Guilty pleasure admission.

I think Feeder are alright.

I own none of their records.

Not even on MP3.

But I might go see them at a festival.

And watch from the back of the crowd.

If there was no one else good on.

And it wasn't raining.

The Japanese dude always had mad hair.

And this video is deadly. Actually I think my affection for them is based on this video.

Does this make me a racist?

Finally, details of the new Wolf Parade album are out.

Kissing the Beehive

June 17th on Sub Pop.

You think the general American public might be getting tired of this guy?

Bolton 2 - 3 Arsenal

Well that was an interesting game to say the least. There's been a lot of stuff written and said about Arsenal in recent weeks and much of it just goes to show how fucking stupid a high proportion of people who work in the sports media really are. For weeks it's been "bunch of bottlers" this and "spineless" that but on Match Of The Day last night the 2 expert clowns and the ordinary clown were discussing the match and talked about the great determination and spirit in the side and wondering where it had been of late. They were talking about a side that has repeatedly scored late goals to snatch points from the jaws of defeat this season but they seem to forgotten that. The fact that we'd gone over a month without a league win had nothing to do with heart, we just haven't been playing well it's as simple as that. Then there was the other beauty on Newstalk after the match about how at the start of the day Arsenal were out of the league race but now they're right back in it. I fail to see the logic in that, at 3 PM yesterday we were 6 points behind Manchester United and at 7 that evening that's where we were again, just with one game less to cut the deficit down.

All the same it was nice to put one over on that pack of cloggers yesterday, that hateful shit Allerdyce is long gone but it's still very much his team and one that I don't think I'll ever be able to muster any affection for unless they develop time travel technology and bring back Youri Djorkaeff and Super Jay-Jay to bring a bit of class to the side. It didn't look like it was going to happen after the first 45 minutes though. Despite the French connection the club has a guillotine is far too elaborate a device to construct from household materials and I imagine a number of gooners were considering how to fashion a crude gallows as an alternative to watching the second half.

Those that were unable to find a rope I imagine would have found the second half a little bit more pleasing on the eye due to the lack of Matty Taylor bagging a brace as a result of shocking defending from Kolo and a deflection off Gallas after Flamini was caught in possession when Arsenal tried to play it out from the back. After the match Gary Megson said an interesting thing, when games are at 2-0 the next goal it so vital, it's obvious but 100% true. Had Bolton scored another, and there was one great opportunity from a corner which Manny saved point blank it would have killed the game, if the other side score then they're back in it.

And score next we did when Gallas made up a little for his error on the second Bolton goal by sneaking in at the far post (and he loves making that run as evidenced by goals scored against Utd and Chelsea at Ashburton Grove this season) to score after Campo's attempted clearance only served to flick the ball on at the near post. What happened next just demonstrates how important momentum is in the game, Chelsea had it last week and as sickening as the second goal was last Sunday you could certainly see an equaliser coming. It was really the same yesterday but this time it was Arsenal on the front foot. Van Persie equalised from the spot after Cahill brought down Hleb in the box following some lovely football which resulted in Flamini forcing a fine save and Hleb just making it to the breaking ball first.

Had he been a little sharper Van Persie could have won it on a couple of occasions but as the game headed into injury time it appeared that things were headed for a draw, one that considering the first half I'd have happily taken. Then there was a little bit of pinball in the box which resulted in this ...

I'd like to say that I feel sorry for Jlloyd Samuel what with yesterday being his birthday and all but fuck him, if he wanted to leave Villa he should have picked a different club.

It's Liverpool in the CL quarter finals in midweek and despite their record in recent years I don't know if Benitez's European Kung Fu voodoo will work against us and whatever deficiencies pool have demonstrated this season in the premiership could well affect them again. I hope.

Not an awful list.

Entertainment weekly lists the most significant indie release for each of the 25 years.

Click.

Rectifying a grievous error: Part 2

The second album that's been distracting me from the rest of my life of late is Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornados) the 8th (or 6th if you go with what allmusic says) album from Cloud Cult. I've got a pretty low tolerance for touchy feely hippy bullshit and from reading their bio Cloud Cult, who have created a non-profit record label with the proceeds going to environmental charities and whose offices are in songwriter Craig Minowa's organic farm "powered by geothermal energy and built partially from reclaimed wood and recycled plastic," should get right up my nose.

The tunes are really good though. There are songs about how we're all made of water and the album closes with a declaration of Minowa's love for everyone and in less skilled hands the sentiments expressed could come across as being utterly mawkish, we're talking Polyphonic Spree levels of positivity here. Listening to the album again as I write this I realise that many of the lyrics aren't a million miles away from what the not dissimilar sounding Wayne Coyne might come up with when he's not making death sound delightful and triumphantly joyous. But what Cloud Cult do is far less sprawling and much more succinct then the Flaming Lips' material. They specialise in what are basically tight little 3 minute pop-songs and they approach and arrange them in a manner that's really familiar sounding whilst still regularly throwing in enough interesting little (mainly percussive) flourishes that have meant I've occasionally found myself jarred into giving the music my full attention when I really should be focusing on other things. Considering that my job sometimes entails ensuring that people are prevented from being horribly burned in a fire I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing.

Though the Why? record just shades it for me in terms of what my favourite album of the year is (I'm still waiting for something to come along to knock me onto my arse however) I can't stress enough just how good an album I think is. I had fully expected Islands' upcoming second album to effortlessly be the finest indie-pop album of 2008 but Cloud Cult have stepped right up into Nick Thorburn's grill and bitch-slapped with one of those gloves that knights used to wear prior to the extinction of dragons.

MP3: Cloud Cult - Journey Of The Featherless from Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes)
MP3: Cloud Cult - Hurricane And Fire Survival Guide from Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes)

This is normally the point where I mention that the band have a gig coming up in Ireland and give the date and venue but I don't know if Cloud Cult are the sort of people who would get on a plane unless they really needed to.

Rectifying a grievous error: Part 1

For the past couple of weeks I've been listening to what are I think are probably the 2 most immediately attention grabbing albums that I've heard this year but as of yet I've not made mention of them here. Both are by bands who I'd never heard previously before coming across these albums and it's possible that the reason that the albums have grabbed me so readily is because the acts who put them out are fresh to me.

The first is an album that Nialler 9 has been all over for months. Why?'s Alopecia, is the third album by ex-cLOUDDEAD member Yoni Wolf's current project. It's actually a little confusing as the names he's used in various things that he's been involved in tend to overlap and as far as I can tell he's used the Why? moniker whilst he was a member of cLOUDDEAD and Greenthink as well as as a solo artist and as the name of the 3-piece band that released the album I'm blogging about as well as various other one off things.

My brain hurts a little right now.

Anyway, it's a fantastic record that pulls together elements of hip-hop, folk and hip-hop and at the moment the second MP3 I'm posting today is my favourite song of the year so far.

MP3: Why? - The Hollows from Alopecia
MP3: Why? - Fatalist Palmistry from Alopecia

Why? play Andrews Lane Theatre on Saturday 26th April.

I had meant to talk about both albums in a single post but time is short and I'm going to see Subplots in Whelan's this evening so I need to exercise/eat/shower/etc. I'll proselytise about the other record tomorrow.

Probable lineup announement for the Electric Picnic.

Found on thumped.

Sigur ros, the sex pistols, franz ferdinand, underworld, superfury animals, Flamin Lips, Mogwai, Mercury rev, My Bloody valentine, Moby, Fat boy slim, Massive attack, Bloc party, Tindersticks, Supergrass, The Cure, The Breeders,Elbow,CSS, George Clinton, Chic featuring Nial rogers Gary newman, The Human league, 808 State, The Orb, Faust, Neon Neon, Jamie lidelle, Foals, Lee scratch perry, Baaba Mal. the wedding present, sebastian tellier, henry rollins, Billy Bragg, Marty mulligan, Saul Williams, Booka shade, Transglobal underground, Goldfrapp, two gallants, King Creosete. Joe Lean and the jing jang jong, Damien Rice, Duke spirit, Crystal castles, Tinariwen, Red snapper, F**kk buttons, Micha P Hinson, Dan le sac V's Scroobius, Fish go deep, Grand National, Lisa hannigan, cinephile, King of Convienience, David Kitt, Donal dineen, Gossip, Plaid, Rodrigo y gabriella.

Plenty of really good stuff there, some shit too.

A note on Baby Dee.

I went along to her gig on Saturday more out of curiosity piqued by reading her bio than anything. I'm really glad I did though. The first part of the gig stumped me a little, I'm still not sure if I liked it or not but the second group of songs where she was at the piano was magical.

She'll be back soon enough too, as part of a really appetising looking billing which is taking place during a fantastic weeks worth of gigging in Dublin.

Baby Dee on MySpace.

The best thing they've ever done will still be a Jape cover.

The Raconteurs are the latest big band to do something funny with the release of a record. It's all summarised here (by the way, judging by the comments on that page Guardian readers don't like music reviewers much, I wonder if they're below or above "George W. Bush", "non-organic, non-fair trade lentils" and "shops that have run out of Birkenstocks" on The List). Basically Jack, Brendan and the other 2 aren't sending out review copies to the media so the fans get to hear it at the same time as the press does on release day.

That was the plan anyway, iOops. The album appeared on the private torrent networks as early as 8AM last Friday in lossless M4A format so that seems to indicate that Spin have their facts right. I wonder if any heads will roll at Apple over this.

Chelsea 2 - 1 Arsenal

I'm sorely tempted to write, "Title challenge all but finished. United won't fuck up the way we have. Feeling sad." Then top it off with a spiteful, "Chelsea are a pack of pricks".

And then leave it like that. I think it pretty succinctly sums things up.

Yesterday was dreadfully frustrating and the fact that we've had 3 offside decisions incorrectly go against us in 2 games is a bit like being kicked in the nuts. Well, it's more like being kicked in the nuts 3 times. One thing I like about the game is that it's pretty much the same at all levels, every match plays by the same rules. It democratises the game I think and for no other reason then that the idea of goal line technology and video replays doesn't sit quite right with me. For that reason I propose a hangman style solution to the issue of linesmen getting these things wrong. The first time a goal is either given or disallowed incorrectly the offending official should have a finger chopped off. And another the next time they fuck up. This continues all the way across the hand. Then the hand goes at the wrist, then the arm at the elbow, the the arm just comes off. Then you start at the other side. Then you hang them.

All that being said Chelsea would have been good value for a draw but for them to have won feels like being robbed. Arsenal had plenty of possession and created a few chances in the first hour but Chelsea, who looked like they were the away side such was their happiness to sit back and hit on the break, probably had more opportunities to score, mainly because of Gallas and Toure's inability to get to grips with the physicality of Didier Drogba. I suppose it takes the heat off of Senderos a bit now, it now appears that he's got the measure of anyone Wenger puts out to play him. That's probably a little unfair, he's not had a great season by the standards that he set in the previous 2 but Drogba is the one top class attacking player in the Premiership who seems to always deliver against the big teams.

From the moment Sagna headed home his first goal for the club at the near post things swung towards Chelsea's favour. Emmanuel Eboue's rare example of good grace and sportsmanship backfired somewhat and his putting of the ball out as an opponent lay on the ground wound up putting us on the back foot and under pressure and resulted in the equalising goal. I've just about had enough of Eboue, when he's acting like the biggest prick in the league he's a hindrance, when he's acting like a decent human being and showing concern for a fellow pro it shafts us and in between he offers almost nothing, no goals this season, one assist.

He's a good athlete but not much of a footballer, or at least not one that's good enough for what Arsenal are aiming to acchieve. His physical gifts covered for him a little at right back before Sagna was in the squad as he had the pace and strength to recover much of the time when he allowed an opponent to get in behind him but on the right side of midfield? Nah, I don't think so.
Walcott is tricky and quick and in the past month or so he's demonstrated that he can seriously worry defenders when he runs at them. The kid is young but of late what we're doing isn't working unless we're playing one of the historic giants of the European game so perhaps it's time to freshen things up.

Speaking of historic European giants, it's looking like the Champions League is our best shot at silverware now and if Liverpool are as anemic against us as they were yesterday then we've got a great chance of making the semi-finals. I had zero sympathy for Mascherano yesterday by the way. It's just a shame that the ref didn't have Bennett's balls on Wednesday night in the Chelsea/Spurs match.

Bolton at the weekend, giving that shower of thugs a beating and sending them closer to the drop won't cheer me up, but I might giggle a little for a couple of minutes.

Back when I was in a band ...

... the best Irish one I shared a bill with was called Envelope. The day we played with them I walked into the Hub for soundcheck and their drummer informed me that I'd been to school with him. I drew a complete blank, kinda embarrassing. Turns out he was a couple of years below me, so that was okay.

It's 18 or so months later and my old school chum has since left the band and they're now called Subplots. I saw them play at club AC30 in Whelan's last Sunday and got a quick fire reminder of how much I liked them. They launch a new single, "Alarm", upstairs in Whelans next Friday (28th), you can listen to it on their MySpace. €7 in.

First Impressions: Man Man - Rabbit Habits

A few months back a recommendation from an Internet acquaintance led me to 6 Demon Bag, the then 18 month old second album from Philadelphia 4-piece Man Man. This resulted in something of a minor obsession with the record which forced me to rejig my list of favourite things from the city of brotherly love somewhat so that it now reads ...

1. Rocky Balboa
2. Man Man
3. The bell
4 -> (∞ - 1). Everything else
∞. Those disgusting cheese-steak things.

Rabbit Habits is the (judging by the chatter across blogs and boards in recent weeks, highly anticipated) follow up to 6 Demon Bag. The first thing that strikes me about it is that it's a far easier listen then it's predescessor. Man Man seem to have favoured a gentler sort of chaos this time around. There's still loads of atypical-for-an-indie-band instruments and the band's melodies continue to wrap themselves around each other but they're much more subtly mixed this time, it's a bit of a shame because one of the most enjoyable things about the last record was the way sounds crashed off each other.

Nonetheless for the first few songs Rabbit Habits is unmistakeably a Man Man record. For some reason I imagine the first 3 songs soundtracking a chase scene in some sort of twisted slapstick comedy. It's probably because the xylophone on "The Ballad Of Butter Bean" sounds as though it took a Looney Toons cartoon's score as it's inspiration. If you can remember childhood evenings spent watching Bugs sneaking up behind Elmer Fudd and surreptitiously placing a stick of dynamite into his arse pocket you'll probably know what I'm on about.

The album then takes a major swing in direction from "Big Trouble" onwards, when an organ and horn refrain are augmented by a meandering guitar part and, once again, xylophone to create something akin to Tom Waits embracing freak-psychedelica. And it's the psychedelic elements that remain the basis for much of what follows after that song. The record's sound plunges headfirst into the 60's and 70's though oddly despite that the tone become a little more sombre until it reaches the closing 3 songs. "Top Drawer" is the type of song that could make the Republic Of Loose fall to their collective knees and pray to every god ever praised by huckster or prophet to be able to write. Don't let that put you off though, it's also an example of almost everything that Man Man do really well. "Poor Jackie" is 8 wonderful minutes of strings, Spanish and surf guitars, Balkan horns and spiritual blues before things come to a peaceful end with the nearly as lengthy "Whalebones", a song that has finally convinced me that Man Man can do simple too.

Rabbit Habits sees Man Man seemingly more comfortable in themselves and more confident in their ideas. Content to explore fewer things in each song they've allowed more space for everything to breath and the results are probably a little more accessible though. I prefer the last record however, for me they're a better band when they toss ideas at the listener in the fashion that monkeys flinging feces at passers-by do.

MP3: Man Man - Rabbits Habits from Rabbit Habits.

Man Man play Whelan's on May 11th. I think it'll be deadly.

Anton Newcomb invented music.

Drowned In Sound Interview.

I saw BJM once, thought it was dreadful.

Fuck you Tony Soprano.

Journey are coming.

Urrrrgggghhhh.

What the what?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article3578699.ece

Amanda Andrews and Jonathan Richards

In a career built on publicity-seeking moves, Madonna has made another bid for attention by announcing plans to give Vodafone customers access to her latest album before it goes on sale.

The Material Girl, who turns 50 this year, will release one song a day from Hard Candy, her eighteenth full-length album, in the week leading up to its retail release on April 28.

Seven of the eleven tracks will be available for Vodafone customers to buy for about 99p each. They can be downloaded for 24 hours before being replaced by the next track.

The mobile operator's customers in ten countries, including the UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium, will also be able to buy

4 Minutes, Madonna's new single, for 75p immediately. The Timbaland production features Justin Timberlake.

John Reid, Warner Music Europe president, said: “Vodafone's enormous platform will bring enormous marketing power. Madonna is one of a few artists with worldwide appeal and we expect these to sell well.

“This is an innovative way to reach millions of Madonna fans around the world, building anticipation and excitement around this landmark release and helping to create a real event for Vodafone customers.”

The decision follows a similar move by Timbaland, an artist as well as a renowned R&B producer, in the United States last month. He became the first artist to release an album exclusively via mobile on the Verizon network.

Previously concerned that iTunes would mean the demise of the album, Madonna relented to the power of Apple's online music store only last year. In 2006, a ringtone of Hung Up became the best-selling in 29 countries when it was released a month before the song went on sale in stores.

News of Madonna's latest album release came as she faced press speculation in the past week about her marriage.

Reports of a split between Guy Ritchie and Madonna have come as the film director failed to make an appearance at the singer's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I am delighted to confirm that Mr and Mrs Guy Ritchie remain happily married,” Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's spokeswoman, said yesterday.

First Impressions: Animal Collective - Water Curses EP

I wonder what it says about Animal Collective, or more importantly for that matter me when I'm at the point that I can listen to new material from them and have a vague idea of what it is they're actually doing to make some of the noises that the use in their music. Probably that I've spent too much time kneeling in front of a pedal board twiddling knobs with little to show for it but an ever worsening hunch in my back, a pair of bad knees and the ability to recognise a reverb pedal working in tandem with a Boss BF-3 set to gate/pan mode with the rate setting really low. I think I may just be wasting the precious few years of life that I have on this planet.

Water Curses is a 4-track collection of off cuts from the Strawberry Jam sessions but to hear them you might be more reminded of it's predecessor. Instead of the frantic nature of the record Animal Collective put out last year where ideas where flung at you from all sides resulting in towering constructions of shrieked vocals, rapid fire arpeggios and in the case of "Peacebone", what sounded like a monster farting (ok, so I can't decipher everything they do) all four of the songs on this EP share the same languid, dreamlike mood as much of the Feels material.

Not that they're any worse for it. The opening title track finds lyrics clamouring all over each other straining to be heard. They pretty much all fail and this results in a pleasingly ethereal effect. There's something about wanting to be like water in there but whoever Avery Tere is addressing it's not the listener, we only get part of the story. "Cobwebs" and "Seal Eyeing" share a similar relaxed feeling to them but the pick of the bunch is this little beauty.

MP3: Animal Collective - Street Flash from Water Curses

Animal Collective play Tripod on May 20th. Support will be from Atlas Sound.

Twenty Major is fucked now.

I don't read his blog and I haven't read his book but someone has, and they're mighty pissed off. Hell hath no fury like a bedwetter scorned.

Want one.

Here's Jim O'Rourke playing with one ...





Tenori On

Arsenal 1 - 1 Middlesbrough

Oh dear, the wheels appear to be falling off just a little bit. We can play the reigning European Champions off the park away from home in the Champions League but right now we can't buy a win in the league. I don't know what's more frustrating, playing terribly against Wigan and deservedly dropping points or to create chances and have to rely on a late, late goal to salvage a point as happened on Saturday. Things could have turned out differently so easily though, had Adebayor not been incorrectly ruled offside as he put the ball past Schwarzer the side may have settled and wound up scoring eleventy goals. I know that's not a real number but I wound up at a party last night, it was fancy dress and the hostess was in a Wurzel Gummidge outfit.

Back to Saturday, chances wasted, posts hit, and a couple of questionable offside decisions led to more dropped points, it was all looking so promising a few weeks ago when Arsenal were 5 points clear and it was theirs to lose. Which it seems they're doing. According to Gallas it's a mental thing and the games against teams like Wigan are tough to get motivated for after a performance like the one in the San Siro. I would respectfully suggest that it's more of an arse problem, as in the lack of a boot up Gallas', he's in a side chasing a league championship which should be more enticing than any single victory. He's been a great leader on the field for most of the season and after the week he'd had with Sagna I'm willing to let the Birmingham thing go but those comments are so so frustrating to hear.

There's one of those oh so convenient for Sky double headers at the weekend where the top 4 face each other and the result between Liverpool and United is just as vital as ours at Stamford Bridge. It would be idiocy to say that Benitez's rotation policy has worked even though Pool are the form side in the league right now; well Torres, Gerrard and Mascherano are in form, they've not got a snowballs chance in hell that they'll peg back all three sides that are above them in the table but with United losing to Portsmouth in the Cup (despite creating a tonne of chances) and misfiring on the way to a victory over Derby at the weekend this could be their best chance in a while to take 3 points off of Ferguson's crew. Having said that United have Bolton between now and then and could easily go into Sunday's game on the back of a 4 goal victory.

Out of our hands though and we really need to have our focus on Chelsea. I really don't rate Grant as a manager and personally feel that their position is a result of the simple fact that they've got the most talented and deepest squad in the league but against the top sides they won't have the tactical nous to win through. At least I hope they won't. We'll see at the weekend.

Bon Iver live set.

Jim mentioned Bon Iver yesterday as one of the highlights of his Wednesday at SXSW. I wrote about his debut album For Emma, Forever Ago back in December. At the time I said it impressed me and that with a bit more time with it it could reveal itself to be one of my favourite albums of the year. As it turns out I was right and for the past few weeks I've listened to little else. It's become my "goto album", the one that when I can't decide what to listen to I just stick on knowing that no matter what my mood it'll be perfect.

So obsessed have I become that I've taken to tracking down bootlegs of the live gigs. There's an excellent one from the second or third night of a recent tour opening for Black Mountain that I would have posted but it was in FLAC and tapers tend to get awful tetchy if you convert those into a lossy format. Fortunately today I found this ...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=855GRJVD

It's from the first night of that tour and was originally broadcast on NPR's All Songs Considered. I can't recommend it enough.

As I said a couple of weeks ago he's coming to Europe in May and I'd love to see him play here. Fingers crossed.

A Hawk And A Hacksaw dates.

Saturday 10 May
Cyprus Avenue, CORK
Doors 830pm
Tickets €12
http://www.cyprusavenue.ie

Sun 11th May.
Crawdaddy
A HAWK AND A HACKSAW
+ Wildbirds and Peacedrums
+ Chequerboard
Doors 8.00pm
Tix €15 incl bk fee
www.ticketmaster.ie

I wonder how events will conspire to mean they don't get to gig in Dublin this time.

Possible Tom Waits details.

Unconfirmed but I've been told highly likely.

National Concert Hall.

2 nights.

Don't know when.

€150 a ticket.

I'd pay it.

Bizarre OR a nice birthday gift.

The previous time I wrote about Man Man it was to say I wished someone would book them for a show in Ireland. 2 hours later a gig was announced.

Yesterday I wrote about the lack of a leak of their new album and the record leaks within an hour.

Someone posted a link to a blog that has it in the comments section of the previous post. I've not listened to it yet but I'm taking the day off so I'll get the chance as I stroll around Dublin today looking for a melodica.

Where the hell is my Man Man leak?

It's mad, in today's climate there's a certain sense of entitlement people have about free music. Beyond that certain people get frustrated when a highly anticipated album doesn't leak onto the web 2 months (which now seems to be the standard time frame) in advance.

We're now less than a month away from the street date of Man Man's Rabbit Habits and the record has still been kept mostly under wraps. To that end I think ANTI have to be given some credit for that. 5 songs have however sneaked out. If you look around I'm sure you can track them down but I'm going to post one of them today. It's not my favourite of the five, I'm saving that for a little something I'm preparing for tomorrow but it's the most intriguing. Man Man go Math-Rock?

MP3: Man Man -Hurly/Burly from Rabbit Habits.

Man Man play Whelan's on May 11th.

Leonard Cohen gig details.

As per Off The Record.

Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on June 14 and 15.

Tickets on sale on Friday priced at €88.50- €115.00. Pass, I'll save it for Tom if he comes.

My day ... just been made.

Found this on The Wrens board just now.

I found this on a "Cavern" message board. Pretty cool, boys, pretty cool...

Feb 25, 2008
The Wrens have "nearly finished" recording a new album.

The band previewed two new songs at the recording of Channel 4's Live From Abbey Road last week, their first new material since 2003's The Meadowlands.

A source said: "They're way ahead of schedule with the new album. Abbey Road isn't going on screen for a while, and the band felt it was the right time to see what people made of the new songs."

--Joel

Of course in the world of The Wrens "nearly finished" could mean "you're gonna have to wait another 2 years".

I just got that hug. The Wrens are my favourite North American band of all time and the best live act on the planet, I love them like hippies love The Dead. I'm posting a couple of rarities from them.

Oh and Charles Bissell is joining Okkervil River as a touring member on their April North American tour. Hopefully that means he'll be coming over with them when they hit Europe the following month when I presume they'll book another Dublin gig after their marvelous last one and that hopinf he'll be bringing his looptacular solo act along as an opener.

MP3: The Wrens - Everyone Choose Sides (alt. version) NOT from The Meadowlands.
MP3: The Wrens - Boys You Won't (live) from BBC Radio Humberside Session.

Delorentos are having the tour from hell.

http://delorentos.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=music&action=display&thread=1205013577

One of them will probably die by the time they get to SXSW.

I'll feel really bad if one of them does now.

Disappointment.

I should have guessed that Sunday wasn't going to be great when I vomited about 2 minutes after finishing my sausages in the morning. Kinda set the standard for the day.

I wrote this about 6 posts ago ... "Now watch us fuck up and drop points to Wigan on Sunday kick on from here and conquer all before us for the remainder of the season." Shoulda gone with my first instinct, always go with your first instinct. Rambo would go with his first instinct. Did I ever tell you about the time I changed my lotto numbers and the old ones won?

Never happened, but I'd be pissed off if it did.

But possibly not as much as the gooners pissed me off yesterday. Jesus they were shite, a couple of decent chances at the start of the halves but other than that almost nothing. It's hard to believe this was (mostly) the same side that went out to Milan last Tuesday and performed so brilliantly. OK United and Chelsea had similar post CL hangover results in the Cup at the weekend but they should have won their games too. The pitch at the JBB is no excuse even if it is a disgrace to the leagues it's still Wigan Athletic. Kevin Kilbane plays for them. Just go out and beat them.

So frustrating. There's not even much else to say about the game, that's how much of a non event it was.

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone was shite too. Etiquette is a fantastic record but whatever invitingly ramshackle quality Owen Ashworth has on record just became shambolic live. Was not feeling it at all. Here's a song about being a drug addict to lighten my mood.

I think I need a hug.

MP3: Elliott Smith - High Times from New Moon

First Impressions: Tapes N' Tapes - Walk It Off.

Poor Tapes N' Tapes, busting outta Minneapolis in October 2005 with a cracking debut album in The Loon that was full of nods to Pixies and Pavement they somehow found themselves inextricably connected , at least in this part of the world, to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who put out their first record around the same time. It was probably something something to do with shared vocal stylings and a somewhat messy aural aesthetic but bizarrely it was the Minnesotans who wound up playing second fiddle to the Philadelphia/Brooklyn band despite CYHSY's shocking live performances and more importantly lack of more than 4 good tunes.

Well nearly 3 years have gone by and it's a good 14 months since Clap Your Hands Say Yeah released their second album, a horrendous mess of a record entitled Some Loud Thunder which was produced by Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev/Flaming Lips/Mogwai producer who has perhaps become far too fond of compression in recent years*) so now (actually April) is as good a time as any to try and shake the comparisons and release their second album ... which was produced by Dave Fridmann.

Oh dear.

It's OK though, Walk It Off is good. A bit less charmingly directionless then it's predecessor, the band certainly sound tighter and more focused this time over. It's a more polished effort but probably less hooky than The Loon. But that doesn't mean that it's a bad record, there are plenty of good songs on offer, particularly the opening and closing 3. The band seem to be at their best when they allow the songs room to breath and give their ideas the space to make themselves heard. The only songs on the album I really don't care for are the ones where things become difficult to hear, "Blunt" is a bit of a sludgy mess as is the chorus on "Headshock". That song being followed by "Conquest" illustrates perfectly where the album's problems lie and where things went right. But you can hear for yourself, the band are streaming the entire album from their website here.

MP3: Tapes n' Tapes - Le Ruse from Walk It Off

Tapes N' Tapes are playing Tripod in Dublin on the 27th of May. Ireland's various promoters seem determined to not give people an evening off that month.

* I wouldn't necessary blame Fridmann for not being able to make a good CYHSY album. But I hated the way the last Flaming Lips record sounded too.

Pavement reunion on the cards?

The Guardian seems to think so.

Pavement reunion talk finds new legs



It must be exhausting being a former member of Pavement. Just as with Led Zeppelin alumni, every single interview leads right back to the reunion question. And not just that - every answer is scrutinised for the teensiest hint of what discussions might have taken place.

This week Pavement's name is back on fans' lips. The hubbub follows an article in Entertainment Weekly, where not one, not two, but three of the band's former members express an interest, however idly, in playing a reunion show. The band, one of the most important American indie groups of the 1990s, let's not forget, disbanded relatively amicably in 1999.

Both of the group's principal songwriters are entertaining the notion. Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, is certainly game: "Matador [Records] is having a 20th anniversary party soon, so maybe we'll try to do something for that," he said. "The only hurdle might be getting everyone to drop what they're doing, but I'm sure the excitement of playing again will make it okay."

Stephen Malkmus, the group's other main dude, is perhaps the busiest of the former five-piece. He is currently promoting a new solo album - his third since the break-up. He too seems willing: "Something small in 10 years like the Zeppelin thing sounds good to me," he said, referring to the Zep's one-off London show last year. "Obviously, the arena would be smaller than theirs, though."

And for bassist Mark Ibold, there was no hesitation at all. "Why not next month?" he said.

While there's nothing concrete in this talk, Matador's anniversary does fall next year - a coincidental 10 years since Pavement's dissolution. That gives the musicians more than enough time to free up schedules, relearn the songs and tune (or detune) guitars.

Adrian Crowley - Whelans (Upstairs) - Dublin

I outed myself over on the indie hour blog yesterday by admitting that I was at something of a loss to understand the praise that has been heaped upon Adrian Crowley's Long Distance Swimmer since it's release. It's a good enough record, with not a bad song and 2 very good more up tempo ones on it but I can't hear brilliance in it. Perhaps, considering the vitriol directed towards Super Extra Bonus Party and the Choice judges when SEBP beat Long Distance Swimmer to the 10 grand oversized novelty cheque last week, I shouldn't admit this. Anyone with the temerity to suggest that it was a deserving winner has in some quarters been treated as though they're David Irving talking about what Germany got up to in the 40's. I now fully expect to face no end of shunning and cold shouldering at the next geek convention.

But it was a Wednesday night and I'm curious by nature so I took myself off to Whelan's to catch Crowley's first night in his month long residency in the new upstairs venue. After seeing him play I'm pretty much in the same place as I was before. He's a talented guy, the songs are fine, but save for a couple of them, including the as yet unreleased opener they just don't resonate with me. I do covet his voice though, it's got a beautiful timbre to it, as though it's been aged in an oak casket.

But really I want to talk about Mumblin' Deaf Ro.

Ronan Hession's second album The Herring And The Brine has over the course of the past month or so been snaking it's way into my subconscious. It's an record that I initially liked but then put aside. However since its cover jumped out at me as I was flicking through one of the stacks of CD's that I've got on the desk in my bedroom as I tried to decide what to listen to a few weeks back it's one that I've found myself returning to over and over again. In fact on more than one occasion of late I've stopped what I've been listening to mid-track and stuck on Hession's album. Then there's the absent minded whistling of "Under A Murder Moon" that I caught myself doing a few days ago.

It had been 2 years since I'd seen last MDR prior to his opening set at the gig last night. Hession remained seated throughout and his songs, with their intricate finger-picking and tales of love in an asylum, deposed Central American premiers and murderous siblings; were every bit as beguiling live as they are on record. His subject matter is not the typical fare of most Irish musicians and prior to many of his songs he took the time to explain what he was going to be singing about to make it easier to follow though there were times when I was left none the wiser (I think there was something about a life wasted and redemption being found in a German fruit factory at one point). Not blessed with a conventionally strong set of pipes Hession's voice has a raw charm to it and his melodies possibly benefit from the odd bum note here and there. It's an awful shame he gigs so infrequently.

The final episode of The Wire is OUT NOW.

You can go looking for links to it on thumped. Or for a torrent the piratebay. Apparently it's a HBO screener that wound up in the hands of someone that it shouldn't have.

Boy oh boy oh boy. Here's the original version of the show's theme song.

MP3: Tom Waits - Way Down In The Hole from Frank's Wild Years.

Remember I said that I'd like to get a recording of that Arcade Fire Sam Cooke cover?

Torturegarden Shane obliges.