, Dublin-based electronic foursome that have been on my radar since last last year, when their fairly spectacular mini-EP Dead Start Program fell into my lap (i.e. my floor, via the postman). It looked a little arty from the outside, what with all the photography references and the wicked cover shot, and the music is pretty much exactly that: airy, New Order-style synth pop with a heavy grounding in indie rock via the early goth bands.

They've just announced that they're more or less finished with their debut album and will be mixing it the rest of this month. I can't wait to see what they come up with, but on the basis of their first single 'Love Like Nicotine' and the EP that followed, it's threatening to be something fairly spectacular. Even the title, 'Love Like Nicotine'- it's the kind of subtlety most people (namely me) could only ever dream of, and that's before it's even begun.

The band have put their entire catalogue (to date) up for free download on last.fm, although unfortunately they seem to have botched the upload of 'Love Like Nicotine' in favour of some operatic bullshit! In its stead, enjoy 'Oh How Your Roses Wither Fast' (think the Killers circa Hot Fuss) and then download/buy the rest!

Dark Room Notes - Oh How Your Roses Wither Fast (Gonzo Records)

Various tracks @ Last.fm

Chinese Democracy Enforced Widget Thingie

2008-11-02T03:34:00.005Z

I've thusfar been resisting the temptation to download Chinese Democracy.

It hasn't exactly been difficult given that it's supposedly ultra-low-quality and full of blips and shit (GN'R leakers- they like to fuck with you), but the reports so far have been excellent.

For its part, the lead "single" (it's still not available to purchase, which is a bit retarded) 'Chinese Democracy' has grown exponentially in my estimation ever since the first demo leaked a couple of years ago. It was one of the first songs the new band had performed live, and I'd always been indifferent to the various bootleg recordings, but the finished recording really benefits from the studio polishing.

The main guitar riff still veers perilously close to the Beverley Hills 90210 theme, but the tasty slides are give it a machine-like, quasi-industrial feel that, unlikely though it is, works, and the harsh vocals are sublime. The minute of ambience either side of the track proper are a bit distracting and will probably work better in the context of an album than a single (then again, when has Axl ever known how to market anything?), but it's a pretty excellent tune all the same.

p.s. sorry for the enforced auto-stream- I have no idea how to stop it.

FROWNYFACE: BATS Split Single Delayed

2008-11-02T02:32:00.005Z

Bad news for fans of experimental post-hardcore and Darwinian mayhem in general: BATS' split 7" with US new wavers Fist Fite, originally scheduled for a Halloween release, has been delayed until next January.

Here's BATS' Conor McIntyre trying to pretend this bad news is good news (not for me!): "Okay, here's the deal. Our label just signed a new distribution deal with plastichead and big scary monsters for full UK and Irish and European distribution! Which is great as the record will hit ALL shops over these shores on its release date. They've also agreed to pay our mastering costs(which is good cos we are broke!)

"The bad news is the new distributor and PR company needs finished records three months in advance before release. Which means that a halloween release is out of the question but that when it is released (late January) it will be on a much bigger scale."

In the meantime, enjoy Fist Fite's twin contributions, 'Dead In A Mile' and 'Space Whisper,' that were posted to MySpace in a timely manner (>:o).

Fist Fite @ MySpace.

Messiah J & The Expert Album Preev

2008-10-10T15:34:00.006+01:00

I don't know why but I just love that picture. The old "skittles falling out of the sky" motif isn't quite as popular as it used to be- for shame.

Messiah J & The Expert, who I'd personally consider the best act operating out of Ireland today, release their new single 'Megaphone Man' today and to celebrate, they've given us (aka Sputnikmusic) the opportunity to present five new tracks from the album for your streaming pleasure. I met with Messiah John on Tuesday for a short interview that turned into a long interview, and I have to say he was lovely, and genuinely modest in that Irish (i.e. not Chris Martin) sort of way.

Enjoy the sexy streams, with full explanations from Messiah J, here and read the interview while you're at it.

The Free State Lives! Long Live The Free State!

2008-10-05T01:07:00.002+01:00

I fell in love with Kings Of Leon's 'Sex On Fire' almost the moment I set ears on it, which is weird since I've spent the best god-knows-how-many years comfortably hating the shit out of them. I even sat through their set at Lollapalooza with a look of mild annoyance on my face before catching the second half of the Stooges' set, which is arguably the second worst thing ever to happen to me, behind the accompanying album.

Which pointless anecdotes brings me to the major news of the day (last Thursday, to be exact)- State Magazine has officially relaunched as a freezine, joining the likes of Analogue, Connected and Totally Dublin in the realms of magazines I've heard are free but have never actually seen anywhere. The cover does, indeed, feature Kings Of Leon, but the bulk of the content is refreshingly Irish, boasting interviews with Fight Like Apes, the Blizzards and Messiah J & the Expert (more on them later- I have... news).

Jim Carroll points out that this might be more to do with the high volume of quality Irish releases since the paid magazine bowed out last month, but even my reviews- Halset and Super Extra Bonus Party- are among the more high-profile in a very, very cool reviews section.

I will hunt down and kill whoever gave Miley Cyrus 1/5 though.

Cruise over to State.ie for a gander at the snappy online viewer, or look out for the magazine at a bunch of hotspots around Dublin and the other major cities. Alternatively, subscribe from anywhere in the world for the price of postage!

Free MP3: Adebisi Shank - You Me

2008-10-05T00:52:00.010+01:00

I have spent much of the last month digging the fuck out of a new record by Wexford's Adebisi Shank called, funnily enough, This Is The Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank

Much of this time time has been spent figuring out how exactly to describe them: post-hardcore seems like the most obvious choice, but the actual hardcore influence is hard to actually pick out. Rather, they're probably best described as instrumental fucked-uppery (the only vocals on the album are well-disguised behind a vocoder) that takes the insanity of shred guitar and makes it the primary melodic voice in some sort of jazz-influenced hard rock power trio.

The album itself gets a little repetitive after a while- it will be interesting to see if they attempt anything longer than 21 minutes in the future- but technically it's rip-the-head-off stuff and the closest you'll ever get to bonding with those pricks in school who listened to Steve Vai records and claimed to enjoy them.

Adebisi Shank - You Me
Adebisi Shank - Snakehips

Duff McKagan & Loaded: Interview Posted

2008-10-04T05:39:00.008+01:00

I had the pleasure of meeting an idol last Friday in the form of ex-Guns N'Roses/current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan, on tour with his side-project Loaded, for whom he sings and plays a bit of guitar.

Loaded were in Dublin as part of a whirlwind European tour to promote their new EP Wasted Heart and I got the chance to sit down with Duff and fellow founder member, drummer Geoff Reading. I have to say both of the lads were gentleman and we had a great chat about the important issues in life, namely Metallica, record label politics and the new Girls Aloud video.

Slash recently claimed that his solo album might be released before Velvet Revolver have found a singer. Do you think the new Loaded record will be out before the new VR singer is found?

Duff: It could be. I mean, I don’t know when we’re going to find a singer.

It’s not going well?

Duff: It’s not that it’s not going well... it’s more that there are so many singers that have turned in stuff. I think we’ve realised that there’s no rush. It’s like, get the perfect guy. To be honest, I’m focusing on this right now. Slash is going to do his Santana record...

Read the full interview here.

With an album due for release in the new year, Loaded will likely be back to Dublin within the year, and if lead single 'No More' is anything to go by, the album is going to be an absolute belter. Those familiar with Duff's work with mid-90s supergroup Neurotic Outsiders (featuring Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, Duran Duran bassist John Taylor and Guns drummer Matt Sorum) will find much to like about the no-nonsense swampy power pop of 'No More,' but for me the highlight is the extended outro, during which Duff sings: "why'd you have to break your bond and throw it away / I still love you"

Loaded - No More (mp3)

Pete Wentz Vs, Censorship: Round One

2008-09-26T05:21:00.004+01:00

I say "Round One" more out of hope than expectation...

The video for Fall Out Boy's 'I Don't Care' debuted today in the iTunes store (didn't they use to make music videos for [i]promotional[/i] purposes?), complete with cameos from the likes of Mark Hoppus, Spencer Pratt and Gabe Saporta.

However, the plot thickens. It turns out the video released to iTunes is not the version that the band themselves approved. Pete Wentz, in a blog, alleges that the label recut the video to include footage of the band viewed through a camera phone- a camera phone that just happens to prominently display the manufacturer Nokia!

Spake Pete: this will probably end up deleted either by me or someone else but the version of the video that we worked on night after night is not the version that aired. yet somehow a cut full of glorious camera phone shots did. just to let you know. it doesnt make any sense to us. that bag of money is being donated straight to a cause far more worthy.

imagine seeing this edit only after you buy the video off of i-tunes and realizing that noone even had the balls to call you and tell you they were changing the video and cutting parts.

id recommend viewing the video on a site that it doesnt cost you any money as this is NOT the edit the band approved.

sorry to let you down.

Naturally, the blog was taken down, and UMG have made pains to ensure all Youtube, Dailymotion, etc. postings have been taken down. Shortly afterwards, Wentz posted a new blog, with the following image:

Godspeed, Pete, Godspeed!

PeteWentz.com

State v2.0 Launches

2008-09-04T21:17:00.005+01:00

Alas it is reborn.

State Magazine is no longer a paid publication- after initial plans to relaunch as a website-only affair, the powers-that-be had a change of heart and decided to try their hand at the freebie magazine game. I'm not entirely sure where this leaves me- I assume they'll be producing more content in-house to cut costs- but it's exciting nonetheless.

A little furore broke out when the news was first announced: egos were bruised when the press release deigned the new Free State "the first Quality National Music Monthly" and a lot of hurtful things were said about its author. Nevertheless, State v2.0 is now online and looking pretty good: I thought the old design looked great, but it wasn't exactly conducive to alot of content on the front page. This should function a lot better.

Read Editor Phil's mission statement thingie here, and read about Electric Picnic while yer at it.

Fight Like Apes - Something Global

2008-08-26T22:00:00.007+01:00

It took me a long time to get into 'Something Global,' the first single from Fight Like Apes' new album Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion (titled pinched from a Mr. T-helmed tv pilot, apparently). Delighted though I was to be hearing from the FLApes, the track itself was pretty much impenetrable. More than just busy, it was positively cluttered, and based on the first couple of listens to the album, the rest of it's set up in much the same way.

It was a couple of weeks before I was ready to accept 'Something Global' for what it was: one of those funky metronomic shindigs like 'SexyBack' that works its way into the cranial crater whether it's invited or not. I definitely dig it. Problem is, I can't really guarantee the rest of the album's going to work so well. Already, I'm a little disappointed in the re-recording of 'Jake Summers'- it seems to have lost a lot of the edge the original track had, particularly in the vocal department.

Here's hoping I'm just being overcritical- new recordings of old favourites 'Do You Karate?' and 'Lend Me Your Face' have seen no such reduction in the win quotient. Regardless, feast your ears on the single stream, and head to FLApes.com for all three songs from the single, including a cover of Mclusky's 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues' (who May Kay would have us believe they'd never heard of before going to Seattle to record the album).

Fight Like Apes - Something Global (mp3)

BATS Announce Split 7"

2008-08-22T13:13:00.003+01:00

Off Her Rocker has news of an upcoming split 7" single involving Dublin post-hardcore outfit BATS and Oreganian electro-punks Fist Fite.

As you allow this news to sink in, enjoy a free mp3 of 'Husband & Wife (Sliced Lung, Served Cold),' a (unmastered) track from the group's incredible debut EP Cruel Sea Scientist issued by Armed Ambitions/Organised Ideas last December. While not the strongest track on the EP (deliciously violent opener 'Death To Kent Hovind' tickles my ivories), the track amply showcases BATS' versatility, opening with jazzy Redneck Manifesto-esque twin guitar licks and taking in numerous tempo changes and stonerish metal riffs before fading out to the sound of vaguely drunken shouting. The EP is a snip at €5.

The alleged 7" will surface aroundabout Halloween via the Richter Collective label, home of the Vinny Club, Adebisi Shank etc.

BATS - Husband & Wife (Sliced Lung, Served Cold (mp3)

Lollapalooza Wrap-Up

2008-08-22T12:31:00.009+01:00

Ouch, shit's been a long time since I updated this thingie.

I spent the first few days of August in Chicago's lovely Grant Park attending the fourth annual Lollapalooza festival. A lot of fun was had by all, despite the bizarre practice whereby all restaurants in Chicago shut down early on Friday and Saturday night, presumably for fear of actually being paid money to make food, and I got the rare chance to meet an idol when I interviewed Butch Walker following his Friday set.

Check out the full text of my interview with Butch (and a brief review of his two weekend shows) at Sputnikmusic, while my revuw of the festival as a whole has been published online at State Magazine (we'll no doubt be seeing a lot more of the website in the future). I hadn't quite gotten around to proof-reading the piece when it was published, but it still looks pretty decent if you'll allow me to congratulate myself for a moment.

I'll be in the US for another 3 weeks or so, so don't expect too many updates in the meantime, but as a meagre peace offering please accept these wonderful live Butch Walker mp3s, taken from the live album Leavin' The Game On Luckie St., released last February as a limited-time free download and now for the reasonable, label-free price of €4 from therecordbusinessisfucked.com.

Laid (James cover)/The Taste Of Red (mp3)

#1 Summer Jam (mp3)

And a demo from his upcoming studio album, Sycamore Meadows, due in November, entitled 'Vessels':

Butch Walker - Vessels (demo) (mp3)

New Blizzards Album In September

2008-07-05T18:53:00.002+01:00

Good news always comes in twos, apparently. Or buses idk. Not only will Fight Like Apes release their John Goodmanson-produced debut in September, but they'll be joined by Mullingar ska-pop merchants the Blizzards, who have set the release of their Michael Beinhorn-produced second effort for the same month. High hopes are had by all for the follow-up to 2006's sublime Public Display Of Affection. The five-piece is now a seven-piece with the addition of two unnamed hornsters, and the slated title of the forthcoming single, 'Trust Me I'm A Doctor,' would seem to imply that the lads haven't lost their mischievous sense of humour.

In the meantime, please enjoy the best cut not to appear on the official tracklist for Public Display Of Affection, 'First Girl To Leave Town,' via Faction Records. Dig that funky two-step!

The Blizzards - First Girl To Leave Town (mp3)

Damien Dempsey - A Rainy Night In Soho

2008-05-31T03:59:00.003+01:00

He may not be the most fashionable musician on the block, by gosh dernit I am a sucker for the Damien Dempsey.

His most recent studio outing, 2007's To Hell Or Barbados, was hands-down my favourite album on the year- and I said as much on those critics poll thingies- and in my mind confirmed his place as the greatest Irish songwriter of the new millennium. The Rocky Road is due out on June 6 via Sony BMG, a collection of folk standards of the mainly balladic variety, with a little help from Dubliners Barney McKenna and John Sheahan along the way.

'A Rainy Night In Soho,' probably one of the overlooked gems in Shane MacGowan's hidden gem-ridden catalogue, is given somewhat of an overhaul here. The schmaltzy strings that dominated the original have given way to subtle strokes of violin and mandolin, and Dempsey's vocal is atypically sweet, forlorn even. It's a little bit obvious, at least compared to the original, but that's no bad thing- above all, it's a great song, and the fact two great interpretors of song can put two completely different, utterly compelling, spins on the tune is proof enough of that.

The only stream of the track I can find is on Sony BMG's website, oddly enough, but here you go:

Damien Dempsey - A Rainy Night In Soho (Sony BMG)

Fight Like Apes Set Release Date

2008-05-28T02:25:00.002+01:00

My bank holiday Monday opened with the brilliant news that Dublin synth-violence operators Fight Like Apes had set a date for the release of their debut album. The album, the title of which I don't know but it's bound to be long and punchline-ish is set for release on September 26 with lead single 'Something Global' set to drop around July 11.

The LP was recorded in Seattle with a certain Mr. John Goodmanson. I have to admit the name wasn't immediately familiar, but a quick look at his CV brings up the likes of Unwound, Blonde Redhead, the Blood Brothers' excellent Crimes and, err, Aiden. The Blood Brothers link is a curious one, not least because they've been one of my FLA reference points ever since whenever, but I'd always figured it was a symptom of my lack of synthy weirdo rock knowledge than an actual kinship. Their two EPs to date- the immaculately titled pairing How Can I Kill You When You Have All The Guns? and David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Who's Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch- have been massively promising but by no means knockouts. If Goodmanson can harness even a little bit of that potential and put out a half-kickass record, I will consider myself rigorously satisfied.

Today's mp3 (by which I mean this month's mp3), courtesy of the band's current label FIFA Records, is entitled 'Lend Me Your Face,' taken from the lesser of the group's two releases- the one about the guns. In a weird way, it sums the group's ethos up entirely- it's a loud and busy arrangement, backed by an obnoxious and pulsating drum beat and a bassline that screams Kim Deal's name, the perfect setting for May Kay to balance her utterly beautiful and tuneless ramblings about such nonsense as boxer shorts and foolish boys.

Check it out:

Fight Like Apes - Lend Me Your Face (FIFA Records)

Thrice - Come All You Weary

2008-05-05T02:37:00.010+01:00

I've developed somewhat of an instinctive hostility to all things Thrice in recent months due to their ever-so-slightly convoluted elemental concept piece The Alchemy Index and the fierce reverence it has garnered on the otherwise lovely Sputnikmusic.

Taken as a whole, the Alchemy Index, a set of four six-track CDs that could almost be squeezed onto one disc, is a pretty solid record, one that sees the group expand their repertoire with dredg-aping alt. rock and cherubic electronic music but come up surprisingly short on the post-hardcore that made them great to begin with.

'Come All You Weary' is taken from the Earth disc, the side that is unsurprisingly geared towards folk and Americana, expounding upon frontman Dustin Kensrue's patchy 2007 solo debut Please Come Home. 'Come All You Weary' is in many sense the antidote to Kensrue's disc, overcoming the lack of personality that plagued the former with a dynamic full-band arrangement that emphasises in particular the range of guitarist Teppei Terranishi, who weaves sultry reverb-soaked rockabilly tones between Kensrue's percussive acoustic chords.

Listen to the track now on MySpace or download free from Vagrant Records.

1969 - Maya

2008-04-10T15:11:00.004+01:00

1969, the indie rock side-project of Butch Walker, Michael Guy Chislett and Darren Dodd of the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites fame, made their long-delayed commercial debut on April Fool's Day with the release of the 13-track Maya.

As the major personality of the group, Butch does well to stay reserved and resists stamping his authority all over the project. It feels like an organic record, driven by the U2/New Order instrumentals composed by guitarist Chislett (now a member of The Academy Is...) and the lyrics/melodies of Walker, who moonlights as a bassist with surprisingly funky results. (I should never have doubted him :()

The pick of the bunch for me has to be 'Wreck Me,' ironically one of the two tracks that bear the heavy boot print of the "reserved" Walker, which is probably the best song he's been involved in since 'San Fernando Sexx Star,' and features an absolute beast of a chorus. "I don't need anything to do / Drive me into you... and wreck meeeee."

Ziing.

'Wreck Me' on MySpace

Purchase Maya via the relevant legal means

Raine Maida Interview

2008-04-10T14:59:00.006+01:00

An interview I conducted last year with Raine Maida, frontman of Canadian alt. rockers Our Lady Peace and recently established solo artist , has recently been posted at Sputnikmusic.

Dramatic lateness aside, he's a really nice bloke. The album he's supporting, The Hunters Lullaby (no apostrophe, god knows why), is an awful lot better than it has any right to be- astounding, in fact- a beautifully measured collision of slam poetry, hip hop and retro singer-songwriter styles.

Check out the video for the first single 'Sex Love And Honey' (released a year earlier on the Love Hope Hero EP) below.

Raine Maida on MySpace

Republic Of Loose - I Like Music

2008-03-23T20:05:00.004Z

Not so much new as it is fairly recent, Dublin's greatest ever funk/soul gangbangers Republic Of Loose have released their new single 'I Like Music' to radio this past week, and it's been on MySpace a little bit longer.

It's not quite as immediate as 'Break!' was a year or so ago- one of the all-time great party tunes I might add- but it's a real grower. The pulsating funk horns sound a little out of place at first, but in a good way, and add a nice extra dimension to the band's sound without steering it into unfamiliar territory.

Hopefully 'I Like Music' is a taste of what to expect on the upcoming album (currently slated for early May). Aaagh! is a fantastic little album but in their eagerness to embrace so many different styles it wound up a smidge unfocused. Twelve party tracks in the 'I Like Music' vein would be the proverbial money for me.

'I Like Music' hits iTunes and various other download sites on April 4.

Republic Of Loose on MySpace.

State Magazine

2008-03-15T03:22:00.007Z

In the unlikely event that anybody actually reads this thing, it's probably worth mentioning the new periodical I've begun working for, State Magazine. Attending the delectably free launch party last week, I got slightly drunk on Jameson but not too drunk to be bowled over by the scale of the occasion- apparently this shit's gonna compete with the mighty Hot Press. Funny enough, I applied for a post at Hot Press a few months back and never got a reply. Maybe my writing wasn't fitting enough for the obnoxious A3 format. Anyway, the magazine seems finally to be in stores following a slow turnout the first few days.

Free Butch Walker Live Album

2008-02-14T23:37:00.006Z

In a refreshingly burst of anti-label feeling, superstar producer and all-round wonderful human being/musician Butch Walker has put his new live album Leavin' The Game On Luckie Street up for free download (with an payment option of $5.99 for those among you who like that sort of thing) at FriendsOrEnemies.com via TheRecordBusinessIsFucked.com.

It's a little unusual for an artist who funds his creative career by producing and writing for major-label artists (with varying degrees of talent, it must be said) to turn his back so aggressively on the industry (maybe he has an indie complex!), but it's hard to argue with two full CDs of material for the price of a Whopper Meal, espeically when the music is this damn good.

The material covered spans from the Marvelous 3's 1998 breakthrough (and all-time best breakup album) Hey! Album through to his 2006 glam rock scene commentary The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites, and is fully electric, in contrast to his awesome acoustic mini-album This Is Me... Justified and Stripped

Check out five full-length songs now on MySpace, and download the entire thing from TheRecordBusinessIsFucked.com.

Super Extra Bonus Party

2008-02-14T23:22:00.004Z

Dublin indie-electronic outfit Super Extra Bonus Party have posted the video for the song 'Everything Flows' from the forthcoming EP of the same name. It was one of the many choice tracks to appear on the group's eponymous debut album, featuring as it does a deliciously dark-yet-infectious floating bass guitar line and ethereal vocals from Channel One's Paul O'Reilly. The album also features the talents of Nina Hynes and Brazilian MC Rodrigo, who's particularly excellent on 'Favourite Things,' a partial reinterpretation of the Rogers & Hammerstein classic.

Check out the video courtesy of Youtube and the mp3 via Hard Working Class Heroes.

'Everything Flows' (mp3)

Frank Black Arrested In Dublin

2008-02-12T02:05:00.000Z

Pixies frontman Frank Black being led away by a team of dedicated and resourceful Gardaí following a public order offence (blaring loud music DIRECTLY FROM HIS LUNGS) in Dublin's St. Stephen's Green last weekend. Have the Americans no shame whatsoever?

Grand Pocket Orchestra

2008-02-12T00:09:00.001Z

Grand Pocket Orchestra are an interesting and refreshingly different indie pop quartet from Dublin. Inhabiting the same sonic space as Fight Like Apes (whose members May Kay and Pockets were in a previous incarnation of the band), Architecture In Helsinki and the Go! Team, 'Odd Socks' is the eponymous lead single from their debut EP on FIFA Records.

While not quite as rough around the edges as the vitriolic punk pop of 2007's 'Radio' or as sweet as the unforgettable 'Little Messy,' 'Odd Socks' does boast an odd array of instrumentation, with melodica, cowbell and xylophone all featuring prominently alongside frontman Paddy Hanna's shrill Jack White-like vocals to give it a simple, childlike quality.

Check out the innovative, Peter Gabriel-aping video below, and enjoy a free mp3 of 'Odd Socks' courtesy of the brand new State Magazine.

Grand Pocket Orchestra - 'Odd Socks'

Robyn - Handle Me

2007-10-09T17:34:00.001+01:00

I've never been hopped on the Robyn indietrain, but this here brand new single ('Handle Me,' they call it) has forced me to rethink my entire railway philosophy. It's got a strong JT/Timbaland undercurrent to it, what with the semi-glitchy rhythms and the fascinating battle between Robyn's desire to talk endlessly about herself and her almost-as-burning desire to eat out other people for their apparent narcissism.

p.s. the video is also cool. boxes and whatnot.

Atreyu - Blow (feat. Josh Todd)

2007-08-26T02:28:00.002+01:00

Atreyu's new CD Lead Sails Paper Anchors is godawful (this is another case of me listening to an album so other people don't have to), but there is a couple of really cool tracks on the album. One of them is 'Blow,' an infectious punky butt rock number which features Buckcherry's Josh Todd. Approach this track with caution- it will make you dumber- but it's it gets mega points for the gratuitous misplaced use of the word "fuck" and for being the only song on the album without obscene quantities of autotune.

Read my review here or something I dunno.

~~Atreyu - Blow (feat. Josh Todd)~~

Britney's New Song

2007-08-23T21:19:00.001+01:00

The new Britney track leaked. Amazingly, it doesn't have a title, and it doesn't sound finished at all, but seeing as it sprung up on Ryan Seacrest's radio show it would appear to be an intentional leak.

One thing's for sure- her singing's come an awful long way. The track sounds like they'd spliced together a bunch of takes to get something that sounds good all the way through, but it doesn't sound autotuned (there's a few off-key moments to testify to that), and the new, jazzy direction sounds really cool- the bassline's nipped pretty closely from Nina Simone's 'Feelin' Good' and her singing is too Aguilera-y to be a coincidence- even if the song's about as far from a hit as anything on My December.

Britney Spears - New Song

Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!

2007-07-21T09:13:00.001+01:00

Compared favourably to the likes of The Pogues, the self-styled "Gypsy Punks" Gogol Bordello are an eight-piece ensemble comprised of members from all over the globe. Frontman Eugene Hutz calls to mind a Ukrainian version of Joe Strummer or Shane MacGowan, and his motley crue of bandmates includes Russian violin virtuoso Sergey Ryabtsev and one-time Conan O'Brien accordionist Yuri Lemeshev, aswell as members from Israel, Ethiopia, Scotland and the USA.

Their fifth album, Super Taranta!, was released on July 10 and is their most musically accomplished effort to date. The follow-up to 2005's Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, Super Taranta! does away with much of the harsher aspects of their punk influence; the guitars are cleaner, substituting clever spaghetti western melodies for the usual heavy power chords, and Eugene's vocals are more melodic, though as playfully confused as ever, as shown by the line "the first time I have read the Bible, it had stroke me as unwitty".

Download:

Gogol Bordello - Wonderlust King (mp3)

The Actual

2007-06-18T22:47:00.001+01:00

Sometimes a band comes along which is new and innovative and redefines the way to listen to music. Other times, a band will come along which is none of those things and kicks ass for pretty much that reason. The latter category suits The Actual, the flagship signing for Scott Weiland's (Velvet Revolver, ex-Stone Temple Pilots) Softdrive Records label.

Their second full-length release In Stitches, released May 29th, invokes the best of classic punk and power pop from The Clash and Cheap Trick through Joy Division and Green Day without adding a considerable amount to the genre. Frontman Max Bernstein, son of Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein and Sleepless In Seattle writer Nora Ephron, is a clever lyricist as demonstrated by the lead single 'This Is The Worst Day of My Life (Do You Want To Come Over),' which boasts the lines: “bad luck always comes in threes / I’ve got two, so come around and finish me.”

Mp3s via TheActualSounds.com

The Actual - This Is The Worst Day of My Life (Do You Want To Come Over)
The Actual - September Had A Trigger Finger
The Actual - The Pride of The Echelon

Chris Cornell - Billie Jean

2007-05-19T01:53:00.000+01:00

Poor Chris Cornell. Persistent tears and strains of his vocal chords have left his voice ravaged and forced him to rely on his inconsistent songwriting ability. While the last few years have gifted us some gems, 'Like a Stone' from the first Audioslave album for example, more often than his post-Soundgarden material has prompted questions like "didn't he used to be talented?" and "how about that workers' revolution?"

Chris has been touting his cover of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' for a while now, and it hardly bodes well for Carry On that it's already the most talked-about track. Somehow, Chris manages to suck the life out of one of the funkiest pop song of all time, giving it the full American Recordings treatment. The chorus is almost a saving grace, Cornell going to town on this lying bitch in all his guttural glory, but there's always a lingering sense that he's trying to force profundity where it doesn't exist.

'Ghosts' features the acoustic guitar stylings of Jeff Buckley collaborator Gary Lucas- it's the best song Chris has released in years. No longer constrained by the four riffs Tom Morello's been recycling since 1991, Chris is free to go nuts on the melody, and while he voice will never be as solid as before, he does manage several sustained notes toward the end of the track.

Carry On is due for release June 5.

Chris Cornell - Billie Jean
Chris Cornell - Ghosts

50 Cent - Amusement Park

2007-05-10T01:27:00.000+01:00

Location, location, location!

Fifty knows. The rapper's preoccupation with the worst sexual metaphors hits its second tour destination with the release of 'Amusement Park,' the first single from his upcoming third album Curtis. The good news? It's more immediately accessible than any of the tunes from The Massacre.

His mumbled flow (or lack of) doesn't inhibit the melody as on 'Disco Inferno,' but neither is the track as musically interesting as the best singles from Get Rich' Or Die Tryin': 'In Da Club' and the how-can-you-not-love-it 'P.I.M.P.' 'Amusement Park' sees Fifty compare his lovemaking to a rollercoaster (yeah, brilliant); only slightly less original a metaphor than the inspired "it's a lollipop - or is it?" ruse of 'Candy Shop.' Still, he might just surprise us one day.

Might.

50 Cent - Amusement Park

GNR Demos: 'Chinese Democracy' and 'I.R.S.'

2007-05-09T03:41:00.000+01:00

Just another day in the world of Guns N' Roses.

An elaborate scam involving a 400-pound semi-professional wrestler with an IQ of 155 and the trailer trash of the GNR world, the Portuguese, resulted in the leaking of four of new demo tracks from the Chinese Democracy sessions. Confused? Good. It's more fun that way.

'Chinese Democracy' has been circulating as a live recording since it was first performed in 2001. Though it's the one leak that most resembles a conventional hard rock track, Axl manages to spread a thin coat of pompousness on proceedings with an extended intro of quiet chatter amongst Chinese people before he launches into an aggressive (his growled vocals are more commanding than ever) diatribe against the "iron fist" of the régime- no doubt missing the irony- against a rapidfire Buckethead that sounds like somebody pouring water on a stereo in the middle of 'Rock Me Like A Hurricane'- and you know that's gotta sound good.

'I.R.S.' is considerably less interesting. Floating around in demo form since for over a year now, and an occasional part of the summer set list, it sounds the least "finished" of all the leaked tracks. Axl's vocals throughout sound scratchy and weak, while he confounds us with vivid images of the legal system, threatening to call all manner of government agencies. Robin Finck's warm bluesy guitar licks are a highlight, but the verse and chorus are over-repetitive, despite the volume dynamic.

Tomorrow: 'The Blues' 'There Was A Time' and oldie 'Madagascar'

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
Guns N' Roses - I.R.S.

Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

2007-05-02T02:33:00.000+01:00

Having witnessed the spectacle that was the Live In Cuba DVD (well hell you could never accuse the band of being too heavy-handed), you could be forgiven for thinking that the Manic Street Preachers could never be cool again.

By "you" I mean me, and by the rest I imply that they have, once again, returned to a glorious state of personified cool- witness the video for brand new single 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough,' a duet with Nina Persson of Swedish rockers The Cardigans (remember 'Love Fool'? Remember Romeo and Juliet? Remember when everybody didn't hate Leonard di Caprio? That was The Cardigans.) Far from the dumbed-down New Order of 2003's Lifeblood, 'Your Love Alone' is a vibrant hard rock track that echoes the floating pop bliss of Everything Must Go's 'Design For Life' and its successor's #1 single 'If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next.'

The track is taken from the new album Send Away The Tigers, due in the UK on May 7 (and it seems likely a US release will follow). Excepting the Clash/GNR-like snarl of their debut and the bleak post-punk attack of the classic The Holy Bible, the Manics have always preferred at least a slight sheen to their heavy pop rock- and this is retained here via synthesised string accompaniment- but 'Your Love Alone' bursts with punky distorted guitar chords and a melodic chorus that'll soar over your head long before you've had the chance to say "not my head!", a neat contrast to Persson's sombre lead vocals in the verse.

Also, quoting one of your own lyrics in a song- nice move there, innovator.

~~Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough~~ (mp3)

Dinosaur Jr. - Been There All The Time

2007-05-02T01:22:00.000+01:00

For Michelle:

An acknowledged influence on a large part of the grunge scene, Dinosaur Jr. achieved some mainstream success in the early 90s however their best efforts appeared to be hampered by the fact they weren't from Seattle and therefore had to work a little harder for the credibility. Or perhaps that extra credibility walked out with bassist Low Barlow, who left the band in a huff following the release of 1988's, citing singer/guitarist J. Mascis' general assholery, and formed the critically underappreciated Sebadoh.

Nineteen years later, the band's line-up has been restored and a brand new album, entitled Beyond, quietly released this week. Improved recording quality aside, it's as preditable an album as one could possibly have anticipated- but this is a band you don't listen to for surprises. European lead single 'Been There All The Time' echoes the point, a sloppy, repetitive rocker to which drummer Murph provides the most variation, with dozens of unique fills thrown in between the stop-start vocal and guitar passages. A few cosmetic differences aside, the track could be lifted from any of the band's 1980s releases, and quality-wise it's just as good as anything not named 'Freak Scene.'

Mascis' (played in the video, funnily enough, by a 13-year old girl) voice sounds like I imagine Chris Cornell's would today if: a) Chris Cornell hadn't forgotten how to sing; and b) Chris Cornell hadn't learned how to sing in the first place. Or, to put it another way, age has given him a throaty timbre not unlike Eddie Vedder or Chris Cornell but whereas the latter pair sing to the back rows of stadiums, it would barely matter if J. wasn't audible in the next room. In fact, it's barely possible to discern what he's actually saying on record. And who cares, he's probably just talking about himself anyway.

~~Dinosaur Jr. - Been There All The Time~~ (mp3)

Cam'ron Ain't No Snitch

2007-04-22T19:03:00.000+01:00

Platinum-selling rapper Cam'ron (real name Cameron Giles) appears on tonight's (Sunday) edition of CBS's 60 Minutes, discussing hip hop's atittudes towards law enforcement and whether they hinder the police's ability to catch murderers.

Cam'ron, who refused to talk to police following a carjacking incident in 2005 in which he was shot three times, explains his refusal to co-operate in both business and ethical terms. "Because … it would definitely hurt my business, and the way I was raised, I just don't do that. It's about business but it's still also a code of ethics."

"If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him — but I'd probably move. But I'm not going to call and be like, 'The serial killer's in 4E.'"

"I work in communities where the clearance rate for homicides has gone into the single digits," says professor David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The national rate for homicide clearance is about 60 percent. "In these neighborhoods, we are on the verge of — or maybe we have already lost — the rule of law."

Is Cam'ron as dumb as I think he is, or is there real logic at play?

Watch a trailer for the show at CBS.

Marilyn Manson - If I Was Your Vampire

2007-04-20T02:00:00.000+01:00

When not fully occupied by his self-professed role as leader of the Celebritarian Corporation, a non-descript art movement that apparently exists only as a vehicle for meaningless, pun-based slogans ("WE DONT BELIEVE IN CREDIBILITY, BECAUSE WE ARE INCREDIBLE"- honestly!), Marilyn Manson is in fact a brilliant musician.

He, along with his band of the same name, has always been able to walk the tight line between mainstream rock success and barely accessible alternative rock, sustaining the former through a strong sense of melody and an always-great production value. 'If I Was Your Vampire' does little to upset this balance- the typically plodding pace, the spacious, industrial-tinged arrangement and the heavily-distorted vocals are all present and correct. And while it hasn't the same anthemic quality as the likes of 'Coma White,' at six minutes long the arrangement unfolds gracefully against the interesting but slightly inane macabre lyrics.

'If I Was Your Vampire,' after new single 'Heart-Shaped Glasses,' is the second track to be taken from what has been referred to as the group's last album Eat Me, Drink Me. Released on June 2, Manson himself has hyped it as "the record I’ve worked all my life to get to."

'If I Was Your Vampire' on MySpace
Marilyn Manson reviews @ Sputnikmusic

The Wildhearts - The Sweetest Song

2007-04-20T00:16:00.000+01:00

There's a heavy Hardcore Superstar vibe to 'The Sweetest Song,' the new single from Newkie's finest The Wildhearts. Unashamedly pop-metal when the rest of the rock world was trying too hard to appear underground, The Wildhearts have never achieved the commercial success they deserved- drug abuse and endless break-ups saw to that- but frontman/songwriter Ginger's rarely let such things slow him down (The Wildhearts is his sixth album release in just over two years).

January's solo release, Yoni, his most pop-friendly release to date, was preceded by the obligatory surprise reunion and the announcement that the band were recording a new album with original guitarist CJ, P.H.U.Q. drummer Ritch Battersby and former Amen bassist Scott Sorry, whom Ginger briefly teamed up with in Nikki Sixx's Brides of Destruction. The Wildhearts is officially released on Monday, April 23, and preceded by a heavily-bleeped radio edit of 'The Sweetest Song,' available only as a digital download.

Opening with a riff that's half thrash, half Rolling Stones, 'The Sweetest Song' boasts numerous key, style and tempo changes, from the 'Get Your Groove On'-like screech of the chorus to the sugary power pop of the chorus, a method he's employed more and more often in recent years, but has never sounded so seamless. The chorus borrows the melody from Bowie/Mott The Hoople's 'All The Young Dudes,' and as if justify the tracks popness some more, Ginger sings, "I heard a song, I heard the sweetest song that hit me. And it went, 'nanananananananana...'

~~The Wildhearts - The Sweetest Song~~ (mp3)

Mark Ronson - Just

2007-04-19T02:13:00.000+01:00

London-born DJ Mark Ronson’s take on ‘Just,’ the classic cut from 1995’s The Bends, recasts the sludgy, introverted original as an abrasive party track. He enlists the vocal talents of Alex Greenwald, frontman of Californian pop-rock troupe Phantom Planet, one of a dozen or so guest singers on his new album Version, on Sony/BMG. Beneath a bed of break beats, hand claps and a rigid Stax-like horn section,

Greenwald does his best Matt Bellamy impression, perfecting what has got to be one of the best (unintentional?) musical in-jokes I’ve heard in years. Greenwald’s double-tracked vocal weaves in and out of itself and the Meters-like funky guitar parts while the arrangement, though rooted in soul and early hip hop, captures the Radiohead ethos perfectly, reorganising and renewing itself constantly with the addition of new melodic and instrumental ideas.

Better than the original? Who cares? Have a look at the abridged video edit, or download the mp3 directly from Ronson's own Allido Records label.

Mark Ronson - Just (featuring Alex Greenwald

Rufus Wainwright - Going To A Town

2007-04-18T22:43:00.000+01:00

I've been a big Rufus Wainwright fan ever since that brief moment of madness a couple of years ago when I started liking good music. Thankfully, I've mostly recovered from that, but I've retained a few of the old favourites and Rufio is chief among them.

His new record, Release The Stars, is due for release on May 15. It's his first completely self-produced title and his fifth release in total. 'Going To A Town' is the lead single from the album. Released earlier this month, it's already become one of his most popular songs.

Rufus Wainwright - Going To A Town (mp3)

Rufus Wainwright reviews @ Sputnikmusic

New VR Live Tracks

2007-04-18T16:23:00.000+01:00

Velvet Revolver have premiered four new tracks since going on the road in South America last week. A good-quality broadcast of Sunday's Buenos Aires show was broadcast as part of the Quilmes Rock Festival, which also featured Aerosmith. The good folks at Here Today... Gone When Jarmo Sees It nailed down audio of two of the new tracks- lead single 'She Builds Quick Machines' and 'Let It Roll.'

"RCA did a bunch of research on what the first single should be," bassist Duff McKagan told Billboard.com before the gig. "I'm pretty anti that stuff. The band had something they wanted to go with, but RCA just kept coming with it. So we decided, it's fine. It's a great f*ckin' rock song. It has a kick-ass guitar riff, a great chorus, a really big bridge and a great Slash solo."

I'm not sure what to make of them. First impressions say terrible, but that's pretty much what I said when I first heard the Contraband tracks live, and I was completely turned around by the album.

Libertad drops July 3.

Velvet Recolver - Let It Roll (live)
Velvet Revolver - She Builds Quick Machines (live)

Velvet Revolver @ Sputnikmusic.com

It's important...

2007-04-18T15:54:00.000+01:00

... to have more than one method of forcing your musical tastes on other people.