Pop Lie

Recently I have begun listening to Okkervil River and in particular one of their older album's Black Sheep Boy. As with all things, once you meet it for a first time it keeps cropping up again and again.

Just started listening to their newish single and if they are on Letterman they have to be relatively big. Although I can't make you my mind if I like this new stuff or not they have an uncanny ability of fitting a large number of guitar players on one stage which is all good in its own right. Pop Lie by Okkervil River and in a typical one word Corkonian sum up.... ambivalent!

Helpless

After having taken the RTÉ version of BBC i-player for a test drive over the weekend I was disgusted to find out that Tubridy Tonight and The Late Late Show were in the 5 Most Watched programmes on-line. It's okay that you might see either of the programmes if its a quiet night at home and you are stuck for something to watch but seriously logging on to a website so you can watch it on demand is a bit much. Word to the wise Secrets of The Stone is a quality documentary even if they did go a bit over-board on the CGI and for a while there I though some of our national monuments were something akin to the Inca (the wonders of modern technology).

Anyways enough of talking of the joys of Irish Terrestrial Television viewing and back to the music. One of the greatest songs of all time written by Young and played with The Band from their Last Waltz, this is Helpless. (Also a case study for some back stage excess)

Tree Hugging

Still waiting for spotify to get it's ass in gear and allow us Irish to sign up to there free service. All in all it looks pretty cool but I just can't be arsed going through a proxy so as to spoof my I.P. address being in the UK. Anyways its unpatriotic which is always a good way to justify laziness as Mr. Chomsky would point out in any of his books. Speaking of him, with Hegemony or Survival, those predictions haven't really worked out, and his hope for some mass sixties style popular stand hasn't materialised, especially in these days of Twitter which appears to be far more successfully utilised in demonstrations in Moldova than here, although it appears the student population of Moldova don't confuse appathy with patriotism.

That tangent was brought courtesy of the fact that spotify is not available here, which is like Hulu and that music yoke that the pitchfork have on their site. Are we living in the fupping stone age here or whats the story?

God damn licensing agreement, no wonder everyone went to pirate bay, who also are trying to convince us that the Swedish (as a race) have a tradition in file sharing! C'mon for fuck sake, who has a tradition of file sharing???? I haven't read one history book that highlights the Swedish love of filing cabnets, for matches yes (built a shagging empire on it) but filing cabnets no!!

So after all that its quiet obvious that the mood aint so hot (could also be explained that after finishing work the first song I heard on the radio was Bryan Adams: Heaven, yikes). So to cheer me and everyone else up I think some Polyphonic Spree is required and Light and Day.... Lets not have a concert, lets have a gathering. Maybe Chomsky was onto something with this tree hugging lark! Finally based on the evidence of the video, having a laugh in Japan at concerts appears to be banned or something.

I Feel Better

Just stumbled across this animated video on Vimeo. The excellent Frightened Rabbit and I Feel Better. I think calling it folk rock is doing the song an injustice. Also the video highlights once again that creative people appear to have too much time on their hands cause that is some painstaking animation and also they have the ability to confuse the fup out of me.

It Sounds Like Something, But What?

Just after watching Later On... this evening and this band were playing. A certain mid eighties vibe and I cant put my finger on what this song is a bit of homage/rip off depending on perspective. Here they are at that indie/major talent spotting/making everybody loads of money get together that is SXSW festival in the US of A. Hockey and Song Away

Funny In A Geeky Way

This is the internet.

Classic Album of The Week (Part 4)

So far, to the best of my knowledge at least my selection's for classic album of the week have been best described as safe (Fleetwood Mac Rumours, Neil Young After the Goldrush, Bruce Springsteen Nebraska) and would make most recommended must listen before you die type lists. Today's selection is slightly more left field but does have that personal impact that allows it to be placed within the same classic container.

1997 and the first band that I could say I truly found (I'm trying to figure out how but for some reason I think it had to do with Atlantic 252 radio station but I always thought that station just played Simply Red over and over). The Stereophonic's debut album Word Gets Around captures what small town life means to all who grew up.

The opening track the attention is caught with Thousand Trees which is a disturbing take on when illusions are shattered in an insular community. From there the album takes a look at the joys of working in the local supermarket with More Life In A Tramps Vest with the line "Last Minute Shoppers Picking Cauliflower, The Fuss They Make You Swear They Were Buying A Car" which somehow rang true for a young fella working in the fruit and veg section of Super Valu earning somewhere in the region of ninety pence an hour if memory serves me correctly.

Local Boy In The Photograph and Billy Davies Daughter deal with the unexpected loss and really do highlight Jones' ability as a songwriter with the latter highlighting a tender side while the former proving to be a rock belter. In between one is treated to the classic Traffic with accompanying small town paranoia and the bass drum drive Not Up To You.

All in all this is an under-rated album that deserves more attention and also highlights the golden era of mid-nineties music although that may be just nostalgia on my part. Slightly controversial choice but in my mind at least classic all the way!

Exploring

As promised, a photo of all things holiday.

It's in the middle of a mountain and ice age related supposedly!

Recent music purchases, yes I am old skool enough to continue to buy cds thank you very much.


1. Bell X1, Blue Lights on The Runway. Not great, was expecting a little bit more.
2. Doves, Kingdom of Rust. Don't understand the hype, solid album but nothing special either.
3. Peter, Bjorn and John, Living Thing. Go out and buy it immediately, pure quality.

Finally, relaxing song of the weekend. Interpol and Leif Erikson, what a song.

Bukowski Quote of The Day

To keep up the pretence of being cultured, I bring a Bukowski quote for the day (I haven't figured out yet if I'm being sarcastic/ironic or pretentious)

"There is nothing
so
boring
as
immortality"

Makes you think doesn't it. Answers on a postcard or at least the comments section.

Vacation: I Hate The Return

It's been a while as that pretty poor American band Staind once said and its over a week since my last post, a week which has seen the delights of Munich airport (everything bloody verbotten, make a smoking area god damn it) to the spaghetti junction that is Dublin airport (where everyone stares at the baggage carriers hoping that somehow this will speed the whole process up). In between times a lot of shit has gone down, my hatred of all things Chelsea related has increased, pirates are back in vogue, government like taking more money off us in the name of equality, Munster have kicked Osprey ass in rugby, MGMT will be at that most electric of picnics (they prices are pretty much in line with what utilities charge as well i.e. lots) and finally the good people at pirate bay have been put behind Swedish steel bars (make sure none of those dubiously acquired mp3's are existing on the old i-tunes).

Anyways my music listening in the past week has pretty much been confined to Frightened Rabbit and the crap thats played on the radio (Lady GaGa you have a LOT to answer for) due to the fact the different newer versions of software aren't bloody backwards compatible (or screw you programming as it should be referred to). This has increased my overall crankiness level and Ryanair haven't helped with the fact that for bizarre reasons my flight is about sixty euro more expensive than advertised (currently shaking fists at jet planes in the sky and hoping they are Ryanairs). As a result today's song is from the album Robbers and Cowards by the Cold War Kids and the aptly titled (for Irish at least) We Used to Vacation!

Bogen!

Update, in Germany!! Weather is all good. Getting a suntan. No music, pictures to follow.

Heat Of The Moment (Shakes Head)

Hectic day today, although while on the good old beeb website I found this. Interesting reading and as good as reason as any not to have a expense account. People actually check up on what your buying, god who would have thought working in the public service would make you so accountable.

Today's post besides the above takes in that brilliant age of the eighties and this weeks shame is Asia and The Heat of The Moment. I think I heard it once on a night out in a bar called the Idle Hour, a lawless place I tells ya, a lawless place. Anyways its starts with "I never meant to be so bad to you" and progresses steadily downhill.

Gold Lion

A nice relaxing weekend in the land of the Gaelic Footballers. Plenty sun ensured my budding career as a photographer continued apace, now to buy a bloody memory card to stop having to delete photos every five minutes to allow me to take more photos. My penny pinching has finally caught up with me. Anyways I was thinking of a good Kerry band and I'm still at a loss. The 4th Dimension were from Tralee I think but that isn't even close to what I like in terms of music. So I say fuck it, and just pick a song that I want to listen to! Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gold Lion, I just like the video...

That It Is, Is The Mystical

Darwin's Angel by John Cornwell is a riposte to Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion where Cornwell attempts to show up some of the inconsistencies of Dawkin's central thesis by way of a guardian angel. Now after writing that opening summary, I'm trying to figure out why anyone should read the book, its sounds about as grounded as a kestrel on speed. But if you give it a chance it actually works and begins to break down some of the certainty associated with the God Delusion by cleverly using the work of people ranging from Wittgenstein to the spiritually tortured philosopher/mathematician Pascal.

The book however isn't blatantly religious if one is going on the narrower definition of the word and is far less dogmatic and stringent that the Dawkin's atheist vibe. Anyways my head seriously hurts after all that profound thinking, and I thought first mover only ever referred to commerce and was just reference in a Michael Porter paper from the eighties and bob's your uncle. How wrong I was!!!

So after getting that book off the shelf I was tempted to play If God Was One of Us or the SouthPark Faith +1 Christian Rock Band, but I resisted, instead I went for Placebo and Running Up That Hill, mainly because I just couldn't inflict Kate Bush generally prancing around the place on anyone.

Also a band called Placebo singing about god, the irony is delicious.

In The Headlights

It's early on a Friday morning as type I this out. Just back from the Frightened Rabbit gig which was on in Cyprus Avenue. A middling to decent crowd was at and I made three non-expectant buddies tag along for the gig. First off I can confirm I am not in anyway close to being able to write a gig review. I couldn't tell you what song was played from first to last but the performance was excellent. A cracking version of Keep Yourself Warm was played to finish and I was the business. Merchandise shopping and various chats with the band followed and it was all good. Well worth checking out and an excellent nights entertainment. Damn, damn good!! This was quality too, Floating in the Forth.

Join The Stampede

U2 playing on top of a shopping centre in Cork, Stephen Ireland returning to the Irish soccer squad, and thinking a conference can save the world. It has to be April 1st, it just has to be.... And the song choice is so obvious its not funny.