Christmas is coming..

..and I'm in the middle of my exams. And I'm so sick of studying that I'm blogging again.
Well what an unblogged semester it has been, my first post in 3 months isn't really going to make up for it.

Since then ive discovered some interesting blogs that i read regulary.

Strange Maps - about the wonderful world of cartography for the hell of it, rare looks at the world from different perspectives. I thourghly recommend it if you have even the slightest interest in geography or any such subject.

Passive Aggressive Notes - The angry or approaching angry notes that people leave. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic but altogether a good read, because we've all been there and we've all lived with note leavers in our time.

Fail Blog - Revel in the failure and stupidity of others. Part of the umbrella of internet phenomona started by LOLcats.

I reaslise this post has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, its just a distraction for myself really.

MoreCowbell.dj

A fun Site based on the Saturday Night Live Sketch.

My two favourite so far, are:

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

A New Year, A New Blog

Its been far too long since my last blog posting.
An eventful summer has passed, 2 trips to london, Electric Picnic 08, turning 24 and living in city independetly for the first time ever.

But now im back in college and will be spending a ridiculous amount of time on the internet anyway i feel its time to get back to blogging.

I have a busy year ahead of me, Attempting to get a degree and finally leave college, as well as juggling a job, being Captain of a UCD Swimming & Waterpolo Club as well as sitting on the committee of the Irish University Swimming & Water
Polo Association, thrown in with a few other minor engagements on boards of different organisations, its going to be tough to keep up with my gig attending and music listening duties, but i promise to try my darndest.

Presently Listening to: Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip will release their firstt wide release album Angles will be released on the 12th of May. Its an interesting look at hip-hop from an angle slightly left of centre. The lyrical poetry of Scroobius pip is refreshingly original.
I recommend giving it a good listen.

Here's the original version of "Thou shalt always kill" as a little taster:

Justice - Stress

A video far removed from the D.A.N.C.E. promo, this video references the civil unrest in French suburbs.

One Hit Wonderland - #1

I'm going to try this new idea for something to bring some regularity to the blog.

One hit wonders, those songs that were just so good they put an otherwise mediocre band on top of the pops. This time around its Big Country - In a Big Country


This is probably my favourite one hit wonder at the moment, but more shall come in time.

Weekend Update

Fri	Drinks & food in o'neills with the ladies from the internet, followed by standing outside the button factory, battling the touts for the cheap tickets to Digitalism & Erol Alkan. Amongst discussing with my namesake what the chances would be of going to the box office and pretending to be nialler9 or sending one of the girls up to as Unarocks, it was decided that we'd have more luck pretending to be Twenty Major
Sat	After work & a speedy chinese, there were pre-street party drinks in mine, til much later than originally intended, this & getting lost between the gate and the tent, lead to us missing the beginning of the streets set. Mike proved a great performer who id gladly go see again. Mixmaster mike played a blinder, unfaultably amazing turntable trickery. The aftershow ended a bit earlier than expected at 1 but for a free gig it proved a mjor result.
Sun	Work with a severe hangover is no fun whatsoever. And annoying customers beware, one day a sales assistant may stab you with the nearest thing to hand for your difficulty. I'm not saying that will be me, but don't test it.

In other news, The kills - midnight boom is an excellent album.
Budweiser the beer is still the urine of fat americans.

Gig heavy weekend

if only i had the money and the time, so many gigs and so little free time.
LAst nigh i missed out on Holy Fuck in whelans and Simian Mobile Disco DJ set in spy(although i did catch part of it on phantom).
Saturday night see's the very interesting Ting Tings from Salford, Manchester playing in Whelans, id love to go but i have luckily landed a ticket to the Budrising Street Party @ Georges Dock With The Streets & Mixmaster Mike. All in all if I was loaded and had the time it would be an immesly hectic weekend, but with only once gig to look forward too its still an exciting weekend.
Presently im attempting to finish an assignment, with little success as my thoughts drift to heading home early, and possibly picking up The Kills - Midnight Boom. I saw it going for €15, on vinyl, in Tower & I could see myself acquiring it pretty soon.
The Weekend Starts Now.

Buying & Selling Tickets, Without The Touts

Today a new websiteToutless.com started operations, it is simply a forum for people to buy and sell tickets at cost price or below. Touting has been a huge problem in years gone by, many an Arcade Fire fan was pissed off by the olympia tickets debacle, and we all know how shit it is to be stuck with tickets you bought months agao when it turns out you can't go in the end. My best wishes to them and i hope the place flourishes. Getting rid of the touts one step at a time.

Apple Vs Individuality

For those of you who know me, you may know that im not a massive fan of Mac, Apple Computers, whatever you want to call them.

Ipods everyone has them because they're pretty pure and simple, they may have gotten there first but does not by any means make them the best, my main distaste with them is Itunes, a horribly designed program that begers belief at the best of times.

Those rumors of being virus free is all Lies too, they're aren't as many viruses designed for macs but that also means there aren't as many anti-viruses, and the viruses are increasing quickly.

They Sued The Beatles For Christ's Sake & won which is even fucking worse.

This piece may not be the most-impartial but I don't really care, im getting my opinion out there and letting you all know.

P.S. I am in no way claiming that microsoft is excellent.

A Nice Little Quick Launch Program

RK Launcher, it gives you that quick launch bar similar to that on a mac but works without having to reduce yourself to getting a mac.
An example is this as it appears on the bottom of my screen this afternoon.

It can be changed to be placed anywhere on the screen you wish. and it only appears when you drag the mouse off the bottom of the screen.
Thanks To Ryan for introducing me to it.

Rage Against The Catholic Church

Today is good friday for christians, great friday for the rest of us.
Time to celebrate by drinking lots and eating meat, while I spent a brief period earlier today drooling over the prospect of getting some fantastic steak, i couldn't afford it so instead i got chicken.
So lets celebrate all that is wrong with cathlocism by doing all that they ask use not to.
Party in mine

State Launch

Today I called along to the State Magazine launch, in Tower Records on Wicklow Street. Ham Sandwich(well 3/5ths of ham sandwich) did a short covers set.
I picked a copy of the magazine & a free 1GB memory key which was pretty nice.

The magazine has Michael Stipe on the cover, hand from what ive read so far the quality and layout is a nice change to see, it doesn't have the overcrowded look of Hot Press and isn't padded out with advertisments either. So very good articles that ive read and a few promising ones that I'll get to on the bus to Sligo tomorrow.
Glad to see a new music magazine trying the water in Ireland(and well timed to fill the gap left by Mongrel's Departure). I wish them the best and look forward to seeing more quality from them next month.

Ham Sandwich - Carry The Meek

Ive only just got my hands on it today so this is purely first impression.
I like the extended opening of "St. Christopher" & the recording is definetly crisper than the previous recordings id heard. "Never Talk" really jumps out at me, i love the layers behind it, the big sound like a much larger band.
All in all I really like it and it seems to be a grower.
8/10
Stand-out tracks: "Never Talk",

For further information check out their MySpace Page

Insufferable Cunt Wins Oscar

Here's hoping he stays over in the states, in an easily ignorable capacity.
He even cut into his girlfriend's acceptance speech, what a wanker.

Vyvienne Long

Ever in search of a good cover version, I point you today to the mypace page of Vyvienne Long, where you will find her versions of The Beatles - Come Together & The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army.
Famed somewhat as playing cello for Damien Rice, that shouldn't be held against her, Vyviennes solo stuff is an excellent change of pace to hear from an Irish artist, the cello is a beautiful and underused instrument in mainstream music. Her debut EP, last years Bird Talk also featured covers of the Flaming lips - Yoshimi battles The Pink Robots & N*E*R*D's - She wants To Move.
She is Not just a cover artist however and has written some excellent songs of her own, word is that an LP is in the pipeline & I hope to hear it soon.

Vinyl: The True Music Medium

How does one start to explain why vinyl is the best music format there is for true music lovers. Cd's have their convenience, as do mp3's but with these mediums you lose so many things that make the music great.
Quality
The first thing i have to say about vinyl is that the music quality is better than cd(yes Cathal, better), and far better than mp3, i know everyone who rambles on about vinyl talks about the warmth and the crackle, buts its true ffs, it sounds better because it feels more real, its analog the medium that music is made in and it just seems to lose something in the digitising, maybe the digital rendering doesn't cover the full audible spectrum, I don't know, I suck at physics as some of you may know.
Artwork
The next best thing is that you get the full effect of the artwork, your tiney-tiny cd jewel case can't really contain a beautiful piece of artwork in its own right without diminishing it somewhat, The Beatles - Abbey Road for example, a beautiful iconic image, but on the cd you can't analyse it in any real detail. Whereas with vinyl you can read the car registration and make out facial expressions in the background. And of course mp3 loses you the whole artwork experience entirely. I know you can google and find any image you want, but its in no way the same.
Experience
The experience of playing a record is akin to being back to when it was the principle medium, the album can be divided into the distinct sides each like a chapter in a book or the movement of a symphony. Having to get up and flip the record is not to be seen as effort but as audience participation, you only move to the next chapter when you are ready to do so, in your own time.
The other important aspect of the experience is that of wandering the record shops in search of something new, a very relaxing and enjoyable experience once you get into it, there are plenty of second hand records around and available all over the place.
Turntabilism
Another beautiful aspect of the finer medium is the fact that it has given birth to at the very least one genre of its own, turntabilism, this which has given hip-hop its roots which which to flourish and grow into one of the largest genres in modern popular music, without the records & turntables, hip-hop could have turned out very differently, it would probably have been just as dependent on guitars as many other genres are.
Keeping it Real
You can't buy vinyl records in the supermarket, they can't be churned out by by someone with a computer or sold b some terrible band who've got the money to record, but don't have the talent to get noticed. This allows vinyl to maintain that certain special something, a certain quality in what you are getting, its not pirated or churned out for free with some magazine as a sampler, but its the real thing.
Homesick
I really think that this nearly lost musical medium will never die, it has survived all previous usurpers of the throne, 8-tracks and tapes have dies out but vinyl powers on as the medium of true fans of music. It remain's the main thing that i miss from Home, not having anywhere to put it in my flat i unfortunately can't move it to Dublin with me. Someday I'll have the room.
I hope this encourages a few of you to consider rediscovering vinyl(most of you are old enough to remember a time before cd's surely)

------------------
Tom Dunne has dedicated part of his show this week to the beauty of vinyl, unfortunately I only caught the last 45 minutes of the Wednesday show & I'll be at work tomorrow evening when the last show of the week is on. Luckily I caught the Smiths Singles, 3 in a row is not to be sniffed at.

Video of The Week: Daft Hands Special

The Original


Immitations - Some Good Some Not

Harder, Bodies, Faster, Stronger


Daft Hands - Twice As Fast


Around The World

The boy least likely to

The English duo have just put some new songs up on their myspace page, this raises hopes of the follow up to The best party ever being close behind. The new tracks follow a similar vein to the first album, keeping the same upbeat tempo. Hopefully the album will be out in time to see them play Electric Picnic this year, a festival they are perfectly suited to and still missing out since they had to pull out two years ago. Here's hoping for one or both of the above speculations to come through.

Weekend Update

Another weekend well spent, working hard selling toys(like a captialist elf) and watching various forms of programming, as well as learning various forms of programming(the joyous life of a nerd).

Films Watched: Control (great, hard to go to sleep after watching it though), Mystic pizza (made me want pizza, fortunately i was not alone & dominoes was still delivering)

Tv showsWatched: Arrested Development, all of Series 3(a well spent 4 & 1/2 hours), Peep Show, 2/3's of series 3 (Makes me want to have a few people sectioned), disturbing documentary about a beauty pageant for 5-6 year old girls(Americas main contribution to society, expliotation), top 40 teen stars(g'wan the Molly Ringwald & the Coreys, also Anthony Michael Hall Looks hilarious now)

Films Downloaded: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, Singles (see the above mentioned teen star show)

Overrall productivity rating: Low to Medium (i did go to work and earn some money, and i did spend a few hours learn php & mysql)

The End Of The Chalets??

The rumormill is ripe with word that the chalets have split, one of my favourite bands of the last few years, said to have been working on a second album for release this year, it appears that we may never see it now. I for one am saddedned by the news. I'll just have to get my fix from the Warlords .
Here are a few great videos for thos of you who may have missed out on the chalets.

UPDATE: Two minutes after I posted this an Official Announcement was posted on their myspace.

Live on Other Voices


Feel The Machine

The state of Music Media in Ireland

Other Voices is back for a new series(I'm watching it as i'm typing), always nice to see something good keep going, Jenny Huston has joined john kelly this year, i wonder how she'll work out on camera, good luck to here though, one of the few tollerable presenters on 2fm. Something watchable on RTE keeps me happy.

Hot Press has just launched a new format to celebrate 30 years in the business, its shiny and glossy and a4 size, so no more having to fold the feckin thing to fit it in a bag or the like. I may start reading more often, it always ended up destroyed in a bag before.

Black Francis

On saturday night i went along to see former pixies frontman Black Francis(Frank Black), a great gig if you like his solo work, not such a good gig for the people who wanted pixies songs. I was in the former camp luckily enough, made it right up front and got talking to Sinister Pete from phantom for most of the gig. Nice guy, older than he looks and sounds and well up on his music(which is to be expected).
The gig was followed up with a kebab with my girlfriend dee(who had just had one of her designs in a fashion show) & after she went home i went to pravda to hang with people from work, i managed to lose my camera despite not being drunk.

Lessons learned from the night:
-Going to a gig alone is perfectly acceptable, if not possibly preferrable
-If you don't want to lose you're camera, get drunk
-kebabs are great

Improv in Grand Central Station

Interesting!

Video Of The Week

I know its a bit late this week but its been a busy week in college, with exam results and the ensuing panic.

So this week for anyone who hasn't already seen I present Tom Petty at the superbowl XLII(42) Half-Time show. Enjoy

Video Of The Week: Lego Special

Lego building blocks were 50 years old yesterday. I've always loved lego, almost as much as music. Now Lego & Music don't seem to have alot in common, but ever since the advent of Youtube, it has become alot easier to find music video's done in lego animation format.

Here are some of my Favourites:
Kasabian - Club Foot - i've never seen the real video, but i like this
Weird Al Yankovich - The Saga Begins - a must for star wars fans
The Decemberists - The Mariners Revenge Song - an excellent yet underheard song
Radiohead - Street Spirit - slightly bizarre
The Blueman Group - still impressive, even through lego

Although technically around before youtube, this video is for me the first big lego music video:

And The Making Of.
Michel Gondry is a legend

First Steps into Radio

You may have noticed to the left that there is a radio, all the songs are full length and ive chosen them myself from the full length songs available on last.fm. I'll be updating it from time to time with more stuff but for now enjoy having something to listen to as/if you read.

I'm pretty excited to see the full version of 45:33 available, all 46 minutes of it. I recommend the gossip remix(in case you hadn't guessed from it being number 1).

This Weekend I Mostly Listened to

Blonde Redhead
23 is a great album, I really didn't appreciate it enough last year.

Atari Teenage Riot
Those crazy germans, fun times.

My Brothers "Angry" Music
at his 21st friday night, long night with little sleep.

The Sounds of Water Polo
I was at the inter-varsities on saturday, fun times had by all, i spent €92 on the first round. Being a captain is hard work.

The Scumbags making my cushy job more difficult
Would anyone really care if we locked them all up?

Movie Recommendations

Because music is inextricably linked to movies since the days of silent film. I won't try and give away too much in the description. So if you have nothing better to do this weekend


Brick - Brilliant film noir style updated into a high school situation.

Juno - 16 year old girl gets knocked up, decides not to have an abortion, excellent story ensues. Great soundtrack & cameo by Cut Chemist

Superbad - Superobvious, superfunny

Mallrats - Kevin Smith's second film, often overlooked but pure gold.

Enjoy

Video Of The Week

One Man, a drumkit & a sampler - Solo drum n bass brilliance

(Thanks to Phier for the link)

The Young Knives For Whelans

Yet another absolute bargain of a gig in whelans. Sunday March 23rd(Easter Sunday) the Excellent Young Knives are playing. Tickets €17. For those of you unfamilar with the album "Voices of Animals & Men" I recommend you check it out.
"The Decision" was one of the singles off the album.

Hopefully I'll see you there.

Jim Noir

I first got Jim Noir's album "Tower of Love" when I found out he was going to be playing support for the Super Furry Animals in Vicar Street, however due to my driving test being at home that day and the train being late i arrived just before the SFA took to the stage, and hence missed all of Jim's set.
I had only briefly listened to the album due before hand and wasn't terribly disappointed at missing his set at the time. But retrospect is a bitch and now after a few months and many more listens i realise that i missed out on what could have been something special. "Tower of Love" has intrigued me greatly, it opens very well with "My Patch", but changes tone quickly and this downtempo turn may affect some peoples impression of the album. However there are some very good songs therein that can really grow on you, and certainly has with me. I recommend giving it a listen and not judging it too quickly.

British Sea Power in Whelans

At this stage i've posted enough about them, and I told myself that i wouldn't bother with sayig anything today. But last night was just far to spectaculare to go undocumented. My first time seeing the great BSP but i hope it won't be my last. A brilliantly energetic set from the lads and lady made it easy to ignore the scorching temperature(a crowded gig and the radiators are on full blast??). My one, prolonged, trip to the bar caused me to nearly miss "waving flags", which sounds so much better live. The atmosphere was second to none with a crowd who really wanted to be there and a band who wanted to play for them, the smurflike Noble being very friendly from the outset. The actions of the 5th(or is it 6th) member of the band were probably the most entertaining, first apperance from stage right with a large air raid siren for sound affects, running across the stage playing a trumpet or a euphonium, or most spectacularly entering the stage for the encore via the balcony and the lighting rig. This is not to say that the rest of the band were not without their stage presence, and excellent performance from Drummer Tom White of Brakes & Electris Soft Parade(Sitting in for the injured Woody).
The night culminated in the epic semi-improvised(from what ive read) "Rock In A" which featured a stage invasion, a few audience members swinging from various parts of the venue & a very passionate kiss for Yan from a large topless man(yan did not look impressed).
I know its a bit early in the year for this but as timo said, gig of 2008(i am open to being convinced otherwise though).


Songs Of The Night:
"No Lucifer"
"How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?"
"Rock in A"

Bizarre movie Crossover's

I'm a massive Kevin Smith fan & while cruising through the youtube videos of Askewniverse outtakes and extras i found this rather bizarre piece of fan fiction. It features the weird crossover of Jay and Silent Bob being chased by Freddy Krueger with parodoies of numerous films and even a father ted reference. Im intrigued that people thought of this and slightly confused as to why they decided to spend money making it.

Video Of the Week

The Mars Volta - Wax Simulacra

The First single off their new album The Bedlam In Goliath, set for release January 29th.
This song has got me really looking forward to the album, I wasn't really in the right place to anticipate the last album, although i did enjoy it alot, but now im in a more prog-rock sort of place and am very much looking forward to hearing more from the former At The Drive-In boys. Unfortunately Sparta have not been as promising but still produce the odd gem.

RTE vs Music

RTE our national broadcasterhave just announced their new Winter/Spring season 2008, including over 30 new homegrown shows, however noticeably absent once again from the line-up is a music show from a reputable source.

Rant warning

They cancelled No Disco, one of the greatest television shows Ireland has ever produced. They Watered down the last broadcast to a shadow of its former self, and dave fanning is not the be all and end all of irish music. They have refused a documentary by Nick Ryan about the Electric Picnic 2006, one that he was giving away free. Other Voices remains one of the few good shows that they have that has been relatively untouched since getting it right. However it is only being broadcast after 11pm, meaning its influence is mainly on lost on anyone not in their 20's or 30's.
They just seem to focus on its nice little ratings earners (The Late Late Show, Your A Star, etc) and completely losing out on its 18-35 demographic. Its gotten to such a point where the only Homegrown Shows i might watch on RTE are the news & the ocassional glimpse(like you might glimpse at a car crash) at their terrible attempts at 20-something aimed Shows (Roaring Twenties, the big bow wow). The album reviews section on RTE.ie features very little, if any, music outside of the charts(the only possible exception is Radioheads In Rainbows but that didn't chart for a good reason). It seems clear to me that RTE seem happy to fob off those of us with a musical inclination with a few episodes of the last broadcast and Other Voices, and then maybe if a few of us are watching the den we can catch UnaRocks giving it socks in her small segment once a week, but that isn't even really aimed at anyone over the age of 16 or 17 at a strech.
I put it to you that RTE is failing a significant proportion of its customer base and is wasting our Licence fee on tripe.

Do You Like Rock Music? Released Today

I have been looking forward to British sea power's third album since i got into them last year. First Album "The Decline of British Sea Power" & Second release "Open Season" are both excellent albums and last years Krankenhaus EP showed that the third album would not disappoint. I downloaded the album a few weeks ago and now the album will be winging its way too me in wonderful vinyl format to enjoy listening too for years to come.

Weekend Update

Tomorow will be a long and painful day of stocktaking at work, so im busy filling up my zen with music in the hopes ill be able to listen to that to pass the time whilst counting. It shall be a great oppurtunity to catch up on my new music.

Tonight I really should go to doran's to see one of the guys from work drum in his band, but im way too tired and slightly broke for all that jazz. They have a new Ep coming out soon so i plan to go to that launch night instead, im not all bad.

Last night was haido's birthday, so there was drinking and fun times for most in the bernard shaw & onwards to POD, however i was taking it easy and didn't make it past the shaw. A nice little upside to the evening, was the woman who came across to us at the bus-stop beforehand, to give us her bus ticket because she was finished with it, which was nice.

Video Of The week

Becasue im so ecited that their new album Do you like rock music? is out soon and my tickets arrived today for their gig next friday, I give you British Sea Power - Waving Flags.

British Sea Power are playing Whelans of Wexford street on Friday 18th January, see you there

Don't You Know you'll Stain The Carpet!

I had never fully "gotten" the velvet underground until i listened to Sister Ray, before this i had only heard a live joy division cover on still, that while excellent, was let down alot by poor sound quality. And now i get it i can see myself enjoy their music alot more in future.

I've just watched Brick, which has left me in a sense of euphoria for seeing something so refreshing.