Rain

Having just finished reading 'Rain' by Don Patterson I'm left with the all too familiar, slightly bemused, 10,000 yard stare and asking myself what the hell was that. A far more eloquent view of the experience can be found here. However let it not be said that I didn't appreciate it, its just that I'm left feeling incredibly confused (think slowly turning gears and nothing happening).

Speaking of the under appreciated, Kings of Leon have a new album out and it seems to be taking a fair amount of stick. Fair enough the video for Radioactive is incredibly dodge on a Herculean scale dodge but if any other band around produced something like this they would be lauded from a height. I think its half decent and as good as anything this year. Damn the begrudgers!

Islands

24 months behind as usual. Can't stand the haircuts or the look but the music is class.

She Said

After over a year of using Spotify and also with this new iTunes Ping yoke (it sounds like a putter if you ask me) I have began to wonder does anybody find music the old fashioned way anymore i.e. listen to the radio followed by what the fuck was that, not get the name of the band, wait patiently for another two weeks till the song is played again, finally catch the name of the band and then off to Golden Discs!! Very simple process.

Now our music tastes are decided by A] what other people who have listened to this track have also listened to (this is not good damn Amazon) and B] how proficient the DBA who is after creating the system is at linking tables (and this is not an ACCESS tutorial either). Neither options are very satisfactory really.

Below is some good old fashioned music that was once tracked down via the first process outlined above.

Money for Nothing

Well I have read it all now, apparently that giant debt clock in New York is a figment of everyone's imagination and all everyone in the U.S of A has to do is take out a large order from Viking Direct and order a few truck loads of photocopying paper and head off down to the nearest mint. According to Ellen Brown this is an actual solution (well with my hyperbole Irish slanted take on the article removed).

Market jitters may be a hazard, but if the U.S. finds itself with government bonds and no buyers, it will no doubt resort to quantitative easing again, just as it has in the past -- not necessarily overtly, but by buying bonds through offshore entities, swapping government debt for agency debt, and other sleights of hand. The mechanics may vary, but so long as "Helicopter Ben" is at the helm, dollars are liable to appear as needed.

Now I've read the post (see here) three or four times and I still can't make head no tail of it. Is it possible to wrack up that much debt and then use monopoly money to pay the person who holds risk off with it? Surely there is something amiss.


That being said some of the commentators are capable of making sense (popular politics take note!). Anyways it will all probably be traced back to Breton Woods and something to do with the whole supply and demand thing. But  as in all things Dire Straits know best......Money for Nothing.







And just cause I like the song....

Movie Highlight

To close the weekend, the finest five minutes of cinema from the last twelve months... genius.

Ruby are you contemplating?

A typical Sunday afternoon, sitting next to the window listening to the world go by below. It must be symptomatic of a recession that all you can think of is whether traders are charging VAT after you have been to a farmers market and whether all forms of local entrepreneurship are supporting the economy as a whole (especially within the vital cottage industry sector). Of course the revenue may have had officials investigating but I doubt they would have their house that much in order.

All these thoughts of business were brought about after finishing reading my weekends fill of the The Sunday Times. I know its old hat but who on earth thought it was a good idea to charge for online content, it appears that someone really has to sit the Australian down and explain to him the concept of the internet. From what I can see very few people are going to splash out the extra cash just to see David Coulthard drive a very quick car admittedly very quickly around an island where there are no speed limits.Then again maybe I could be wrong and this all very clever with thoughts being to reader demographic, disposable income and possibly some sort offer reminiscent to the chapter in Predictably Irrational.

I always thought any internet site was going to be driven by an advertising lead business model while punters will only pay for specific content, usually in the form of a Forrester Report or The Wall Street Journal. I find it hard to believe that any of the insights provided by the Sunday Times demand an RSS feed into an Executive Information System. Anyway doesn't everyone buy the paper for the magazine type inserts, the presentation cultural material in a fashion that can never be fully captured in a Web 2.0 environment. Although no doubt iPad lovers out there will claim that the device provides an unparalleled user experience and my views are dated and out of sync with the obvious progress being made.

That is enough out loud wondering for one day. In honour of Sunday radio where you are forcibly transported back in the region of three to four decades ala Marty McFly here is the beard himself Kenny Roger and Ruby leave the .22 at home.

Something For The Weekend

This weekend everyone should be listening to the newish Brendan Benson album. Already looking forward to the gig coming up in September. It is amazing that the views are just under 4,000 but there is no counting for taste I suppose.

Europe

Europe, no not that Europe, this Europe, and there is quite the difference too I can. One an eighties throw back while the other is the heaviest book (not in the metaphorical sense) I've read since Denzien and Lincoln and there  love of all things question related. There are times I wonder why history as a subject never progressed for me beyond third year (I think formal education stopped somewhere between the Romans and The Easter Rising) but  on other more lucid occasions I realise that an inability of mine to remember dates would have been a hindrance  in the pursuit of gainful employment in the field of history (or else I could have just purchased this software). Of course that piece of software assumes by definition that time is linear but I think someone famous and kinda clever disproved that. 

Anyways I digress, back to the enormous tome in which a man (Norman Davies) who seems to know everything about everything (seriously the breadth of material is insane from Punk Rock to the War of Independance(British Pathé what a site)) charts a fasinating journey through European history with enough crammed in a single paragraph to keep you going for an age. In honour of all things historical and even though the lyrics are a bit on the mad side here is The Low Anthem and Charlie Darwin.

Its Been A While

To quote good old Staind and some mid 00's emotional rock. Anyways to get back into the whole thing I've decided an acoustic version of Magazines by who else but the Hold Steady. Only six hundred views, sometimes you gotta question the internet's taste in music. But then again sanity is in short supply these days as we all know global warming/climate change isn't actually happening because scientists had an argument over methodology.

Realisation

As always, I am a bit slow on the uptake but the sentiment expressed in Radiohead's song Like Spinning Plates is remarkably similar to the poetry of Seigfried Sassoon. Both written with the same sense of disillusionment, however one  draws from experience while the other from observation, but who says modern artists can't write.

Lion and the Lamb With Ghosts In The Hall

Beat Radio have their new album out now for a few weeks. As mentioned before on this blog they are  in my humble opinion one of those great internet finds. Their new album safe inside the sound sees a more layered approach when compared to the previous EP. Its been mentioned elsewhere that a few years ago this music would have appeared on every tv teen drama (The Hills to the sound of Beat Radio is wrong on about six levels). However lucrative this maybe for the band, it would be doing the album a disservice, it should and indeed deserves multiple listens and not be categorised with that throw away pop type stuff. More immediate than its predecessor with the opening track (follow you around) a proper stand out tune along with the lion and the lamb. This is just real quality independent music that deserves all the success it achieves.

So as not to spoil the album, here is a live performance of Elegy, and people just go and enjoy being safe inside the sound!

Another List

So after a long drawn out i-tunes catalogue tagging operation I can now finally compile a top 5 songs of 2009 list or a top 5 songs of whatever year you like list. What is it about that essential Apple application that causes one to so obsessively rate and re-rate songs like they were never intended to be. What is the baseline for a 5 star effort, is it something of the Jam's All Mod Cons album or can a new, freshly heard song just jump from nowhere to float in the rarified air of a classic from the vaults? So many questions and so few answers as the goal posts swirl around in never ending motion. Anyways 2009 has been a slow year in terms of cd buying/downloading with releases from  the legendary Bruce Spingsteen to the mighty Wilco.

The case for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs producing the greatest album of all time appears to be dimming with each listening despite the protestations of one more cultured/Q influenced listener may think. As with all things dustinthespotlight related this is a poorly thought out and half assed attempt at list creation that was entered on the spur of the moment egged on by boredom. The lack of completeness is more than likely down to the absence cold hard cash and aversion to all things torrent related. However pleading both ignorance and forgiveness here is the.... Three Quarter's of the Way Through The Year Top 5 Songs of 2009 (The Hits of Needing Something to Write About).

Brevity was never a strong point.

5. The Chapters: Perfect Stranger (The ever so slightly The Cars influenced title track... now if only I could find a line, so those clicking will be listening to Videotapes, its along the same lines)

4. Regina Spektor: The Calculation (Pop piano type music with word play a plenty, she is a lyricst after all I suppose so I should have expected it)

3. Camera Obscura: French Navy (And to think I thought they might sound like a Roddy Frame cover act!)

AND

1. White Lies (NME have a lot to answer for and I know its played off the radio but shur I'm a populist)

Help!

I am currently torn between whether or not to purchase that giant Beatles box set yokey. So in true Irish fashion I have decided to implement a far more expensive/short term solution by buying the back catalogue one by one. So first up was the soundtrack to the film Help!, having watched it recently (thank you BBC4 and Kerstin for sitting through it with me), I decided that it was far better than my memory had served me. So off to planet cdwow to purchase said same cd. The stand out track was the Lennon penned You've Gotta Hide You're Love Away. Also the other thing that stands out from repeated listening is how amazingly solid and brilliant a Beatles' album is.

Anyways to keep Apple Corp from tracking me down today's video is a cover of the song mentioned above from Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame.

Oh and the new Editors album is out in the near future, here is the new song Papillon, and also one quick question, why is there a Goran Ivanisevic look a like running??

Doctor Leaves

This is the internet, and the wonders never cease. Using an array of talents to produce an E.P. of quirkiness and all round self deprecation. A winning combination. I'm still not sure on the business model (indoctrination of business courses is hard to shake) but its great great music. Doctor Leaves deserves to be heard and also possibly an award for website design!

An Old Fashioned CD Buying Expedition

In the past few weeks there has been an upsurge in all things music related. A splurge of the CD buying variety. First up the new Arctic Monkeys one Humbug which is decent and not as poor as some recent reviews would suggest. I suppose if songs don't win people over within the first two listens it will be consigned to the bin labeled "ill-advised trip to the U.S.", a label which one will never find a Cat Steven's album. In typical fashion the first single picked is slightly left of centre, but Crying Lightening is a quality tune with perfectly weighted and observed lyrics. The rest of the album just gets better with each listen. A return to listening to albums ala the eighties is required (or else some proper reviewing, the Q review of the debut Interpol album always springs to mind), and I doubt a Smith's album is best appreciated after one/two listen then scribble a review.

Next up is the gang how drove me mad every time never mind in Five Year's Time, however this album is a little gem. Noah and the Whale with their First Days of Spring, full of strings and madness with just the right pitch. Just buy it, simple as.

As we would say as gaeilge.... sin sin (for the phoenetically minded, shin shin).

Finally just because I can, The Byrd's and a unique take on Dylan.

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.

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

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!

Beat Radio: Safe Inside The Sound

Thanks to a chance encounter facilitated by the elbo.ws blog aggregator I first listened to New York band Beat Radio, now as an acknowledged fan of said same band, I was delighted to see that they are streaming their second EP on the blog cinema of sunshine (you're off-line for a few weeks and this happens... typical). Continuing on that upward curve this EP takes off from where in my mind where Elegy left us. The songs strike deep and anything that drops some Neil Young references (Memoir of a Lightening Bolt)  is all good with me. The distinctive sound remains (Hard Times For Dreamers) though and well worth a listen. Now let's hope Beat Radio get more of the credit the album richly deserves.

Below a demo version of their song Mexico with accompanying video. The gift of an on-line community.