West Indie Hour Playlist 30 Nov

1. Stop - Delorentos
2. Weighted Love - Vesta Varro
3. Sweet Kisses - Duke Special
4. This Is What You Do - Gemma Hayes
5. The Time Is Now - Moloko
6. Brewing Up A Storm - The Stunning
7. Fee Da Da Dee - The Guggenheim Grotto
8. No Heart Today - Cathy Davey
9. Colony - Damien Dempsey
10. Creature Fear/Team - Bon Iver
11. Say It To Me Now - The Swell Season
12. Splishy Splashy - Lisa Hannigan
    

Gigs this week

Holy shit there's some amount of great gigs on in Limerick this week. Dolans should offer a weekly pass.

Wed - 26 Nov
Duke Special
Thurs - 27 Nov
Fred
Fri - 28 Nov
Director w/Walter Mitty & The Realists (warehouse)
Jinx Lennon (upstairs)
The Swell Season - (Daghdha Space)
Sat - 29 Nov
Vesta Varro w/Walter Mitty & The Realists (busy lads)
Ronan Stone (Bakers)
Sun - 30 Nov
Gemma Hayes w/Vertigo Smyth

http://www.dolanspub.com/
www.myspace.com/gigtown

Limerick Journalist Makes Dreams Come True

Classic - I told ya!

Yeah so I ended up staying up myself, and it was so worth it!

Silver Streak on TV tonight!

If you're pulling a late one tonight, or perhaps ITCEC you mightn't have work in the morning, or you might be a student or an insomniac . . . even if you're none of this, you should stay up to check out this movie. Its a classic. Channel 4, 2.10am
*ITCEC - In The Current Economic Climate. I'm trying to coin the acronym.

New Advertising Low

You perhaps shouldn't watch this, because its so shockingly disgustingly horribly shit, and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Is it any wonder Kerry's driven to drink?

West Indie Hour Playlist 23 Nov 08

1. Running - Fred
   
2. Butterfly - David Hope
   
3. Light In The Dark - size2shoes
4. Patience - Damien Dempsey
5. Sweet Sweet Kisses - Duke Special
6. There Is A Time - Luka Bloom
7. Out Of Our Hands - Gemma Hayes
   
8. When You're Mind's Made Up - The Swell Season
   
9. Fake Empire - The National
10. Bad Skin Day - BellX1
11. If You Want To - Armoured Bear
    
12. Lillie - Lisa Hannigan
    

West Limerick 102 Flag Day!

Today was a flag day for West Limerick 102FM in Newcastle West, so Caroline Cuddy and myself were wrapped up in our all-weather finest and stationed outside Dooley's Supervalu to raise a few shilings for the local radio station. When not having chats and exchanging fashion tips, it was great to meet some of the listeners face to face, it was funny to see those inquisitive faces when they asked our names, waiting to see if we looked like they thought we should. I remember when I first saw a picture of Aidan Leonard after listening to years of his breakfast show on 2FM and I was shocked, he had black hair and a moustache! You should never meet you're heroes, you'll only be disappointed.
Anyway, thanks to all who contributed and stopped to say hello and have a bit of a chat. It was great fun! Don't forget you can always listen live at www.westlimerick102.ie. Particularly to The West Indie Hour, 7pm Sundays!

End of week catch-up

So, on Thurs night I popped into Dolans to catch a brief look at Ham Sandwich upstairs while The Saw Doctors were driving the crowds crazy down in the Warehouse. Could here them screaming out N-17 from the smoking section upstairs! Sounded like a great laugh, but alas I'm laying relatively low these days, so no madness for Nick!
Friday was the last day of painting the bedroom (and being covered in Dulux) and after a quick band meeting, popped (again) to Dolans for the Out On A Limb 5th Birthday bash. It was cool to stay Upstairs in Dolans for a late bar with some great tunes. Caught some of Windings live, looking forward to their Belltable Sessions appearance in a couple of weeks, in fact here's the flyer:

www.myspace.com/thebelltablesessions

W.

Went to see Oliver Stone's 'W.' tonight. It wasn't nearly up to par for Oliver Stone, unusually linear and quite simply shot and put together. There was some talk that it was a bit of a rush job to have it finished before the election, and there is certainly some evidence for that. It lacked any of the pizazz you'd expect, but was however quite interesting for those behind-the-scenes war room cabinet meetings. Kind of strangely stale and flat compared to, for example, The West Wing (which I've never watched properly), but it was interesting to see those characters that caused so much shit and disaster for the world-at-large to be represented on the big screen.
Some dodgy vocal performances (okay Thandie Newton looked uncannily like Condoleezza Rice, but what's the deal with her voice?!) threatened to turn the whole thing into the pantomime, and while its quite sympathetic to Bush, it felt like it really simplified everything too much. I refuse to believe he didn't have many more people as well as Carl Rove telling him exactly how and why he was corrupting the US - his thoughts could not possibly have been as noble as 'doing the job'. The father/son thing was done better in Alexander.
Also, I kind of think Josh Brolin through no fault of his own just doesn't look dumb enough. He has too much charisma to play a convincing moron, though his efforts are pretty good. It was always something I found fascinating about Bush, just the look in his eyes bely a deeper stupidity. In fact, you can nearly see the rabbit in there working the controls.
W. isn't exactly ground-shaking Hollywood fare (this from the same man who gave us the momumental epic Any Given Sunday), but more of an interesting companion piece to a thoroughly enjoyable election season. Oh yes and a disasterous White House administration.

It was also funny how Stone and writer Stanley Weiser managed to fit in all the classic Bushisms over the course of the movie, sometimes painfully so. (Though you may miss the 'misunderestimated' one). Of course, this is why we love him.

Well Done Munster!

photo - breakingnews.ie

Well, Munster did extremely well against the All Blacks last night. Though the second half was a fairly messy affair at the best of times, and of course conceding the winning try in the last four minutes was never going to be easy, but fucking hell it was a great match. They were looking fairly shit-hot at times.
Its not very often you see both teams getting stuck in like that, and Munster really held their cool on such a momentus occasion. Very enjoyable match! And as for the army bringing the ball in by helicopter? So classy.

Thomond Park looked savage, it'll look even better when this fella's in there -

Elton John - Thomond Park June 2009

The Changeling - Snore!

Is it just me, or does this movie look really really shit? Oscar-assured performance and all . . . sounds more like TV3 "I want my baby back!" fare.

While we're on it, I wasn't overly enamoured with Million Dollar Baby, Clint's other big Oscar winner. That was quite boring also. Unforgiven and Mystic River were pretty good though.

music I'm enjoying

Very much enjoying Fred's album Go God Go. Have missed loads of chance to see them live, gonna have to make it to Dolans on 27 Nov!

www.myspace.com/fredtheband

West Indie Hour Playlist 16 Nov 08

Gonna upload my playlist every week from here on.
The West Indie Hour - 7pm on West Limerick 102.
Listen live at www.westlimerick102.ie

1. Gobbeldigook - Sigur Ros
2. Megaphone Man - Messiah J & The Expert
3. Ghost For You - Doug Sheridan
4. Heroes or Ghosts - The Coronas
   
5. Come With A Friend - Director
6. N 17 - The Saw Doctors
7. Fee Da Da Dee - The Guggenheim Grotto
8. Sucker Punch - Walter Mitty & The Realists
9. Be Good or Be Gone - Fionn Regan
10. Use Me - Ronan Stone
11. Lump Sum - Bon Iver
12. Pyre - The Driftwood Manor
13. Blue Shoes - Colm Mac Con Iomaire
14. All I Want - The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra
    

Friday: Out of Nowhere

Got a last minute call to play a support slot to Paul Heaton (of Beautiful South fame) in Dolans. Sure beats painting the bedroom!
So chuffed that I ended up having something to do of a shitty November Friday night, I then went to see Messiah J & The Expert in The Trinity Rooms, and they were absolutely savage. Put on a kick-ass show, even at the start when the crowd was lacking, completely owned it.
Don't want to do a whole "Irish rap/hip-hop" thing, so won't say any more, but you may be hearing from me again on the MJEX subject, I think they're fucking ace!
www.myspace.com/messiahjandtheexpert

Bakers Tonight

I'm playing a solo set at the ARTiculate Sessions tonight in Bakers.
Gonna try one or two new tunes, and the usual loop magic and instrument hopping.
Hope to see u there!

Herbie Hancock

Last minute jaunt down to Cork to catch Herbie Hancock in the Savoy. He's an absolute legend. Great band, great tunes, great jamming. I WANT one of those keyboard guitars or keytars!I only know the Headhunters album really well and his latest album of Joni Mitchell covers is straight-to-the-restaurant-playlist type stuff, but fucking hell when he plays a powerful solo piano improv with some major dramatics, and after rapturous applause simply drops into Canteloupe, you know you're in the prescence of a master. And so fucking cool.
Should also be noted, as the main man noted in his introduction - he's not used to introducing harmonica players - but just at the start of the solo, I was thinking to myself, harmonica? there's not much that can be done on a harmonica. Yeah, that was funny cause the harmonica dude was savage.

**rant warning** - the only complaint was these two old bags who came in about twenty minutes into the gig, pushed their way by me into a space that wasn't there, and one of them proceeded to close her eyes and girate her hips, rocking all over the place like, well, a spas. we were standing very close to the front, and this stupid bitch was making a right tit of herself. I mean I know you're old (mid 50's) and you like jazz but that doesn't give you free rein to act like a complete tosser. she tried to clap along to a tune that Herbie introduced as having seventeen beats in the bar, and was flopping around like she was trying to relive some long lost student days or something. I was thinking at the time, the only way you could be excused for that kind of shit is if you were on acid, and the wonderful prospect of being on acid at a Herbie Hancock gig notwithstanding, it was too depressing to think that she was tripping. at her age, it was just too pathetic, pissed me off no end. AND to boot, her hippie friend at one point stepped directly in front of me completely blocking my view, leaning her head in and peering around, as if there was something more to see. unbelievable idiots.

Belltable Session Tonight

The Driftwood Manor
Brendan Markham
Audrey Ryan
Seamus Fogarty

Doors 8pm, first act 8.3o.
Tickets €10

See u there!

Fleet Foxes (2 of 2): Dublin

Training it to Dublin, just not arsed to drive this time, roll on Iarnrod Eireann!
Did The Irish Times crossword in about 20 min apart from the one clue ["Of spherical, with flattened top and bottom" 6 letters, do you know it?] and was pretty chuffed with myself. I don't time myself or anything, and I'm not sure if that's good, but I was surprised to get so much done having only started it after Kildare.
A quick stroll around town, the obligatory look into Music Maker and Tower Records, a pint in the Shebeen Chic, then Enchiladas and Margaritas in Acapulco on George's Street - yum!
I was more or less keeping my mouth shut when people asked me about the London gig before we saw them in Vicar St, didn't want to pre-empt or spoil anything around the dodgy banter talk. Apparently it wasn't an issue for my mates anyway. In fairness, how could it ever be, playing to a Dublin crowd in Vicar St? They were even better than Shepherds Bush in my opinion, and Robin Pecknold going solo unplugged was pretty cool.
Ironically, I feel have to take responsibility for some of the strange but funny 'Obama being part Enya' talk. I was talking to Robin outside before the gig and we were chatting about London's gig, and I mentioned that they were talking quite a lot of politics. I then pointed out that Barack Obama has family in Moneygall. In fact I think I may have edged closer to claiming that he was Irish. They ran with it onstage, and it turned out being pretty funny, but I couldn't help feeling that I may have added fuel to the strange banter fire. No-one else really seemed too perturbed by it, so that was good.
All in all their music is amazing, and I would go to see them live again. It's strange to say, but they could probably do with taking themselves a little bit more seriously, I think their live shows would be all the more special with a bit of drama rather than chitchat. That said, twice in one week and still hooked.
www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes
[Of spherical, with flattened top and bottom - Oblate]

Fleet Foxes (1 of 2): London

Had a great day in London yesterday. Had bacon and eggs in a neat little 'Caf' down the road in Clapham. They had a picture on the wall of the titular dude from The Mummy movies, eating bacon and eggs I suspect. Waited for a bus for about ten minutes only to discover I was on the wrong side of the road. Got the tube up to Camden and strolled around, not in the mood (or the pocket) for shopping, even when the dude selling bowler hats dropped his price considerably when I walked away - sometimes you just couldn't be arsed haggling, or shopping.
Made it back to the gaff with enough time to hook up with Dave, get a few beers in and head to Shepherds Bush for pre-gig pints. Met Paula and had some good eats in a really cool pub across the green, then into the gig!

photo from guardian.co.uk

It was a bit of a funny gig, I think mainly because it was in a huge theatre and we were seated up on the second circle. We did sit at the front row, and as Dave put it, it was like peeking over a wall to look down at the gig. After being utterly bored by J Tillman, and dismayed that we weren't allowed outside for a smoke until after Fleet Foxes went on stage (which basically meant no smokes), we had a few pints in the bar while a nice Aussie couple promised to keep our seats (and some other wanker beside me said he 'couldn't promise anything').

The gig was quite excellent, really cool to see them live at last. Of course they didn't disappoint, particularly enjoyed Sun It Rises straight into Ragged Wood. Top class versions of Quiet Houses, He Doesn't Know Why and haunting Heard Them Stirring keeping attention in the auditorium. Mykonos and English House from the previous EP also impressed. There was even a mention of the quite disastrous version of White Winter Hymnal on Jools Holland the night before, which was funny. Lead singer Robin Pecknold claimed that it was his fault and he 'fucked it up', but there were no such problems tonight, a spine-tingling performance.

I suppose the thing that jarred me was the banter with the crowd. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but to put it simply, it wasn't the kind of chat I expected from the band, considering the type of music they make. Admittedly it was quite a momentous day, and plenty of talk about Obama and 'hot' Sarah Palin were entertaining, but just didn't fit the music they were playing. There was something odd and unsettling about performing a soft and haunting folk tune such as Heard Them Stirring and immediately proceeding to stand around the stage with a kind of cabaret style banter. Not once did they think to enlighten us as to what the songs were about, not even the sniff of an amusing anecdote, more in line with 'so what's your guy like?' in reference to Gordon Brown. It was one stray comment away from 'So, how about that Man United team, huh?'

It's a strange complaint, but the music is still top notch. It just tainted the experience somewhat. I reckon I was right to have avoided YouTube clips or interviews. At least I'll always have that album to lock away with headphones on. Won't be rushing out to buy Fleet Foxes Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire though.

Obama Wins

I stayed up as late as I could, saw McCain's concession speech, and somehow dozed off for Obama's victory speech, but the result was in. I think it's fecking great anyway. Was fairly nauseated by some of the early early election coverage, but of course I got quite into it. I watched all the debates, including the VP debate with that fucking clown Sarah Palin, and I really do believe Obama/Biden was a much better ticket.

Did you see the fancy-ass touch screen that CNN had to analyse some of the 'data'? And the dude from Black Eyed Peas being interviewed via Hologram?! Fucking hell Minority Report here we go. It was like
"Look at us, first; kick ass futuristic touch screen and hologram 3D imaging, next; elect black president."
It'll be self-drying jackets and hoverboards before we know it.
point of order - I remember clearly in 6th class ca. 1993 everyone was talking about how hoverboards were real and the only reason we hadn't seen them because a 'parents group' in the States had banned them. I remember I was the only kid in my class who knew that story was bullshit and they couldn't possibly exist, and I was ridiculed for my wisdom. Oh what a tortured childhood I had.

- So, where were you when Barack Obama was elected the first Black President of the USA?
- I was baked on Demery's sofa-bed in London

It's probably the best of the 'Where were you when X happened?' moments in my lifetime so far, the other two being Lady Di's death (yeah I know) and 9/11. Though I do remember seeing the first tower fall, in a crowd watching SkyNews in the window of a stockbrokers on Dawson St. Then the student bar in UCD waiting for World War III to start.
I'll take Obama anyday.

Off we go!

Going to London tomorrow to see Fleet Foxes on Wed. Very excited! Also seeing them again in Dublin on Friday, also excited.
Just realised that I don't know anything about them, what they look like, haven't heard any interviews or watched any YouTube ckips or anything. I think the album is too good and I don't want to spoil it, in a strange kind of way. Know what I mean?
Gonna stay with my mate Demo (no its not some strange indie nickname, he's nothing to do with music) and probably going to drink plenty of beers and walk lots, and look very confident and natural when using the Tube. Just finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and feeling inspired!

Halloween=Scary! (as it should be)

As usual, I wait until the last minute to get all excited about the scariness of Halloween! Wooooo!
Spent a fortune (in pound shop or '€2 shop' terms) on last minute costumes, had a few mojitos and went down to Red Cross Hall to see 3epkano performing a live original soundtrack to The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari! Scary!

[3epkano's soundtrack was so much better than that shite]
It was really cool gig/film, and SCARY!! There was even a jump in it!
The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari is credited with being the first horror movie, and I even read a YouTube comment that said it was the first movie to feature "a twist at the end, like Fight Club" - yes, exactly like Fight Club you moron. (YouTube comments are the grazing ground for some real idiots.)
Its my second time seeing 3epkano soundtrack a film, the first being Metropolis in the Dublin Film Festival last year, and that was fucking amazing.
Metropolis is credited with being the first science fiction movie, as well as having some pretty cool concepts of the future and touching on some fairly crazy issues, for example, the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism (Wikipedia)
3epkano's Metropolis was one of the best cinema experiences and one of the best gig experiences I've ever had. Powerful stuff. So, much kudos to 3epkano! You should have a listen to their MySpace. I'd love to give it a go sometime - soundtracking silent film that is. Looks like fun.
Of course, after that highly cultural and enjoyable experience, we ended up getting fairly tanked in Mickey's (at one point I was taking a piss with The Phantom of the Opera and an eerily detailed Adolf Hitler on either side of me at the urinal). Back for more mojitos, cigars and late night begrudgery.
A fine All Hallows Eve.

http://www.myspace.com/3epkano