Friday Night Lights

I’ve never been much of a sports fan, maybe it’s because I lack that whole hand-eye coordination thing. From time to time I watch the odd film. Last night I watched ‘Friday Night Lights‘, it follows the story of the 1988 Permian Panthers in their quest for the State title. It’s based a book by New York Times sports critic, H.G. Bissinger. It’s set in Odessa in Texas, a town that at the time prioritised American Football. The film from other highschool american football films because it focuses on the reality of the situation, that ultimately 17 old year kids are put under overwhelming pressure to win by the town and their parents because “this is their one chance in life”. Anyway two things stood out for me about the film, one was the long lingering shots and the second was the soundtrack. Explosions in the sky wrote the whole soundtrack and it just fit so well with the plot and way the movie was shot. I’ve never been mad on Post Rock but there’s just something so cathartic and uplifting about Explosions in the Sky’s form of it.

Chairlift play Dublin & Cork

Chairlift are a Brooklyn based band that make bass heavy synth pop. They’re signed to Kanine records which is home to Grizzly Bear and formerly home to Oxford Collapse. I’ve only heard a couple of tracks off their debut, ‘Does You Inspire You’ but it’s convinced me to go check them out when they play in Crawdaddy on November 22nd. They also play Cyprus Avenue the next day.

Their track Bruises recently featured on the new ipod Nano ad. There’s already been a bit of a buzz about them in all the usual places but this could really jumpstart their rise to the top as similar exposure did for Feist.

Video for Planet Health:

O’Death

I was lucky enough to catch O’Death live in Whelans about a week or so ago. Their new album ‘Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin’ is out now. Even though vocalist Greg Jamie was suffering from a cold, he still managed to belt out a stomping set, maybe a little bit more wraspy than usual. I had a chat with him after the show for about half an hour. He’s a really nice guy. We were just chit chatting about the tour and about how vinyl was making a comeback. I was suprised when he admitted that they’ll probably be in debt after the tour. It’s mad that a band as good as O’Death still struggle to go on a European tour and make any sort of decent profit.

Justice Dj set in October

Justice Live in Dublin

Dance phenomenon JUSTICE have confirmed a very special Dublin date this October. The French duo will play Dublin as part of a mini world tour entitled Across the Universe where they play 15 dates across the globe including: Tokyo, Berlin London Montreal, Toronto NYC L.A and Amsterdam!

JUSTCE play the Amabassador on October 26th tickets priced €28.00 including booking fee are on sale this Saturday at 9.00 am.

As per the MCD website. This hasn’t exactly been receiving a lot of attention or publicity. Possibly because the above statement is very misleading, this is in fact a DJ set.

One of my favourite Justice pieces is their rejected Fabric live mix. It started floating around the internet earlier this year. A lot of people that I’ve mentioned the mix to say that they aren’t too fond of it. I, on the other hand, can’t get enough of it and listen to it at least once a week. I don’t know why Fabric rejected it, I always thought the whole idea of the mixes they released was to be progressive, like Simian Mobile Disco included Moon Dog on their recent mix! If they play a load of french disco tracks at the Ambassador Dj set, it’ll be great. I can just imagine all the jaws of the neon clad skinny jeaned kids dropping as Justice play  Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes by Korgis.

Remember when that track was on that godawful Road safety ad a few years back? It completely sullied the tune for me but Justice have revived it in their Fabric Mix and given it a new lease of life for me. Another thing about this mix is that includes an incredible track, ‘Next of Kin’ by Parisian teenage dj prodigy Surkin. It’s clearly an ableton assisted electro ditty but it has a distinct early 90s house vibe. Fingers crossed that he’ll be gracing our shores soon, I can only guess that promoters are battling it out right now to book him.

Justice – rejected fabric mix mp3

Tracklist (yoinked from pitchfork):

01 Sparks: “Tryouts for the Human Race”
02 Rondo Veneziano: “La Serenissima”
03 Goblin: “Tenebrae”
04 Daft Punk: “Ouverture”
05 Surkin: “Next of Kin”
06 Symbolone: “Love Juice”
07 Korgis: “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes”
08 Midnight Juggernauts: “Ending of an Era”
09 The Paradise: “In Love With You [ft. Romauld]“
10 Justice: “TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY (Acapella)”
11 Chic: “Everybody Dance”
12 Frankie Valli: “Who Loves You”
13 Das Pop: “Underground”
14 Julien Clerc: “Quand Je Joue”
15 Daniel Balavoine: “Vivre Ou Survivre”
16 Richard Sanderson: “Reality”
17 Zoot Woman: “Grey Day”
18 Fucking Champs: “Thor Is Like Immortal”
19 The Rave: “Mother”
20 Fancy: “You Never Know”
21 Frank Stallone: “Far From Over”
22 Sheila: “Misery”
23 Todd Rundgren: “International Feel”

We Are Villagers

Originality is one of the things that matters most to me about new music. There’s so many Irish bands who just try too hard to emulate the sound and success of bands they admire. While some are successful at reinventing a sound and making it their own, others fail miserably and in turn end up being mediocre versions of the bands they idolise. Sure they can play their instruments, perform live and are really nice guys, but that’s not enough. I want a band to excite me and introduce my ears to something fresh and individual.

Photo by Loreana Rushe

One of the greatest bands to emerge in Ireland in the last decade was the Immediate. That’s a pretty bold statement but I stand by it. They had great songs, a brilliant dynamic between them when they played live and ultimately they made music that set them completely apart from their countrymen and women. Unfortunately they decided to call it a day last May because some of the band members wanted to do different things. As I stood at their last gig I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when they drunkenly announced from the stage that they were breaking up. They had so much going for them.

Each of them went on their separate ways. Conor O’Brien joined Cathy Davey’s band and toured with her. Dave Hedderman who did all the bands artwork, moved to Berlin to work full time as an artist. Barra Heavey was still dismayed and wrote a piece for the independent explaining his feeling after the split. I’m not sure what Peter Toomey did afterwards

It’s 16 months on now at this stage when yesterday I read over on Niallers blog that Conor has formed a new band called Villagers. The Torture Garden wrote about it two weeks ago just after Conor performed solo at the Spiegeltent (see video below). I checked out the Villagers myspace and there are two songs up. A track called ‘The Meaning of The Ritual’ is a stomper of a tune, starting out with simple vocals and a church organ, then breaking into the pulsating guitars that tipified the Immediate’s sound. For some reason, it reminds me of a really old BellX1 song, ‘Man on Mir’ from the album ‘Neither Am I‘. Phantom used to have it on heavy rotation back when they were still a Pirate station. Villagers are playing live in November so if you have a chance you should definitely check em out.

There are lights in the clouds

Melancholy is a great feeling, both moving and somewhat upsetting, but also uplifting and cathartic. I always seem to experience extremes bouts of it at certain times of the year, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the changing seasons or maybe it’s because every so often I fully realise that certain stages of my life are over and I’m already half through the next one. I know this is a bit sad but for example, everytime I walk or get the bus past my old secondary school, I get this weird intense tinge of nostalgia in my chest. Yeah I know, a bit sad. I’ve always tried to figure out why and I guess I put it down to a friend of mine and everyone else in our year, passing away suddenly at the end of our first year in college. For me, he epitomised everything good about the school I went to. It wasn’t your average school and my friend certainly wasn’t your average 20 year old when he passed away. There was a lot of emphasis put on doing good things for people who were less advantaged than you.

I digress, I’ve gone off the point a little. Lately I’ve reached one of those life crossroads, finishing college and entering into the “real” world. For the first time in 18 years, I am not bound by any sort of educational schedule or routine. This should feel like a dose of freedom but really it’s quite confusing. But it will pass and eventually I’ll figure out what I’m meant to do with myself.

In the meantime, I’ve got music compliment my ever changing moods. I went for a few cheeky midweek pints with an old friend of mine last night, when I came home I listened to ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea‘ by Neutral Milk Hotel. I had some pretty weird dreams afterwards about floating around in the sea with my duvet. I love this album, it’s so joyous and uplifting but also so intensely melancholic, in no small part to the vocals and lyrics of Jeff Mangum. Slate call him “the Salinger of Indie Rock” and I’d have to agree.

First post

So this my first post on my new blog. I started the blog because I’ve always wanted to become a better writer and what better way than by blogging every day or so. Plus from what I can see when it comes to blogs, there aren’t exactly rules as regards to writing styles. What can you expect on my blog? Plenty of rambling about music and art. Although the name of my blog suggest I might be focusing on the literary world, this will not be the case. That’s pretty much it for now. More interesting posts to come over the next few days when I get the hang of wordpress etc.

Oh and the header of my blog is a photo of easkey in Co. Sligo in the evening about 4 years ago.