Fuck it, we’ve been away a tad to long. Lots of things have happened. We’ve realised every tom dick and harry has a blog and more importantly has an opinion on music so what’s the point? We’ve all got bored and moved onto other things. We’ve all had life move us on and set us back three steps in the same instance. But then something comes along and you remember why you wanted to do this in the first place.
That thing is a new offering from a band I’ve admired for some time. They’ve quietly announced an EP from nowhere. They have four tracks on it. Two of which will do what every Spoon record does, eat away at you until you’re hooked. You’ll end up listening to nothing else for weeks on end. The EP is called ‘Got Nuffin’ and it will be the title track that first brings you in. It start’s off with a Nine Inch Nails type drum beat, then a Nine Inch Nails type guitar line and from there on in it’s all Spoon. Brett sing’s different variation’s of the line ‘And I’ve got nothing to lose but darkness and shadows’ which seems to now have been stuck in my head for days. But that is what Spoon do best. They write simple tunes that are undeniably catchy.
The other stand out track on the EP is titled ‘Stroke their Brain’s’. It nearly sounds like older Spoon, it could quite easily have fitted in on ‘Kill the Moonlight’ or even ‘Gimme Fiction’. It is easy to write off as first as just another filler track for a small EP but once the drum beat kicks in you’ll realise it’s much more. The other two tracks on the EP on the other hand are filler tracks. Well more one filler track and then a remix of a filler track.
Anyway that’s your lot. Go check it out and give you dollars and cents to Mr Daniels.
That’s right, after missing out Belfast on the last few visits to Ireland, Jamie Lidell will be stopping off at the Stiff Kitten on the 11th March in support of his new album Jim. Tickets go on sale on Monday and are sure to sell fast, so make sure to get your hands on some. For further details and other great gigs see the Stiff Kitten’swebsite.
As far as I am aware it’s not going to be a full band show as Jamie is taking a break from that after his support slot with Elton John ends later this month. No matter what guise he turns up in, expect to be blown away. To give you a sample off his last album Jim here is my favourite track.
*UPDATE* – I’m afraid that the gig has now been canceled but another date is to be announced soon.
We’ve lots to tell you since we last spoke, so rather than bore you with a load of posts we’ll neatly organise them into one and give you the readers digest version.
First up on the cards is the exciting news that one of the 1990’s best bands, Blur are set to reform to play London’s Hyde Park in July plus more dates which are still to be announced. Speaking to the NME about all things Blur, Damon Albarn said:
It just felt it was right again
Nice and to the point. No matter what you think of the members of Blur whether it be Coxon and his solo career or Alex James and his rather annoying TV persona, you have to agree that the possibility of new Blur material is pretty exciting.
Next up on the agenda is the news that Franz Ferdinand are releasing a new album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand which is due for a January 26th release. But that’s not the good news, the band will be kicking off a small intimate Irish and UK tour in Dolans in Limerick on the 28th February. The band will also be hitting Dublin on the 1st of March as well as the recently refurbished Ulster Hall in Belfast a night later.
To whet your appetite for all things Franz here is their latest song Ulysses:
It’s hard to believe that three years have passed since the death of Chris Whitley, one of the unsung legends of our generation. Chris first came to mainstream attention in 1991 when he released his debut album ‘Living with the Law‘ an album that received some critical acclaim but did not give him the success that his record label were looking for. After another few albums he was released from his contract and seemed to find his true sound. Maybe it was the freedom he was given working with independent record labels such as Messenger Records. This freedom allowed him to create some of his best work such as the 2003 album ‘Hotel Vast Horizon‘ and ‘War Crime Blues‘ released in 2004. These works helped strengthen Chris’ already devout fan base.
I first started listening to Chris after my brother played a snippet of ‘Made From Dirt‘, the opening track off ‘War Crime Blues‘ over the phone. It’s probably one of the very few times in my life when I’ve heard a piece of music and had such an instant reaction to it. After that followed many nights trying to download and buy whatever CD’s I could. The more I heard the more I got hooked on his music. I remember trying to book a trip to see a Festival he was scheduled to play in France in August of 2005. Just this small boutique festival that was very unassuming and consisted of 10,000 volunteers running the whole thing. We got word that Chris was not going to be able to play the festival just a day or so before we were due to book tickets etc.
This spurred me on to try and bring Chris to Ireland, so I spent weeks sending CD’s and bio’s to all the big radio stations in the country hoping to get him played. I also contacted all of the music venues and festivals that would suit his style of music. Sadly that fell through as Chris had to cancel all performances due to health issues. On the 20th November 2005, Chris passed away.
In order to pay my respects to the man three years on I have compiled a five track ep of sorts that highlight some of my favourite songs from his discography.
If you like the music above please purchase the new live album that has just been released called Chris Whitley – On Air. I’ve just order two copies of it, one for me and the other as a christmas present for my brother. I am lucky he never reads this page.
It is getting to that time of year were everyone and anyone lists their top 10 albums and writes some drivel about how and why these albums deserved to be in their top 10. You’ll be pleased to know that’s not what this post is about. We’re saving that for next month. Instead I wanted to bring the blog out of hibernation to talk about one of my favourite finds of 2008. As always I am about two years behind other people but it really was worth the wait.
TV on the Radio and their new album ‘Dear Science‘ really has been one of my best finds of 2008. From the get go it mixes all my favourite things. You can hear tinges of Beck, LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead and Republic of Loose (an Irish band well worth checking out) which is always going to make for a good sound. I amazed that I didn’t get into the band sooner but I’d say that had more to do with the popularity of their last album ‘Return To Cookie Mountain‘, which I still do not own.
Anyway, here are two great tracks off the album that are sure to get you hooked on the band.
I suppose while I am here I should remind you all that Radiohead have decided to let us all have a stab at remixing another track off In Rainbows. Their latest single Reckoner has been released as six stems allowing you to break the track up in whatever form you like. I’d prefer to leave it as is, seeing as it is probably one of my favourite pieces of music ever written. Here’s the official line on the remix project:
To coincide with asking radio stations to think about playing Reckoner we are breaking up the tune into pieces for you to remix.
After the insane response we got from the Nude remix stems and the site that was dedicated to your remixes…
Unique visitors: 6,193,776, Page Views: 29,090,134, Hits: 58,340,512, Bandwidth: 10.666 Terabytes, Number of mixes: 2,252, Number of votes: 461,090, Number of track listens: 1,745,304
…we thought it only fair to do the same with a tune that at least is in 4/4. You can get the stems (the different instruments/elements) from here.
Sample, cut, take the sounds, whatever. Play it in a club. Or your room. Then if you want you can upload your finished mixes to www.radioheadremix.com and be judged by everyone else. YOu can create a widget allowing votes from your own site, Facebook or MySpace to be sent through too.
As if that wasn’t enough, there is also an official video for the song which can be found here.
I’ve been very busy of late what with a new job and lots of other side projects on the go that its been a struggle to come on and write anything. It’s sometimes hard to know what to write about, especially when you’re a bit bored with all the music currently doing the rounds and have reverted to listening to older gems. I’d say that I have my answer there as that’s what I should be writing about.
Imagine my delight, when I seen that a band I’ve only gotten into in the past year or so are about to release a new album that I was blissfully unaware of. The band of course are The Dears and the album is called Missiles and is tipped for a release on the 20th of October here in the UK.
What are you to expect from the new album? It’s slow at times, ethereal in places and lots of amazing vocals from frontman Murray Lightburn. I think this will slot nicely into the best of 2008 lists and hopefully give The Dears the attention that they deserve. Rumour has it that there may also be Irish tour dates in late November.
Another new album that seems to have gone unnoticed, mainly by me, is the second album from the Cold War Kids. The album is titled ‘Loyalty to Loyalty‘ and is set for release at the end of September. They’ve also decided to give away a free track which you can find below.
I actually started this post about two weeks ago and I was a bit miffed by ‘Something is Not Right With Me‘ but I thought it was worth a mention. Since then I’ve been listening to that and the new Kings of Leon on repeat. It’s off beat and hard to figure out to begin with, but its worth the wait. Plus it also contains the lyric ‘I tied to call you collect, you said you would not accept, your friends are laughin’ cause, no body uses pay phones‘ which I think is great.
Here’s what to expect on ‘Loyalty to Loyalty‘:
1. Against Privacy
2. Mexican Dogs
3. Every Valley Is Not A Lake
4. Something Is Not Right With Me
5. Welcome To The Occupation
6. Golden Gate Jumpers
7. Avalanche In B
8. I’ve Seen Enough
9. Every Man I Fall For
10. Dreams Old Men Dream
11. On The Night My Love Broke Through
12. Relief
13. Cryptomnesia
For those of you interested in the recent collaboration between David Byrne and Brian Eno, the new album ‘Everything That Happens Will Happen Today‘ can be streamed in full below. I downloaded it yesterday for $14.99 which includes a proper CD release in November with a little booklet of lyrics and all. How they spoil us.
What do you do when you have the same shirt as your friend? You set up a band. That’s right. We’ve all done it, dawned the shirt, picked up a guitar and cut a record. Well the rest of us never went that far, although I think I still have the shirt somewhere.
If you ticked yes to all the boxes above, you are probably one part of the new group Human Highway, made up of Jim Guithre and Nick Thorburn better known for fronting Islands. The album in question is ‘Moody Motorcycle‘ and is set to be released next Tuesday the 19th.
After only a few listens of ‘Moody Motorcycle‘, I was all set to give it a bit of a scathing review because I just didn’t get it. Yes it was a nice quirky idea and some of the tracks showed true genius but on first listen I felt it was lacking a bit of bite. But a few days have passed and there have been a hell of a lot more listens in between and it appears this album is definitely a grower.
“It’s really low-key, just like good times. I came here in July and slept on his couch and made the record in like a week. So now I’ve got some songs that are really quiet and gentle. The Human Highway album is gentle, like lullaby-type stuff. We’re really inspired by Everly Brothers harmonies, singing. And Jim is just such an amazing singer.”
So there you have it yet another great band from Nick Thorburn. Not only has he got his hands in a number of musical pies, he also seems to be about to release a comic called This is Howie Doo. Some people just put you to shame.
oh and to boot the full album is now streaming on the bands myspace.
