Posted in music on Nov 13th, 2008 2 Comments »
Once, while I was in college, I caught a friend holding a vinyl record covetously inside his jacket. There was a group of us, loitering with unfocused energy in the middle of one the dullest concourses on the planet, and it was clear he was planning to ‘lend’ the record to someone. The person came […]
Posted in Mafia, Berlusconi, Africa, Italy, obituary, music on Nov 10th, 2008 6 Comments »
It’s a pity to push Conor’s Subterraneans post so soon off the top of the pile - remember them as another fine late 80s Dub band that never got their dues. I particularly remember a fairly amazing bass-playing singer (do I recollect right ?) don’t think I’ve heard anyone Irish play the bass like it […]
Posted in Phil Lynott, Crumlin, dublin, music on Nov 4th, 2008 4 Comments »
During a rare attempt to listen to a few tracks from one of Marc Riley’s programmes on BBC Six Music (or whatever it’s called) I got sidetracked onto a Phil Lynott documentary they’re currently broadcasting : Phil Lynott docu. Part 1 of 6 Narration is by that Nordie actor that once did voicovers […]
Posted in Cheesiness, Will Oldham, Beirut, music on Nov 3rd, 2008 No Comments »
What better, after passing through the weekend of the dead, than a nice couple of covers of cheesy classics ? I came across the below on the excellent French music blog Blogotheque It’s our old deposed sovereign, Bonnie Prince Billy helping out a young Norwegian singer Susanna Karolina Wallumrød. According to Blogotheque, […]
Posted in music on Oct 7th, 2008 2 Comments »
People spend a lot of time poking around for the edgy new underground thing, convinced that plain old pop songs have been done to death. But Vampire Weekend come along like Belle & Sebastian and the Strokes each did, sounding refreshingly laidback and uncomplicated, and with simple set-ups that make good songs sound exceedingly easy.
Yep, […]
Posted in New Wave, Punk, Norn Iron, Belfast, music on Sep 26th, 2008 5 Comments »
“If anywhere in the world needed punk, it was Belfast”
(Terri Hooley - glass-eyed rogue)
I recall (that’s like remembering only a tad more middle class) my first and probably only trip up to Belfast. It started on a bus from Busaras that trundled up the pathetic excuse for an N1 that was only halfway decent to […]
Posted in Ex Members of Fall, Radio, dublin, music on Sep 18th, 2008 8 Comments »
[ Probably the ‘Australian’ Sewing Room - photo nicked from www.elderweb.com ]
Some of you may remember the mid 90s Dublin ’supergroup’ The Sewing Room ( Sewing Room MySpace ). I say ’supergroup’ as a couple of the members emerged from out of the rubble of late 80s/early 90s bands Stars of Heaven (Stanley Erraught […]
Posted in The Fall, music on Sep 18th, 2008 5 Comments »
By now I had got too close. It was my turn to feel the Curse of the Fall. For months, everything went wrong. I drove my shiny new MG (purchased after my other car blew up) into a river. My beloved Leeds United were relegated, then deducted 10 points, then 15. I was struck down […]
Posted in The Fall, gigs, music on Sep 16th, 2008 9 Comments »
“So, out of ten, what would you give it?” I asked Alan while nursing an expensive Czech beer outside the Spiegeltent in the Iveagh Gardens last week. We had just seen the Fall play and I wanted to know what he thought. Although we started listening to the Fall around the same time, he has […]
Posted in Television, podcast, dublin, music on Sep 8th, 2008 No Comments »
A recent chance discovery of mine on YouTube (that place where there are so many of them lying in wait) has been Balcony TV As ever, it was a totally unrelated Google search (for ‘Bristol Palin alien artifical insemination home movie’ as it tranpires) that went horribly wrong - Google works in […]