Sunset Rubdown playing Explosions In The Sky Curated ATP

May 16-18.

I can feel it in my waters.

Portsmouth 0 - 0 Arsenal

Well I've been trying not to say it for a few weeks now but the truth is that Arsenal have not been playing well for a number of games. Ironically the performance at Fratton Park was probably better than the one against Spurs but this time we only wound up with a point. The passing in midfield seemed a little crisper and not too many balls went astray, but Eboue aside there was little that looked like a cutting edge about Arsenal.

Harry Redknapp has always been a shrewd manager and was smart enough to not to try and play Arsenal on their terms. His Pompey side have won many admirers this season due to the way that they've played but he changed his approach completely on Wednesday, keeping almost everyone behind the ball and knocking it long to Kanu to try to hold the ball up. And it worked well, particularly due to heroics from Sol Campbell and Richard Hughes who seemed to get their heads to everything and ultimately aside from a couple of chances for Tomas Rosicky, who had one of his better games, we created very little.

In fact Portsmouth could have won it at near the when Benjani broke clear but knocked the ball too far past Almunia, who had come miles out his box to challenge the Zimabwean, and it allowed the defence to recover. Ultimately it remained scoreless and that result meaat that Manchester United returned to the top of the table for more than a couple of hours for the first time in months. On form as much as it hurts me to admit it's probably where they deserve to be, they've been tearing bad sides to shreds of late whereas we've gone off the boil somewhat. Fortunately there's plenty of football still to be played this season.

Looking forward we've got Everton next on Saturday. I really think we need to move back to 4-4-2 and despite his decent form it should be Eboue who makes way, I just think that Hleb offers more to the side. As to who will replace him the ideal candidate would be Robin Van Persie but he continues to struggle with injuries. Eduardo hasn't really impressed in the Premiership despite looking lethal in the Carling Cup so for me I think Nicholas Bendtner is due a start. He's done very well in recent games in Europe and The Carling Cup as well as scoring the winner against Spurs in the league. Additionally when he came on in the last match his strength and touch caused more problems for their back 4 than anyone else has. He's very much the squad's form attacking player. Or even Theo, who is now back from flu, could be worth a chance, his pace could really cause some damage ... anything to shake things up a bit really.

Top 10 gigs of 2007

That time of year again. I've done Church, done dinner and done presents so I'm in the office hiding from my family so no one dies and listening to the Holy Fuck LP. Here's the best gigs I was at all year...

I should say that at least 1 (The Wrens in Whelan's) and possibly 2 (The Hold Steady in The Temple Bar Music Centre) other gigs would have made this list but I'm disqualifying them due to the fact that I played during/ruined those sets. Oh and here's some other gigs that I really enjoyed in 2007 that aren't ranked but are no better than the 11th best gig I saw this year (not quite true, but I'm not listing the same act more than once though some could have been).

Battles (Primavera), Stars Of The Lid (Whelan's), Les Savy Fav (Crawdaddy), Cathy Davey (Whelan's second night of her month long weekly residency), Handsome Furs (Whelan's), Liars (Whelan's), Sonic Youth (Electric Picnic), Slint (Tripod), Dosh (Crawdaddy opening for ...), Andrew Bird (Crawdaddy)

10. Deerhoof - Electric Picnic review at the time (Electric Picnic)
9. St. Vincent - The Sugar Club review at the time
8. Deerhunter - Whelan's review at the time
7. Jens Lekman - Whelan's review at the time
6. Okkervil River - Whelan's review at the time
5. Joanna Newsom - Olympia
4. Arcade Fire - Olympia
3. The National - The Olympia review at the time
2. Final Fantasy - Electric Picnic review at the time (Electric Picnic)
1. Dan Deacon - Whelan's review at the time

Arsenal 2 - 1 Tottenham Hotspurs

Well that was a pretty poor performance and, as I've written plenty of times in recent months, one that in the past 2 seasons we wouldn't have come away from with 3 points. Credit to Spurs they stifled our play pretty well throughout the game and forced a lot of errors from almost all of our players. At times some of our passing was shocking, especially in the first half and it allowed Spurs plenty of opportunities to hit us on the break though without really creating any worthwhile goal chances. In fact for all their poor play in the first half the 2 best opportunities fell to Arsenal via Flamini very early on and then to Eboue later on.

The second half started better thanks to a classic Arsenal style goal. Cesc picked the ball up in his own half and brought it forward before slipping it infield to Rosicky about 30 yards out. The Czech moved further infield before returning the ball to Fabregas who had continued his run. The Spaniard then back heeled the ball into the path of Emanuel Adebayor who opened up his body and slid the ball Thierry style past Paul Robinson to break the deadlock. At that point I hoped that we'd continue in that fashion and put Spurs' game but really makeshift defence to the sword. As it happens we resumed being shit and to be honest Spurs had the better of it after the goal. They should have equalised after the hour when Robbie Keane popped up unmarked on the 6 yard line but crashed his volley against the crossbar when it was easier to score. In the end that was only brief reprieve as shortly after Keane back heeled a pass into the path of Dmitar Berbatov, who briefly took a break from looking totally uninterested, and smashed the ball home from a narrow angle thanks in part to a deflection that took the ball away from Almunia. For all the talk of good keepers not being beaten at the near post some shots just can't be stopped and that was one of them. It was certainly hardly the level of mistake that Marcus "Look Ma, no hands" Hahnemann made against Chelsea yesterday.

Things could have become even worse when Toure lunged for the ball in the box 6 minutes later and conceded a penalty. Keane stepped up and fired low and to the left, which was fortunately where Manuel Almunia had happened to dive and England's future #1 kept the scores level. The way things were going I doubt we'd have been able to come back from 2-1 down and the events of a few minutes later made that penalty miss an even funnier kick in the teeth for Spurs.

On the 75th minute, following one of our rare trips into the Spurs box, we won a corner and with his first touch of the game after coming on as a sub Nicholas Bendtner headed the ball home and kill off Spurs who from that point on didn't really create much. Can't say I blame them for being dejected in those circumstances.

So we're top at Christmas, as we have been for a number of months save for a few hours last week. Had I been told at the start of the season that we'd be in this position I'd have found it very hard to believe it but here we are. And truth be told we've not been playing brilliantly in the past few weeks, sides have been making it difficult for us, stifling out passing, closing us down well, but for the most part we're still winning. I must admit, I'm beginning to believe.

Just to be difficult, top J albums of the year for 2007.

J.

Handsome Furs - Plague Park

Despite penning some of the best songs in the Wolf Parade canon for some reason Dan Boeckner seems to always be placed in the ha'penny place, and by a longs ways, in any discussion about the merits of the band's 2 principal songwriters. Perhaps it's due to Spencer Krug being so fecund but I suspect it's more to do with that fact that material of Krug's that Boeckner hasn't had a hand in has been more widely heard. Plague Park; with it's collection of sparse, occasionally harsh songs that he wrote with his then fiancé and now wife, saw Boeckner, well not step out of his bandmate's shadow as I don't think that he was ever there, but rather demonstrate that he's a singular talent in his own right.

Top songs: What We Had, Handsome Furs Hate this City, Sing! Captain,

I.

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Ignore the PR coup highjinks and ridiculous talk of breaking the record industry that surrounded the release of this record. The only really relevant question that should be asked about In Rainbows is this one, is it actually any good?

And yes, it is actually. Radiohead's first album in 4 years saw them in a seemingly more relaxed state and focusing more on songwriting then they have in some time. The results are at times magnificent and I have to say that even if we're discussing a post-Kid A Radiohead I think that for what is still ostensibly a guitar based band "All I Need" is a remarkable achievement. Also, as a long time fanboy I was beyond delighted with the way "Nude" finally turned out, even if they dropped the second verse.

Top Songs: Bodysnatchers, Nude, All I Need, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Videotape

H.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Possibly the only album to ever go #1 in Ireland that features a pipe organ and hurdy gurdy. Not as good as Funeral and their subsequent stratospheric rise in popularity since it's release have made Arcade Fire a far less cool name to drop than they used to be but judged on it's own merits Neon Bible is a fantastic record. Guitarist/percussionist/upright bassist/keyboardist/shoutist Richard Reed Parry has described the record as a far more American sounding record than it's "Montreal sounding" predecessor and when you think about it that initially bonkers sounding statement begins to make sense. The influence of Bruce Springsteen, that most quintessential of American artists, is all over this record. Be it sonically like on "Windowsill" or "Antichrist Television Blues" or thematically as Neon Bible saw Win Butler's songwriting move away from personal subjects like love and loss as he turned his attention to the big themes of politics, celebrity and religion.

Top Songs: Black Mirror, Keep The Car Running, Windowsill, (Antichrist Television Blues), No Cars Go

G.

Cathy Davey - Tales Of Silversleeve

Aren't the second records supposed to be difficult? Cathy Davey followed up the promise of her quirky, sometimes excellent, occasionally patchy debut effort Something Ilk by seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth and then re-emerging with something so wonderful and beyond what she'd appeared to be capable of previously I remain almost as shocked as I am impressed whenever I listen to this album.

And she's a gooner apparently. Marvelous

Top Songs: Sing for your supper, Reuben, Rubbish Ocean

F.

Liars - Liars

Whilst not ever really registering with me as a band that I'm hugely in to I've recently come to realise that on the strength of releasing 2 of the best albums of the past 2 years Liars have quietly managed to become one of my favourite bands. A far more accessible album than anything that they previously put out before Liars have somehow managed to get themselves tagged as experimental without doing anything hugely complex or difficult and their great strength remains what it's been from the start, they've got a fantastic ear for cool sounds and simple ideas and can put them all together in an incredibly effective way.

Oh, and that drum sound. Always with that drum sound.

Top Song: Plaster Casts Of Everything, Sailing To Byzantium, What Would They Know, Pure Unevil

E.

The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America

Every year when it comes to making an end of year list there's the dilemma of an album that was released in North America one year but only makes it into the shops here the following one. This year it's Boys And Girls In America. I am so enamoured with Craig Finn's universe of lowlives, drunks, addicts and scumbags (yeah, a lowlife is a different thing to a scumbag) that it's not even funny. This is the second album in this list to proudly wear it's Springsteen influence on it's sleeve though truth be told the specter of The Boss is hanging over this album far less than on The Hold Steady's previous album Seperation Sunday (which featured the frankly brilliant couplet " Tramps like us, and we like tramps") and Boys And Girls ... has a more general classic rock sound to it. Also different this time around was the degree of prominence which Holly, Gideon and Charlamagne; the trio of characters that have populated many of Finn's best songs over the course of his band's last 2 albums, play in the album. "First Night" mid-way through the record seems to wrap things up for them and allows Finn to focus more on the general theme of how when you're young eventually the boozing and the pills and the powders and the fucking stops being fun. Sometimes.

Top Songs: Stuck Between Stations, First Night, You Can Make Him Like You, Citrus, Chillout Tent, Southtown Girls

D.

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

And now we reach the point where the merely very good and the truly great diverge. Had you said to me in January that The Animal Collective would be one of the bands that were going to put out a record that would be a contender for my favourite album of the year I'd have thought you insane or delirious on hallucinogens. Few bands have pissed me off in the past as much as Avey Tere and his gang of sonic lunatics.

But here we are and 12 months can really bring about big changes. For Animal Collective it saw them release an album that moved away from the freak folk stylings of their previous work and into a more electronic direction. For me it saw me learn how to stop hating Animal Collective and learn how to love Animal Collective.

Top Songs: Fireworks, Peacebone

C.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

As I said above this year was the one where I was turned around on Animal Collective and I suspect that the main reason was Noah Lennox. The conventional thinking seems to be that more than any other AC record before Strawberry Jam was his album. And judging by the other record he put out this year that line of thought may be close to the truth. Lennox's second album under the Panda Bear moniker is a glorious collection of ambient found-sounds, chanting and Beach Boys style singing that leads me to believe that if Brian Wilson were sane enough to learn how to use today's technology this is what he'd be doing.

Top Songs: Comfy In Nautica, Bros, I'm not, Ponytail.

B.

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

The second band to make my top albums list 2 years running Sunset Rubdown's 3rd album is one that for me is just barely lacking songs that quite match the colossal brilliance of "Stadiums And Shrines II", "The Empty Threats Of Little Lord" or "Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings" but unlike their last album whose 'lesser songs' are still slowly revealing new and fresh charms to me every time I stick it on Random Spirit Lover hit me like a ton of bricks immediately and overall I think I still just about prefer this album. Spencer Krug seems to be able to get up every morning and immediately shit out a brilliant new song effortlessly and in the event that he ever does a bad one they don't appear to ever see the light of day. There's not a single weak moment on this album.

2008 will almost certainly see the release of a new Wolf Parade album but with the Pollardish rate that Krug writes it's not inconceivable that he'll sneak out a new Sunset Rubdown album by year's end.

Top Songs: The Mending Of the Gown; Up On You Leopard, Upon the End Of Your Feral Days; Stallion; The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life; Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot!

A.

The National - Boxer

When I first heard the leak of this album back in March I thought to myself that it was unlikely I'd hear a better album all year. Turns Out I was right.

I had an utterly idiotic online spat with someone recently about the ideas of experimentalism vs. conventionality in music. My stance was that the two concepts are completely irrelevant and that the only criteria that mattered to me were good vs. bad. Which leads me to Boxer, of the 4 records that might have occupied this position it's far and away the most conventional sounding indie-rock record but it's so brilliant that it matters not an iota. The National write great songs, Matt Berninger writes great lyrics and sings them in a gorgeous and considered Baritone with phrasing almost as good as Sinatra's.

Oh, and take a bow Bryan Devendorf for the drumming.

Top Songs: It's a cop out, but everything.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Next year, when this album gets a wider release via Jagjaguar and whoever puts it out over here it'll have a different cover.
I've always had a soft spot for acoustic singer-songwritery music but with 2007 very much being a year where I've started listening to more dance and electronic type stuff I've pretty much ignored the genre save for periods of intensely revisiting Elliott Smith's catalog in an attempt to steal some of his chops. As a result, despite the raving by Kyle (he's over on the right somewhere) I've only recently come to discover the results of ex-DeYarmond Edison member Justin Vernon's 3-month sojourn in a rural Wisconsin cabin. And it's a shame because it's a fantastic record and (not that it really matters, who really gives a shit?) one that if I'd had more time to appreciate would have probably done better than being placed in that also rans post I made earlier this morning, or I'd have decided that it's completely played out, one or t'other.

The obvious comparison to make when talking about For Emma, Forever Ago is Iron And Wine. Vernon shares the same soft falsetto as Sam Beam and there's gentle strumming ago go all over the record but while there are similarities in both songwriter's core sounds the accoutrements to the songs are quite different. While Beam uses country elements to fill out his sound Bon Iver's songs are far more lush and textured affairs, and I think that's what really makes this album work as well as it does for me. In addition to your standard bass and drums that's lots of cool little tricks employed on the album like on "Blindsided" which opens with a reversed guitar loop, or on "Creature Fear" where Vernon multitracks his soulful, vaguely TV On The Radio sounding vocals, to create a pastoral choir effect for backing vocals, or on opening track "Flume" which has loads of ambient, space-rock type stuff going on quietly in the background. Despite all those embellishments, nothing distracts from just how good some of these songs are.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but this album will probably be the soundtrack to nearly every dinner party in the latter half of 2008 thrown by people that are into music, please don't let that put you off.

MP3: Bon Iver - The Wolves (Acts I and II) from For Emma, Forever Ago

Top ten albums of the year, the also rans.

It's that time of year again and in the next few days I'll get around to listing and blurbing what my favourite albums of the year were. But before that here's some albums that I really liked this year that didn't make the top ten but may have. There's no ordering really aside from the sort of random one I had when I made my shortlist of potential top ten records.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver


Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago


Deerhunter - Cryptograms


Battles - Mirrored


Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings


St. Vincent - Marry Me


Okkervil River - The Stage Names


Elliott Smith - New Moon

Arsenal 1 - 0 Chelsea

My back feels lighter today for some reason. I think it's probably because on Sunday afternoon this motherfucker ...

... got off of it.

Despite coming agonisingly close on 2 occasions last year it's been nearly 4 years and the entirety of that wanker Mourihno's tenure in charge of Chelsea since we beat Roman's band of nouveau riche grade A arseholes and even though victory is always sweet yesterday someone dumped a truckload of sugar on top of things.

Despite the claims of Baron Greenback after the final whistle I thought we were good value for the win and the only side that deserved anything from the game. The first half was a "spiky" (TM. Andy Gray) affair with both sides having players booked in that opening period for what were in some cases quite nasty challenges (take a bow John Terry for sliding in on the on all fours Cesc Fabregas) but fortunately no gooners were hurt so badly in that set of incidents that they had to go off. The same can not be said of Chelsea who lost Captain Courageous prickface following a clash with Eboue when they both went for the ball and Terry cleared it before Eboue caught him on the ankle. There was some discussion on Sky and MOTD yesterday about the tackle and whether there should have been a red card given for it but despite my general low opinion of him as a human being I'm going to give Eboue (who delightfully made Ashley Cole his bitch throughout) the benefit of the doubt on this one and say that it wasn't a deliberate attempt to injure his opponent. Despite playing all the football in the first half it was Manuel Almunia who was the marginally busier of the two keepers as he had to save long distance efforts from Sean Wright-Phillips and Shevchenko but wasn't really severely tested by either. As for Petr Cech, for all our good play and possession we never really tested him and his first significant touch came in injury time and saw him scuff a clearance into midfield which allowed Arsenal to counter attack and eventually win a corner. The big Cech's next touch of note was to pick the ball out of the net when he came to collect Fabregas' cross from that corner but missed allowing William Gallas to nod the ball into an empty net (but not before he gave Tal Ben Haim a little shove) to send Arsenal in ahead at the break.

The second half was far more open but a little scrappy with both sides giving possession away far too easily. Chelsea had good attacking spells in the first and last 15 minutes of the half with the best chances falling to Jon Obi Mikkell who forced a fine save from Almunia and Sean Wright-Phillips who missed the mother of all opportunities. Of course Chelsea coming forward that much meant that there was lots of space to move into when they did lose the ball and the final quarter of an hour saw some brilliant counter-attacking from Arsenal with opportunities falling to Van Persie (who looked sharp after coming on as a sub) and Cesc but the chances were either put over or impressively dealt with by Cech. Arsenal did have the ball in the net twice in that final period but the first was rightfully ruled out as Rosicky was a fraction offside when Ade passed him the ball before the Czech squared the ball for RVP to coolly slot home with his right foot. The second was a bit more suspect as it appeared to me that Adebayor turned and outmuscled Ben Haim before finishing but Wiley gave a free out, the prick.

How the second half remained scoreless I don't know but when the ref blew the final whistle in an effort to defuse a shitstorm caused by a nasty incident between Cole and Fabregas it remained 1-0 to Arsenal and sent the gunners back to the top of the table after Manchester United briefly took the top spot following their victory at Anfield.

Next up is Blackburn in the Carling Cup tomorrow and with the second North London derby of the season on Saturday (plus, it's the Carling Cup) Wenger will probably give the kids a run with possibly Van Persie getting 90 in an attempt to bring his match fitness up the the required level. Personally, after his declaration that he wants to leave the club I'll be interested in seeing if Lasanna Diarra plays again for Arsenal, tomorrow might be a good indicator of that.

(Jens Lekman vs. Final Fantasy at Whelan's - Dublin) vs. (Arsenal [2] vs. [1] Steaua Bucharest at Ashburton Grove - London)

There was something of a mini Irish blogosphere summit at the table I was sitting at on Tuesday for Final Fantasy and at one point I was asked what the deal with the Music and Arsenal thing is. I tried to explain the 2 overwhelming passions in my life but I'm not sure if I managed it well, there was something about David O'Leary and Genoa mentioned but it's hard to verbalise. I suspect that only Nick Hornby would truly understand.

And from time to time the 2 come into conflict; mainly when there's a gig on at the same time as when the gooners are on the telly. Last night was one such occasion and with qualification for the second phase of the Champions League secured I toddled off to Whelan's for Jens Lekman (there's a terribly obvious joke to be made there).

I can't watch just half a match so safe in the knowledge that I had the DVD recorder set I tried to put the events going on in London out of my mind and arrived early enough to catch North Dakotan Tom Brosseau charm everyone in the room with a rather nice line in twee-country and "aww shucks" likeabilty. To be honest I kinda want Santy to bring me my own North Dakotan singer-songwriter to keep as a pet. There was a glint in his eye though, for some reason I suspect that there's a bit of the Aaron Stamplers about him.

Meanwhile ... a fairly second string looking Arsenal side were spending the first half of their match dominating Steau Bucharest. Robin Van Persie was back in the side for the first time since he suffered a knee injury a couple of months back and he brought an unpredictability and spark to the side that's been missing in the past few games and early on he set up a decent opportunity for Theo Walcott, who looked dangerous thoughout the game but ultimately didn't produce much in the way of an end product, before Diaby broke the deadlock after 8 minutes when he controlled Sagna's low cross on the run and knocked the ball past onrushing Steaua keeper to make it 1-0. RVP was invloved in the second when his through ball found Bendtner who controlled well and slide the ball home make it 2-0 on 42. The big Dane has been doing well of late and should be in contention for a place on the bench on Sunday against Chelsea.

The second half saw Arsenal continue dominate but fail to score. Things began to look a bit shaky in the final 20 minutes after Steaua pulled a goal back after Zaharia got in front of Armand Traore at the back post to head past the returning Jens Lehman and the Romanians created another couple of chances later on in the game that they weren't able to convert.

Back at Whelan's Jens Lekman was performing at a similar level to Arsenal were in the first 45 at the Emirates. A stripped back lineup featuring himself and a bongo player meant that without his lush arrangements the Swede was able to demonstate just how good his songs truly are, his understated guitar playing meant that everything was framed around his gorgeous voice and at times he was utterly captivating with "A postcard for Nina" from this year's Night Falls Over Kortedala being an early personal highlight.

Not that he needed any help but midway through the second half NO, that's fucking dreadful, late in the set Lekman was joined on stage by Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy for 3 or4 songs, the best of which was probably "Maple Leaves". Pallett looked utterly in his element filling out Lekman's songs and appeared to be having lots of fun with it, a stark contrast to the slightly rushed impression that I got from him at his own gig the previous night. I'd been told of the collaboration the night before and to be honest I was a little wary over the prospect of it; I worried that Pallett, being the bigger name, might overshadow Lekman in the eyes of the crowd and that he'd get a bigger reception for just playing some backup parts than Jens would for playing the entire gig. Fortunately that wasn't how things turned out it and to me it felt more like it was just some dude up there playing violin than some earth shattering joining of the somewhat wimpy looking indie titans. Which I guess is the best way for it to have been. But to be honest I don't think the reunited Led Zepp (including a reincarnated Bonzo) hitting the stage could have stopped the night being all about Jens.

Arsenal play Chelsea on Sunday, they've been something of a bogey side for us in recent years but with Drogba injured and Essien suspended I think they're really takeable.

Finally, the Foggy Notions XMas do it tonight headlined by Girl Talk. The secret special guest was announced today as being Final Fantasy (that was the worst kept secret in Irish music by the way). I'm not going to review it, assume that I enjoyed it.

More Okkervil River.

Awww

This time in the form of a free online EP.

Will Sheff on the Okkervil River message board wrote:

Hello message board folks, I'm writing this from Brooklyn, having just gotten off the plane from London after our last show of the year yesterday. I'm writing to let you know of a surprise release we put together that's available on the Okkervil website right now. It's called "Golden Opportunities," and it's a kind of album of covers we recorded live on tour. Some of them were recorded on radio shows, some at live performances, some at people's apartments, and one of them was recorded in the stairway at our hotel in Muenster while the maid was angrily banging things around, with additional overdubs done onstage before the show in Berlin, and another overdub done in the bar in Hamburg attached to our venue there. These are all covers I worked up on the last tour whenever I had the occasion, with the eventual intention of putting them out somewhere for free. They all kind of have something to do with themselves and kind of to the "Stage Names" material. Anyway, you can get the album in a normal-resolution as well as a somewhat higher-resolution form for free on the website right now, as well as PDFs of the artwork and liner notes (in two color formats) that you can print. I just kind of wanted to do a release fast and for fun and give it to you guys for free.

Also, the only press I'm doing for this release is online interviews. Anyone who wants can send an email to mixtape@okkervilriver.com and I'll choose from the questions and post an "interview" chosen from the questions on Friday.

Hope everyone's well, and happy holidays.

Will


Tracklisting:

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES Mixtape

Recorded live on tour, 2006-2007

1. APRIL ANNE (John Phillips)

2. SIMON SMITH AND THE AMAZING DANCING BEAR (Randy Newman)

3. I WANT TO KNOW (Charles F. Olsen/Ed Sanders)

4. DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO (Jimmy Webb)

5. I CAME HERE TO SAY IM GOING AWAY (Serge Gainsbourg/Trans. by W. Sheff)

6. THE BLONDE IN THE BLEACHERS (Joni Mitchell)

7. ANTARCTICA STARTS HERE (John Cale)

8. LISTENING TO OTIS REDDING AT HOME DURING CHRISTMAS (Will Sheff)

9. SOLO (Sandy Denny)

AUDIO

• CLICK HERE to downlad the mixtape at higher quality (MP3 format, 192 kbps)
• Coming Soon (MP3 format, 128 kbps)

ARTWORK

• CLICK HERE to download printable artwork and liner notes
• CLICK HERE to download printable artwork and liner notes (alternate version)
• CLICK HERE to download printable artwork and liner notes (black and white)

What ... the fuck???

All yours for €225.

Your Platinum Package includes:

Meet and Greet with Avril Lavigne before the show

Photo opportunities may be possible (subject to schedules)

Floor (standing) ticket to see Avril Lavigne live in concert

Private VIP entry (where available)

Exclusive Damn Cool gift

Tour programme

Commemorative VIP pass

Please note that your tickets for the concert will be delivered to you via the method of delivery chosen during your ticket purchase. Your Platinum Package includes a meet and greet opportunity, during which it is anticipated there will be an opportunity to take photographs (there will not be a professional photographer present due to time constraints). Video cameras and recording devices will not be permitted. The Platinum Package elements (VIP Pass, tour programme and Damn Cool tour gift) will be presented to you on arrival. An itinerary and entry details will be sent

Ring Trick

IDM from San Francisco that I got turned on to last night. Good stuff.

MySpace.

He's also quite handy at the auld remixing as you can see from what I'm posting.

MP3: Ring Trick - Videotape (Ring Trick Remix)

Sunset Rubdown - European Tour

May apparently. I'll give my first born to the promoter that makes this happen in Ireland.

Final Fantasy - Vicar St. - Dublin

There's a somewhat crude saying regarding fellatio (provided that there aren't any tragic accidents involving teeth or braces) that I could invoke when discussing tonight's Final Fantasy gig but I won't. Presumably you already get the idea.

Under no circumstances could I say that Owen Pallett gave a bad performance tonight but by the high standards that I've seen him reach on various stages in the past (not a word of a lie, I think he's probably the best solo live performer I've ever seen) this was really quite poor. And to be honest I can't put my finger on why.

I can tell you what it wasn't though, it wasn't his new experiments in V.I sound and it wasn't the amount of fresh material he played which for me were some of the highlights of the gig, nor was it his failure to "play the hits". It's just that each of the 4 previous occasions that I've seen him play he's always managed to top the last time* and this was the first time that he's not done it. In fact it was the worst I've ever seen him. Perhaps it's just a case of Final Fantasy fatigue but I doubt it; when it comes to the debate over whether or not it's better to listen to an act's records in the run up to seeing them live I'm firmly rooted in the good idea camp and revisiting both Final Fantasy albums in the past few days really upped my levels of anticipation about tonight. Then much of it fell a little flat live, a point seemingly lost on the at times near-sycophantic crowd, vast sections of which rose to their feet twice to applaud as Pallett left the stage. Or maybe they just genuinely really enjoyed it, good for them.

That's not to say that there weren't good, no, scratch that, wonderful parts of the gig. The aforementioned new material hints that the upcoming Heartland could be one of 2008's best records whilst marking a change of direction to a harsher, more experimental (dare I say based on one of the songs, Xiu Xiu influenced) sound. "Hey Dad" mutating into a by itself brilliant version of "The CN Tower belongs to the dead" was fantastic. There were plenty of moments like that. But every other time there's never been moments, there's just been the gig.

Oh by the way, Miracle Fortress who opened were only deadly.

Oh by the way (redux), if you're going to Jens Lekman in Whelan's tonight (I guess it's tonight at this point) keep an eye out for who's in his string section.

* Obviously this doesn't hold for the first time I saw him play. Duh.

Dude from Okkervil River hangs out with ducks.

Newcastle 1-1 Arsenal ... Middlesbrough 2 -1 Arsenal

Well I'm not going to sugar coat it. We were pretty shit in both matches last week with the only highlights being a pair of really impressive goals from Ade on Wednesday and Rosicky yesterday. Worryingly those are pretty much the only 2 decent opportunities we created over the course of those 180 odd minutes.

Actually, maybe to say that we were pretty shit is unfair to Boro' and Newcastle. Both sides worked very, very hard for what they got, they closed their opposite numbers down really well and gave them no time to play. That might not have been too much of a factor with a full strength squad but those tactics have really shown up how important Cesc and Hleb are to us. Gilberto and Diarra in the middle are far too similar and neither have the quick feet to move the ball about when put under immediate pressure after receiving the ball off defenders who themselves are under pressure. We really can't have those 2 (and RVP for that matter back soon enough).

By the way, Eboue is an arsehole. But we all knew that anyway.

Anyway, we're still top of the league despite being in the middle of our first rough patch of the season, I can think of at least 19 other worse positions to be in.

Next up is the final Champions League pool game on Wednesday, it's possible for us to still top the group but we need a favour to be done for us, as it turns out it may not be the loss in Sevilla that'll cost us but rather the the draw in Prague as in head to head results we're still better than the Spaniards.

After that it's Chelsea on Sunday.

Did this seem rushed? Well it is 5 days since the Newcastle game.

Because I've not posted an MP3 in almost a week.

I was flicking through some end of year best of list this morning and noticed that Boys And Girls In America had come somewhere in the top ten albums of the year poll in whatever the publication was.

It's an album that I've sort of forgotten about recently, in fact I can't think of the last time that I listened to it. Certainly not since September as I know I was going through something of a Seperation Sunday phase at the time. All the same Craig Finn, his band and his lyrical universe of scumbags, dealers, addicts, drunks and losers have been on my mind a lot today and in the absence of having any CD's to hand this afternoon I trawled through my music folder and opened up their debut Almost Killed Me. When I got to the album's final song, the one that's my favourite from it, I got an odd nostalgic feeling for some reason. And I began thinking that I'd like to be in a band again.

Then it hit me. When I joined them on stage in the Temple Bar Music Center back in February after Tad Kubler leaned out into the crowd and said "Can any of you play guitar?" this was the song that I played with them.

MP3: The Hold Steady - Killer Parties from Almost Killed Me

One of the funniest sketches in the history of anything.

HERE!

Vote in the cluas.com end of year polls.

Overall Album Of The Year.

Irish Album Of the Year.

Comment left on what I wrote about Stars Of The Lid.

we were talking at the bar about utter arseholes who probably think this middle of the road crap is somehow ethereal and weird and really need to explore past this arty farty crap and would write a review pretty much like this. music for people who don't like music. out of tune cellos playing three notes is the best way to describe this. trying to make more of it delves into the realm of pretentious wankers who want to talk about "amazing" gigs with other wankers.

Yawn. Anyone can be an asshole on the internet, well done. Posting anonymously is very brave, I'm terribly impressed.

If you didn't like it why didn't you fuck off?

EDIT: He's/she's back.

Okkervil River - Whelan's - Dublin

Oddly enough despite it being the best gig I saw in Ireland in 2006 the only tangible memories I have of Okkervil River's previous visit to Whelan's in May last year are of one of Black Sheep Boy's standout songs "For Real". A major noise wig-out intro -> the song itself -> major noise wig-out outro. I remember Will Sheff, the band's front-man, bellowing out lyrics about knives and blood and the type of dangerous, obsessional love which threatens to result in one partner ending up being lowered into the ground on top of a near deserted hill on some grey rainy day while the other winds up being marched to the gas chamber. I also remember Sheff climbing up on top of Travis Nelson's kick drum and realising that I was at something really special.

A similar "holy shit" moment arrived about 15 minutes into last night's gig when, after a few songs from this year's The Stage Names, the band launched into "The Latest Toughs", another Black Sheep Number that mentions knives. After the second verse the guitar dropped away leaving only the synths, drums and backing vocals led by the delightfully pickled Patrick Pestorius for a time before Sheff stepped past the monitors and pointed into the crowd, addressing people individually as he sang/spoke about being clueless about what he should do to please his fans.

Even if he doesn't know and is just winging he seems to have a pretty high success rate for making people at his shows happy. Sheff is an unlikely looking showman and his actions live are not what you'd expect from listening to his recorded output. Walking on stage conforming to the image of the bookish, introverted, if slightly dishevelled, poetic type in a shabby looking suit with shirt buttoned to the top he doesn't take long to reveal himself to be far more the Dylan Thomas type than the W.B. Yeats one and slowly but over the course of the gig off comes the jacket, the tie gets lowered and then later thrown towards Nelson for him to use as a headband, the collar gets loosened and eventually the shirt is discarded completely. He throws himself entirely into his performance, his voice cracking as he screams into the mic during songs like "For Real" and "Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe", towards the end of the main she his fingernail even splits as he breaks his guitar strings.

Yet he still retains the ability when required to scale things back and sing with great tenderness. No better demonstrated than on the first song of 2 encores when he returned to the stage with just his guitar and Brian Cassidy on lap-steel for accompaniment to play "A Stone".

On the subject of the second encore. I don't think that they expected to have to play one and given the crowd's reaction as they left the stage that final time a third wouldn't have been milking it but if they had left it at one there could have been few complaints as that set of songs culminated with a monstrous version of Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See's "Westfall". A song inspired in part by the 1991 murders in Austin of 4 teenage girls in a yogurt shop, but perhaps moreso by people's reactions to the killings. A former employee of the state Sheff has said that he was privy to details of the case not released to the public and at the time of the resulting trial in 2001 he saw his "co-workers looking at [the killer] and looking at him for the evil on his face. You wanted to see the evil, but it wasn't there." The song sums up almost perfectly what's great about Okkervil Record; on record it's a brilliantly constructed and cleverly written slice of folk tinged indie, live it's all that still but all jacked up on 'roids and is prepared to kick the ass of anyone who gets in it's way.

Actually no, fuckit, I wanted a third encore.

Thurston Moore - Tripod & Liars - Whelan's - Dublin

This morning someone left me a comment about what I wrote on Monday regarding the Dan Deacon gig, part of it read " Ian - is every last gig you see the gig of the year?". I'll admit that I've written a lot of very positive things about a lot of gigs in this blog but I've been fortunate this year, I've seen some fantastic stuff since January. But the short answer is no.

Case in point; up steps Thurston Moore, head Sonic Youther and, because I prefer to hear texture in my music rather than shredding, one of my very favourite guitarists who is currently touring his second solo album Trees Outside The Academy (which I've never got around to writing about here, I like it a great deal) and kicked off the European leg of the tour in Tripod on Monday.

Moore bounded onto the stage look nowhere near his 49 years of age around 9 last night having arrived in Ireland that morning after an overnight flight and had , according to him, not slept or washed since his arrival but seemed to be in a good humour. Which is fortunate as had he been in a bad mood and had to begin the set with 10 minutes of trying to get an unresponsive rented amp to work it might have been deeply uncomfortable for all concerned.

Things finally kicked off following probably the longest intro to "Frozen Guitar" in history and the main set featured the majority of the material on Trees... It also unfortunately featured some pretty bad sound at times with the bass in particular sounding very thin and weedy. Nothing so heinous to make it a bad gig, just a slightly lacklustre one that wasn't as good as it could have been. Special mention should go to Steve Shelly though. I recently read the 33 1/3 book on Daydream Nation and in it he was quoted as saying that when he joined Sonic Youth around the time of that album he pretty much joined his favourite band. Seeing him behind the kit with Thurston it appears that very little has changed on that score, he looked utterly content. As it happens the gig ended with the pair of long time band mates alone on stage together as the the encore was made up of songs from Psychic Hearts, Moore's first solo record from 1995.

Proceedings in Tripod were wrapped up by 10:20 so there was plenty of time to make the short walk across the LUAS line and down Camden Street through the rain to Whelan's. Considering and that this was the gig I was originally going to and only when it was announced last week that Liars' stage time had been move to 10:45 did I learn that I'd be able to catch Moore's show I had a far higher degree of anticipation and hope for my first time seeing Berlin's current finest ex-Brooklynites.

Those hopes were more than satisfied over the course of 45 blistering minutes which saw a frantic Angus Andrew turn his antebellum style white suit near transparent through perspiration as the band produced an incredible array of sounds on songs drawn mainly from this year's self-titled album and last years' Drums Not Dead (it's just drowned in delay and choked with reverb). The only gripe being that it was far shorter than I'd have liked and no one in the band felt like taking on the "Ah" part of "The Other Side Of My. Heart Attack".

Still not as good as Dan Deacon though.

How odd.

Today I've not been recieving notifications when someone leaves a comment, perhaps the internets from blogger are stuck in the tubes. Anyway, in the unlikely event that you've left me a comment and are waiting a responce I may have missed what you wrote.

My Radiohead fanboy credentials are impeccable.

But I think I'll skip the Dublin gig, 70 bills is I think a stretch too far when I saw them do most of the new material last year.

However, there is a presale on NOW on waste.

http://tickets.waste.uk.com/Store/DisplayItems.html

Dancing About Architecture

Radiohead, MBV, ATP, Portishead, V-Fest Oz style and a ton more.

Another Radiohead post.

Jim Carroll has the details this morning.

Tickets on sale on Friday, Malahide Castle, June 7th €70.70

Jaysus.

MCD dudes, hook a brother up.

In Rainbows disc 2.

The In Rainbows discboxes started arriving in people's homes today and obviously disc 2 was immediately ripped by a number of people and put on the torrent sites. I'm in the middle of listening to it for the first time so I can't really make an accurate judgement on it but the general line of thinking seems to be "yeah, I can see why these didn't make the album".

Here's one of the songs.

MP3: Radiohead - Down Is the New Up from In Rainbows (bonus disc).

Dan Deacon - Whelan's - Dublin

Were this a photo taken a litte while later I'd be standing beside Dan in it. Credit:The indie hour, shot by nialler9

Oh Christ, were do I begin?

For a start it's now 5PM and almost 19 hours after Baltimore's finest took to the floor in Whelan's I still feel absolutely destroyed. The reason I missed Dan Deacon's first appearance in Dublin was due to illness on the night meaning that I was unable to clamber off of the couch while he was blowing the roof off Crawdaddy. I've rued my poor health since that evening but after seeing him in action last night I refuse to believe that he could have possibly been better on Harcourt St. As it happens I only feel marginally better today then I did on that August night. But I wouldn't change a thing.

At a couple of points during the gig I had to pause for breath and tried to take in the chaos that was going on around me. A mass of frenzied, sweaty bodies were slamming into each other with no thought for the occasional stray elbows or stamping foot or the really quite nasty and unhygienic condition we were getting ourselves into, I seriously think I've walked out of showers drier. It was a bit like that party scene in the second Matrix film but with better tunes and as far as I can tell, despite Deacon's astonishing talent for making those around them lose their inhibitions it never descended into a shit faux orgy.

On the subject of lost inhibitions I have a confession to make. The awful dancing performed by the first participant in the dance off, I was responsible for that. In my defence any other night I'd probably have turned and bolted for the door like some terrified rabbit so I reckon I deserve points for that ... plus you can't dance to that shit ... and also the guy kinda accosted me at the start so I was in no position to refuse. Thanks for not booing anyway if you were there. I believe the phrase "looked like a chicken" was mentioned to me at some point afterwards. On a similar note, apologies to the numerous men, women, children and small animals I forced into doing this later on while Kool Drool was doing her thing ... ...

Yeah, I know, what a dick.

The night culminated with the utterly surreal image of Deacon handing out lyric sheets to the crowd around him so they could sing along choir like as he launched into "Wham City" an utterly insane 11 plus minutes of nonsense lyrics, glacial arpeggios and general good times which pretty much perfectly summed up what the whole night was about. Owen Pallatt is going to have to do something pretty special in Vicar St. next week to reclaim the title of best gig I've seen in 2007.

Afterwards Deacon was telling folks that he'll be back in about 8 months, so chances are he's already booked in for Electric Picnic.

Aston Villa 1 - 2 Arsenal

Who?

Going into yesterday's game against Villa it never looked like it was going to be easy and that's how it turned out to be with Martin O'Neill's side providing Arsenal with the toughest league test they've had all season. The first half saw the gooners play some spectacular football but it was Villa who opened the scoring first after 14 minutes when the constantly dangerous John Carew knocked a great cross into the box. William Gallas got a touch to the ball but it fell to Craig Gardner who side footed the ball well and put it past Manuel Almunia.

Arsenal resumed their dominance soon after though and bossed the rest of the half with Lasanna Diarra who got a rare midfield start in the place of the injured Cesc looking particularly dynamic at times. The scores were level 9 minutes after the deadlock had been broken when Matthieu Flamini ran onto the ball at the edge of the area to smash the ball past Scott Carson with his left foot. He could have scored again soon after from a similar sort of position but that time the shot was on his "good" right foot and he skied it.

Arsenal did take the lead after 36 minutes though when, following some nice passing out on the right Bakary Sagna knocked in a really rather poor cross (too much height, very little zip on it) but Adebayor rose above the Villa defence to thump his header home and send the away side into the break in the lead.

The second half was a much different affair though with Aston Villa playing very well and to be honest probably doing enough to warrant a point at least. They came out and immediately started harassing and haranguing their opponents, closing them down in all areas of the pitch and the tactic succeeded as they managed to knock Arsenal out of their rhythm.

Against that background Villa secured a lot more possession in the final 45 and looked extremely dangerous at times. Ashley Young in particular was very effective playing out of position on the left wing, there was some discussion on Match of the Day last night about whether he should get a run in the England side in that area and the general consensus was that he should, I wholeheartedly endorse this idea as not only is a super player but also, unlike the current incumbent of that position he appears to not be a total arsehole.

Young created a number of chances the best of which was a beautiful cross onto John Carew's head which the big Norwegian (who seems to make it his life's mission to fuck Arsenal's shit up, I've still not forgotten that CL tie and he was responsible for Alex Hleb coming off after an hour thanks to a horrible tackle) diverted onto the crossbar. However despite all their industry it was not to be for Villa and the fi