Playground Sounds

Cosmo Jarvis - 'Cosmo Jarvis'

2009-12-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

LABEL: WALL OF SOUND

Separated into two nine-track disks – ‘Humasyouhitch’ and ‘Sonofabitch’ – this debut album introduces the world to a 19-year-old lyricist of many shades and one ambitiously versatile musician at the same time. ‘Humasyouhitch’ is packed with the expected misadventures of a teenager in heat, with ‘Mel’s Song’ and ‘Jessica Alba’s Number’ light-heartedly dripping of acne-cream, odour issues and love unrequited. ‘Sonofabitch’, on the other hand, is darker and focuses on the breakdown of family life on tracks like ‘Mummy’s Been Drinking’ and ‘Problems’. Musically colourful and lyrically stinging, this album hints at an angry and witty voice for a new decade.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘MEL’S SONG’, ‘SHE’S GOT YOU’, ‘PROBLEMS’
FOR FANS OF: ARCTIC MONKEYS, THE STREETS, THE ENEMY

The Beat Poets - 'The Making' EP

2009-12-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

Belfast band The Beat Poets are making all the right noises in all the right places at present. From being championed by ATL to making ripples in New York, they are forging the right paths to accommodate their brand of radio-friendly guitar-driven rock. This EP captures a band unafraid to make big sounding guitar music with rousing choruses. All the early-U2 boxes are ticked, yes, but tracks like ‘The Making’ and ‘Race’ more than illustrate that The Beat Poets can do it well and there is a live audience out there who will respond more than positively to these tracks. Meanwhile, ‘Bloodline’, with its Stone Roses inspired acoustic flavourings and spirited vocals, suggests a diversity that will also serve them well.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘THE MAKING’, ‘BLOODLINE’
FOR FANS OF: MANSUN, MANIC STREET PREACHERS, U2

The Cult - 'Love' Expanded Edition

2009-12-23T07:41:00.000-08:00

LABEL: BEGGARS BANQUET

Apparently re-mastered from the original studio analogue tapes (as always, it’s difficult to tell) this expanded edition of an album first released 24 years ago has arrived at a time when all things 1980s are being revised, celebrated and, in some modern bands’ cases, recreated. With that in mind it would be fair to argue that this reissue is welcome more today than it would’ve been, say, four years ago. Fickle vogue issues aside, there should always be a time for the psychedelic rock of ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ and new-wave goth anthem ‘Rain’. This two-disk set is well packaged, with new notes by journalist James Brown. Aside from that, there is nothing new on offer here for Cult completists. Disk two features all the tracks from the album’s three 12” singles, including non-essential remixes, all tediously very much of their time. The ‘Love’ album deserves sole attention and appreciation here.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘NIRVANA’, ‘RAIN’, ‘SHE SELLS SANCTUARY’
FOR FANS OF: AC/DC, THE MISSION, SOUNDGARDEN

Collapse Under The Empire - 'Find A Place To Be Safe'

2009-12-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

LABEL: SISTER JACK

Inspired by Orwell’s vision of an authoritarian state, Find A Place To Be Safe sees CUTE create a momentum building marriage of atmospheric and thunderous guitars. Ambience, distortion and reverb flow upstream together in ‘Tranquility’, breaking only for a welcomed string interlude. ‘Decay’ and ‘Intelligence’ begin with light lashings of nocturnal keyboards but gather screaming guitars and even elements of trance along the way. With such sonic and multi-faceted instrumental music becoming increasingly prevalent, creating a location in the mind is key. Here we have 11 mini-movies that, despite their epic credentials, remain controlled and focused as songs while welcomingly indulging the mind’s eye of the listener. It’s a compelling journey that succeeds in finding beauty in such dark visions.

8/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘TRANQUILITY’, ‘FIND A PLACE TO BE SAFE’, ‘INTELLIGENCE’.
FOR FANS OF: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, MOGWAI, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT.

Horslips: The Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts

2009-12-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

It had been whispered and anticipated for a number of years, but in December it will finally become a reality. Horslips, the band who devised the template for Irish rock music in the 1970s, paving for way for U2 in the 1980s, the band who not only played around the world but in every corner of Ireland and the band regarded by many as the godfathers of Celtic Rock will return to the stage for their first full live shows in 29 years. They will be performing 2 shows: one in the O2 in Dublin on December 2 and a second in Belfast’s Odyssey on December 3. While these two massive arenas are a far cry from the dancehalls of the 1970s, it was three fans from those heady days that started the ball rolling in 2004 for what would eventually become a Horslips band reunion.

“If I have to blame anybody for Horslips getting back together it would be Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan,” laughs Horslips bassist and Ardboe native, Barry Devlin, speaking from Dublin. “They put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia at the Orchard Gallery in Derry in March, 2004. We all came along to see if the platforms would still fit, so to speak. When there we figured we’d have to do something. We ended up performing a short acoustic set, which topped off one amazing night.”

That night in Derry turned out to be the band’s first tentative steps into collaborating again. Soon after, they were in the studio recording ‘Roll Back’, an album of acoustic re-workings of some of their old tracks. Television appearances on ‘The Late Late Show’, ‘Other Voices’ and TG4 followed, as did a double DVD, ‘The Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts’, which documented Horslips’ career and included live footage. Demand for the band to perform some fully-fledged shows increased almost daily. Rumours circulated but nothing ever came to fruition, until this summer!

“For the last few years we’ve been looking at doing some proper live shows,” explains Barry. “Denis Desmond gave us great encouragement. The O2 was mentioned and I thought we’d never fill it. Denis reassured us that we would. So we announced the Dublin and Belfast shows last June. Unfortunately Eamon Carr couldn’t commit to the shows but it was Eamon who suggested that we get Ray Fean, guitarist Johnny’s brother, to take his place behind the drum kit.”

While Eamon could not commit to the two shows, he did rehearse with the band during the summer as they began to reacquaint themselves with their back catalogue. When Ray finally stepped in to take Eamon’s place, did it affect the harmony within the band?

“Not really,” says Barry. “It was interesting playing with someone we’ve never played with before but as Ray himself says, he feels like he has been in this band since he was ten because of Johnny. He’s a great man for a laugh and he’s certainly going to add a new dimension to the live shows.”

Ireland has changed a great deal since Horslips last played a full concert. The O2 and the Odyssey didn’t even exist back in the days when the band covered every nook and cranny of the country.

“I know and CDs didn’t exist either,” laughs Barry. “So much has changed. The biggest indoor gigs in Dublin in those days were at the National Stadium with 2,500 people. We’d also go to great places like Culdaff, Derry and, of course, the Astoria in Bundoran and those venues would always be packed out, too.”

Indeed, it appeared that Horslips, during this period, were flying the flag for an indigenous rock scene that previously didn’t exist in Ireland. Raising the dancehall roofs with their own material unavoidably made them stand out from the Showbands of the time.

“I loved the Showbands and still have a great love for them,” stresses Barry. “But original material did make us stand out. Remember, this was pre-U2 Ireland and there was no rock industry, as such. There was Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher and us and that was it. The way it worked back then was, you’d make it to the top in Ireland, you’d travel to England, live on porridge, record an album for Decca and then come home. We didn’t really have the appetite for that, so we decided to set up our own record label, design our own covers and basically kept everything based here in Ireland. It was a model that U2 followed soon after. The first gigs Bono and the rest of those lads went to were Horslips gigs. They saw that it could all be done right here. They could see that Irish kids didn’t have to look to Top of the Pops, they could have their own rock stars right here.”

Another aspect that made Horslips stand out was their willingness to play in the North when other acts refused to cross the border, particularly after the Miami Showband massacre in July 1975.

“It was a scary time, no doubt about it,” recalls Barry. “Up until that terrible day in July it was often thought that despite whatever madness was going on, the entertainment should be allowed continue. That myth was then shattered. We were nervous but bolshy. It took a lot of will but we always had a special affinity with the North. I’m a Tyrone man myself and we refused to be deterred from playing places we had a great identification with: places like Belfast, Derry and all over Donegal, places we related to.”

Anybody who ever attended a Horslips show now has the chance to do it all again next month in Dublin and Belfast. Barry has promised “the classics as people know them with one of two surprises along the way”.

He adds, “We’re hoping everyone will enjoy it. We’ve been blown away by how well the tickets have sold. The audience won’t be hearing revamped versions of the classics. They’ll hear them just as they are on albums like ‘The Tain’ and ‘Book of Invasions’, or as close as we can get to them in 2009. A friend recently asked me if we’re worried about forgetting some of the words. No chance! The crowd will be hopefully singing every word along with us, keeping us right,” laughs a very excited Barry.

The Specials - St George's Market, Belfast, November 16

2009-12-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

2009 was the year of revisionism and not all of it pretty. The annoying ‘so bad it’s good’ brigade took it too far when lauding all things 1980s. It was just fun and games until it afforded the Kemp brothers the environment to reform the appallingly bland Spandau Ballet and claim some stake of relevance, which was something they never had!

It wasn’t all bad though. In 2009, towns were coming like ghost towns, clubs were being closed down and the people were getting angry. If there was one band people wanted to return amid this climate it was The Specials, and that’s just what we got!

Jerry Dammers was sadly not on board, but tonight that couldn’t dampen the genuine spirit, guts and tempo of ‘Gangsters’, ‘Rat Race’, ‘Too Much Too Young’, ‘Hey Little Rich Girl’, ‘Monkey Man’ and, of course, the most relevant song of last 30 years, ‘Ghost Town’. Rude boys, Rude girls, Punks, Skinheads, Mods and Rockers of all ages skanked together as The Specials conquered Belfast, and Terry Hall failed to strike a smile, which was just the way we wanted it!

Morrissey. National Stadium Dublin, November 23

2009-12-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

As part of a tour promoting B-sides compilation ‘Swords’ the setlist tonight has been influenced accordingly, making it a frustrating evening for those who have dipped in and out of Morrissey’s world for the last 25 years but a sheer delight for those who have been loyal. The wit, passion and spitting venom of ‘Is It Really So Strange?’ ‘Teenage Dad On The Estate’ and ‘Ganglord’ reinforce the theory that as a Smith and solo artist, some of Morrissey’s finest moments are on the flipside of many a single.

Not everything works tonight. The band struggle with Smiths classic ‘Cemetry Gates’ and Morrissey, himself, appears totally disinterested in singing ‘How Soon Is Now?’ by this point and the inclusion of ‘Death At One’s Elbow’ is a timely reminder that his former band did not always walk on water. ‘This Charming Man’ continues to crunch, free from Marr’s iconic guitar-riff, and as ever divides the audience. They unite in frenzy for the anthemic ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’ and smooth rockabilly stomp of ‘The Loop’, and even ‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’ gets a rapturous reaction in a week when all things Parisian have pierced the Irish heart.

He’s on top form as a raconteur, berating Aer Lingus (‘Aer Fungus’ he hisses); claiming he sent a lightweight Damien Dempsey home in a taxi after two drinks the night before and even dedicates a powerful ‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’ to Eurovision King and McDonalds advert star, Johnny Logan!

But Morrissey will never be a jukebox. If he wished to be, The Smiths would’ve reformed long ago. Encore ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’ ends in high-spirited shirt-ripping drama as Moz waves farewell to his family’s city and yet another year of refusal.

A Grave With No Name - 'Morning Debris'

2009-12-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

LABEL: NO PAIN IN POP

Collecting together tracks from all of AGWNN’s releases to date and a number of previously unheard recordings, Mountain Debris is literally ‘the story so far’, documenting a band steeped in an atmospheric winter of pining-in-the-distance vocals and chomping guitars. While the mood remains the same throughout, moments of anthemic escapism occasionally break out, like the glorious ‘Sofia’ and the appealingly rusty but playful ‘Stone Setting’. Cushioned between these are Pixies bass-led sprints like ‘Horses’ and the mysteriously lush ‘Chimes’ and the naked piano-led ‘Underpass’, the latter with a plaintive vocal style not too distant from The Band’s Richard Manuel. Sixteen diversely sounding tracks clocking in at just over half an hour is a considerable achievement. The short duration makes putting Mountain Debris on repeat both inviting and essential. It takes time to break the glass but there’s warmth in the winter after all.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘SOFIA’, ‘HORSES’, ‘UNDERPASS’
FOR FANS OF: BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE, SIGUR ROS, KEVIN SHIELDS

Jimmy Webb and the Webb Brothers - 'Cottonwood Farm'

2009-12-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

LABEL: PROPER RECORDS

This inevitable family affair by one of America’s most acclaimed musical dynasties spans three generations, and spiritually four on the epic 12-minute title track, originally written in the early ’70s for Jimmy Webb’s grandfather. The roll call here includes Webb’s sons Christiaan, Justin, James and Cornelius, who together contribute several new compositions, his father Bob and his sadly underused youngest daughter, Camila. The rich and varying textures of all their vocals are best realised on ‘Highwayman’, just one in number of Jimmy Webb standards given a new perspective on this very welcomed and long overdue slice of family Americana.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘HIGHWAYMAN’, ‘COTTONWOOD FARM’, ‘WHERE THE UNIVERSES ARE’
FOR FANS OF: GRAM PARSONS, WILCO

Hothouse Flowers - The Alley Theatre, Strabane. November 13

2009-12-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

Despite being a live unit for almost 25 years there are no indications that Hothouse Flowers are about to succumb to the role of complacent elder statesmen of Irish Rock, chiming out the tried and tested on auto-pilot. As exemplified on this particular evening in the Alley, there is still no certainty as what Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna O’Braonain will do next. The Hothouse Flowers take their audience around the world, with the musical styling changing not just from one song to the next but, at times, from one verse to the next.

Tonight, they took Strabane to the Afro-American Gospel Halls of the South, and then hitched a ride with Muddy Waters to Blue Chicago after finding some African Roots in classics standards like ‘Your Love Goes On’ and ‘Don’t Go’. At the heart of this trans-global two hours, twenty minutes was an unmovable Celtic Soul that only reinforced just how sweet a thing it is when music travels, marries and merges. Ultimately, there are only two kind of music: good and bad, and this was damn good stuff!

The mood was set with epic opener ‘Isn’t It Amazing’, which immediately accommodated for Ó Maonlaí’s love for building a song from a subtle beginning to something anthemic and rousing. Appreciation was unanimous, with the audible seal of approval from Ó Maonlaí’s three-year-old daughter, Pema (meaning Lotus) from the balcony enough for the man himself. Pema later took to the stage herself and sat on daddy’s knee during ‘Better Man’, a lovely moment between father, daughter and the audience.

As ever, Ó Maonlaí managed to make scruffy look stylish: barefoot and dressed in a manner that would see the rest of us told to “move along”; the open shirt and long overcoat fitted him like a glove. He looked every inch the rock star poet, like a vagabond in the gutter forever looking at the stars. Only he can pull it off and he does it well. Besides, it was his birthday; he could wear what he liked!

A tale of being arrested for “minor grevious bodily harm” preceded “It’ll Be Easier In The Morning”, scaled down but no less powerful than it was in its 1989 carnation on the band’s ‘People’ album. A beautiful version of ‘Sweet Marie’ had couples snuggling up, which was a bit odd considering it’s a song about the breakdown of a relationship in the Dylan ‘Blood In The Tracks’ mode.

Snuggling to ‘Dear John’ letters done, it was then time to dance! Audience members got up off their seats for ‘This Is It’, as Ó Maonlaí swooned and swooped like a gentleman in need of a lot of room on a dancefloor. ‘Forever More’ and ‘You Can Love Me Now’ illustrated how the absence of the studio choir matters very little when you’ve got Ó Maonlaí and O’Braonain filling in with harmonies to raise any roof. The band got playful again on ‘Your Love Goes On’ with pop, trad and reggae breezing along together. This continued with the African-tinged rendition of ‘Don’t Go’, much to the delight of the dancing audience.

In the midst of the party, the Flowers’ penchant for risk perhaps went to step too far as the joyful ‘Don’t Go’ was stopped abruptly only for the band to venture into what could be best described as a long winded extended moment of progressive rock. It was obvious that it was going to kick back into ‘Don’t Go’ eventually but the momentum of the slightly bewildered audience wasn’t the same come its return.

Come the encore and all was forgiven as the Traditional Irish roots of the Flowers came to the fore with 'Cailleach an Airgid’. A foot stomp resonated around the Alley as tin whistles and bodhráns and Irish dancing graced the stage. The set was closed with the very wonderful ‘Hallelujah Jordan’, as the Flowers, after taking us around their catalogue – and the world - for over two hours, took us back to the beginning – a journey worth taking time after time.

Tempelhof - 'We Were Not There From The Beginning, We Won't Be There For The End'

2009-12-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

LABEL: DISTRACTION RECORDS

For this their debut full length release, Italian duo Tempelhof have delivered a swelling yet subtle slice of downtempo electronic post rock. With minimal vocals and lush atmospherics invitingly imposing themselves on ten mini-epic tracks, WWNTFTB, WWBTFTE is a cinematic journey that is careful never to over-indulge on the momentum-building wave of sounds and samples; all inspired quite considerably by Bologna film library archives. The Eno laced ambience of tracks like ‘Berlin’ and splendidly simplistic eletro building blocks that ‘Enjoy Neukölln’ is formed out of help to make this one soothingly beautiful collection of tracks for any enthusiast of electonica.

8/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘WE WERE NOT THERE FROM THE BEGINNING, WE WON’T BE THERE FOR THE END’, ‘ENJOY NEUKOLLN’, ‘AQUAPLANING’.
FOR FANS OF: BRIAN ENO, KRAFTWERK, ORBITAL

The Vals - 'Sticks And Stones'

2009-12-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

LABEL: ELECTRIQUE MUD

Recorded over a three-day period, ‘Sticks and Stones’ is the sound of four Belfast lads marrying their retro urges together playfully for 72 hours, producing one very complete album in the process. From opener ‘Too Many People’, which recalls the finer moments of guitar-led Britpop, with a good-spirited additional spit of brass throughout, to the beautifully tender ‘Things Will Always Be The Same’, to the unapologetically Beatles coloured ‘Yesterday Today’, The Vals have created an album that always changes to the appropriate gear when required, making all 12 tracks a very inviting listen from start to finish. Catchy, melodic and well flavoured with a familiarity that’s comforting, ‘Sticks and Stones’ may say nothing new but some things are worth repeating.

7/10

DOWNLOAD: ‘’’WHERE I’M MOST ALIVE’, ‘THINGS WILL ALWAYS BE THE SAME’, ‘’’YESTERDAY TODAY’
FOR FANS OF: THE BEATLES, SUPERGRASS

The Muscle Club - 'Fragmented Ideas from Young Lungs'

2009-07-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

Label: Killing Moon Records

Hailing from Cardiff, this young quartet have arrived with a mini-album packed with indie guitar jangle, shouty choruses, melodic riffs and witty literate lyrics. With knowing hat-tips to Kate Bush, by way of The Futureheads, they have succeeded in injecting a fresh energy into a form of jangle-pop that has a tendency to sound over-familiar these days. This collection does more than imply that The Muscle Club may well have an edge that makes them stand out from the crowd.

7/10

Download: ‘I’ve Never Read Anything’, ‘Alright! Okay! You Win!’, ‘Damn These Circumstances’.
For Fans Of: The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Tokyo Police Club

Flea Market Poets - 'Dirty Days'

2009-07-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

Label: Lemontree Records

While they may be a multi-national outfit (America, Ireland and Germany), Flea Market Poets are steeped in a brand of earnest guitar rock that evokes memories of the US college radio bands of the ’80s and early ’90s. The infectious piano hook on the title track and the Buck-flavoured riffs of ‘Captain Nate’ and ‘Indie Rock Imperative’ reflect a sweaty club apprenticeship that has served the band as well as it did their predecessors. A seasoned and warm collection.

7/10

Download: ‘Dirty Days’, ‘Indie Rock Imperative’, ‘Black Heart’.

For Fans Of: Live, REM, Tragically Hip

Engineers - 'Three Fact Finder'

2009-07-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

Label: Kscope

Two years in the making, ‘Three Fact Finder’ immediately introduces a mild mix of electronica and guitar not unlike co-producer Ken Thomas’s work with M83. While the electro fling proves to be sadly temporary, ‘International Dirge’ and ‘Helped By Science’ establish the core sound of the album, which is one more awash with harmonised vocals and lush guitars than anything else. On ‘Hang Your Head’ the band’s ‘shoegaze’ impulses reach their summit. While the album could have been doing with more of its impressive electronic strokes, it is a fine foray into what must surely be the last genre left for a spot of revisionism.

7/10

Download: ‘Clean Coloured Wire’, ‘Helped By Science’, ‘Hang Your Head’.

For Fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Ride, M83.

Belladonna - 'Hey Weirdo'

2009-07-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Label: Vandal

In an act of dismantling the conventional band set-up, riotous Geordie duo Belladonna have arrived with a debut album packed with trashy glamour. Driven by distorted bass, samples and sassy harmonies that touch on the B-52s, ‘Hey Weirdo!’ is the sound of a duo creating gold out of the deliberately minimal sounds at their disposal. When the luscious vocals turn devilish on opener ‘Viva Love’ the album shoots off and doesn’t stop speeding or shaking, confidently switching from one sonic all-girl road-trip to the next. Belladonna say ‘burn your guitars’, on this form they’ll burn all in their wake.

8/10

Download: ‘Don’t Be Fooled By The Romance’, ‘We Are Your Diversity’, ‘Viva Love’.For Fans of: Detroit Cobras, Kasabian, The Kills.

Electric Picnic 2009 line-up so far!

2009-04-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Electric Picnic line-up so far was revealed yesterday. Acts announced for the three-day festival at Stradbelly in Laois this September 4-6 are:
Madness, Orbital, Flaming Lips, Basement Jaxx, Vagabonds, MGMT, Fleet Foxes, The Klaxons, Bell X1, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Chic, Seasick Steve, 2 Many DJs, Lisa Hannigan, Explosions in the Sky, Damien Dempsey, Alabama 3, Bat for Lashes, Zero 7, Erol Alkan, Roots Manuva, The Sugarhill Gang, Billy Bragg, Lykke Li, Imelda May, Echo and the Bunnymen, Magazine, ESG, Moderat, Simian Mobile Disco, Four Tet, Skream and Benga - Magnetic Man, Noze, Heartbreak, Halfset, Chris Cunningham, Okkervil River, Magnolia Electric Company, Low Anthem, Villagers, Tunng, Jape, Whitest Boy Alive, Michachu and the Shapes, The Walkmen, Michael Nyman, Dublin Gospel Choir, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Jazzanova.
There is a great deal to look forward to in that list so far, and rumours of acts such as Kraftwerk (who were amazing at the festival in 2005), Morrissey and David Byrne have not been ruled out yet. Out of the Irish acts performing, Villagers should be interesting to see. The new project of The Immediate's Conor O'Brien, Villagers recently released one the best Irish EPs of recent months with 'Hollow Kind'. Jape, the brainchild of Redneck Manifeso's Richie Egan, are always a big attraction at the Picnic, and after winning the Choice Music Award recently for the 'Ritual' album, 2009 should see Jape's biggest billing at the Picnic yet. American electro-pop duo MGMT literally raised the roof at Oxegen 2008 and are certain to do just the same at the Picnic this year. The Festival always has a fine bill of old school acts in the line-up, and 'nutty boys' Madness, '80s white-soul boys ABC, 70s funksters Chic, featuring Nile Rogers, and Hip-Hop pioneers Sugarhill Gang, whose most famous track 'Rappers Delight' featured a sample of Chic's 'Good Times', should all hopefully still have enough juice in the can to keep the weekend party flying. Personally, I'm also very excited to learn that 'the Orson Welles of Punk' Howard Devoto will be bringing his reformed new-wave band Magazine to the Festival. The return of Orbital is certain to be a late-night highlight on whatever night they are certain to top the bill. Overall there's lots to be very excited about, and hopefully lots more to be added to the bill. I'll see you there!

The Bittersweets - ‘Goodnight, San Francisco’

2009-04-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

Compass Records

The Bittersweets should make no apology for the lush, richly melodic and polished folk pop that makes up this, their second album. These are a colourful well-crafted collection of songs requiring no ‘Alt’ prefix. Hannah Prater’s vocals inject the perfect contrast of light and shade into Chris Meyer’s songs, with the welcomed addition of steel and acoustic guitars, and even the occasional cello, making this collection simply breeze along. Hidden track ‘Fortunate Wind’ even hints at a dramatic new direction.

8/10

Download: ‘Is Anyone Safe?’ ‘My Sweet Love’, ‘When The War Is Over’

For Fans Of: Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Natalie Merchant

Pontiak - 'Maker'

2009-04-14T02:40:00.000-07:00

Label: Thrill Jockey

The Carney brothers are not about to buck the trend of ‘brothers in bands means chaos’ here. From the sonic disturbances of the epic title track to the slow momentum of raw guitars and layered vocals on ‘Wax Worship’ to the eerie nocturnal acoustics of ‘Seminal Shining’, ‘Maker’ is an album that manages to make distorted and sparse guitar rock still sound not only interesting but mysterious. With little overdubbing, maintaining a live energy that wreaks beautiful havoc on the amps, this is a collection from a rusty farmyard you dare not stop off at, beside a woods the band members know every inch of, but still you’ll stay for more!

8/10

Download: ‘Wax Worship’, ‘Wild Knife Night Fight’, ‘Laywayed’

For Fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath,

Hauschka - Snowflakes & Carwrecks

2009-04-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

Label: FatCat

It is difficult not to put this seven-track EP, which consists of material recorded during the sessions for Hauschka’s 2008 ‘Ferndorf’ album, into the category of ‘cast-offs’. ‘Snowflakes And Car wrecks’ may be a proposed continuation of the German composer’s ‘prepared piano’ alchemy, but its successes are varied. While this instrumental collection has numerous layers, all based around Hauschka’s reinvention of the piano as an outlet for rhythm as much as melody, and even though it maintains the minimalism of his previous work, it is an uneven collection, which at times struggles to ignite interest. Yet, the addition of cello on the sparse ‘Eisblume’ and the delightfully multi-paced ‘Tanz’, along with deceptively simplistic charm of ‘Wonder’ all adds a welcomed intrigue and interest in the future of this instrumental experiment.

6/10

Download: ‘Wonder’, ‘Tanz’

For Fans of: John Cage, Yann Tiersen

Mi Ami – ‘Watersports’

2009-04-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

Touch And Go/Quarterstick Records

It’s a cruel injustice to limit this chaotic seven-track collection to a CD player in the corner of the room. As increasingly intriguing and addictively unsettling as ‘Watersports’ is by the listen, the live environment is really where these songs belong: somewhere to accommodate the improvisation and deconstruction that Mi Ami obviously thrive upon. As a band manipulating “rhythm, negative space, and the physicality of a song”, the San Francisco based trio will always matter more on stage than they ever will in the studio for that very reason. Yet, by taking in elements of dub, jazz, disco and African rhythms on ‘The Man in Your House’ and the standout ‘Pressure’, and with an unnerving and deliberate cat wail vocal eluding to fear and anxiety though out, there are still enough varying textures of ugliness to make ‘Watersports’ a compelling listen from start to finish. Now lets see it live!

7/10

Download: ‘The Man In Your House’, ‘New Guitar’, ‘Pressure’

For fans of: Gang of Four, Prolapse

Mozza's Right To Refuse

2009-01-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

ALBUM REVIEW: MORRISSEY 'YEARS OF REFUSAL'

For 25 years now the word ‘ambiguity’ has had a picture of Morrissey beside it in the Oxford English Dictionary. With the notable exception of Bob Dylan, no other artist has to do so little to get so many people analysing and hypothesising before a single note is even heard. The main sleeve of ‘Years of Refusal’, Morrissey’s ninth solo record, has had Internet forums overflowing with opinions on its meaning and significance. Why the baby? Why the Fred Perry shirt? Why the etchings on Mozza’s wrist and the child’s forehead? And where do these signifiers fit in with the album’s title? ‘Refusal’ to do what? Is Mozza playing the persecuted prophet without honour again? Is it a reference to the years of refusing to step back on the stage with his former Smiths band-mates? In reality, Morrissey is, by now, more than aware of the constant scrutinising of everything he does and is probably having some fun with it as he resides indefinitely like the successor to Richard Harris in some plush hotel suite.

If Morrissey has refused to do anything it’s change. Yes, the “remarkably dressed” crooner now approaching 50 is a far cry from the pale emaciated and proudly aloof young man who fronted The Smiths. He is a lyricist that rarely ponders on anything but his own life. It is something that has become increasingly evident through the years and ‘Years of Refusal’ is a loud declaration that this is the only way forward for Morrissey now. "I’m doing very well" he states, as album opener ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’ continues his tradition of starting his albums off quite aggressively, with the stamp of the late Jerry Finn's production evident immediately. A schizophrenic tale of medication in a loveless modern world, the album opener is solitary a quiff away from Blink 182, yet there’s still enough to make the Kaiser Chiefs look on in envy and, one would hope, consider early retirement.

‘Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed’, with its tribal drum rolls by Matt Walker, who is in fantastic form though out the album, addresses “faceless moneymen” who have driven a debt-ridden mother to the depths of despair. In some ways it’s a revisit to 1984 and The Smiths’ ‘This Night Has Opened My Eyes’, albeit lyrically. Musically it’s quite a dull forgettable affair. ‘Black Cloud’ maintains the rock element and is an improvement, with Morrissey and band gelling well, reflecting practically three years on the road together. A guest appearance by non other than Jeff Beck must surely make for one of the more off-the-chart collaborations in recent times, yet his guitar riff intro should have fans forgetting that Johnny what’s-his-face for a second or two.

Lead off single 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris' is less aggressive and recreates the autumnal soundscapes of 'Vauxhall and I' period Morrissey. The nomadic Mancunian finds himself (yet again) in possession of a love "nobody wants", and in doing so embraces the welcoming Parisian "stone and steal" instead. Morrissey has described the track as his "cosmopolitan hymn to architecture" - a line much more interesting than anything in the actual song.

"When Last I Spoke To Carol" is yet another tale dismissing all hope of rescue, where our hero struggles to find words of encouragement for a bewildered ally. "I can't pretend it gets easier" sings Morrissey to "Carol", while his backing band pander quite beautifully to his Latino fanbase with flamenco guitars standing in sharp contrast to the pre-dominant rock essence of the album. The inclusion of last year’s singles ‘All You Need Is Me’ and ‘That’s How People Grow Up’, which both appeared on Morrissey’s ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation, is at first baffling, yet both sit well in this collection maintaining a tempo that makes ‘Years of Refusal’ sprint in a manner that one would not expect from a man approaching 50, least of all Steven Patrick Morrissey.

As someone who spent his twenties and thirties being “old but sadly wise” he now sounds increasingly youthful. While there is little lyrically to dwell on in this album, the most fascinating thing about Morrissey here is his voice, which is hitting notes previously un-attempted. His peculiar falsetto is as much an instrument as the chomping guitars on the resolute ‘I’m OK By Myself’ and the Sparks-influenced keyboards on ‘Sorry Doesn’t Help’ and the undoubted album highlight ‘It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore’. The latter has Morrissey touching on the lush atmospherics of The Blue Nile in the verses, and it contains the now obligatory single thinly veiled reference to ‘whoopie’ in a Morrissey album. “All the gifts that they give can’t compare in any way to the love I am now giving to you, right here, right now on the floor,” he sings – it’s gender unspecific and Morrissey at his best.

Sadly album producer Jerry Finn passed away last summer and while ‘Years of Refusal’ is a worthy swansong for the American, it does suffer, as did Finn’s previous collaboration with Morrissey in 2004, ‘You Are The Quarry’, with the artificial strings, which are quite obvious when used, particularly in the ballad ‘You Were Good In Your Time’. But the album is at its best when it rocks and in many ways is the album ‘Southpaw Grammar’ should’ve been back in 1995.

Rented rooms in Whalley Range are, by now, a long time ago and as a sun-soaked multi-millionaire Morrissey does right, by and large, to examine what condition his present condition is in and his alone. While this may see him fall into parody at points, it’s still comforting to know that he’s out there and probably at this moment driving his Jaguar XK Convertible to Mexico while admiring himself in the rearview mirror, with nothing for company but a compilation of Diana Dors, Timi Yuro and Jobriath that he made specifically for the trip.

7/10

Natalie Merchant, Katell Keineg and Sweet Memories

2008-11-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

Two of my favourite albums from the 90s are 'Ophelia' by Natalie Merchant, and 'Jet' by Katell Keineg. Natalie is the former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. Katell was raised in Cardiff but has lived in Dublin since 1990.

Listening to 'Ophelia' again today, it just dawned on me that it's been ten years since I first heard it. I started to think back to 1998. I visited Galway quite a bit that year and that album, along with 'Jet' by Katell, coloured so much about my moods, likes and loves at the time. It's always nice to listen to something that can still take you back to where and how you were when you first heard it - right now in my head I'm kicking a ball with a bunch of French people and street drinkers in the middle of Eyre Square, Galway, after France just defeated Brazil in the World Cup Final, and 'Veni Vidi Vici' is ringing in my ears, as is 'Kind and Generous', 'King of May' and 'When They Ring The Golden Bells'. Music's a powerful medicine, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Natalie and Katell worked together earlier in 1995 on Natalie's debut solo album, 'Tiger Lily'. They toured together as part of the Lilith Fair shows. Natalie also covered the Katell penned 'Gulf of Araby' live, a version of which appears on her 1999 album 'Live in Concert' and for many would be the centerpiece of the album.

Two different vocal styles but both with their own personal stamp on their deliveries, their catalogues are worth delving into if you haven't sniffed already. Here's both ladies with a live rendition of 'Carnival', which featured on Natalie's 'Tiger Lily' record.

Katell Keineg performing 'The Gulf of Araby'. Introduced by Glen Hansard.

The One-Man Orchestra

2008-11-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

Hailing from Armonk, New York, Preston Reed has for over twenty years been showcasing his “self-invented” guitar technique around the world. Since his debut album released in 1979, aptly titled ‘Acoustic Guitar’, Preston has released 15 albums, most of which have been instrumental guitar albums. His solo live performances have become the stuff of legend, so much so that one Irish Independent journalist declared Preston “the best one-man show since Bruce Springsteen”. Speaking to the Strabane Chronicle ahead of his show in the Alley next week, Preston was very welcoming of such high praise.

“I think that reviewer saw me play at the Crawdaddy in Dublin. It’s quite a compliment and publicity that I didn’t even have to pay for, which was nice,” he joked. “The technique I use when playing the guitar tends to draw people in and they get puzzled as to how so many sounds can be coming out of one instrument. It’s something people like that journalist tend to remember.”

Indeed, Preston is like a one-man orchestra, combining percussion, rhythm and melody lines all on one guitar. It’s an ambitious technique that Preston developed in the mid-eighties.

“I wanted to figure out how to play guitar and drums at the same time. Conventional guitar playing would never allow for such an idea, so I began by going at the guitar fret board with both hands instead of one. I wanted to get away for the finger picking techniques and basically leave behind all that I had learned previously and try to come up with something new. I developed an almost ambidextrous way of playing the guitar. Sometimes I’d have both hands on the fret board, sometimes just my right-hand, sometimes just my left-hand, with the other hand finger picking at the same time,” he explained.

While it all sounds very original and inventive, Preston is consciously aware that it serves little purpose if the music does not have a substance of its own. “It’s may be a style I invented, but it’s not a gimmick. It’s completely music driven, and has many facets and colours to it with so much going on at one time,” he stressed.

Preston’s beginnings on the guitar stemmed from a few chords learned from his guitar-playing father. While secretly practicing some of his favourite Beatles and Stones songs on his father’s guitar, he studied classical guitar for a while only to quit due to an overly strict classical guitar teacher and a teenage rebellious streak.

“I was a bit of a rebel back then and in many ways I still am, if I’m honest. If someone tells me how to do something, I’ll do it another way. When I play guitar I need to be in control. Unfortunately for me, learning classical guitar is steeped in rigour and tradition, so we were destined to be on a collision course from the start,” he laughed.

It was this determination to do things his own way that would eventually see Preston re-write the guitar rulebook and become the innovative figurehead he is today. After being disillusioned following his classical guitar encounter, his interest in the guitar was rekindled in a big way after hearing Jefferson Airplane's rootsy blues offshoot, Hot Tuna. After studying acoustic guitar heroes John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Preston played his first live gig, supporting beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg had long been associated with musical figures like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and Preston found such unconventional collaborations to be beneficial not just to his rebellious nature but to his playing technique.

“I was 17 and playing tunes at a party for my sister. A friend of hers, who was at the party, rang me a few weeks later telling me that Allen Ginsberg was looking for a guitarist to accompany him for some of his readings. I was quite literary and read a lot of beat literature by the likes of Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac, so I knew what he’s be looking for musically. He was big into improvising and would read his poetry while playing a squeezebox, stopping randomly to allow for me to play a guitar solo. It was all very interactive and a great thing to be around.
“By the time I recorded my first record in 1979 I had pretty much perfected finger picking guitar techniques. By 1987 I was feeling held back by the guitar, so that’s when I started to develop the kind of guitar playing I’m known for now. It’s always been about creating new music for me and searching for fresh new sounds,” explained Preston.

Preston’s guitar style has influenced many, most notably American freestyle guitarist, Andy McKee, who, after seeing Preston perform in 1995, set about developing his own guitar technique from an instructional videotape made by Preston.

“Andy McKee was indeed influence by what I do. He has always been respectful of that fact and has actually helped build my audience. He sends a lot of people who go to his shows my way, which is fantastic,” Preston enthused.

Next Thursday will be Preston’s first visit to Strabane, but not his first visit to Ireland. He has been a regular performer in Dublin, Cork and recently performed in Derry’s Playhouse also.
“Ireland has always been a great place for me to perform. The audiences really appreciate what I do. I’m looking forward to the intimate set-up at the Alley in Strabane. What I do can work in every environment. I’ve played rooms with only a handful of people present and I’ve played festivals in front of thousands. You get away with less at the more intimate gigs though, being more exposed to the audience, but that’s also exciting. I’ll have five guitars with me, including a solid body baritone guitar, steel guitar and an acoustic 12-string.

“The shows seem to appeal to all ages. It’s pretty much across the board – young kids, families to old ladies. They are always very complimentary to me after the show, which makes it all worthwhile. I want share the experience with people and hopefully they will have a great evening of instrumental guitar music. There’s a lot going on when I play and I’d like to hope everybody will find something in there for themselves,” stated Preston.
His music can be heard on his myspace page (www.myspace.com/prestonreed).

Preston Reed performing 'Ladies Night'

Taking the Helme for Himself

2008-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

Chris Helme was lead singer of The Seahorses, the band formed by guitar great John Squire following his acrimonious departure from The Stone Roses in 1996.

While Squire could've had his pick of lead singers when forming The Seahorses, such was his musical clout in the mid-nineties, he still opted for the unknown Chris. Legend has it that Chris was discovered by Squire while busking outside a Woolworths store. Speaking to Chris last week, the Chronicle had to find out if this was true, or yet another myth not uncommon with John Squire throughout his music career.

"It's true and then it isn't," Chris laughs. "John didn't actually see me busk. It was more a case of a friend of a friend of his called Denis who saw me. He asked if I could give him some recordings if I had any. It built from that. I was doing steady gigs at that time too and John, after hearing my tapes, came along and watched me a few times. After a couple of gigs he came up and asked if I wanted to sing in his new band. I gladly accepted of course."

Squire's psychedelic flavoured guitar innovations assisted in making The Stone Roses one of the most important bands of their generation. His departure from the band was mourned by a devotional tribe of fans. An outpouring of shock ensued among the 'baggy' generation. With his iconic status, whatever Squire planned to do next was certain to be watched with eager eyes. Was Chris ready to go under the unavoidable microscopic lense?

"It was a bit scary. I never even had a record contact before, never mind being in a band with John Squire. It was all quite bizarre to be suddenly on stage with the guy who opted to leave The Stone Roses but there was no point feeling nervous about it. No matter what we did we were never going to please that faction who never got over John leaving The Stone Roses. To be honest, they were only a minority. They used to come to the early Seahorses gigs and just shout for Stone Roses tracks. We called them 'Liam Browns' on account of them all looking like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown. All we could do was ignore them, they eventually went away and what was left was the people who wanted to hear what we had to offer right there and then," he says.

In April 1997, The Seahorses released their debut single, the anthemic 'Love Is The Law'. With a big chorus and more traditional guitar approach by Squire, it became clear that The Seahorses would not be dabbling in the dance and rock fusions of Squire's former band. Two months later, the band's one and only album, 'Do It Yourself', was released and it featured hit singles 'Blinded By The Sun' and 'Love Me and Leave Me', which was co-written by Liam Gallagher. The album was produced by Tony Visconti, who worked on classic albums by David Bowie, T-Rex and Thin Lizzy. What was it like to be working with the guy who produced classic albums like Bowie's 'Heroes', T-Rex's 'Electric Warrior' and Lizzy's 'Bad Reputation'?

"It was great to work with someone like Tony Visconti," recalls Chris. "I'm a huge fan of the records he worked on with Bowie. He's an amazing string arranger and really knows what he's doing in the studio. He's got an advantage over most younger producers because they've learned their craft with modern digital techniques whereas Tony comes from the old-school recording process but is also well versed in the modern ways. He has an amazing musical knowledge."

To promote the album, The Seahorses toured extensively for three years, playing alongside The Verve at Slane Castle in 1998 and also supporting acts such as The Rolling Stones, U2 and Oasis. How did Chris feel mixing rock's aristocracy?

"It all got a bit mental. I was in the kitchen having a cup of tea one day and I got a phone call asking if I fancied playing with The Rolling Stones. Well I've never really wanted fame, I don't think 'celebrity' is a particularly healthy thing but when The Rolling Stones come knocking you can't say no - it's a one in a million chance," he stresses.

In 1999, John Squire pulled the plug on The Seahorses in the middle of the recording sessions for their second album. The results of those sessions are widely available on a bootleg album called '2nd Album Recordings', alternatively titled 'Minus Blue'. Squire would eventually retire from the music business completely and return to his first love of painting. Chris went on to form a band called The Yards.

"For a while I didn't know what to do," he recalls. "I just bought a house. I was about to become a dad. I started to do a few gigs - nothing big. It was all really chilled out and I started to be joined on stage by people I knew. What was first a series of solo gigs developed into full band gigs. Eventually we all decided to become a band. We called ourselves The Yards and split things five ways."

The Yards' self-titled debut album was released in 2005 and they're currently busy at work mixing their follow-up. Alongside his work with The Yards, Chris keeps busy as a solo performer. He released a solo album called 'Ashes' in May. He also helps run an acoustic night in York called The Little Numb Numb Club and believes that his home city is currently becoming quite the musical hub.

"There's a great scene in York at the moment and people are really starting to take notice. People like Mark Wynn, The Runaway Sons and The Sorry Kisses are all worth looking out for. There's a lot going on and I'm just glad to be in the middle of it, keeping busy and doing things the way I like to do them," he says.

The Seahorses, with the Chris Helme penned 'You Can Talk To Me'

Just the 'Bluetonic' For a Sunday

2008-11-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Formed in London in 1994, The Bluetones had huge success in the nineties, achieving thirteen Top Forty singles and three Top Ten albums in the UK chart. Their debut album, 'Expecting To Fly', topped the UK charts in 1996. With classic tracks like 'Slight Return', 'Marblehead Johnson' and 'Bluetonic', the band, fronted by Mark Morriss, were at the forefront of what journalists deemed, the 'Britpop' scene; a period in the nineties when all things english were celebrated in the music of bands like Pulp, Suede, Blur and, of course, Oasis.

While much of the scene had an unendearing Norman Wisdom quality to it that quickly ran out of steam, The Bluetones were one of the few acts that remained loyal to their own artistic instincts rather than succumbing to the 'cheeky chappy' flag waving that dominated. They crafted guitar driven songs that reawakened a notion of 'indie' music that preceded them. Rich in melody, their songs floated above the hype and possessed a quality that makes them as fresh sounding today as they did in the nineties.

"Well 'Britpop' didn't really exist," explains Mark, speaking to the Chronicle last Friday. "It was invented by a few people to help sell magazines. But we were never part of any group or scene. Britain has had a long history of great guitar bands, from The Beatles to The Who to The Sex Pistols to The Smiths. These bands were never part of a movement, they just did what they wanted to do regardless, and that's what made them special. So for us, it wasn't about flag waving or being part of a scene. It was about writing great guitar tunes that we liked. It wasn't anything new, because guitar music had never really gone away."

As confident a band as The Bluetones were at that point, Mark admits that getting to number one in the UK charts with their debut album was a big surprise.

"We did hit a good wave at that point, but we never really expected that kind of success. But we were well prepared to take it on board. There is nothing else for it but to go with the flow," explains Mark.

Go with the flow is exactly what The Bluetones did. Following chart success with their debut album and with the single 'Slight Return', which was kept off the number one spot by the intensely irritating 'Spaceman' by one-hit wonder Bowie copyist Babylon Zoo, The Bluetones took to the road and toured the world extensively. The tour on the back of their debut album included a very memorable show with Radiohead at the Castlegar Showgrounds in Galway in the summer of 1996.

"That was a great weekend in Galway,” recalls Mark. “It was an amazing concert, although the weather was absolutely disgusting. Some quality acts played on that day and Radiohead were just unbelievable. There was such a great buzz about the place because not only was the gig on but the Galway Races were on too, so the place was really busy.”

Following on from their debut album and the extensive touring, The Bluetones then released their second album 'Return to the Last Chance Saloon' in 1998. Although it failed to repeat the number one status of its predecessor, the album still reached the Top Ten. It was also a much louder record than 'Expecting to Fly'.

"The second album was a development from the first one alright. It's definitely heavier, that's for sure. We've always tried to stretch ourselves as musicians and build on what we've done before. With my voice the music will always have The Bluetones stamp on it, but we always have fun with our sound," says Mark.

By the time the band released their third album 'Science and Nature' in 2000 the musical landscape had changed in England and many of the bands who stood under the 'Britpop' banner had fallen by the wayside. Despite this, and despite little or no support from the increasingly fickle NME, ‘Science and Nature’ went on to become The Bluetones’ third Top Ten album. While similar commercial success may have alluded The Bluetones since then, their fanbase has remained loyal, and the band still record and tour successfully today.

"We're very lucky in that people have stuck with us," says Mark. "It has always been about the journey and not the destination and I've been fortunate to be able to still do this with the guys in the band. The four of us are best pals."

While he remains busy touring with The Bluetones, most recently in May and again this coming December, Mark still found time in between to write and record a solo album called 'Memory Muscle', which was released in May this year.

"I got to a point where I was curious to see if I could make a record on my own. The rest of the guys in The Bluetones were very supportive. It was fun to make have final decision on everything for a change, but still nothing beats that chemistry you get with a band," urges Mark.

He is now looking forward to his first visit to Strabane and can promise a set mixed with Bluetones classics and new material and even one or two covers.

"I always get requests for Bluetones tunes and I'm more than happy to accommodate. Those songs are the reason I’m there in the first place, getting that chance to do what I do, so I'm happy to embrace all those songs and I look forward to playing them in Diceys in Strabane." says Mark.

The Bluetones. 'Bluetonic'

Mike Joyce and the Light That Will Never Go Out

2008-11-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Mike Joyce drummed with The Smiths from their formation in 1982 until their split in the autumn of 1987. Within that five year period the band, fronted by enigmatic lyricist Morrissey on vocals and Johnny Marr on guitar, stood out like a celebratory beacon of hope for the outsider left cold by the impending big-haired bland pop of the time and the uncompromisingly fatal ripples of Thatcherism. With a catalogue of songs laced with venom, wit, melancholy and tenderness and soundscapes that owed as much to Bob and Marcia, The Shangri-Las and T-Rex as they did to Punk and New Wave, The Smiths were arguably the most important British band since The Sex Pistols. Their music had a personality, a stomp and a bite.

The dichotomy between Morrissey and Marr, one being an idealistic guitar hustler, the other being a reclusive introverted Oscar Wilde reading New York Dolls fanatic with a his own special Northern-English croon, saw to it that The Smiths sounded and looked like nothing that preceded them or that has come in their wake. With four studio albums and a collection of exclusive non-album singles with B-sides that put their contemporaries' A-sides to shame, The Smiths packed a lifetime into five short years.

As lauded and as important as Morrissey and Johnny Marr were as a songwriting team, one of the key factors of The Smiths was the rhythm section. The band boasted one of the tightest live units around thanks to Mike on drums and Andy Rourke on bass. Did Mike feel at the time that he was part of something special?

"Well when you're young and starting a band, you like to think that you're going to be the best band in the world," he says. "Those early days in the rehearsal with Johnny and Morrissey were interesting, but it wasn't until we recorded our first single, 'Hand In Glove', when I stood back and realised, Christ, this is amazing. This sounds like a band I want to be a fan of. It just built from there. We knew we were a great band and were never afraid to say it. Every time we recorded something it just got better and better. We raised the crossbar each time we did a song and that went right up to our last album 'Strangeways Here We Come'. The fact that people still talk about what we did together twenty years after we split shows that it was something special. Those records still stand up today. The appeal of The Smiths endures and I'm privileged to have been a part of it."

Despite the attention of major labels, and the Manchester label Factory, The Smiths opted to sign for London-based Independent label Rough Trade. A dogged reliance to do things their own way saw to it that The Smiths had the freedom to present themselves in a way that many major labels prohibited their acts from doing.

"Rough Trade gave us the freedom to put out whatever single we wanted and tour in any manner that we wanted," reflects Mike. "Obviously releasing albums called 'Meat Is Murder' and 'The Queen Is Dead' would cause concerns to certain labels, but Rough Trade went with the flow. Morrissey took care of all the sleeves for the singles and the albums as well"

This approach saw the band break from the conventional touring path, taking themselves to venues many popular bands tended to ignore. This was perhaps realised best in the relentless touring The Smiths did of Ireland.

"It was Morrissey's idea to travel to parts of Ireland that other bands would ignore. Most bands still to do this day will play Dublin and Belfast and that's it. We would do Belfast and Dublin, but also places like Dundalk, Coleraine and Letterkenny. We also played the Leisure Centre in Galway, which was great for me because Galway is where my family is from. We had a big Joyce gathering that night, I remember," recalls Mike.

"We wanted to break away from that big arena set-up," he stresses. "The gigs were like celebrations between the crowd and the band - we were both the same. We never wanted it to be a case of, well you're way up on the stage and we're down here. It was a case of all of us together."

The band toured relentlessly throughout their existence and for Mike, it gave him an opportunity to approach the songs differently at times from their recorded incarnations. As a fan of the John Peel Session recordings of their early material as opposed to the studio versions that made up the band's debut album, I put it to Mike if he felt the same.

"John Porter produced that first album and he was keen on having a consistent beat running throughout songs like 'What Difference Does It Make?' remembers Mike. "When we played the song live it was broken up a bit more. I did prefer it that way and Morrissey did too. John convinced us into doing it his way in the studio, even though we continued to do it the way we liked live. Still, we had a hit with 'What Difference Does It Make?' and did it on Top of The Pops, so John knew what he was doing. I like both versions. I recently heard the studio version at a fairground and it sounded amazing. It was the perfect setting!"

For many, The Smiths' opus was their 1986 album 'The Queen Is Dead'. Undoubtedly one of the finest intros to an album ever, Mike's tribal drum roll led into Johnny Marr's furious and chaotic guitar swagger and Morrissey's wry and blackly comic tale of envious royal siblings, nine-year-old drug peddlers and tone-deaf piano players breaking into Buckingham Palace. Does Mike share my enthusiasm for that intro?

"Well I never get sick of hearing people tell me that," he laughs. "It was an unusual recording process for me when we did that track. There were drum loops and samples running through the song. But they were recorded live in the room. I wanted to do the whole thing live. Stephen Street, the producer, said I could do it when we played it live but the studio should be a different dynamic because of what's available. We all agreed for that to be the case throughout the band's history. That's why Johnny had so much scope in the studio for 'How Soon Is Now?' There must be about thirteen guitars layered on that track. Concerts were always a different dynamic and I always loved it when we played 'The Queen Is Dead' live - it was a killer!"

Despite all that has been written about 'The Queen Is Dead', Mike's favourite Smiths album is their final album together, 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.

"There is this idea that it was all falling apart when we recorded 'Strangeways', but nothing could be further from the truth," he stresses. "Everyone was getting on so well and we really were on fire as musicians. There was obvious pressure on Morrissey and Johnny to deliver, but once the songs were written we were so confident in them. It all came together so easily after that, and we felt like we had nothing to prove. For five years we were getting bigger and better. The momentum just kept growing by the day."

Yet despite the unified front during the recording of 'Strangeways, Here We Come', disagreements and tensions between Morrissey and Marr saw the band split just prior to the album's release. Since then, Mike has remained busy as a drummer.

"I toured with Sinead O'Connor after The Smiths. It was great to play with Sinead at that point. She had never really played with a band before and it was just before she had the worldwide success that she did. Those were precious times. I also got to go on tour and drum with The Buzzcocks, which was a great honour as they were always my favourite band and John Maher on drums was a major influence on me as a musician."

Mike also has his own band now in Manchester called Autokat, who have just recorded an EP, which will be available in October. He also fronts his own Radio Show called 'Alternative Therapy', where he plays rock and alternative classics from over the past forty years. He also tours as a DJ playing these classics.

Having one quarter of my favourite ever four-piece on the other side of the phone left me with no other choice but to ask Mike the, at last count, £40 million dollar question. "I think I know what's coming," laughs Mike. So, if Morrissey or Johnny Marr were to phone Mike up today and say lets reform, what would Mike say, in light, of course, of modern events such as a certain court case over an equal share of recording and performance royalties in 1996?

"It was all such a long long time ago," says Mike. "Morrissey is happy doing his solo thing. Johnny is busy touring with Modest Mouse. Andy has his own thing going on too. Ideally, I'd like to think that we did enough. Of course, if we were to get together for, say, a charity gig, and do maybe four songs, of course I'd do it. It would have to be all four of us. But it's all pretty hypothetical talk by now. The body of work has lasted and will always last - that's satisfying for me."

The Smiths in all their live glory in 1985 peforming 'Hand In Glove'

'Madchester' comes to Strabane

2008-07-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

For many of my generation, 'Year Zero' was 1989. On the cusp of a new decade and having just reached our teens, we wanted to embrace something that was ours. Punk wasn't really ours. New Wave wasn't ours. The eighties, to be honest, were never really ours. Yet, an epiphany occurred in many bedrooms around Britain and Ireland in 1989. On dodgy cassettes we heard Stone Roses frontman, Ian Brown proclaim, "the past was yours but the future's mine, you're outta time!"

And so it came to pass that "on the sixth day, God created Manchester," which would soon be renamed 'Madchester', and with it, our sound and our time had arrived! Finally, music meant something again. We supported bands like people supported football teams, championing our boys and girls as they made a mockery of the, at that point, terminally ill Top of The Pops formula and social mediocrities we were forced to subscribe to. For the first time since the demise of The Smiths, we had 'indie bands' in the truest sense of the word, with no external influence over image, sound, tours or direction welcomed. Music was, once again, made by the people for the people. And It worked because the pre-internet youth of the time got up off their asses and demanded that it did.

Three bands led the charge with a magical mixed cauldron of psychedelia, guitars, dance-beats and baggy fashion: The Stone Roses; The Happy Mondays and The Inspiral Carpets. Strabane was awash with baggy jeans, hooded tops and t-shirts that donned either a John Squire collage or a cow proclaiming 'mooo!' or 'Cool as F**k'. These were halcyon days never to be forgotten, and to have one of the chief players of the scene, Tom Hingley, vocalist with The Inspiral Carpets, coming to Strabane's Dicey Riley's on August 10 has got many of us wondering if we can maybe slide a leg into those 28 waist flares again.

Over a period of five years The Inspiral Carpets enjoyed huge success in the UK and Irish charts, and on the road. Driven by the intense character in Tom Hingley's voice and the trademark Farfisa organ of Clint Boon, The Inspirals were a perfect representation of that glorious period.

"It was the biggest youth movement since Punk," Tom proudly announces, speaking to the Chronicle last week. "Between the guitar bands and dance scene, it all gelled together at that time. The ripples it started are still being felt now. It's not just confined to Manchester anymore, although I do like The Courteneers. But bands like The Arctic Monkeys from Sheffield, who are probably the biggest guitar band in Britain, owe a great deal to what happened in Manchester in the eighties and early nineties."

Tom was able to see the origins of the scene first hand in the eighties, working as a glass collector in the legendary Hacienda club in Manchester, which was owned by New Order and their record company, Factory Records.

"Tony (Wilson), Rob (Gretton) and the rest of the gang at Factory were really nice as people and Factory was a great label. But as business men they were terrible," laughs Tom.

Indeed, the business sense of a record label that lost five pence on every twelve inch vinyl issue of New Order's classic 'Blue Monday' track must surely be put into question, especially when the track became the biggest selling twelve inch of all time. Tom has yet another example of the comically bad business sense that engulfed the label.

"Mike Pickering, who went on to form M People, used to DJ at the Hacienda. At one point he had the only copy in Britain of this dance track called 'Ride On Time' by an act called Black Box. He tried to persuade Tony and Rob to release it through Factory. Tony said 'we don't do dance' and declined. That song went on to shift about ten million copies!"

Ironically, within time the Hacienda did do dance and it was soon to become the main counter-culture club in all of Britain, as the fusion of dance and rock took hold. As joyous and exciting as the scene in Manchester was becoming, Tom felt it was important for The Inspirals to stand on their own away from the pack.

"We tried as hard as possible to create a separate identity away from the hump of the movement," he stresses. "We went out of our way not to become the Happy Mondays' pet support band. In 1989 the Mondays booked the G-Mex in Manchester for this huge gig. Word spread that we were on the bill as support. The press contacted me and asked about the gig and I said we weren't doing it. When they asked why, I said because we'll be doing the G-Mex ourselves for our own headliner gig soon. No such gig had been planned but three months later we sold the place out!

"We always kept a careful distance from the Manchester pack for various reasons. When Morrissey publicly stated that he liked us, I slagged him off in an interview with The Face Magazine. It was nothing personal but historically any band Mozza champions tends to go by the wayside very quickly. We didn't want to become another Darling Buds, Bradford or Primatives, all of whom benefitted initially from his praise but all of them went quickly out of fashion."

The Inspirals were their "own light" throughout the early nineties. While the supposed leaders of the 'Madchester' movement imploded in a series of legal tussles with record companies and their own egos and addictions, The Inspirals looked after themselves well and maintained a discipline for five years. Classic albums such as 'Life', which reached number two in the UK album charts, and anthemic singles such as 'This Is How It Feels', 'She Comes In The Fall', 'Saturn 5' and 'Dragging Me Down' proved that The Inspiral Carpets had a consistency that was missing in The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays.

"They were great bands but there were so many bad decisions made within," reflects Tom. "Every decision of The Stone Roses' career was wrong: the legal wrangles that stopped them recording for five years, right up to the album that they finally returned with. It was 1995 and people were getting excited about the big comeback, but I'd say to them, it's too late, they've blown it because Oasis had capitalised in their absence!"

For the little that both The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses did in a chart and album sense in comparison to the Inspirals, I've often believed that lazy rock journalism has elevated the two bands at the expense of The Carpets. Does Tom feel the same way?

"Well there does tend to be a lot of revisionism about the early nineties period now," he states. 'The NME did a 'Manchester Special' once and they had about ten pages on The Roses, ten on The Mondays, five for a few others and one page on us with a crap photo and a short article that slagged us off. I thought, well if you're just gonna give us one page don't bother putting us in at all. They looked on us like we were riding on the coat-tails of the other bands. They knew nothing about us or where we came from. They didn't even realise the Clint, our keyboard player, was mates with the guys in the Roses before any of them ever formed a band, and that he was eventually in a band with The Roses' bassist 'Mani' long before The Inspirals or the Roses ever happened. We were our own band and owe everything we achieved to ourselves. And you know something - no Inspirals, no Oasis," he states with a laugh.

Tom may be laughing but he certainly isn't joking. Throughout the early nineties, one member of The Inspirals' road crew was a guy in his early twenties from Burnage, Manchester called Noel Gallagher. He actually auditioned to be the singer of the band, but Tom beat him to it.

"Noel was and still is a canny fella, but I'm a better singer than him," he laughs. "He learned a lot of tricks in his years hanging with us. We used to go shopping during the European tour and Noel would sit in for us on the interviews and pretend to be a member of the band. I'm sure he's glad he never got the job as The Inspirals' singer in retrospect, but the band seriously would not have been as good with Noel fronting. He was wrong for The Inspirals but right for Oasis and I'm delighted for him personally that he went on to achieve what he did. But yeah, you could say that the Inspiral Carpets were responsible for Oasis - praise us or damn us!"

Tom has visited Ireland many times as a performer, both in solo in full band capacities. He even played at the, now legendary, 'Trip To Tipp' festival.

"The Inspirals played Feile '91 in Tipperary," he recalls. "Our flight into Shannon was a big dodgy I remember, but it was an amazing day. We met and played with some great people that day too, like the lads from Therapy?. I remember another Irish tour we did where we drove up from Dublin to Belfast. We stopped off in Dundalk after spotting an ice-cream van. It was beside a school and about 300 kids started shouting at us. They knew who we were. We couldn't believe it. It resulted in what was the probably the biggest game of football ever played. The story has apparently become the stuff of legend now for the kids who played because who was in the Inspiral Carpets team that day in Dundalk? Noel Gallagher, of course! The Irish audiences have always been great and I like to come back and try places I've never been before, so this'll be my first time in Strabane and I can't wait. I believe Dicey Rileys is a real hub of great music, it must be as it has Inspiral Carpets on the jukebox, " he laughs.

Aside from his solo acoustic gigs, Tom has a band called The Lovers, who he has recorded two albums with. He also plans to release a solo album and get back with The Inspirals for a tour in 2010. On top of all this, he is also a lecturer of Music Business at Salford University, so he leads quite the busy lifestyle. His acoustic gig in Diceys on August 10 should be a celebration of that golden era of the early nineties. I doubt any of us still fit into our baggy fashions of that era, so modern attire will be more appropriate as the gig will not just be about nostalgia, but where Tom Hingley is at in 2008. Speaking to the man last week, wherever it is sounds like a pretty good place.

The Inspiral Carpets - 'This Is How It Feels'

Touts Out Now!

2008-05-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

Tom Waits returns to perform live in Ireland for the first time in 21 years this July. He'll be doing three shows in a specially designed tent called The Ratcellar in Dublin's Phoenix Park on July 30, 31 and August 1.

The ticket issue has caused a lot of heat on internet forums around the world for a number of reasons. Firsty, the tickets are quite pricey - over £100 each. Secondly, those in possession of a ticket must produce ID on entrance to the gigs to show that the name on the ticket matches that on the ID. It's an approach that Michael Eavis has taken with his Glastonbury Festival over the last five years and it has worked well in stamping out ticket touts.

It does sound like quite a bit of hassle but these are the times we live in and these are sadly the measures we have to take to stop people getting ripped off. Some may say it's quite rich for someone charging a face-value of over £100 for a ticket to take measures in stopping people getting ripped off - but it's a case of 'better the devil you know' in my opinion.

Tom Waits tours very rarely. When he does, he plays very few dates, so demand for tickets is always going to be very high. Imagine if this ID policy was not in place for the Dublin shows coming up. With people from all over the world looking to get their hands on 15,000 tickets, you can just see the problems. Online touts can charge any price they want and they'll get what they demand. People will pay vast amounts of money to see their favourite performers. £1000 for a Tom Waits ticket? People have paid that! People have paid a lot more, for that matter.

Some would say that anyone willing to pay that amont of money to see someone sing deserves all they get. Maybe, but everybody, even mad fanatics, has the right to pay face-value for a concert ticket. There is a moral code that many music fans abide by. If they can't go to the show they will give the ticket to a fellow fan for face-value. These people are sadly few and far between in such times. As pricey as the Tom Waits tickets are, thankfully this ID procedure will see none of them showing up on ebay for a ridiculous price.

Springsteen Proves He's Still The Boss

2008-05-28T04:36:00.000-07:00

I may have been nine-years-old but I vividly remember the day Bruce Springsteen played at Slane Castle. It was a perfect summer’s morning and all my older brothers and sisters were buzzing around the house getting ready to go to the gig, as was most of the town. Strabane was to be pretty sparse of teenagers and twenty-somethings that day and I remember looking on in envy as those old enough to go jumped into Slane-bound cars and buses and did so joyfully with obligatory farmers’ tans and ‘Born In The USA’ bandanas and T-shirts – well it was the eighties!

It’s a testament to the endurance of Springsteen as a performer and as an artist that on Sunday past, twenty-three years after Slane, I dragged myself out of bed, earlier than any Sunday morning this decade, to jump onto a Dublin-bound bus to catch the final of three sold-out shows at the RDS by the man himself and the legendary E-Street Band.

The band arrived on stage at 8.15pm, forty-five minutes later than advertised, and went straight into ‘No Surrender’. The overcast sky and strong breeze were genuine concerns, with the wind causing havoc with the sound, bouncing it all over the place, giving the technicians quite a headache from the off. Things thankfully began to settle down a few songs in and by the time the band kicked into ‘Spirit in the Night’, Springsteen made it very clear that everyone present was here for a party, as he got up close and very personal with the audience closest to the stage. Springsteen was very much in his element and has a passion and joy about performing that has never left him, so much so that he delivered the thirty-five-year-old ‘Spirit in the Night’ with a youthful exuberance that suggested he had just written the song that day.

Indeed, the setlist tonight covered every period of Spingsteen’s career, from 1973’s ‘Greeting’s From Asbury Park, N.J.’ to tracks from last year’s ‘Magic’ album. Full stomping band arrangements of ‘Atlantic City’ and ‘Reason To Believe’ from 1982’s classic acoustic album ‘Nebraska’ were followed by a moving tribute for E-Street Band member Danny Federici, who passed away last month after a lengthy battle with melanoma. The band performed ‘4TH Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’, which was the last song Federici performed live with the band back in March. This was followed by the very apt ‘Growin’ Up’, a song that typified so much about Federici, Springsteen and co at an earlier time in their lives.

Live favourite ‘Because The Night’ allowed Nils Lofgren to demonstrate what an amazing lead guitarist he is, with a sharp blistering solo that has now become the central focus of it’s performance each night, and rightly so. All eyes were back on ‘The Boss’ for ‘Mary’s Place’, where he single-handedly got every pair of hands in the audience up in the air, even those shy punters you normally see serving no other purpose at live shows but to be an eight foot statue that blocks your view of the stage.

‘Mary’s Place’ is such a stereotypical E-Street sounding track, designed for no other purpose than to kick an outdoor party into overdrive. “We’re gonna have a party,” screamed Springsteen as he slid on his knees across the stage, putting guys half his age to shame. The rain started to descend but failed to dampen the high spirits of the forty thousand capacity crowd – to borrow from Springsteen, it wasn’t rainfall but a ‘rock n’ roll baptism’!

The breeze and rain helped create the perfect setting for a breather in tempo. Ballad ‘Racing in the Street’ had just enough in softness, darkness and light to fit perfectly into the set at the time it did: a ‘not dark yet but it’s getting there’ vibe and a one of the highlights of the night.

The 8.15pm start meant that the stage lighting could be appreciated better at the later stages of the show and it worked to full effect for ‘The Rising’. With a red backdrop engulfing the stage, the sight of rainfall only added to the effect. Recent single ‘Long Walk Home’ with its infectious chorus was just begging for a sing-along and that’s what it got – guitarist Steve Van Zandt getting into the action too with his own take on it.

As the song was ending, Springsteen gave one of his many ‘one, two, three, four’ counts and the band kicked into the classic ‘Badlands’ – a reason to be at the RDS that night alone! Roy Bittan’s choppy piano line instigated the lights being beamed on thousands of hands and fists in the crowd. The momentum increased for possibly Springsteen’s most famous song, ‘Born To Run’ – played every night of the tour and played with the passion of a brand new song each time. The nine-minute epic ‘Rosalita’ followed by ‘Dancing In The Dark’ had even those in the seated areas on their feet and the Celtic flavoured ‘American Land’ saw the atmosphere become that of a Pogues concert.

Looking at our watches we thought that was going to be it. Yet Bruce and the band were going nowhere and rocked us home with ‘Ramrod’ and fever-pitched ‘Glory Days’. The time was 11.05pm. After almost three hours on stage Springsteen bid Dublin ‘goodnight’. It was a glorious night; one that outdoor music should be all about if the right performer is on the stage.

Nobody comes close to owning the big stage the way Bruce Springsteen does. In a recent interview with RTE’s David McCullagh he said, “I want kids to come to the shows today and be able to go home to their mom and dad or older brother who maybe saw us back in 78 or 86, and be able to say to them, “tonight I saw the E-Street Band at their peak!”” Well, to all who were at Slane in 1985 while I had to stay home getting sunburnt in the garden – on Sunday night I saw the heart stopping, pants dropping, earth shattering, hard rocking, hips shaking, earth quaking, nerve breaking, Viagra taking, history making, legendary E-Street Band at their peak!

Rolling Drone Gathers Little Class

2008-05-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has confessed that he is “not a huge fan” of David Bowie.
Speaking recently to Uncut magazine, Richards said that ‘Changes’, which appears on Bowie’s fourth album ‘Hunky Dory’, was the only song by the artist that he could “remember”.

"It's all pose. It's all fucking posing. It's nothing to do with music He knows it too,” Richards said.
“I can't think of anything else he's done that would make my hair stand up."

Like anyone, Keith is entitled to think what he likes. As Bowie fan myself I cannot help but disagree with the 'glimmer twin', but since we're on the topic of knocking other artists, let me throw my hat into the ring. You know who I find to be an insufferable bore? Keith Richards!

I adore The Rolling Stones. They have made some of the greatest albums of all time. 'Let It Bleed' would always in my top ten and Keith was key to all that was good and great about The Stones. But lets cut the crap - the guy has been having the same conversation for the last thirty years and The Stones' last decent album came out in the early '70s, 'Exile on Main Street'.

Yes, they fill stadiums across the globe still to this day, but it's on the back of their past and not their present. If anyone actually took off the rose-tinted glasses at these shows they would see that it's a cabaret version of something that once burned so brightly. Jagger and Richards are mere parodies of their younger personas, dishing out the 'been around the block' 'I can't remember recording that, man' soundbytes that assist in creating a new persona easily sellable to those who embrace the mere superficial surface of rock n' roll and nothing more - hence the multi-million pound industry that is The Rolling Stones today - it stopped being about the music long ago. Richards argues it's just rock n' roll; he said that when the creative tap ran dry! Since then he's been no less a 'poser' than Bowie. Whether it's the glitz and glam of Scissor Sisters or the down to earth John Everyman persona of Bruce Springsteen, everybody has a pose that appeals to an audience. Keith's emaciated wrinkly whiskey swigging chain-smoker is no different...and he's selling but I ain't buying!

Keith is a witty soundbyte today and nothing more. "It's great to be here. Then again, it's great to be anywhere y'know," he said when I saw The Stones in Dublin five years ago. Turns out he said this EVERY night - hardly thinking on his feet these days, more a cliche on autopilot. I don't care if he did or did not snort his old man's ashes. I don't care if he had a complete blood transfusion. I don't care if he fell off a tree or slipped on a library ladder. I don't care if Johnny Depp modelled his Jack Sparrow character on 'Keef'. I heard these things once but Keith feels the need to remind us constantly and frankly, I'm bored.

Change the record, Keith! Here, try this one, it's called 'Heroes', or maybe this one, 'Station to Station', or perhaps 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Startdust' or maybe this interesting electro record called 'Earthling' or maybe this one released a few years ago called 'Reality'. They're all quite different, quite envelope pushing in some ways and all by one guy forever in the process of becoming...never bemoaning. It's never too late to learn a thing or two from him 'Keef'.

Liz Tormes - Strabane becomes 'the Village'

2008-04-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

After the euphoria of last week’s Strabane Unplugged, Tuesday night’s special, headlined by American singer-songwriter Liz Tormes, was always going to be a more intimate affair. The intimacy was such that it benefited the night greatly, giving it a true sense of occasion in keeping with the spirit of, say, the coffee bars and clubs of Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan in the ’60s and ’70s.

Local rockers King Coma opened the night with a three-piece acoustic set taking in their own material and a series of covers, including an infectious version of Nelly Furtado’s ‘Say It Right’. But it was their own material that stood out best. Rich melodies and harmonies between guitarist SOD and frontman Chris Sharkey floated to every corner of the All Stars Bar on tracks like ‘Come Around’, ‘Beauty Queen’ and the stomping ‘God I Am’, with Chris’s commanding stage presence giving the tracks an added intensity throughout.

Fresh from touring the country with English singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson, Liz Tormes then took to the Unplugged stage and it was clear that the intimate crowd was perhaps a blessing in the disguise, as her soft lo-fi delivery would not bode well in a packed sweaty bar. The audience displayed a great respect as Liz worked her way through tracks from her latest album ‘Limelight’ and a selection of covers by the likes of The Carter Family and Nick Cave. Her version of Cave’s murder ballad ‘Willow Garden’ took the song somewhere softer but without losing any of it’s eeriness.

The hypnotic atmosphere was maintained for Liz’s original material such as ‘Tired of Waiting’, ‘Read My Mind’ and the simply beautiful title-track from her latest album. Comparisons with alternative acts such as Mazzy Star, Julianna Hatfield and Karen Peris would not be unfounded when describing Liz’s sound. With the ‘hear a pin drop’ atmosphere enveloping the hooked audience, it was a sheer delight to hear these flavourings of Americana in Strabane on a cold Tuesday night - just one of the goals that Strabane Unplugged was devised for.

Liz herself stated that her time in Strabane was the most fun she has had while on tour in Ireland. She even took time to take in the Guinness on the night, humorously conceding that the stout back in New York City simply cannot compete. It was a night of music that can be perhaps best described as quietly beautiful. Liz Tormes can be assured that she made a few new friends in Strabane on Tuesday night.

www.myspace.com/kingcoma

www.myspace.com/liztormes

Paul Westerberg - An American Hero

2008-04-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain you'll find Paul Westerberg. One of the best singer-songwriters to come out of the US over the last two decades, Westerberg has never got the recognition I think he deserves. As front man of maverick alternative rockers The Replacements in the 80s, Westerberg was one of the key figures, alongside REM, Black Flag, Husker Du and Sonic Youth, who paved the way for the eventual global explosion of Alternative Rock in the 90s.

Back in the 80s, all these bands needed was a van, a series of dates in live venues that looked like public toilets and an army of college radio listening followers. Out of this, a scene developed a million miles away from the vacuous glamour and big-hair of MTV and mainstream radio. It was a scene more aligned with the USA of the 1980s, a USA of Reagan-omics, recession and discontent, a reality mainstream pop pretended didn't exist. Yet the alternative scene made a bang that spoke to a generation who failed to see themselves in the gloss of MTV and the radio.

Paul Westerberg said more about smalltown USA in the 1980s than perhaps anybody else with the line "well a person can work up a mean mean thirst after a hard day of nothin' much at all," from the song 'Here Comes A Regular' - a key song indeed. Henry Rollins, Michael Stipe and Thurston Moore may have eventually broken through in a global sense in the '90s. I'm sure they would all agree that Paul Westerberg should be there with them. I'd recommend you delve into his back catalogue.

Here's a classic track from his days with The Replacements. From 1985 and the album 'Let It Be' - (yes they had balls too!) - this is 'Unsatisfied'.

Paul Brady Comes Home

2008-04-15T04:35:00.000-07:00

One particular topic of conversation may have taken up a lot of time around the pubs of Strabane over the past few weeks. A new topic began to be whispered around certain quarters at the beginning of last week. What began as a whisper went into overdrive last weekend, so much so that it rivalled that other big story on every pub drinker’s lips.

Could it be true? Could Paul Brady, the most famous singer-songwriter ever to come out of Strabane, be performing at the monthly Strabane Unplugged session which takes place in the All Stars Bar? Certain mobile phones never stopped ringing. Certain lips were sealed. It was a case of ‘come down and see for yourself’.

At an admission charge of just three pounds at the door one would be justified in dismissing the rumours; three pounds to see a guy who can count Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Carlos Santana as three of his fans? Surely not! Yet the vast numbers that crammed into the All Stars before ten o’clock were not going to be denied.

Strabane Unplugged has always encouraged local artists who have not yet performed at one of the sessions to get themselves down there and up on that stage. At 10.30 on Monday night one local artist treaded the Unplugged boards for the first time. The rumours were true - it was Strabane’s very own Paul Brady.

After a roof-raising welcome in the sweltering heat of the packed All-Stars, he went straight into a solo set armed with just his acoustic guitar. What followed was an hour long delve into Brady’s back catalogue, taking in tracks off classic albums such as ‘Hard Station’, ‘Trick or Treat’ and ‘Spirits Colliding’. The crowd, which had in its rank many local musicians both young and old, looked on in awe as Brady illustrated his stunning guitar playing and flawless song-craft with all the ease of a man who has been doing it globally for decades now. Brady himself seemed at ease with what, for him, is a pretty scaled down show. He enjoyed the ‘in-yer-face’ intimacy that not even a venue like Dublin’s Olympia, which Brady always sells-out, could perhaps even rival. He was also buoyed on with the fact that sitting out there in the audience savouring the atmosphere was his father, Sean.

It was a sheer delight to hear classics like ‘Busted Loose’ and ‘The World is What You Make It’ in such a stripped down capacity. The crowd were especially vocal in their appreciation for Brady’s acoustic take on his 1981 classic ‘Crazy Dreams’, which saw everyone take to their feet at it’s conclusion.

On a night of countless highlights perhaps the biggest was the classic ‘Nobody Knows’. The lush production of its 1991 studio version was replaced with just a six-string acoustic and that unmistakable signature vocal delivery that is Paul Brady’s and Paul Brady’s alone. Once again the reaction of the crowd summed up so much about how everyone present was feeling – glad that one of their own had come along to join in on what is now a monthly celebration of all that is good and great about Strabane as a town and a community. Paul Brady himself was proud to be a part of it and loved every minute. As was said when he was introduced to the stage – it’s always nice to get locals up on the Unplugged stage who haven’t been there yet. That tradition was maintained on Monday night in the finest fashion possible. Long may it continue.

Big band with a little name make a little record with a big sound

2008-03-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

It seems impossible for anyone to address the new REM album, 'Accelerate', without looking back with much derision on the bands post-Bill Berry output. It would be naive to believe that REM found working as a trio easy after drummer Berry quit in 1997. For many, the band has never been the same - the studio dynamic had floundered and communication, if we are to believe what we read, grew colder by the record between Mills, Buck and Stipe. Whatever went on in the studio, live on stage is where REM has prospered since Berry's departure. Tours in '99, '03 and '05 cemented them as one of the best live acts in the planet. Despite this, they were selling less and less each record they released. The days of the ten million shifting 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic For The People' albums were long gone. This culminated in 2004's pre-dominantly flat 'Around The Sun' selling two million records worldwide.

Personally I quite liked many of REM's forays into electronica that spring up on the post-Berry albums. We should not forget gems like 'I've Been High', 'Falls To Climb', 'Walk Unafraid', 'The Lifting', 'Saturn Return', 'Electron Blue' and quality REM standard fare such as 'At My Most Beautiful', 'All The Way To Reno', 'Leaving New York', 'Imitation of Life' and 'The Great Beyond' - all classics from a so-called 'difficult' period. It's too easy to dismiss REM's last decade. Yes, those albums have their weak points - they were too fecking long for one - but they all have their moments of greatness, even 'Around The Sun', possibly REM's weakest album so far.

The duration aspect is something that 'Accelerate' deals with in dramatic fashion, running at just 35 minutes it's REM's shortest album in 24 years - 1984's 'Reckoning' in fact.

Is 'Accelerate' is the sound of REM retreating back to the tried and tested? Opening tracks 'Living Well is the Best Revenge', 'Man-Sized Wreath' and single 'Supernatural Superserious' charge with a momentum not realised since the opening to the 1986 album 'Life's Rich Pageant'. But with producer Jacknife Lee at the helm replacing Pat McCarthy, who the band has worked with since 1998, the songs sound dry and live, with little of the lushness that sprayed their most recent albums evident at all. 'Hollow Man' appropriately see's Stipe deliver an untouched hoarse vocal inbetween a chorus so infectuous it's destined for constant airplay if the track gains the 'single' status it obviously deserves.

'Accelerate' hits it's high points in the uptempo moments like those adressed above. Where it falters oddly is where REM prospered so beautifully at one point in their career - the acoustic moments. 'Houston' is a nothing track that offers little apart from perhaps an interesting organ. 'Until The Day is Done' is the kind of acoustic ballad that sounded so rich in the hands of REM in the early 90s, but just sounds tired and formulaic at this stage in their career. These are not the moments to get excited about on 'Accelerate'. 'Horse To Water' brings back the momentum the acoustic moments lost. With the celebratory tempo of early classic 'Just a Touch' 'Horse To Water' is a stand-out track destined to be a live highlight. It sounds like the REM of the past and the present - rocking hard, a great chorus and the unmistakable Mike Mills backing vocal. The tempo thankfully is maintained right up until the end, such is the 'hit and run' nature of the album. 'I'm Gonna DJ' closes the short but effective album. A regular live track on the band's 2005 tour, it's jaunty, juvenile and chaotic but very much in keeping with the rest of the album, making it the perfect closer for what REM have set out to achieve with 'Accelerate'.

Have they achieved their goal? Well yes, but not without some filler with the acoustic tracks. It's a fine album but not as good as some are making out, just as 'Up' and 'Reveal' are not as bad as those same people probably make out. As a life-long REM fan I'm just glad to hear them making great music still and if the critics think it's now ok again to like REM then whatever, welcome back guys!

Bin Bin Duffy

2008-03-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

I've been cheated. I've been conned. They reeled me in with some sweet cinematic soulful defiance and when they had me in their clutches they smothered me with formula and heartlessness; music plundered from a special place and time but which itself comes from no particular place, has no home and is born out of nothing but a desire to keep the Jones's happy that the background cd is adaquately drowned in enough syrup for them to lightly shimmy to, but never evocative enough to invest even a solitary drop of personal emotion into - you see, they're busy discussing mortage prices with Susan and Geoff, who they have over for dinner. How did I get here? What have I ever done to Bernard Butler to deserve such disrespect? I adored Suede. I was behind him when he left the band. I lost all interest in them after that. I embraced his work with Dave McAlmont in the 90s and early 2000s. I wished him the best as a solo artist. I've been nothing but a friend to Bernard Butler. How could he do this to me? How could he do it to himself? I tell you why - whatever some ranting blogger like myself thinks, 'Rockferry' by Duffy will be one of the biggest albums of 2008, that's why!

It all starts so full of promise. The debut single 'Rockferry' swoons, floats, sprouts wings and, regardless of what follows, is one of the best singles of recent times. With her Dusty Springfield in her prime vocals Duffy compliments Butler's special take on Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' and what results is a song that would fit so well in a Tarrantino scene with an appropriately cast femme fatale. Such glorious heights are sadly not realised again on the album until it's closing track 'Distant Dreamer', where we get reminded once again of what made Bernard Butler great as a guitarist and producer. It has a sound straight out of his period with McAlmont and you can easily imagine Dave the Diva putting his vocals on top of it. Duffy's delivery is by no means inferior. On the contrary, she takes herself into the realm of Nancy Sinatra, rising to the top, backed by an angelic choir of herself, beautful strings and sax.

'Rockferry' would've been a masterpiece had the momentum of the opening and closing tracks been maintained throughout. Sadly, it wasn't. What we have inbetween is a collection of weak, bland soul-by-numbers ditties. Duffy can sing, no doubt about it, but her voice is wasted on these tracks. 'Mercy' is upbeat, confident and quite a sexy floorfiller. Perhaps an extension of it's spirit may have improved the album also. Sadly, the albums falters because of bland fare such as 'Serious', 'Sleeping Stone' and 'Delayed Devotion' - all designed to convey an emotion non-extistant at any point of their conception, recording or clean-ass production. These are songs that no-doubt will be used to death by ITV when advertising the latest drama series starring the likes of Hermione Norris and her frozen face. These are soul songs without soul. They leave no mark in the sand and no desire to be played again. They may as well have been given to Gabrielle! I've news for you all too - we are set to be bombarded with this kind of 'Soul Diva' fare from all directions this year - you have been warned. Yet, for the merits of tracks like 'Rockferry' and 'Distant Dreamer' I do hope there is a future for Duffy. I'm sure there will be, but will I be listening? That really depends.

All-time Top 40 Irish Albums?

2008-03-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

The Irish Times has just published a critics' All-Time Top 40 Irish Albums list. Everyone has their own list and each list is always open to scrutiny. This list is no different. Such lists are quite pointless in the long scheme of things. But they do make for great internet/pub conversations/debates/arguments/bloodbaths. As for this one, well the absence of Horslips is quite unforgivable, the presence of other albums equally so.

My Bloody Valentine at No.1? Well, it is a great record. Why does Van's 'Astral Weeks' always gain higher acclaim than his 'Moondance' album? 'Moondance' is better and at least the bass is in tune! 'Achtung Baby' is U2's best album. A House's 'I am The Greatest' is an amazing album well deserving a re-issue. Rollerskate Skinny..Yay! Ash? Boooo!!! Snow Patrol? Oh just fuck off!! BellXZZZzzzzzzzz!! Something Happens' 'God's Glue' Yay! Great album although I still hate that fecking 'Parachute' song!

What should've been there? Let the drunken weekend debates begin....LOL!!! Here's the list:

1 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: LOVELESS
2 U2: ACHTUNG BABY (1991)
3a A HOUSE: I AM THE GREATEST (1991)
3b THE RADIATORS: GHOSTOWN (1979)
5 VAN MORRISON: ASTRAL WEEKS (1968)
6 MICRODISNEY: THE CLOCK COMES DOWN THE STAIRS (1985)
7 ROLLERSKATE SKINNY: HORSEDRAWN WISHES (1996)
8 THE POGUES: RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH (1986)
9 THE UNDERTONES: THE UNDERTONES (1979)
10 WHIPPING BOY: HEARTWORM (1995)
11 ASH: 1977 (1996)
12 THE BLADES: RAYTOWN REVISITED (1985)
13 THIN LIZZY: LIVE AND DANGEROUS (1978)
14 U2: THE JOSHUA TREE (1987)
15 THERAPY? TROUBLEGUM (1994)
16 PLANXTY: PLANXTY (1973)
17 DAVID HOLMES: LETS GET KILLED (1997)
18 THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SPEAK SLOWLY (1988)
19 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS: INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL (1979)
20a THE REVENANTS: HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOUR
20b THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SACRED HEART HOTEL
22 U2: BOY (1980)
23 THE BLADES: LAST MAN IN EUROPE (1984)
24 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: ISN'T ANYTHING (1988)
25 SINÉAD O'CONNOR: I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT (1990)
26 VAN MORRISON: MOONDANCE
27 SNOW PATROL: EYES OPEN (2006)
28a THE DIVINE COMEDY: PROMENADE (1994)
28b RORY GALLAGHER: LIVE IN EUROPE (1972)
30 VAN MORRISON: IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW (1974) Recorded at 1973
31a BELL X1: MUSIC IN MOUTH (2003)
31b THE CRANBERRIES: EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT, SO WHY CAN'T WE (1993)
33a THE FRAMES: FOR THE BIRDS (2001)
33b SOMETHING HAPPENS: STUCK TOGETHER WITH GOD'S GLUE (1990)
35a MARTIN HAYES & DENIS CAHILL: LIVE IN SEATTLE (1999)
35b THE HIGH LLAMAS: HAWAII (1996) Long before The Thrills were doing their
35c THE UNDERTONES: HYPNOTISED (1980)
38 DAMIEN RICE: O (2002)
39 THE POGUES: IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD (1988)
40 MICRODISNEY: CROOKED MILE (1987)

American Music Club: Love songs for cynics

2008-01-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

If you're in and around Dublin City on Saturday night then you may want to take yourself to Whelans, which will be playing host to American Music Club. The San Francisco based outfit, fronted by the influencial singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel, have just released a new album called 'The Golden Age', which is the follow-up to their stunning comeback album in 2004, 'Love Songs For Patriots'.

Prior to 'Love Songs...' the band had not recorded together for almost ten years. Within this period Eitzel went on to have an acclaimed, if occasionally uneven, solo career. Known for a more hard-edged approach to folk and Americana, American Music Club took us on an alternative road-trip through some not always pleasant sub-cultures and characters.

When making plans to go to this show, a friend of mine persuaded a mutual friend of ours to go. Our mutual friend said, "aye, be a bit of craic", to which my friend replied, "it won't be a bit of craic! It'll be two hours in the dark and you'll love it!" Indeed, with American Music Club it may not be dark yet, but it's getting there. Amid the melancholy though, lies a sharp wit and some finely crafted songwriting. Also, Mark Eitzel is one of the most distinctive voices of the last 20 years.

Rumours prior to the release of 'The Golden Age' were that it was a lot more 'up' than previous American Music Club records. The dark sense of humour still prevails on the album, that's for sure, and it is a fine record. I still prefer 'Love Songs' and 'Everclear', but with all American Music Club records it takes a long time to absorb them fully, which is part of the fun. Yes, I said fun! I'm really looking forward to Saturday - it WILL be good craic!

American Music Club - Whelans, Dublin, Feb 2.

REM get ready for Reconstruction

2008-01-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

REM are due to return on March 31 with their 14th studio album, 'Accelerate'. The album was recorded partly in Vancouver, partly Dublin, where the Athens trio held a residency at the Olympia in May last year for a series of live rehearsals. Much of the material that was road-tested in Dublin has made it on to the album. A new producer was also brought on board for the sessions, Jacknife Lee.

At an apparent duration of just 36 minutes, 'Accelerate' looks like being a return to the pre-'Automatic For The People' REM, where their albums had this wonderful habit of breezing along swiftly. 2004's 'Around The Sun' seemed to limp to a conclusion. It looks like REM are ready to make a bit of noise again. I look forward to their return and their live shows later this year - they remain one of the finest live rock bands on the planet!

Here is a taster of what to possibly expect on 'Accelerate'. Recorded during their rehearsals in Dublin in May 2007, this is 'Horse To Water'. Sounds very 'Life's Rich Pageant' era REM to me. No bad thing!!

MGMT - a name for 2008

2008-01-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

One of most exciting new sounds of 2008 (yes, I know we're only a month in) has been electro duo MGMT (pronounced The Management). The duo's eccentricity on record is echoed on their website biog, which informs us:

"MGMT is: Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002." Andrew and Ben realized that -- despite their opposing views on methodology (one is spontaneously practical, the other is practically spontaneous) -- they shared a common love of mystic paganism (ironic indeed on a campus named for the founder of Methodism), psychotropic sounds, and the belief that a joke (or a joke song) could be sad, profound, and funny at the same time." Interesting guys!

With influences from the mainstream pop world, the underground hallucinogenic electronica of Suicide and the sonic soundscapes of The Flaming Lips, MGMT have created a debut album, 'Oracular Spectacular', that is a headphones experience, a dancefloor experience and a live experience all rolled into one. With Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann at the helm, it is a perfect union.

For some absurd reason, 'Oracular Spectacular' will not be released in Ireland until the summer. But it really is worth getting your hands on before that, if you can. Here is a taster from the album to persuade you....opening track 'Time To Pretend'.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1G43OGNO

The Enemy of the NME is my Friend

2008-01-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

The nominations for the NME awards have just been announced and, as with every other year, I am totally indifferent. The once glorious publication, formerly the home of writers with the calibre, wit and wisdom of Nick Kent, Julie Burchill and Stuart Maconie, now gives refuge to thin-tied white boys so far out of their element they struggle to even have a vague knowledge of David Bowie.

The sins of the modern day NME and it's writers are many but I'm sticking with one just now that has really rattled my pissy bone. In the catagory of Villain of the Year they have nominated Amy Winehouse. I know in the wide scheme of things that this is quite a trivial category that is not to be taken seriously, although it could be tough to take being listed with Tony Blair and George W. Bush on the chin! It would certainly kill the fizz out of being nominated for Best Solo Artist, which Winehouse quite rightly was, following a year that saw her 'Back to Black' album barely leave the top ten. Regardless of how seriously we are to take the Villain of the Year category, it does speak volumes, whether the powers that be at the NME like it or not, of the contrast in how a troubled female artist is perceived in comparison to a troubled male.

Here we have a lady whose personal problems with drugs and her posh double-barrelled jailbird husband, whose name has never been with me to escape from me, have kept her in the media glare daily for over a year now. Like many, I'm fed up reading about the lady and her problems. I adore her 'Back to Black' album, but it seems to be of little interest to the snakes of the press who, bereft of a soul to enjoy such musical stylings, focus on the murkier side of Winehouse's life. Her problems are continually being used as a stick to beat her with and the NME are now part of the Winehouse lynch-mob with this Villain of the Year nod.

I do not know Winehouse personally. She may well be an individual deserving of such an award but her reasons for being nominated are the very reasons that see her male counterparts lauded and mythologised. Winehouse gets caught smoking crack and she's a villian. Pete Doherty gets caught shooting up and he's a troubled genius and a poet. Keith Richards tells us for the 234th million time that he should be dead and we call him a legend. Gil Scott Heron gets caught with heroin and they throw his ass in jail and deny him his HIV medication - but that's another story about how selective both the system and the music press are in relation to gender, race, sympathy, mythology and condemnation.

Keith Richards has been living well off his drug excess truths, myths and legends for well over thirty years now. What is so acceptable about t-shirts of a 'wasted' Keith Richards or Sid Vicious that is so unacceptable about images of Amy Winehouse with needle marks on her feet? There are no differences between any of these images, yet we seem to not only accept it in males (if they're white) but celebrate it, and that's wrong. So perhaps the NME should be praised for taking Winehouse to task like this. It may get a message to the lady that she needs help. But did the NME, even in its pomp, ever offer the same message to Keith Richards, Sid Vicious or Kurt Cobain? No they didn't. They don't see the need to villainise white male addicts because it's 'rock n' roll, man' and 'it's better to burn out than to fade away'. Yet, like stuffy old male Cricket Club House members, they wag their self-righteous fingers at any woman who dares to step into the boys club of 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll'.

So I now feel the need to reassure all the female artists and music lovers out there. I come from a club that welcomes women. If a walk on the wild side floats your boat you're more than welcome to jump on with us. We believe you have every equal right to indulge in excess if you so please. We'll make sweet rock n' roll with you. We may even take some (non hard) drugs with you, and yes - we'll even have sex with you........if you'll have us of course!

Chuck Berry, Letterkenny, March 24

2008-01-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

Imagine my shock when surfing the web yesterday and having a nosey at Chuck Berry's official website. After a number of text messages, I had to see it for myself. There it was - in the middle of his 2008 tour dates, March 24, Grill Venue, Letterkenny! His only Irish date on the list.

Berry is without doubt one of the original pioneers of Rock n' Roll. John Lennon once said that if you had to give Rock n' Roll another term, that term would be Chuck Berry. With his seminal self-penned classics like 'Maybellene', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Johnny B. Goode' and, of course, 'Roll Over Beethoven' Berry laid down a template for Rock n' Roll that is still, to varying degrees of success, celebrated today - teenage promiscuity, a love for the road, escape, fast cars, partying and rebellion. Now in his 82nd year, mere words cannot do justice to his (and his peers') influence on the grand scheme of things.

Tickets are sure to be hot property as soon as they become available. It will be Rock n' Roll history literally before your eyes, and at a venue where many moons ago the showbands of the country would've knocked out more than a few of Berry's classics.

Here's Berry live in London in 1972 with 'Promised Land'.

'Small Hours' at any Hour!

2008-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

Donal Dineen's late show on Today FM has consistantly been one the best things on the airwaves for the past ten years. Now under the name 'Small Hours', his shows continually introduce a whole new sphere of alternative music, especially in the electronica genre.

For the first time since his broadcasts began in 1997, they are now being archived on the Today FM website for your listening pleasure at any time of the day, not just after midnight in bed with the earphones on.

First check the link here:

http://www.todayfm.com/Article.asp?id=448129

then, turn on, tune in and cop out.

'I'm Not There' - a Todd Haynes film on Bob Dylan

2008-01-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

This is a movie with six different characters, none of whom go under the name Bob Dylan, who each represent a different aspect of the man, his many myths and his work. I thought this was a pretty brave step for director Todd Haynes. How do you make a conventional biopic about one of the most unconventional figures in popular culture? The answer is simple - you can't. 'I'm Not There' had to be off-beat right from the start.

This movie stands up where Haynes's glam-rock opus from 1997, 'Velvet Goldmine', collapsed. This is mainly due to the fact that he was able to use Dylan's music, something denied to him by Bowie for 'Goldmine', and the film suffered because of it. Ewan McGregor's awful American accent and sub-Iggy Pop parody Kurt Wild didn't help either. There's none of that here. The performances are solid, especially Cate Blanchett as the 'Blonde on Blonde' period Dylan - a definite Oscar nod for sure.

Blanchett's casting in not as pretentious as it sounds. Having a woman play Dylan is perhaps an attempted parallel of the shock Dylan caused by his transformation in 1965 from folk to 'that mercury sound' of an electric guitar. The songs are used at the right moments to signify a certain mood or situation. It would be interesting to hear what Dylan made of all of this. He would probably dismiss it as inaccurate. His myth is still intact. We know no more, and I don't think Haynes actually believed it was going to be any other way.

Would I recommend this film? If your interest in Dylan is quite minimal, probably not. You will hate it. If you're a little bit more of a Dylan anorak, then yeah, go for it! The title doesn't lie - Dylan is not there. Or is he? We'll never really know. Have we ever really known? He's a clever one, that Zimmerman.

Cat Power - Jukebox

2008-01-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

An album of covers should make any listener fear the worst. Most covers are pointless exercises in rehashing someone else's music almost identically, yet without any of the original intent, sentiment and personal investment. One thinks of Jacques Brel's 'Dying Man' and how its various bastardisations down through the years as 'Seasons in the Sun' have all failed to do justice to the Belgian's sombre lament. Even the sight of a some kid barely able to shave thinking he has enough in the bank to take on 'My Way' is very hard to stomach. There are certain songs that you have to earn the right to sing - 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails, which, it would be fair to say, Johnny Cash earned well, although it's one of the few songs he didn't murder in his American Recordings series.

There are certain people who get the point of a cover and the need to bring something else to it. Hendrix's reinvention of Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' and Jeff Buckley's reading of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' are perhaps two of the most famous cases of a cover breathing new life into a song.

Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, has been down the road of a covers album before. Her 1999 'Covers Record' saw her deconstruct standards by The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground and Nina Simone. It was a beautifully haunting and tasteful collection of reinterpretations. Marshall has always striven to find something new, not only in cover material but her own. Her recent live shows have seen her step into that sphere of re-make, re-model, which has been a key factor of playing live for people like Dylan and Lou Reed for over 30 years now.

Given Marshall's approach to covers, the arrival of 'Jukebox' should not be met with cynicism, but intrigue. 'New York' is no karaoke trip down the Sinatra wannabe path but practically related to the original in lyric and lyric alone. Unlike the 'Covers Record', Marshall has recruited backing band the Dirty Delta Blues for this collection and in turn it sounds just as the band did on tour throughout most of 2007.

2006's 'The Greatest' album saw Cat Power step closer to the mainstream than ever before. Some feared that this would be at the expense of her earlier material, written at a different time emotionally for Marshall, so much so that she may not have wanted to step back into that skin. On 'Jukebox' it's pleasing to see that she is not blanking her past, but giving it the same reinvention that she does with Hank Williams' 'Ramblin' (Wo)man', James Brown's 'Lost Someone' and Joni Mitchell's 'Blue'. Her new rendition of 'Metal Heart', which first featured on her 1998 record 'Moon Pix', is at first more piano-led and merges into a chaotic climax, losing none of the drama of the original recording.

Having seen Cat Power live last summer and hearing some of the material that would end up on 'Jukebox', I recall being very excited by the live version of The Highwaymen's 'Silver Stallion'. The full band arangement is replaced with a more subtle acoustic reading on the album. As good as it is, it fails to live up to how it worked with the band live. The same cannot be said for 'Aretha, Sing One For Me'. With it's southern soul swagger, it's a definite highlight of the record.

Chan Marshall's voice is one of the most distinctive sounds of the last ten years or so. It is the perfect late night companion on 'Lord, Help The Poor and Needy' and 'Don't Explain'. What the hell - It laces with gold anything it sits on top of - just ask Faithless or Handsome Boy Modelling School. But it's difficult to gauge just how essential a covers album should be. Original new song 'Song To Bobby' is a welcome addition and sits well on the collection. It would've perhaps sat even better on 'The Greatest'. A lazy, sun-drenched auto-biographical narrative of a run-in with Bob Dylan, it's a fine hint that Chan Marshall has a lot more to offer. I look forward to the journey.

Tracklist: 1. New York (Frank Sinatra)2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man (Hank Williams)3. Metal Heart (Cat Power *)4. Silver Stallion (The Highwaymen)5. Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson)6. Lost Someone (James Brown)7. Lord, Help The Poor And Needy (Jessie Mae Hemphill)8. I Believe In You (Bob Dylan)9. Song To Bobby (Cat Power **)10. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday)11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)12. Blue (Joni Mitchell)

* Original can be found on Cat Power's 'Moon Pix' record. A recommended album!

** A brand new Cat Power song never released before.

Control - a film about Ian Curtis

2007-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

I love Joy Division and like Ian Curtis. I thought he was a great presence and an original figure. He may have set a template for a style of 6th form poetry that is a less than endearing legacy, but we can't really blame him for that; he was simply being himself, in all his harsh glory. I do find the legend that has grown around the guy since he took his own life in 1980 a little hard to take. He wasn't that great. He wasn't a poet. He wasn't a spokesperson for a generation. He was one part of four, or five if you include the innovative production skills of Martin Hannett, that created a dark and sometimes beautiful soundscape that reflected the grim northern environment that they sprung from. Joy Divsion's legacy belongs as much to Hannett, Hook, Morris and Sumner as it does Curtis. Without them, it would never have happened.

So when I heard that there was to be a biopic about Ian Curtis called Control, I did fear the worst - a hagiography, a re-writing of history, a romanticised depiction of the facts. Luckily Control is none of the above.

Directed by Anton Corbijn, whose first job when he moved to England in 1979 was to photograph Joy Division, the film doesn't mess around with the facts, helped immensely by it's main source, the Joy Divsion biography Touching From A Distance, written by Curtis's widow Debbie.

The Ian Curtis we see here is not an icon, but a troubled intelligent soul who was far from perfect, particularly in the manner in which he treated his wife. His affair with Belgian Annik Honore is well documented thoughout. His fixation with epilepsy is touched on also, as we see the inspiration behind 'She's Lost Control' and how the condition begins to eventually take it's toll on Curtis himself.

The film is shot in black and white, in keeping with the general presentation of Curtis and Joy Division on camera throughout the years. It also serves to capture the urban coldness of late seventies Manchester to great effect. Sam Riley is excellent as Curtis, bearing both a physical and vocal similarity. Samantha Morton is as solid as ever as his wife Debbie.

The Manchester music scene of Control is a lot harsher and more realistic than the comedic caricature presented in Michael Winterbottom's 2001 film 24 Hour Party People. The soundtrack, naturally, is top quality, taking in Joy Division's classics mixed with Bowie and Kraftwerk. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Isolation' and 'Atmosphere' are used at exactly the right time, offering weighty parallels between the lyrics and the scenes. The climax is fitting, appropriate and done with a sensitivity and realism that refuses to lend itself to any kind of elevation of Curtis. This is about Ian Curtis the person, not the legend, and is why the film works as well as it does.

Shimmering neon lights...

2007-12-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of brand new tracks that have really got me marching around with a spring in my step on these cold December nights are Neon Neon's 'Raquel' and Duffy's 'Rockferry'.

A dance side-project from Boom-Bip and Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys, Neon Neon have come up with a retro disco classic in 'Raquel', with it's 80s synths very much inkeeping with it's subject matter - actress Raquel Welch and her one-time lover John DeLorean. Can it get anymore 80s than that? Check it out here, or upstairs at the Farmers Home, Strabane on a Friday night, as I intend to play it to death..lol!

http://rapidshare.com/files/77922039/neon_neon-raquel__extended_edit_-1real.mp3.html

http://www.myspace.com/neonx2

Neon Neon release debut album 'Lex' early in 2008. Sounds very tastey, as does this lady:

Duffy is a new name that has been lazily thrown into the same basket as Amy Winehouse - a soulful female who tips her hat to a retro pop sound. With personal problems and tabloid headlines now clouding Winehouse's undoubted talent, the manner inwhich Duffy's debut single has been promoted has been very patronising. It's been a case of 'well, Amy's away with the fairies, lets make do with Duffy who has none of that baggage.' Well no thank you! Duffy doesn't need it.

The initial signs are good for Duffy. The debut single 'Rockferry' echoes the ghost of Dusty Springfield, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler's production is quite Spector-esque. With someone as accomplished as Butler on her side, it's looking quite possible that Duffy will be much more than just a flash in the pan, and will need to be taken a lot more seriously in her own right than certain quarters are doing at present.

Bruce Springsteen - Live in Belfast, Dec 15, 2007

2007-12-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

After many years of waiting, I finally got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band live in concert on Saturday night. The venue was Belfast's Odyssey Arena. The two and a half hours the band performed onstage were everything I imagined they would be. But like Marty DiBergi with the mighty Spinal Tap before me, I got more, a lot more.

It's been a few decades since Springsteen had to worry about where his next penny was coming from, but the songs he has crafted will always resonate and attach themselves to a working-class spirit that translates the world over. The sharp cold and hussle and bussle of Belfast City on Saturday night could easily have been a scene from one of Springsteen's classic narrative tales with a New Jersey in the winter setting. The backstreets, the urban darkness and the Wildean gutter star-gazers who colour his work lend themselves well to the towns and cities of Ireland. This has been Springsteen's biggest success as a writer. As a performer, he's simply in a class of his own. The songs may be ours but the stage belongs to him.

This was clear as soon as he casually marched on and twice asked, nay growled, "is there anybody alive out there?" 'Radio Nowhere' instantly kicked in and the quest for soul, so vivid in the song, took flight around the arena and was met with thousands of kindred spirits - this was going to be a night to remember!

The band were without regular E-Streeters Danny Federici, who is undergoing surgery, and Patti Scialfa, who is back at the New Jersey homestead "making sure the house doesn't burn down," as Bruce informed us. But with Roy Bitton, Gary Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Nils Lofgren and 'Big Man' Clarence Clemons all on board, the trip through the Springsteen catalogue was always going to be a bump-free ride.

All but two tracks from Springsteen's current 'Magic' record were performed tonight. The man himself wasn't shy on highlighting the themes running through the songs, many of which address the distrust in the powers-the-be that is now so prevelant in the United States. The audience was here to party yes, but were also willing to listen when needed - title-track 'Magic' was met with an intuitive silence around the Odyssey, as Springsteen sang of a land of tricks and deception. As the tempo went up, a happy couple just wed on the day of the show got 'I'll Work For Your Love' played in their honour. 'Gypsy Biker', 'Devils Arcade' and 'Last To Die' were the stand-outs of the new material performed.

But it's the classics that got the place really bouncing, particularly 'Badlands', where, as usual, the audience became part of the E-Street vocal choir. Modern classics like 'Waiting on a Sunny Day', 'The Rising' and 'Lonesome Day' sat perfectly at home beside oldies like 'She's The One' and 'Born To Run'.

The latter is a natural show-stopper, and a sea of over ten thousand fists punched the air and dreamed that youthful dream of escape all over again. This was followed instantly by 'Dancing In The Dark', which was much rockier than it's 'Born In The USA' incarnation and had the whole place bouncing the roof off. Even older golden nuggets like 'Kitty's Back', 'Because The Night' and 'The River' (whose subject matter was in the crowd tonight - Springsteen's brother-in-law, Mickey) ensured that every period of the Springsteen's catalogue was represented.

When all that was done and dusted, it was time for Santa Claus, as Clarence and Bruce had a bit of festive fun with 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town'. 'Do you believe in Santa Claus?' shouted Springsteen. At an E-Street Band show it's easy to believe in anything. A glorious night and May can't come quick enough.

Kirsty MacColl - 1959 - 2000

2007-12-18T06:20:00.001-08:00

I'm remembering Kirsty MacColl today. This day seven years ago she was sadly taken from us after a tragedy in Mexico. It has never been, or ever will be, a problem thinking of Kirsty this time of year, given her part in The Pogues' classic 'Fairytale of New York'. But Kirsty was an established solo artist in her own right also, taking in the Spector-flavoured pop sound in early classics like 'Terry' and 'They Don't Know'. She experimented with dance, folk and just at the end of her life released the South American flavoured and critically well-received 'Tropical Brainstorm', which saw her embrace an entirely new direction. She left a great body of work that will ensure she will never be forgotten.

Billy Bragg wrote this gem, but even Billy would concede that Kirsty made this song her own - as she did with everything she put her voice to.

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

2007-12-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

The inaccurate one time depiction of Cerys Matthews as some kind of fiesty iconic female figure both amused and puzzled me. As much as I've never found Matthews to be worthy of such standing, I am curious as to why this seems to be the only way women are taken seriously in music.

Women in music have every right be as confrontational as their male counterparts, and in many cases they can be quite superior. But I think it is patronising to assume that woman have to be aggressive in order to have relevance. I love the energy, passion and venom of people like Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde and Sinead O'Connor - all standing in positive contrast to the clothes horses of WAG and weekend trashy nightclub culture. Yet I would equally place people like Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant and Sandy Denny on that same pedastal. Their music may not be as immediately subversive at the surface, but if we're not going to crack the surface of anything then it's probably better if we pissed off and watched X Factor.

Remember the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 90s? Bands like L7, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile were 'in yer face' and 'making a stand' and doing generally everything to get overly verbose journalists and writers into a frenzy. Riot Grrrl produced some great music but was never the be all and end all - nothing ever is. The Breeders, Luscious Jackson, Kristin Hersh and countless others made some fantastic records in this period also, and not under the banner of being Women in Rock but simply artists. The female identity is imperative, but does it always have to be against the grain of male dominance? It can be whatever it wishes to be, but always keep both eyes open.

She's All Over The Front Page

2007-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

So Cerys Matthews has fallen from grace, has she? Well that's what we've been informed after her fawning over some already attached former soap-actor in this year's 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here'. Critics and pop-pundits believe that this once fiesty independently thinking former front-woman of Welsh group Catatonia would never have behaved in such a way ten years ago. Back then she fronted one of the biggest bands of the country and shunned such shallow notions of celebrity, or so they say? This couldn't be the same Cerys that I recall.

The reality is that Cerys Matthews was always part of the shallow set she, for some absurd reason, is often depicted as being credibly removed from. Catatonia jumped on the back of the British fascination for Welsh bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals ten years ago. Cerys broadened her accent when singing. She praised the Lord that she was Welsh. She got drunk. Fell out of the Met Bar. Dueted with Tom Jones. Got drunk. Fell out of the Met. She did nothing but create a brand that kept her in the papers for 12 months (are you listening Beth?) and was every bit the media whore back then too, so lets cut the crap!

Catatonia were an average band; one of the many we've had to put with for the past ten years, who run out of steam after a year in the spotlight. I've never been interested in Cerys, especially after she murdered The Handsome Family's 'Weightless Again', and I'm even less interested now.

9am online Freeze-Out?

2007-11-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

Quick reminder: if you're still drying your eyes after failing to get hold of a ticket for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's Belfast show in December, fear not! Tickets for a May 22 2008 outdoor show at Dublin's RDS go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am (Wednesday November 28). If past experiences are anything to go by, tickets will last barely a minute. So, let the dirty dog fight begin. Good luck. We'll all need it!

Camille O'Sullivan - a Devil in Disguise

2007-11-27T03:15:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge fan a Camille O'Sullivan. Sadly, for some reason, she always seems to be performing near me when I'm DJing somewhere. This Friday night she will be at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn.

The Scotsman called her 'a cross between Sally Bowles, Patti Smith and PJ Harvey'. I'd go along with that! The Irish/French vocalist specialises in unique readings of the music of such iconic figures as Nina Simone, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Jacques Brel and Nick Cave. Her stage presence is cinematic and vampish, like a classic femme fatale from the silver screen mixed with the physical drama of the characters in each song. She becomes every song, every character, every line. If you're anywhere near Lisburn on Friday, do not miss her!

Here's something to expect - Camille's take on Nina Simone's 'Devil's Workshop'.

Frances Black for Strabane. November 30.

2007-11-27T02:41:00.000-08:00

Irish singer Frances Black makes her first visit to the Alley Theatre in Strabane this Friday night. The show is part of the celebration of ten years since the set-up of the Gaelscoil Ui Dhocartaigh, an Irish-speaking school in the Ballycolman area of Strabane.

Frances hails from a family steeped in music. Her parents, brothers and, of course, older sister Mary have all treaded the concert halls of the country. Her seven solo albums have all been big sellers in Ireland. She possesses one of the most distinctive voices in Irish folk, never faltering from authenticity and passion. It has been a great coup for the local Gaelscoil and the people of Strabane as a whole. I can't wait!

Here is some rare footage of Irish traditional supergroup Arcady featuring Frances performing Down By The Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)at Scraggs Alley in Carlow, Ireland in 1991.

Favourite track of the week. Rilo Kiley - 'Breakin Up'

2007-11-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

I can't get enough of of this track. Rilo Kiley's 'Breakin' Up'. The cold weather and dark nights, are they getting to you? This track will put all that out of your mind! Is it just me, or does it remind anyone else of 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses? Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially this time of the year!

http://rapidshare.com/files/71936996/Rilo_Kiley_-__04__Breakin__Up.mp3

Remembering Uaneen

2007-11-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

Today marks the 7th anniversary of the tragic death of Uaneen Fitzsimons. Not only was she a great host of the much missed RTE late night 'No Disco' programme but she was also a top DJ on late night 2FM. She showed great support for a few Strabane bands in her time, my own included, giving us all airplay and she always had an interest in what was going on here - being a nordie herself! She was always a friendly soul every time I ran into her at gigs. And every gig and festival I go since is still lacking that little something - her. She'll always be remembered.

Pete O'Hanlon: Return of a Northern Man

2007-11-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

"I was ridin' with O' Hanlon in those wild and heady days - when he fell off the wagon onto his pagan ways. We rambled up and down the street to where we'd come to be. We sang our song and beat our drum in the State of Tennessee. I was ridin' with O'Hanlon..."

Those are lyrics by American singer-songwriter RB Morris from a track on his 1997 album 'Take That Ride'. 'Ridin' With O' Hanlon' recounted his experiences in Nashville and beyond as he collaborated with Strabane musician Peter O' Hanlon. The need to immortalise those 'heady days' into verse and song merely encourages the mind's eye to attempt to visualise those days in Tennessee. Yet, they are just one chapter of the many in the life of Strabane's very own Peter O'Hanlon.

Originally from the St. Colman's Drive area of Strabane, Peter cites the late great Rory Gallagher as a major influence on him as a musician. At the age of 13 he saw Gallagher perform in the Guildhall in Derry. It was that gig, Peter believes, that set him off on his own journey into the world of rock n' roll.

A year later, Peter found himself playing guitar for local dancehall act Double Vision. Reflecting on those days he says, "It was a great experience. Those were early days for me but not so much for the dancehall era. The showband era was dying and the dancehall nights grew less frequent as more and more lounge bars began to open. Yet I still loved those days playing with the likes of Double Vision, Frankie McBride and Pat McGeehan."

As the Showband era came to a close, Irish music was to be taken in a new direction and led by the musicians who 'cut their teeth' on the Showband circuit. Rory Gallagher was one such musician leading the charge. In 1978, Peter found himself on the road with the legendary guitarist as a support act on his Christmas tour. Around this period Peter was also forging a friendship with Thin Lizzy front man Phil Lynott. In 1980, Peter along with Phil and Terry Woods, who would later become a member of The Pogues, recorded a single called "Tennessee Stud".

Peter has some great memories of Phil. One incident he looks back on with great humour was the night Phil and he went to the Baggott Inn in Dublin to watch Brush Shiels perform. "Brush was just starting into 'Whiskey In The Jar'," Peter recalls, "and Phil leaped up off the chair, sneaked his way onto the stage and crept up behind Brush. Brush had his eyes closed and when he heard the screams of the crowd he assumed they were aimed at him. It made him 'feel' the song even more. Then, just as he was about to sing, Phil ran to the mic and started singing himself. Brush opened his eyes to realise that the crowd were indeed going mad for a guy on the stage…but not necessarily him!"

As a lead guitarist, Peter has continually found himself in major demand. Along with working with the likes of Irish folk group De Dannan, Shana Morrison (daughter of Van), Dolores Keane and her brother Sean Keane and touring heavily in Canada and Nashville, he has both recorded and performed with 'Van the Man' himself. Peter played on Morrison's 1997 album 'The Healing Game', which many regard as Morrison's finest album of that decade. He also performed with Morrison at the City Hall in Belfast in 1995 as part of the events celebrating President Clinton's visit to the City.

In 1999, Peter released a solo album called 'Trick of Time'. Yet having the opportunity to invest his time on solo projects has been difficult down through the years. "I've been writing my own songs since I was 13," he stresses, "but playing guitar has continually side-tracked me into working for other people. There just hasn't been the time to focus on my own stuff. Perhaps I say 'yes' too much," he jokes.

Yet it seems that Peter has finally found a balance between working with other people and working on his own material. "I've been taking my own stuff out live and seeing how it works with a live audience," he enthuses. "It always helps to see the reaction from the crowd." He has also been collaborating and playing live with ex-Energy Orchard frontman Bap Kennedy.

Peter is very optimistic about the music scene in Strabane at the moment. "One of the things that is really positive in at the minute", he states, "is that young people are writing and performing their own material and having a blast doing it. Even though I've been writing my own stuff since I was 13, I can recall in the early days getting strange looks if you even suggested that you were going to play something you wrote yourself. It's almost the opposite now."

One of our most well travelled musical sons returns to the local stage on Monday November 5 at the All Stars Bar, Strabane, for what promises to be an unforgettable night.

http://www.strabaneunplugged.co.uk/

Classic Album Revisited: Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball

2007-10-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

The early ’90’s could not have been a better time for Country music. It was a global industry, perhaps bigger than it ever was, and with acts like Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus, millions of records were shifting quicker than ever before. Brooks himself would fill stadiums all around the world. His songs were unavoidable. Urbanites everywhere had no shame in making pricks of themselves at Karaoke parties, bus trips and weddings, as they would grasp a belt-buckle, do that irritating nod at the start of each line and get incredibly excited because the song had the word ‘ass’ in it. Yep, Country music was everywhere, in all its 1950s conservative white right-wing glory. It was hell on earth, although that’s probably an insult to the devil - ‘At least he fucking jams’, as the Bill Hicks reminded us, right?

Adding insult to injury, the global industry that Country Music was becoming saw a greater focus on younger acts and less attention directed towards the established names such as Johnny Cash, George Jones and Emmylou Harris. Harris parted company with her record label Reprise after the release of a live album in 1992. After this she signed to Electra Records, home of an array of artists with a more specialised leaning such as Natalie Merchant, Jackson Browne and, in the past, influential figures such as Phil Ochs and Tim Buckley. Such a label could accommodate the ambitiousness of an artist like Harris in a way that her previous bosses couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Around this time Harris spoke out at the staid environment that was engulfing Nashville: “It seemed like everything had a sameness to it. There's always some good stuff out there, but overall, the more popular country music has become, the more constricting and narrow it's become.”

It was vital for Harris that her latest project at this time was to be everything that the mainstream Country fare populating the charts was not. ‘Wrecking Ball’, released in 1995 was just that, and much more with it. Harris collaborated with influential producer Daniel Lanois for the project. This was a big step for a start, as Lanois’ experimental approach alone was on a different planet from the safe regimental production of Nashville.

Lanois was perhaps most noted for his work with U2. Along with Brian Eno, Lanois was instrumental in developing the Dublin band’s sound with the seminal ‘Unforgettable Fire’ album in 1984, ‘The Joshua Tree’ in 1987 and again with ‘Achtung Baby’ in 1991. He was also responsible for revitalising Bob Dylan. Dylan’s 1989 collaboration with Lanois, ‘Oh Mercy’, was Dylan’s best-received album of what was previously a very uneven decade.

For ‘Wrecking Ball’ Lanois recruited many of his regular studio colleagues, such as Larry Mullen Jnr, Malcolm Burn, Brian Blade and Daryl Johnston. Neil Young also appeared, adding vocals to a number of tracks, including the title track which he penned himself.

Lanois’ atmospheric guitar sound, which coloured ‘Oh Mercy’ so beautifully, makes its mark instantly on the opening track ‘Where Will I Be?’ It’s immediately evident when we hear Harris’ lucid vocals merge with the Lanois sound that this is going to be a perfect marriage of varying layers and textures, all appropriate and serving a purpose. So packed with sound and activity is the track that it’s almost two minutes before any trace of a bass guitar is introduced.

Renowned as a great song interpreter, Harris literally breathes new life into material written by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Jimi Hendrix and Steve Earle. On the title-track her emotive whisper backed by a minimal arrangement and a Neil Young guest vocal has a haunting quality that is even superior to the original; Young would surely conceded this too. Her reading of Dylan’s ‘Every Grain of Sand’ also possesses a passion that studio production perhaps diminished slightly on Dylan’s original.*

Of the original material that Harris and Lanois collaborated on, ‘Deeper Well’ has a dusty Southern mystical quality. Simplistic and tribal in rhythm, it’s a stand out track on an album mostly jammed with songs written by the cream of American songwriters – perhaps the ultimate compliment to Harris.

Lanois’ greatest success on ‘Wrecking Ball’ was to maintain the quality of Harris’ vocals amid the new environment in which he had placed it. It was a formula that worked and worked well. So impressed was Harris with ‘Wrecking Ball’ that she worked with Lanois yet again for the follow up, 1999’s ‘Red Dirt Girl’. The focus this time was to be on material penned by Harris, including a moving personal ode to her father on ‘Bang The Drum Slowly’. It was another well-received collaboration, and another vindication of Harris’ decision to play by her own rules.

Naturally the straight-laced Country set did not take to ‘Wrecking Ball’ very well. Harris had already foreseen the lack of airplay it would receive on the mainstream Country stations now populated by a younger blander breed of performer. But it wasn’t about airplay. It was about following an artistic instinct without the constraints laid down but the suits and Stetsons. Harris continues to play by her own rules with a dignity and self-determination that is to be admired and taken note of. As Nashville becomes an increasingly corporate enterprise, it’s good to know that there are still a few real outlaws out there.

*for the best version of Dylan's 'Every Grain of Sand', check the Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 3. It's rough, ready, not always in tune, and basically a demo, and there's even what appears to be a dog barking in the background, but it possesses an emotion that is slightly lost in the eventual and still impressive studio version in my humble opinion.

Cosmic Dancers - The Glam Icons

2007-10-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

“Then comes pancake factor number one. Eyeliner rose hips and lips gloss are such fun”

So sang Lou Reed on ‘Make Up’ from his 1972 album ‘Transformer’. It was a record that heralded Reed’s cross-over from the Warhol Factory to an underbelly of glamour, transgender politics and experimentation. The record is laced with seedy, curious, impulsive characters who subscribe to a new found hedonism and desire to ‘take a walk on the wild side’.

The flower-power culture of the sixties may arguably have been painted black by Charles Manson and his ‘Family’ in the summer of 1969. That same summer saw the premier of Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s counter-culture opus ‘Easy Rider’. As half a million hippies descended on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethal, New York for ‘three days of peace and music’, Peter Fonda’s “Billy, we blew it” line in the film’s penultimate scene belied the optimism of the smoke-hazed Woodstock air.

The start of a new decade seemed to accentuate such growing cynicism. It’s perhaps inevitable that there would be a desire to bring some colour to the fore again. A year before Reed’s ‘Transformer’ record, Marc Bolan and T. Rex topped the British charts with ‘Hot Love’. The song created a template for what became known as Glam Rock: rock ‘n’ roll riffs with themes of gold, mythology, literature, classic hollywood and science-fiction, a hand-clapping drum beat and a sense of self-importance, with an emphasis on the ‘Pop Star’ as icon, idol, visitor from another planet. ‘Glitter’, ‘make-up’, ‘platform shoes’, ‘cross-dressing’ and ‘glamour’ all became key words and key factors. The modesty of the folk-hero was replaced by a candid bowing before the superior being that now was the ‘Pop Star’.

After a number of transformations and gender bending characters, David Bowie created Ziggy Stardust, an intergalactic rock-star with a penchant for excess who ‘took it all too far, but boy, could he play guitar’. With a dynamic partnership with guitarist Mick Ronson (with whom Bowie co-produced Reed’s ‘Transformer’ record) Bowie’s not-of-this earth appearance, helped greatly by having two different coloured eyes (the result of a school fight with a friend), allowed him the opportunity to create a persona to project the sci-fi fantasies of ‘Starman’, ‘Life on Mars’ and even the pre-apocalyptic ‘Five Years’.

This alter-ego even gave Bowie the scope to journey into varying places, even death in his signature track ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Bowie took this to further extremes at a live show in London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1973. When coming out for the encore, Bowie announced out of the blue:

“not only is this the last show of the tour. But it’s the last show that we’ll ever do!”.
True to his word the audience were witnessing the death of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie soon took himself to LA to re-make re-model, and in white blizzard of milk and cocaine ventured into what he liked to call ‘plastic soul’.

Out of the art school came Roxy Music, fronted by Bryan Ferry, who merged the glam template with his Hollywood leading man looks to create an glamourous hybrid. Brian Eno created the cosmic soundscapes that gave Roxy their initial signature sound. Lyrically post-modern, Roxy took the sexual revolution and subverted it with shadowy loners and global jetsetters stuck in-between the extended sax solos of Andrew Mackay and the sonic ambience of Eno’s synth.

NME Journalist Mick Bell reflected in 1979 on the colour injected by Roxy Music into a dreary suburban no-mans land:

“It was special, fine art English rock: the ’50’s, ’60’s and the deadened ’70’s all rolled up into one immediate wham. Suddenly Roxy Music proved that fashion was fun – we were all dressed up with somewhere to go. Until they arrived 1972 was an extremely dull time. Roxy were the arbiters of taste, the first break of a new wave, encapsulated for posterity.”

Glam Rock had infiltrated mainstream pop by 1972 and soon many of its art school traits were diluted into something that could be sold to the masses. Brummie rockers Slade stripped the music of its pretention and created a fine body of stomping schoolyard good time rock anthems. They also made the foray into film in 1974 with the critically well-received ‘Slade in Flame’, a story of the rise and fall of a fictional rock ‘n’ roll band, played by the band themselves.

‘Slade in Flame’ surprised and confused as it was quite dark and belied the good-time rock ‘n’ roll persona of the band. Far from a celebratory affair, it delved into the more unglamourous aspects of being in a rock band, and its conclusion is quite bleak. The critics applauded. Many fans scratched their heads.

The album that came with the movie is regarded by many critics as Slade’s best. Much more diverse than what they were known for, ‘Slade in Flame’ showed a band with a finer scope than many of the contemporaries they were lumbered in with. Highlights included the anthemic ‘How Does It Feel’ and ‘Far Far Away’.

The Sweet, Alvin Stardust, Gary Glitter and The Rubettes all benefited with chart-topping pastiches of Bowie, Bolan et al. Despite this, the fact that these, admittedly good toe-tappers, had such a grip on mainstream Britain was something to take note of because it appeared that the USA was not as accepting of the Glam movement.

Much more conservative (still to this day!) about sexual ambiguity in music, even the mildest hint of androgyny was never going to make a positive dent American market. Their own glam exponents fared poorly. The New York Dolls, despite the obvious impact they were to have with the emerging punk scene, were cast as industry outsiders marrying the rock ‘n’ roll excess and looseness of The Rolling Stones with the cross-dressing flamboyence of Bowie.

While Lou Reed had chart success with ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, the adult subject matter was edited on mainstream radio. Success was to elude Philidelphia songwriter Jobriath completely. Hopes were high that he would become the US Bowie. Electra Records signed him reportedly for $500,000, and a huge promotional campaign began. Despite his obvious talent and ability to create rousing mini-musical ballads such as ‘Be Still’ and ‘Heartbeat’, it was never going to be for Jobriath. Openly gay and with an alien androgyny to rival Bowie, it was clear that commercial success was never going to be a reality. He soon faded into obscurity, making a living performing at parties and diners right up to his death with an AIDS related illness in 1983.

In the sphere of Glam Icons Jobriath deserves to be more than a footnote. Over 30 years since his two solo records were released, his influence is now just beginning to be realised as those who have been influenced by his work tip their hats his way – namely iconic figures in their own right: Morrissey, Gary Numan, Elton John and The Pet Shop Boys.

By 1975 the Glam Icon was in decline. Its main players had all moved on to other fields and genres. There was also a changing of the guard which demanded that things came back down to earth a little bit. Despite the obvious influence of Bowie, Bolan and The New York Dolls on the emerging Punk of The Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees, the DIY approach leaned more towards a chaotic dissaffection rather than glamour. The ghosts of the Glam Icons could be heard yes, but it was important that they were not to be seen.

This was not the case in the late ’70’s as experimental post-punk band Japan displayed many elements from the Glam period, none more so than singer David Sylvian, whose vocal style and penchant for make-up echoed David Bowie. The band were out of the step with the post-punk New Wave sound that was in vogue at the time, and were dismissed as Bowie copyists by the music press. Yet in truth, tracks like ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Quiet Life’ had a scope and ambition that saw them as honourable heirs to their heroes as opposed to a mere tribute act.

The same could not be said for the vapid New Romantic scene of Culture Club, Visage, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, which was to follow in the early ‘80’s with global chart success. Taking just the surface factors of the Glam Icons and even Japan, whose sound was lifted by Duran Duran for their hit single ‘Planet Earth’, the New Romantics were bereft of the soul and substance which made the Glam era such a seminal period in popular music.

Does it have a significance in today’s musical circles? Guitar music is so steeped in a desire to be ‘real’ that any sense of theatre or dramatics is almost frowned upon. Ironically, the country where Glam’s legacy is most visable now is the US: in Marilyn Manson’s cartoon devil and the mascara emo of My Chemical Romance – both of questionable substance and merit. Still, the music of Bolan, Bowie and Roxy Music lives on and new generations are constantly being introduced to those records. As long as we dance ourselves out of the womb, there will always be room for a bit of glamour in popular music and forever an anticipation of another alien coming to visit us soon.

Some selected personal favourites:

T-Rex – Cosmic Dancer, Hot Love, Metal Guru, Children of the Revolution

David Bowie – Life on Mars, Moonage Daydream, Quicksand, Five Years, Ziggy Stardust, Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide

Roxy Music – Re-make Re-model, Virginia Plain, In Every Dream Home A Heartache, Street Life

Slade – Cum on Feel The Noise, Far Far Away, Mama Weer All Crazy Now

New York Dolls – Personality Crisis, Jetboy, Trash

Jobriath – Be Still, Heartbeat, I’m A Man

Sweet - Blockbuster

(for Greg Rogers: the best Boss North of New Jersey!)

Turn On, Tune in, Download!

2007-10-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

So, did you all go online for your Radiohead album yesterday? Many within the music industry now believe that this ‘honour system’ approach of offering the public the opportunity to download an album for whatever price they feel like is the future. It could well be, but it’s worth stressing that such a thing has been going on prior to Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ album. Juliana Hatfield, for one, took a similar approach last year. But Radiohead are certainly the first global band to adopt the approach. Of course, it’s hardly a risk after millions of records already sold. Such a system would not serve a new up and coming act well.

So, enough of the exterior nonsense! Is the album actually any good? In my opinion – yes and it improves with each listen.

Lets just say something here and now. Radiohead already did ‘The Bends’. Radiohead already did ‘OK Computer’. These records are perfect. Why would they want to make them again? It just gets to the point when things become formulaic. A band or artist worth a damn should always be in the process of ‘becoming’, of ‘creating’, not recreating. Radiohead are not Def Leppard. I’ve always applauded the band’s desire to strive for something new, even if it meant falling on their arses. What better way to do it than publicly! I loved ‘Kid A’, hated ‘Amnesiac’ and liked ‘Hail To The Thief’. I’ve lived with ‘In Rainbows’ since yesterday and it just gets better.

Along with Aphex Twin, it’s obvious that Thom and the boys are fans of Boards of Canada and Broken Social Scene – ‘All You Need’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ reflects that respectively. Drummer Phil Selway is in fine form once again throughout, coming up with jaunty up-tempo rhythms and beats, particularly on ‘Reckoner’ and ‘Arpeggi’. ‘House of Cards’ is classic Radiohead, and could be up there as one of their finest tracks. Yorke’s soulful vocal delivery is given a chance to breathe in a manner that being just one part of a mass experiment has, in the past, limited. This too can be said for the track ‘Nude’ – just beautiful. A lot of these tracks have been played live over the past year or so. I, for one, cannot wait to hear them seer into the night air at the live venue sometime soon.

So forget about the talk of downloads etc. Do what you must to get the album, but do get it. It’s worth the complete lack of hassle!!

There are worse dilemmas

2007-10-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

(Jack L) (Damien Dempsey)

If you’re not sitting in your room dissecting the new Radiohead album that you downloaded for free, then there a couple of gigs around Derry and Donegal tomorrow, October 11, that may be of interest.

Dublin singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey returns to the Balor Theatre in Ballybofey, Donegal to perform an intimate set. Having already seen Damo previously in this venue I can assure you that you will not be let down, even if his latest album, ‘To Hell or Barbados’, is a bit of a damp squib, give or take a few tracks. There’s already enough juice in the Damo canon to keep the Donegal crowd stomping tomorrow.

Irish crooner Jack L returns to Derry tomorrow night and performs at the Playhouse, now in its temporary quarters – St Columb’s Hall, while refurbishments take place at the Artillery Street venue. Jack is quite the extravagant performer, with a style that leans strongly on Scott Walker, with echoes of Bowie, Nick Cave and (am I the only one who hears this?) Cathal Coughlan. Expect to hear various selections from Jack’s back catalogue, including original material from albums such as ‘Wax’, ‘Metropolis Blue’, latest album ‘Broken Stones’ and also he may venture into the Jacques Brel tribute territory once again too.

Between the two I stumped. I’m a nosey bastard, so I may just venture down to ‘muckerville’ to see how the Playhouse crew are getting on down below at St Columb’s.

Rufus is a Hit Man!

2007-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

I had the good fortune to be able to catch Rufus Wainwright at Belfast’s Waterfront last night. It’s the second time I’ve seen him perform at this venue and the third time in total that I’ve seen him – his acoustic set at last years Electric Picnic festival was one of the highlights of the weekend.

The extravagant gentleman and his fine array of backing musicians did not let us down. Together they projected a sound that, you’d like to think, the Waterfront Hall was exclusively designed to accommodate. His voice is a priceless instrument of which he has total control. A three-piece horn section alongside guitars, bass and drums backed him. Rufus himself shifted between piano and acoustic guitar throughout and also indulged in the occasional old-style crooner moment.

The set focused heavily on his recent ‘Release The Stars’ album, with ventures into the ‘Poses’ and ‘Want’ albums. There was also the occasional hat-tip to his Irish heritage. This was most vividly realised during a show-stopping version of ‘Macushla’ (Irish for ‘Heartthrob’), which he dedicated to one of his favourite singers, legendary Irish vocalist John McCormack. Rufus stepped away from the mic and let the fine acoustics of the room work their magic.

The most jaw-dropping highlight of the night was undoubtedly the Judy Garland sections. Last year Rufus re-created in its entirety Judy Garland’s 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. The self-proclaimed ‘Gay Messiah’ covering such an iconic figure within a faction of the gay community may sound a bit too predictable. But to see it before your very eyes is to see something that will live long in the memory. His rendition of ‘A Foggy Day’ was flawless. I don’t think the audience breathed throughout the song.

Rufus took it to the other extreme for the encore. Dressed in a white robe, he seated himself, put his lippy on (as you do). The lights dimmed in the room. When they came on again Judy Garland greeted us circa 1961, suited in a dinner jacket, top hat, tights and heels! It was Rufus at his most camp and self-indulgent. I honestly didn’t think his encore in Belfast two years ago would be topped – ‘Oh What a World’ in red stilettos and angel wings – but I was wrong. Here he was, with legs many women would kill for, strutting around to ‘Get Happy’, with his band suited and booted as backing dancers. It truly was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen at a concert, and I’ve seen Bob Dylan dance!!

Where next for Rufus? Do we dare even try to imagine? It’ll be fun finding out, that’s for sure!

Where were you?

2007-10-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

A constant gripe about Strabane that I’ve noticed down through the years is that nothing ever happens here. Often I’ve, quite rightly, had to agree with this notion. For too long we were by-passed for nearby sprawling metropolis that is Derry City. It wasn’t always like this.

There was a time when Strabane was a commercial epicentre where business and entertainment walked hand in hand and sat right on the border with the Republic of Ireland. There was the Commodore Cinema and The Palladrome Ballroom where all the major entertainers in the country came to perform. In a reverse of the trend that exists today people CAME to Strabane. It was the place to be in the fifties and early sixties. My old man and young muckers just like him used to hitchhike from Derry to Strabane on a Saturday night, suited and old-spiced up with Rock Hudson hair-do’s (remember, this was the late 50s!!) ready to seduce the local girls with an apparent charm that the local lads were seemingly bereft of.

It was a golden time for the town. Of course things were to change dramatically as the sixties drew to a close when all that was golden was literally blown to pieces. Entertainment since then has been scant. But perhaps there could be a change in the air if we could but notice it. Part of me thinks that we are so conditioned into thinking that there is nothing to do or see in Strabane that we fail to see the reality of things, which is that Strabane can be quite thriving with activity.

For instance, last Friday was a night that, in my opinion, had a little something for everyone out there. While the usual bemoaners were probably sitting in their local, supping on the same pint, in the same chair and again cursing the lack of events in Strabane, the town was rife with activity.

Admittedly he’s not my thing at all but Dominic Kirwan was keeping the blue-rinsed Highland Radio listeners entertained in the town’s new Alley Theatre. There were discos galore. The Farmers can be quite good on a Friday and Saturday night – 2 DJs both called Mickey as it happens. OK, wee plug there lol! Dicey Rileys had English singer-songwriter Frank Turner on Friday night and a great gig it was for anyone with more alternative leanings. The gig was poorly attended and those who missed it missed out big in my opinion. I’ll be reminding them of that gig when they next bring up the lack of things going on in Strabane. There’s plenty going on. Stop whinging, get out there and cheer the fuck up! As a famous Strabane-man once sang: paradise is here......although he probably meant Donegal!!

www.myspace.com/frankturner

The Shins: A Label Caring is Creepy!!

2007-02-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

After ten years of being relatively underground would you Adam and Eve it that The Shins are now global? And rightly so! They may have waited almost three years to release their follow-up to 2003's wonderful Chutes Too Narrow record but latest release Wincing The Night Away has made the wait worthwhile. Infectuous, clever, well crafted pop music at its best!

After their music was used to great effect in Zach Braff's wonderfully off-beat Garden State movie, the gateway to the world seemed to be opened to the band. That they now owned the keys was merely confirmed when the simply gorgeous 'New Slang' featured in a Guinness ad! haha!

All at the Sub-Pop label must be well pleased and are now reaping the benefits of sticking with The Shins all this time. Wincing The Night Away has reached number two in the American Billboard chart - the highest chart position for any album released solely on the Sub-Pop label.

Like I touched on before, it's great to see a label investing time on their bands. Sadly it doesn't work that way on this side of the pond. It's difficult to expect morons who struggle to give you the time of day when you enthusiastically try to pass them your magnum opus of a demo to invest time on you when the world doesn't come knocking the minute your first release is out. The UK and Ireland is over-populated with Band road-kill, all cut down before they had time to develop and make a record like The Shins has just done. Frontman James Mercer is lucky he got out of England when he did!

Here's their latest single 'Phantom Limb', and also from 2003 the gorgeous 'New Slang'.

The Buck Stopped Here....(sorry, couldn't resist that one!)

2007-01-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

Last week I was in Belfast to see Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 play live at the Empire. Hitchcock's backing band consisted of Scott McCaughey on bass, Bill Rieflin on drums and Peter Buck on guitar. It was basically REM post-1997 excluding Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

It was a great show. Hitchcock was in hilarious form, musing over the flexibility and limitations of salad and enthusing about the conclusion to Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force - hence the title of one song he played - 'A Man's Got to Know His Limitations, Briggs'. He played a lot of new material, including his tribute to New York Doll Arthur 'Killer' Kane, simply titled 'NY Doll'. Here's a short piece featuring both Hitchcock and Buck talking about the song:

As a fan of REM for many years - I'll not say how long on account of there possibly being younger readers, lets just say Michael Stipe had hair(!) - it was an honour to meet Peter Buck. He was really approachable and friendly. Everything I'm not!! He seems to simply love being on the road with a band, be it REM, Robyn Hitchcock, Mark Eitzel, The Hindu Love Gods (remember them?) or The Minus 5's. He's as comfortable playing in a small bar setting as he is in that stadium arena setting. I guess it comes from experience, as REM played every toilet cubicle going before they had any degree of success. It created a discipline that has served them well.

Sadly today, I think, bands do not get the opportunity to develop in quite the same way. The spotlight is thrust upon them overnight and just as quickly taken away from them. REM came from a time when a band could be bubbling under for years making record after record, and what great records they were! The IRS label was a credit to the band. We need more labels like IRS today. There are a few, like Matador, but not enough, especially in Britain and Ireland.

Anyway, here's 2 classic REM tracks performed live at Ardgillan Castle, Ireland, June 19 2005. 'Find The River' from 1992's Automatic For The People and the classic 'World Leader Pretend' from 1989's Green - my copy of which now has the mighty Peter Buck's signature on it!!

That was the year that was!

2007-01-25T17:04:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I updated things here, so I thought it best to get kicking right into 2007 while January is still with us and freezing our peculiars off whilst here.

I'd love to list all the stuff I'm looking forward to this year but instead I'm just looking forward to being surprised. That is something I learned after 2006. My favourite moments last year were from bands I never even knew existed, who just sprung up out of nowhere and hit me in the face, my brain, my heart, my pelvis and my feet! And so I salute Beirut for a great record called Gulag Orkestar. Here's a live version of the track 'Postcards From Italy':

I salute Canadian electro-duo Junior Boys for the amazing So This Is Goodbye record, which featured 'In The Morning', a video for which is here:

I salute all concerned with the organising and attending of The Electric Picnic for yet another unforgettable weekend at the fag-end of the summer.

I salute Cat Power - a reason to obsess over music today, if just one reason is needed! I've posted stuff from her most recent record earlier in this blog, so here's something a bit older. From 1998's Moonpix record, this is 'Cross Bones Style':

It was great to see the return to form of David Kitt this year with the solid Not Fade Away record. Here's 'Don't Fuck With Me' from his set at the Electric Picnic. I apologise for the poor quality but it brings back good memories - I'm one of the dodgy hat wearing dancers in the dark midst there! Letterkenny next month...bring it on!

Joanna Newsom - You're mad. You're mad! You're mad! You're madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition. But I still love you, even if some people can't get their heads around you! This is just amazing stuff from the 2004 album Milk-eyed Mender. 'Peach, Plum, Pear':

Sure, there was more that hit home, but lets move on. So, here's to 2007 and all it will bring. I look forward to the surprises in store. See ya out in the field!

Yesterday's Men have enough fuel for today

2006-12-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

I was in Dublin on Sunday night to see Madness play at The Point Depot. I've been to loads of gigs at The Point and always make it my point to check the back of the hall to see if it's as bouncing there as it is at the front. Normally it isn't, on account of the fans occupying the front rows and the back being populated with those just out for the night. This was not the case for Madness. All 8,000 people were on their feet from the very moment the band started their set with a rousing 'One Step Beyond'. All the hits were there - 'Baggy Trousers', 'Our House', 'Embarrasment', 'House of Fun', 'My Girl', 'Night Boat to Cairo' and loads more. A few dodgy covers aside, the night was stomping and Suggs has not aged a day since his '80s heyday. Unfortunately they didn't play two of my favourites - 'Michael Caine' and 'One Better Day'. So to make up for it here's the video for the latter:

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

2006-12-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

On December 12 1986 The Smiths played their final live concert at Brixton Academy in London. Although no-one could've predicted the future, few would've believed that 9 months after this show the band would officially split up. It was the end of arguably the most influencial British band of the period. The Ins and Outs of the split have been done to death ever since. The band would eventually re-unite but only in a courtroom over a well documented financial dispute.

Books have been written, pockets lined and wicked whispers echoed down the corridors for the 20 years since it all ended. Despite this, the band's intrigue has endured and shows no sign of faltering. Morrissey and Johnny Marr have moved on. Whatever they have done or continue to do as artists, the short 5 years they spent as Smiths has followed them, setting a standard they have understandably struggled with for 20 years.

The further away December 12 1986 gets, the more The Smiths legend grows. Like all legends, there is a possibilty of over-indulging, letting the myth dominate the reality. Perhaps in reality the achievements of The Smiths are as over-observed as the achievements of post-Smiths Morrissey and Marr are under-observed.

It's easy and lazy to say they never again touched the standard they set as Smiths. It could well be the case but I think such an opinion colours how one engages with what they presently do. This is not just the case for Morrissey and Marr but for anyone who was once part of something special but who has since moved on. Regardless of where they are now, it's worth remembering The Smiths today for how they were. Here's a wicked medley from that final show 20 years ago today:

Kill 'Auntie'

2006-12-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

The BBC are currently getting very excited about their Greatest Living British Icon poll. After a top ten that included the likes of Vivienne Westwood, David Bowie, Alan Bennett, Kate Moss and Stephen Fry, the voting public has now voted their top three. They now have to vote between David Attenborough, Paul McCartney and Morrissey as to who is number one British living icon.

Personally as a Morrissey fan since my early teens, and given the fact that I probably couldn’t put a sentence together without the influence of his music, I know where my loyalties lie. Yet therein lies the problem. Debates are now raging up and down the country as to who should get the number one spot. Ultimately what you’ll find is someone (myself included) airing opinions as to why ‘so and so’ should be number one. Yet we do this with a minimal or non-existent knowledge of the other two candidates. What’s even more absurd is that all three cannot be compared. It’s basically about comparing the impact of popular music to that of television. It cannot be that simple.

Morrissey, for instance, has never and will never compete with the broadcasting and wildlife expertise of David Attenborough, whose programming for over 40 years has been an inspiration. Yet Attenborough has never and could never write ‘The Queen Is Dead’, ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, ‘How Soon Is Now’, ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’ or ‘November Spawned A Monster’ or devise a lyrical style of universal impact which combines cinema, literature and wet Friday nights outside a chip shop in Stretford.

Morrissey’s early appearances on Top of The Pops in 1983/84 were a revelation for many young viewers – a life changing moment. So perhaps it can be argued that Morrissey has used the medium of television to inspire. Many of his biggest fans who are now in the public eye such as writer Mark Simpson and Noel Gallagher will cite those early TV appearances as a revelation. But only a fool would argue that Morrissey has used the medium successfully to the same degree as Attenborough. Attenborough still broadcasts stunning documentaries. Morrissey pulls out of Jonathon Ross’s show at the last minute. Attenborough gets close to the blue whale. Morrissey sinks behind the cushion during another awkward interview – hard to believe at times that this was the same young man who was so inspiringly articulate on TV in the 1980s.

But never mind the bollocks. TV is not what Morrissey is about. Yet it is what Attenborough is about. So can they be compared? No they can’t. So why does this poll even exist? I haven’t a clue. It’s like saying which is better – gum or Fridays. It makes as little sense as that. Morrissey’s impact as a lyricist and as a striking multi-faceted persona in an industry that thrives on vacuity cannot be measured against 40 years of innovative documenting of wildlife. Both deserve addressing. Both deserve celebrating. But both exist in separate columns making them impossible to compare.

Ultimately it doesn’t really matter anyway because Paul McCartney will probably win. Why does the prospect bore me?

Since it’s a stupid concept to start with I think we should have some fun with it. Vote for Morrissey. Not because I’m a fan and would like to see it. In fact I think the prospect of topping the poll would horrify Morrissey. Vote for him because it will shock the Sunday roast out of middle England. Attenborough and McCartney are establishment figures. Morrissey is still despised in establishment circles for being an anti-Thatcherite anti-Royal sexually ambiguous Northerner. He won’t whistle to the preferred tune. So the prospect of him topping this silly poll would be a nice little ‘up yours’ to the incestuous horse-faced bed wetting etonians that still block up the corridors and the phone-lines of the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/livingicons/vote/

Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel

2006-11-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

I spent last night watching Grand Theft Parsons again as it was on late on RTE. If you’re not familiar with the film, it is based on the true events that followed the death of country-rock icon Gram Parsons in 1973.

Prior to his death Parsons made a pact with his road manager and best friend Phil Kaufman (played by Strabane Lidl shopper Johnny Knoxville). They both agreed that if one of them was to die, the other was to take the body to Joshua Tree and cremate it and then spread the ashes over Cap Rock. After Parson’s death at the age of 26, that’s just what Kaufman did. He managed to burn most of Parson’s remains. What was left when police got there was then buried in New Orleans in keeping with the initial wishes of Parson’s step-father.

Parsons remains a mysterious figure in rock mythology. Yet away from the exteriors addressed in Grand Theft Parsons, he was also a great musical talent cut down in his prime by the self-inflicted excessive living that has claimed so many. The film does not focus on the talent of the man; a BBC documentary called Fallen Angel does that brilliantly, and it's worth keeping an eye out for as it tends to be repeated now and then on BBC4.

In the meantime, here’s Gram with The Flying Burrito Brothers with a track about the pleasures and perils of life in the west coast – ‘Sin City’.

Sites to see, places to go

2006-11-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

A few quality Strabane bands and webpages that are worth checking out:

Runningforcover - http://www.myspace.com/runningforcover

God Talking Soul - http://www.myspace.com/godtalkingsoulband

King Coma - http://www.myspace.com/kingcoma

The Avari - http://www.myspace.com/theavarimusic

Kharma 45 - http://www.myspace.com/kharma45

Then of course there is the Strabane venue where it's all been happening musically for the last ten years...Dicey Rileys and its upstairs venue The Waiting Room ...long may you run!

http://www.myspace.com/thewaitingroomvenue Look out for Musky D and Stic Vibes and their Alternative Disco on December 2 kicking off the mad festivities for the rest of the month.

Something that I am personally involved in is Strabane Unplugged. We've been running for two years now, taking place on the first Monday of the month at the All Stars Bar on Main Street. We basically do what it says on the tin! Each night about an average of 6 or so acts play a short acoustic set and a great night is had by all. It's £2 admission and all money goes to a charity highlighted each night.

On Monday December 4 we celebrate our 2nd anniversary and are planning an 'open mic' session. If anybody feels the need they can grace the stage and bellow out a diamond or a turd, it makes no difference - it's a night of fun.

http://www.myspace.com/strabaneunplugged

Another blog really worth taking a look at is Daithi Ramsay's. You'll find Daithi pretty much where anything of note is happening in and around Letterkenny and beyond, except when he goes to Finn Park (only joking D! haha). With Donegal buzzing like never before, Daithi is there to document it all at http://andparts.blogspot.com

A Jack of all Trades, Daithi also DJ's on a Friday and Saturday night at Fubar downstairs in the Orchard in Letterkenny. It's the coolest room in Donegal at the weekend, with the best in funk, rock, soul, ska, hip-hop, old skool, new skool and loads more. If soul and spirit sapping weekend clubbing is not for you, find redemption at Fubar!

Tom Waits : Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

2006-11-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

I’ve noticed that a number of music magazines have recently compiled their top albums of the year. This is understandable given the time of the year. Normally the only new releases we get around this time are the tedious ‘best of’ collections devised to exploit the Christmas market and the loathsome ‘one album a year’ brigade who have given Robbie Williams a career.

But there has been one beacon of light in the past week. In fact, it’s more of a primal growl from the wilderness as we reach the twilight hours of 2006. That’s right – Tom Waits has returned with his new record Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. It’s a three-hour collection of rare and never-before-heard material, thirty tracks of which are new recordings.

Orphans finds Waits display all his colours from folk balladeer to offbeat storyteller to nightcap crooner to the Ringmaster of the darkest circus you’ve ever attended. I think some of those magazines were a bit premature with their compilations. I’ve been living with these albums for a week and they certainly deserve to feature in many a top ten list. Perhaps it’s being saved for December 2007.

Here’s a great track from the Brawlers cd called ‘Lie To Me’.

Waits remains one very entertaining guest also. Here are just two of his recent television appearances on US TV; one with an obviously star-struck Jon Stewart and the other with Dave Letterman where he talks of a new definition of the term 'Dead Ringer', and a very unsettling definition it is too. You'll laugh and shudder at the same time.

And I couldn't really not put this one up. From the Jim Jarmusch 2003 movie Coffee and Cigarettes - Tom and Iggy disuss coffee, cigarettes, drummers, what to call each other, doctors and the jukebox. A tense 10 minutes!!

Endless Art 2006

2006-11-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

You may remember the A-House track ‘Endless Art’ from their 1991 album I Am The Greatest. It was one of the many ‘talkie’ tracks that the band did and opened with frontman Dave Couse saying, “All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde.” He then proceeded to list a series of names that contradicted such a theory - Jackson Pollock, Hemmingway, Orwell, Hendrix etc. The one thing that linked them all was that they were “all dead yet still alive in endless time, endless art.”

After realising that the list consisted of men only, they duly recorded a version consisting of a list of women - Anne Frank, Mary Shelley, Sylvia Plath etc.

Now almost 15 years since the first version, Dave Couse has recorded a new version taking into account a list of legends (both male and female) that have departed from us since the first version was recorded. It takes in the likes of Brando, Strummer, Cobain, Buckley, Tupac, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Kirsty MacColl and loads more.

Here’s a live take of the new version. It just cuts before the end. If you want to hear the new studio version it is on Dave Couse's myspace page www.myspace.com/davecouse. I really love what they've done with it - totally different from the original recording.

So who will be added to a forth version in 15 years time? Well there’s one that I know of already – Robert Altman 1925 to 2006 RIP! Hopefully it’ll not be you or me…..yet!

John Martyn for Sandinos, Derry November 23

2006-11-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

I’m getting very excited about John Martyn’s visit to Derry on Thursday 23 November. Despite being a fan of the guy for while now, I have still never had the opportunity of seeing him live. But he’s been to Belfast, Derry, Culdaff and Letterkenny on a few occasions I hear you say. Yes this I know, but for some reason the shows have always fallen at a bad time for me when circumstances, cash or both prohibited me from being there. This time I have no excuse, and I’ll be in the downstairs bar hours in advance!

The guy has been through the mill over the past few years but it hasn’t affected his consistency. Even becoming an amputee after crashing into a cow didn’t stop him recording. He eventually began to perform live a few months after the operation to remove the lower part of his leg. He has remained busy ever since. It’s going to be a big night and I expect Sandinos to be crammed.

Here’s a track from the late ’70s by the man himself. I was going to put up something shorter and better known, say the gorgeous ‘May You Never’. But just say for instance you may be reading this and it’s after midnight, you’ve had a few glasses of wine or a few…oh I don’t know (!), well this is the track for you. It’s called ‘Small Hours’.

I remember one summer night; we were coming back from a gig in Donegal Town. It was one of those summer nights where the sky doesn’t really get dark. We were driving through the valley of Barnesmore Gap and decided to put this track on. It was as if it was written for that place and that time. Perfect!

Now don’t say I’ve never done my bit for Donegal tourism!

A Sort of Homecoming - The Divine Comedy live in Derry

2006-11-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

It has been ten years since I last saw The Divine Comedy perform in Derry. It was on a cold winter night in early 1996 upstairs in a packed Gweedore Bar supporting the now defunct English indie band Gene. Despite the packed-in-like-sardines induced heat, Neil Hannon still sported a trademark tailored suit and exuded the persona of a star on the rise. With his breakthrough Casanova album set to be released a few months later, no-one can dispute in hindsight that such self-belief was totally warranted.

Ten years, a succession of highly acclaimed albums, hit singles and band line-up changes later and Hannon has returned to the City of his birth for a show in a venue that was only just at the planning stage when he treaded the boards of the Gweedore all those years earlier.

The support act tonight was yet another Irish rising star. Duke Special, also known as Belfast-born Peter Wilson, is a dreadlocked piano-driven pop aficionado in the vain of Rufus Wainwright with elements of Randy Newman thrown in for good measure.

His set featured tracks from his acclaimed latest album Songs from the Deep Forest, such as ‘Brixton Leaves’, ‘Portrait’ and the instantly infectious and dreamlike ‘Freewheel’. Backed by percussionist Chip Bailey, who introduced some bizarre Tom Waits-like implements to assist in keeping rhythm, Duke Special’s set was tailor-made for a venue such as The Forum. A stark rendition of Ralph McTell’s ‘It’s a Long Way from Clare to Here’ echoed around the room capturing the audience’s full attention with such a sweet sound. Duke Special returns to the City for his own headline gig in March next year. He made a few new friends tonight and is certain to pack wherever he plays.

With a large red ‘V’ sign leering behind and above the drum kit, it seemed evident that we would hear a number of tracks from The Divine Comedy’s most recent album Victory for the Comic Muse. Surprisingly the new tracks did not dominate as some had expected.

The set opened with the new lively and upbeat ‘Mother Dear’. Without a seconds pause it was followed by a revisit to 1996’s Casanova with ‘Becoming More like Alfie.’ The set scanned the entire back catalogue, taking in tracks from Promenade, Liberation and the post-Casanova output.

The choppy pop rhythms of tracks such as ‘Diva Lady’ and ‘Generation Sex’ stood in sharp contrast with the seated environment of the Forum. Those brave few who could not ignore the impulse to stand up and shimmy were duly ‘torched and seated’ by the staff. Their endeavours did not go unnoticed by Mr Hannon who said, “it’s much more fun when standing up. Not I would condone a breaking of the rules or anything.”

Before going into ‘Something for the Weekend’ he announced the track as, “controversial in that it may make you wish to stand up and dance again.” As one of the anthems of the nineties, there was nothing the staff could do. The opening chimes followed by Hannon’s declaration of ‘YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO’, saw every bum off the seat with hands in the air partying like it was 1996. Staying on the topic of Prince, the crowd were kept on their feet with a surprise cover of the Purple One’s classic ‘Raspberry Beret’, which saw Hannon having some fun with a pretty accurate Prince impersonation.

“It’s great to be back in the City of my birth,” announced Hannon to rapturous applause. “I thought you were from Enniskillen”, a female voice from the crowd shouted back. “Well, you are mistaken Madame,” replied Hannon with a witty old fashioned virtue that has held him in good stead down through the years in an industry where such personality is an endangered species.

Old favourite ‘Songs of Love’, a track embedded in the hearts of all who watch classic sitcom Father Ted, had the hands swaying again. Regular show closer ‘Tonight We Fly’ got everyone back on their feet with its stomping march ‘over the mountains, the beach and the sea.’

The crowd remained on their feet demanding an encore and there was no better song to end the night with than ‘National Express’ with its music hall leanings and its hilarious take on fashion faux-pas – “Mini-skirts were in style when she danced down the aisle back in '63. But it's hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country.”

Everybody sang. Everybody danced. The floor staff earned their crust. That night in the Gweedore was a long time ago by this stage. After tonight in the Forum, it’s pleasing to see that one of Ireland’s finest songsmiths still has so much to offer ten years on.

Here's a little taste of the kind of thing we saw:

Cat Power - Two Fists of Solid Rock

2006-11-02T11:06:00.000-08:00

I was first drawn to Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) late one night in the winter of 1999. Irish channel TV3's short-lived and much missed music programme The Green Room, hosted by Darragh Purcell, featured an interview with a very emotional young American lady called Chan, as she sipped on Jack Daniels and got tearful about life, poetry and the Velvet Underground.

She was discussing her new record at the time called The Covers Record. It featured stark reinventions of tracks by the aforementioned Velvet Underground and also the likes of The Rolling Stones, Nina Simone and Bob Dylan. I was drawn instantly to her voice - a haunting fragile southern whisper.

She vanished off my radar for a number of years after that. Then, one day in 2003 I just happened to be in a music store the very day her new record You Are Free was released. Unlike the beautiful Covers Record this was an album of mostly original material. I was fascinated to find out more about this peculiar young woman I had seen on TV four years earlier.

You Are Free didn't invite me into the world of Chan Marshall as such, but rather kidnapped me by gunpoint and blind folded me. It was a world, part of which I was glad not be an inhabitant of, part of which I felt I was born into and never really left. I was at home but treadng new soil all at once. I thought such feelings when listening to a record were past me. You Are Free was the kick up the ass I needed to remind me that those days are not behind me and never will be.

On the track Names Chan reflects on a number of childhood friends whose destinies range from the tragic to the unknown. Good Woman is, for me, one of the songs of the decade - a sad tale of a couple going their separate ways, as being together is destructive despite their love. It's lyrically simple but all the more biting and honest because of it - I want to be a good woman and I want for you to be a good man. This is why Im leaving and this is why I cant see you no more.

I Dont Blame You is a sympathetic tale of a reluctant hero, a victim of rock mythology. It is quite possibly an ode of Kurt Cobain but there is a view that Chan could well have been singing about herself - Just because they knew your name doesn't mean they know from where you came. What a sad trick you thought that you had to play.

Notoriously unpredictable as a live performer, Chan has for years been prone to stage fright. This was all the more tragic given her unique ability as a songwriter and a singer. Yet in early 2006 Chan released her latest record The Greatest. It is a major musical departure from anything she has done previously. Outside of the stark and hollow Hate, the album is a southern soulful rebirth. Former Al Green Band guitarist and Memphis soul innovator Tennie Hodges is at the backbone of the record, taking charge and leading the band and backing singers, re-igniting the soul of Memphis and reinventing Chan all at once.

The impact of this new lease of life can be seen currently as Chan finally steps up to the mic in a manner that has painfully eluded her previously. At last she seems to be finding her comfort zone on the stage. It's only right that she should. She is a woman with a gift that should be fully realised. The young woman I saw on TV in 1999 is still fighting. But for now she's winning. No wind nor waterfall can stall her. I hope it remains so.

May her voice go with you.