Monday, August 17, 2009

From American to Local Townland

In days of yore it was once something akin to The Electric Picnic with stars such as Van Morrison in Astral Week pomp and Rory Gallagher headlining what was then the Mountain Dew festival (the first outdoor festival of it's type in Ireland). History such as that highlights the gaping hole that requires filling and finally this has come about. The first step on the road to artistic recovery see's Macroom host the Lughnasa festival. The line up includes the previously posted Interference and Director(snazzy site by the way). Also to ensure the local connection is not lost Fred and Remma are just part of the line-up that will ensure the festival will continue for years to come. (This has been a public service blog posting!)
The days of yore.





And of now.



Thursday, August 13, 2009

American Townland

A quick visit to the archives (can 2002 be filed under archived, christ I'm getting old). Anyways this is an excellent live recording taken from a music series Other Voices recorded within an old church in Dingle of the County Kerry. Introduced by Glenn Hansard (I will forgive em that) and probably known most for their track on that Oscar winning soundtrack yoke of his Once. This is Interference are their opening track American Townland is a joy to behold.



Random Thoughts Like The Google

The wonders of modern technology unfortunately do know some bounds. Take for instance the wonderful google ad app that appears on the right hand side of this blog appears to generate based on the content of the site. I'm kinda fuzzy on how the whole thing works but I imagine its a mixture of meta tags and wonderful algorithm (more than likely a Lucky 8 Ball placed on the coffee machine of the Viz inspired Google open plan workspace). So this has lead to the wild and wacky world of randomly generated ads that I for one do not endorse. Why not uninstall I hear people shout, well 38 cent over three months is reason enough not to and also for the head shaking and giggles the whole thing has provided.
Anyways back to matters more important, the outstanding indie machine that is the Hold Steady return to these shores in September in the county of Clare of all places on the 12th of September. Worth the festival price alone and more festival classics than the proverbial stick can be shuck at.
To finish, as a fan of slightly off kilter cover versions, this is one of the more bizarre I have stumbled across recently (well the man can definitely sing).
Frank Sinatra: For Once In My Life

Monday, August 10, 2009

Cosmic Love

I'm never the biggest fans of more or less home movies at gigs but this one those highlight the talent of Florence and The Machine. Of course this song has the unfortunate link to all things mobile phone, but still its floats above it like those bubbles in the ad for the same company. She is mad as a box of frogs and as according to every other media source on the planet has a passing resemblance to a certain Kate Bush. In a previous posting not a million miles away from this post she helps Glasvegas create a classic cover, here she shows quirky lyrics with an amazing voice and some crowd motivating arm swinging. Cosmic Love for the 21st Century, on another note reading the Ascent of Money, so far its depressing, that is all!