Posted in gigs, music on May 11th, 2007 4 Comments »
Mark E.Smith has said before that ‘if it’s me and your Granny on bongo’s, then it’s the Fall’. It was stated to reassure journalists that although he’d sacked his entire band and recruited a bunch of teenagers in Glasgow to take their place that the Fall would remain the same. It proved to be true, […]
Posted in gigs, music on Mar 22nd, 2007 2 Comments »
Here we are in the age of communication, and as if to prove it, we have Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy doing his wonderful anthem, I See a Darkness, captured by someone on their mobile phone.
I was at the gig, last Monday in Le Trianon, Paris, so one of the coughs you hear is probably mine.
Posted in gigs, music on Feb 26th, 2007 4 Comments »
On Friday night, during Newsnight Review, the writer and idiot Toby Young outted Montreal based Arcade Fire as a bunch of rich upper-class prigs, two of whom went to the most expensive school in the US private education system. Needless to say, he was dismissive of the album without actually saying anything about it, as […]
Posted in Annuals, Beirut, gigs, music on Jan 5th, 2007 1 Comment »
I missed the boat regarding my favourite albums of the year. As it’s 2007 already, there’s no point in providing one now.
Anyway Sinéad Gleeson and Seanachie of The
Pleasures of Underachievement covers all the bases and articulate views which I share (although I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to everything they’ve covered).
However, for Jim’s […]
Posted in Flaming Lips, gigs, music on Nov 21st, 2006 5 Comments »
If the Annuals looked like a bunch of kids going bazzurk with their instruments at Vicar Street on Sunday night, then the main act, the Flaming Lips, seemed as if they were performing at a really well organised kids party. Of course it was the kind of kids party that most of the punters at […]
Posted in Annuals, gigs, music on Nov 20th, 2006 1 Comment »
“They are but childrenâ€, I said to Jim when I arrived in towards the end of the second song of the Annuals set. Jim thought so too and told me that it was the same with Beirut, who played support to Calexico in the Olympia back at the beginning of November. Zach Condon* was so […]
Posted in Came so far for beauty, Mary Margaret O'Hara, gigs on Nov 11th, 2006 5 Comments »
OK, ladies and gentlemen, I think it’s time we actually sat down and listened to Mary Margaret O’Hara and Gavin Friday sing Hallelujah, don’t you?
For what it’s worth, I defy anyone to justify this ‘tribute’ as anything less than aural masturbation on the part of Friday and O’Hara.
It’s obvious that they didn’t even […]
Posted in Beirut, gigs, music on Nov 3rd, 2006 2 Comments »
With the end of Hallowe’en, when the smoke and cordite from the fires and fireworks makes Dublin look like Beirut, we move on to the next festival - November 2 - Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). If you can’t be in Mexico for this celebration of all people dead, then what […]
Posted in sufjan stevens, gigs, music on Nov 2nd, 2006 No Comments »
Ignorance is NOT bliss. Sometimes I’m slow to check out new music that has been developing a buzz for a while. Last night Sufjan Stevens played a much anticipated gig at the Olympia Dublin, which is weird because the first of November was the first day I listened to Sufjan with any concentration – and […]
Posted in Mary Margaret O'Hara, gigs, music on Oct 17th, 2006 11 Comments »
It seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t care what you purists think - Mary Margaret O’Hara’s contribution on Hallelujah was a high point of Came So Far For Beauty, the Leonard Cohen tribute show in the Point on Thursday. I am not alone in this opinion - my mate sitting next to […]