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)

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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