Jeffrey Lewis

Steven Malkmus And The Jicks are playing Tripod on June 9th. For a number of reasons I'm unsure if I'll bother going or not. Mainly it's because Italy are playing Holland that night and theoretically it could be the tie of the first round of the European Championships but also there's the little matter of Malkmus' newest album Real Emotional Trash ... not all that good. Then, despite a recent assertion by a local promotor that they were "shit live", there's my desire to see Pavement play and people going to Steve's gigs isn't going to speed that reunion up. Gotta do my part.

But there's one really compelling reason to go to the gig and that's the fact that Jeff And Jack Lewis are also on the bill. Jeffrey Lewis is an anti-folk singer/songwriter and comic book artist (according to his Wiki page his final college thesis was on Alan Moore's Watchmen). I'm usually pretty wary of people that get labled anti-folk because I find a lot of stuff that gets called that way too cutsey but Lewis's songs are smart and witty and literate and there's an edge to his lyrics that I find hugely appealing.

Lewis has been putting out EP's since '97 or so but it wasn't till 2001 when he was signed to Rough Trade that his first album came out. Since then there's been 4 more albums but the song I'm posting is from that first one. I figure if you've got a taste for lo-fi acoustic stuff and/or are a Daniel Johnston fan you might be into this.

MP3: Jeffrey Lewis - The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song from The Last Time I Took Acid I Went Insane.

New Dudley Corperation Album

Their 3rd. It's taken a while.

The Year Of The Husband.

It's out on 4th July.

New song here.

I believe the children are our future (days festival).

A little bird tells me that Foggy Notions and Forever Presents have a little something special planned for those music fans that are too young to legally get boozed up.

No date or venue yet but if it does happen it'll be good. The resourceful might even find a hint in this post.

About big sharks
Sharp swords
Beast bees
Bead lords
Sweet cakes
Maste lakes
O ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 8: Jens Lekman - The Village.

You know when you're confronted with a giant cake? And it looks really delicious? There was probably loads of chocolate involved in making it, fudge too. Or strawberrys and cream if you're into some a little lighter and summery. And you eat the whole thing? Then you feel a little sick afterwards?

No?

Well congrats on never having issues with your weight.

I reckon that since the 7th of this month I've seen at least 32 different acts in 9 venues and 2 countries. I'd say that I need a break but June sees Bon Iver and Dan Deacon hit Dublin which are pretty much unmissable as far as I'm concerned as well and Evangelicals, The Dodos, Radiohead, Low, Bonnie Prince Billie and probably a whole bunch more that I've not mentioned. Can someone get sick of live music? In my case it appears not. That being said if the European Championships turn out to be good and mean that I stay in a few more evenings in June I won't be complaining too much.

Last December Jens Lekman played Whelan's pretty much solo save for occasional contributions from a percussionist and violins from Alex Turner's string arranger. But mainly the night was all about Lekman's songs and his voice. There was some strange, intangible thing in the air that night and as the gig went on you couldn't help but feel that the Swede was drawing you in and making a very real personal connection with you through his music. And it's not just me that felt that way, a friend of mine said to me last week "that night the whole room fell in love with Jens." I can't say I disagree, I'm still into chicks otherwise but.

Last night he returned to Dublin to play The Village with a full band. And it just felt like a guy with some great songs and a supertight band playing a gig. It was fine, actually to be fair, it was good. But it lacked the charm of his last appearance here. Worse though was that parts of it felt utterly contrived; like his storytelling during "A Postcard To Nina" or when he requested that no one put any videos from the gig up on YouTube because it wanted the night to be special and unique, just for him, the band and those in attendance. Oh Jens, I bet you say that to all the crowds.

I was told afterwards that there's a good chance that Lekman won't tour again for a number of years and in recent times he's said to the Swedish press that he's unlikely to ever put out a full album again. That'd be a shame because I do think that when he's at his best he's a remarkable, enthralling talent. But if there's a Jens Lekman gig that lives long in my memory it won't be the one last night.

Autumn Owls.

I got my first review copy of something yesterday. It was kinda odd getting an envelope and above my name was written "Thrill Pier". What Pete (my postman) thinks of the situation I have no idea. But free stuff is good so I'm happy enough for Pete to be befuddled (by all means send me free shit, CD's ... concert tickets, I'm looking at you Aiken promotions, I'd fancy a lie in on Tuesday morning, that's all I'm saying.)

I don't write much about Irish music here, I'm not quite sure why. I just generally don't have the time to do so I guess so generally focus on things I really like or stuff that might be of interest (this of course is the serial problem with blogs, there does tend to be a hooray for everything aspect to them but my reasoning is that if it's not your job, and you only have a limited amount of free time to write about things then why waste your time on something you hate when it means you might not be able to spread the word on something that you're really into) and if I'm being perfectly honest there's not a whole lot of local stuff that really, truly excites me. That being said I do think that this year has been quite strong for Irish albums and I have been meaning to get around to writing about how much I've been enjoying the sparse coldness of the new Waiting Room album or how Spectre And Crown by the Jimmy Cake is far more than simply the tour de force that is lead-single-of-sorts "Jetta's Palace" or how I think the first single off of Crayonsmith's record is a super pop tune (though they generally are disqualified from critical mention here under the "people I know I don't mention at length because I want to like their stuff and I'm not objective about them" rule I have in place here). Oh, I guess I just did.

Anyway a band called Autumn Owls sent me their EP this week. It hit me from right the off when I listened to it that these guys really, really like Wilco circa Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. No bad thing that, and it's certainly a damn site better than really liking whatever it is that's resulted is there being so many dreadfully painful to listen to garage-rock and punk influenced bands stinking up the stages around Dublin.

There's 5 songs on the Insomnia Lodge EP. Good ones at that. At their core they're acoustic based americana tunes and come with all the accoutrements attached to that label; harmonicas, the sound of plectrums being dragged along guitar strings, and whatnot but what really makes them work for me is how they're wrapped up in droney synths, melodicas and ambient guitar noise. It's all very relaxed and meditative, perfect for late nights spent on the couch when you're not ready to go to bed yet or Sunday mornings when you're trying to get your head straight. Or at least I think they might be, I'll have to try them out tomorrow if I'm up before noon.

MP3: Autumn Owls - Overcoat Smile from Insomnia Lodge EP

Autumn Owls on Myspace.

First Impressions: The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

Oh man, the poor Hold Steady. Their new album leaks the same day that I go see Springsteen live and my first chance to listen to the record is overshadowed by memories of The E-Street band being amazing at pretty much the same sorta schtick they trade on (OK this is a really lazy stereotype to bring up when discussing The Hold Steady, they’ve really toned down the Bruce stuff since Separation Sunday, nothing they’ve done since comes as close to aping the boss as the frankly brilliant line “Tramps Like Us and We Like Tramps”, but hey I’m lazy and I’m gonna run with it, for a couple of paragraphs at least).

It’s not a problem though; Craig, Tad and the boys hold up pretty well under the extra scrutiny that they’re placed under this morning. Maybe it’s because I’m just in the mood for this sort of thing right now or maybe because it’s actually a really good album.

You pretty much know what you’re gonna get from any Hold Steady release. The band unashamedly plays classic bar-room American rock and one of the best (if perhaps a little one track minded) lyricists of his generation sings songs about drinking, getting high, screwing, college kids (often doing the previous 3 things), Catholic guilt and there’s usually a truck load of references to the St.Paul/Minneapolis area, Ybor City, Fl. as well as to songs that he’s previously written. And if you’re not a fan at this point Stay Positive isn’t going to win you over now.

Basically this is just another Hold Steady album.

But that’s fine with me, because I really like Hold Steady albums.

And this song fuses the things that I most liked about each of their previous 2 records into just under 3 marvellous minutes.

MP3: The Hold Steady - Stay Positive from Stay Positive. Removed as requested. There's material from the album up on the band's MySpace.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 7: Bruce Springsteen - RDS

Traffic was pretty terrible in Dublin this evening. That’s why I spent the first 4 songs of Bruce Springsteen’s set tonight standing outside the gate of the R.D.S. on Simmonscourt Rd. waiting for my gig buddy for the night to fight his way through traffic. Nonetheless even from that exterior position I could hear the boss perfectly and I suspected from the opening salvo of “The Promised Land” and “Radio Nowhere” that the gig just might be something special. As things turned out, ticketless as I am, standing in the same spot on Friday and Sunday nights Mister that sounds pretty tempting at this point.

The night was, for me, an odd mix of being thrilled by what is possibly the best Rock n’ Roll band anyone has ever put together kicking out jam after jam after jam and a vaguely sad sort of nostalgia. If the greatest gift that my father ever gave me was a love of music thanks to his picking of folk and country tunes on his guitar as I listened on as a child the musician who left the most lasting impression on me from that period is Springsteen, from the ages of 7-11 I barely listened to anything else, and if I did then I certainly don’t remember it. Tonight was the third time that I’ve seen him at the RDS over the past 15 years and the first time that my old man, thanks to a recent shoulder operation, hasn’t been along for the ride and at numerous points during the gig I thought of how much he’d have enjoyed it and wished he was there with me.

Moments like during “The River” when Bruce deviated from the recorded melody of the song while underneath I could hear the crowd sing it like on the album. Or when “Reason To Believe”, so quiet and meditative on Nebraska was transformed into a gigantic blues-rock workout complete with screaming harmonica and snarling vocals. Or just the general brilliance of “Darkness On The Edge Of Town.”

But it was the encore that was the killer. Emerging after a few minutes break having already performed for the best part of 2 hours Springsteen went straight into “Thunder Road”, then “Born To Run” which segued into “Bobby Jean” (i.e. one of the few songs on Born In The USA that I love on record). Next came “10th Avenue Freezeout”, at that point I was thinking that the only way to make the run of songs more perfect would be if “Street Of Fire” or anything else from Nebraska made it onto the setlist. Though in order to save my head from exploding the night ended instead with a much drawn out take on “American Land” from the Seeger Sessions album, which I guess was for the best.

Shearwater in Ireland

Whelan's, 16th of July. On Sale on Tuesday. I've not had the chance to listen to their latest album Rook yet but I've been hearing wonderful things about it.

Built To Spill (over in Ireland)

November 9th - The Limelight, Belfast
November 10th - The Academy, Dublin

I know a few people who I expect are greeting this news with the same levels of joy that I am Tom Waits coming here. They presumably won't have to pay over a ton to see BTS though, which I guess makes me the sucker.

British Sea Power back in August

29th in the Acadamy in Dublin.
30th in Mandella Hall in Belfast.

Still the most raucous gig I've been at all year.

Tickets on sale this morning.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 6: No Age - Whelans (Upstairs)

I'll readily admit to knowing very little about No Age aside for the fact that yesterday morning I finally got around to listening to Nouns and for the first time this year found myself being knocked right on my arse by an album with an initial listen. A couple of other spins, well not spins exactly, I hit play on my Zen, we really need to come up with some new terminology to keep pace with the MP3 age, throughout the day convinced me to pull double duty and drop into Whelan's after Sunset Rubdown and catch their late gig upstairs. As it turns out I wasn't the only one in the same mindset as I spotted a couple of other faces in the crowd from the first gig and there were a few people that I spoke to later that had been at Broken Social Scene in Vicar Street earlier as well. I don't know if 2 gigs in a night is something that I'd regularly do or that I could justify during conversations with my wallet but late gigs in Dublin as a concept, they've got my full backing. More of this sort of thing please.

But back to No Age, like I said I don't know much about them. So the sight of 2 guys getting up on stage together to begin to play threw me a little. On record they sound so rich and full I was a little thrown that their live lineup was a drummer and a guitarist.

They make a hell of a racket though the pair of them. Samples filled out the noise that neither of them could produce on the fly and on top of and around those went ferociously pounding drums from Dean Spunt as Randy Randell wrung a mixture of Sonic Youth style dissonance and punk fury out of his guitar, and even managed a trip into the middle of the crowd towards the end of the set.

Not the best gig I've seen all year, actually it wasn't the best gig I saw last night but it was still quite the fun hour and knowing how much word of mouth counts when it comes to getting people to show up to see bands I doubt they'll be in so small a room next time they make a trip to these shores.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 5: Sunset Rubdown - Crawdaddy

People should be allowed to have fun. I'm not a killjoy. If folks don't get in my way they can do whatever they want.

But sometimes I think folks should be breathalysed before being allowed into a gig. And I'm not talking about Spencer Krug here who played the gig at Crawdaddy last night completely plastered with seemingly no effect on his playing save for the second to last song where the tempo went to shit a couple of times. But enough talk of idiots who can't control their flailing elbows.

Save for the somewhat lengthy waits between songs, sometimes due to Krug scrambling around trying to find his beer, sometimes by the fact that the band had to climb around the really tight stage to get to whatever instrument they were playing at the time, I've no complaints about Sunset Rubdown's set. Unlike on Friday when their momentum was broken up a lot at the start by broken strings things went a lot more smoothly and save for "Snakes Got A Leg" and "3 Colours" I think they managed to squeeze pretty much every song I wanted to hear into their 80 minute set, including a completely sublime closing take on "The Empty Threats Of Little Lord" which featured Camilla Wynn Ingr using what appeared to be a pocket vibrator on her glockenspiel*. The new Wolf Parade (which has grown on me since I first heard it) is out soon and the band will be reconvening to tour the states to coincide with that and presumably they'll make it to Europe later in the year so god knows when Sunset Rubdown will be back. Not soon enough whenever it is.

By the way, support band Speck Mountain should brush up on their Geography. UK tour? 800 years, 800 YEARS GODAMNIT. Stupid Venezuelans.

* Glockenspiel is not a euphemism for anything.

Finally, comfirmed Tom Waits details.

As ever it's Jim with the final scoop.

July 30, 31 August 1st.

"These will be in an all-seated marquee in the Phoenix Park (to be called The Ratcellar). Tickets will be €116.25 and €131.25 and will go on sale on Tuesday next at 9am"

I'm prepared to pay it, if I don't gets tickets I'm prepared to fly elsewhere to see him. I've paid more in total to travel to see worse but he's one of the very few that I'd be willing to go over a ton to see just for the ticket.

No Age - Upstairs in Whelan's tonight.

Just a heads up.

Having only previous heard a couple of songs and being reasonably impressed but not blown away I am, at this minute, having a first proper listen to No Age's Nouns. It's the most immediately attention grabbing record I've heard all year, right up my alley. Doors at 10:30.

MySpace.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 4: All Tomorrow's Parties - Minehead

I really hate my car sometimes. Despite the hundred odd thousand miles of service that it's given me over the years it chooses the most inopportune moments to cause me problems.

This evening for example, driving out of the long stay car-park in Dublin Airport it decided to start vomiting oil all over the road, not good. One reversion to childhood and a stressed out phone-call to my folks later and along comes Daddy to save me, or at least to give me a lift. My car is currently abandoned in a car park somewhere in North Dublin, I'll sort it out in the morning but if some fucker decided to rob it, crash it, and burn it out at this point I wouldn't shed a tear.

But that's the reason why I'm not at Animal Collective and Atlas Sound tonight. As it happens they had their own transport problems on the way over here and by my reckoning AC are just about now hitting the stage in Whelan's for the impromptu late gig that they had to arrange after missing their ferry earlier today. I could have made it after all but I'm too pissed off over the car and too generally tired from the weekend to make it through a late gig. But if it's anything like they were in Minehead last night it'll be a hell of a gig, everything the last one in Tripod should have been.

Friday at ATP began with sitting around a car park till 4 in the increasingly worsening drizzle for a couple of hours waiting for the time when we could enter the chalets. My only previous ATP experience is with one of the Camber ones a couple of years ago and that's a pretty bleak looking place but in spite of its far more pristine appearance trudging through misty rain in Minehead is a far more miserable experience than anything that living in the set of Hi Di Hi is. On the upside things went pretty much stratospheric after that.

Anyway, bands n' shit:

The Good And Great:

-After brief stints checking out Papier Tigre and Mono the first band I properly caught during the weekend was Sunset Rubdown. Actually as that band was the one on that bill that I most like but hadn't previously seen they were the one was most anticipating seeing throughout the whole weekend. It did not start well. Actually it started, then it stopped, then it started again, a couple of times. 2 broken guitar strings in 3 songs meant that it took them a while to really hit their stride but when they did ... it was moider. In a good way, a really really good way.

- Curators Explosions In The Sky. They did their thing, I liked it, as usual the stuff they played in 6/8 did far more for me than the rest of their material. They're forever at their best when there's a little swing in what they do but having seen them a couple of months ago I wasn't overly anxious to see the full set.

- Since last Tuesday I've been regretting not seeing the Hold Steady and going instead to see Yeasayer that night (it's been an reasonably stress free week, ordinarily I have more important regrets). Turns out I was wrong on both counts. If Friday night was any indication The Sugar Club was the place to be because The Octopus Project rocked my face off, far and away the most enjoyable thing I saw all weekend.

- Okkervil River. Despite having seen them a couple of times already I seem to always forget how much Will Sheff throws himself into his performances. Rockin'. And I thought that The Wren's Charles Bissell added a really cool new dynamic to the material with his (guest) guitar playing.

- I really enjoyed Phosphorescent when I saw him play upstairs in Whelan's a few weeks ago but I suspect that his gig was somewhat overshadowed by how good Why? were later that night. But on Friday night he was on a whole different level. Hopefully back in Ireland, with a full band, in July or so. Not one to be missed.

- Animal Collective, but I already said that.

- I can usually take or leave Four Tet live but he was pretty good this time around. Rocking the Tenori-on.

- The National, not as good as Thursday, better than Wednesday. Having seen them twice this week I didn't feel the need to watch the whole set but for the 20 minutes I was around for them they were getting the job done and most of the people there who weren't suffering from a slight case of National fatigue seemed to be into it.

- A Hawk And A Hacksaw. Big noise considering their lineup, I'd have been tapping my toe were it not for the fact that I was lying down on the fake grass.

- Despite some odd comments about Ireland from Dave Berman The Silver Jews hit the spot perfectly midway through Sunday afternoon. Berman's a lucky dude, great songs and, as the ATP handbook for the weekend pointed out, he's got "a hot band and a hotter wife."

- Dinosaur Jr. ripping into "Freakscene" as soon as I walked into the venue.

The Not Good And Great:

- Adem, with a big band he sounded like Snow Patrol or Coldplay.

- Broken Social Scene, it just felt really jam-bandy and dull. This impression wasn't helped by J Mascis, EITS and one of The Constantines showing up together on stage for one song.

- Battles, not them but the insanely long queues to get in to see them. We didn't even bother the first night and only got in 15 minutes into the set on the second night. They were good but for me I think it's something of a law of diminishing returns every time I see them. The sight of one of my mates dancing to Atlas may well be the personal highlight of the whole weekend.

- How fucking sheepish indie bands are about selling merch. Making money isn't a crime dudes. They should all take lessons from the Wu Tang crew who were pushing their shit on people all weekend.

- Missing Jens Lekman because I couldn't drag my exhausted arse out of the chalets and away from the rasher sandwiches we were having for breakfast. This meant that the first band I saw on Sunday were Polvo, who I really liked but hardly the best way to ease your way into day 3 of any festival.

- The flight home. Not so much fun. I don't think there's ever been a short haul flight in history where so many of the passengers fell asleep during the 45 minute flight time.

- Meeting Scott Devendorf from the National on Saturday night when walking back to the chalets and embarrassing him when I said to him that 30 seconds into our chat the handshake that we were continuing all the way through the conversation had become uncomfortably long. I felt like such a dick afterwards. By the way, second wind award for the weekend goes to his brother Bryan who looked like hell when I saw him at the bar on Sunday morning but a few hours later was bounding around the place shooting hoops.

So that's it for another year at least, I don't do the Christmas ones as my noise tolerance isn't up to much. As awful as it sounds I've got my fingers crossed that Real Emotional Trash tanks, I've heard stories.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 3: The National - The Olympia

A very wise puppet once repeatedly said, "That's the way to do it, That's the way to do it."

But he was a spouse abusing motherfucker so perhaps we should pay him no mind.

Nonetheless The National kicked my fucking ass tonight. The bass was still a little too low in the mix but otherwise all my previous problems were non-existent this time around.

I'm off to ATP in the morning.

This will likely be my final post until Monday night/Tuesday sometime when I get back.

Frightened Rabbit are playing Dublin while I'm away. I'd have liked to have seen them, ah well.

Here's their dates:

18 May Sugar Club, Dublin
19 May Dolan’s, Limerick
20 May Auntie Annie’s, Belfast

If you're going to Broken Social Scene on Tuesday.

You've made a bad call, great as they are they've been here loads already and Sunset Rubdown are playing their debut Irish gig that night. (Also No Age are playing a late show upstairs in Whelans, doors at 10:30 but I'd sooner see BSS then them).

But the main reason for this post is to say that Broken Social Scene will be playing one of their mammoth gigs on Tuesday. 3 hour set, no support, band on at 8.

So now you know.

Keith Olbermann

Generally I think that the prevalent style of US news where the hosts editorialise at length is really bad journalism. Whether it's by the likes of O'Reilly or Hannitty on Fox News or from someone like Olbermann who is from a completely opposite political perspective (and one that's more palatable to my own). And we get it, Bush has made some massive errors and the not many people like him any more.

Moreover this is mostly a music blog and I never touch on politics (what's this Lisbon thing?) here.

All the same, Jesus Christ this is some incredible TV.

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 2: The National - The Olympia

My National fanboy credentials are impeccable. At the very least I've got a great deal of affection for everything that they've ever put out and I adore their 3 most recent audio releases. I'll also explain at great length to anyone who will let me how 2 of the most profoundly moving musical experiences I've ever had involved seeing The National live.

They were bad tonight.

I did not enjoy it at all.

Speaking to one of the people I was with who felt similarly let down afterwards he offered a number of possible reasons for the lacklustre nature of the gig. Phrases like "going through the motions" and "no attitude" were uttered and they may well be apt. But for me it comes down to a single sentence.

They sounded like shit.

The mix was an utter disaster. Perhaps it had something to do with where I was standing (directly in front of his amp) but Bryce Dessner's guitar was way too loud for most of the night but there were plenty of other problems that can't be explained away so easily; like how high Padma Newsome's vocals were in the mix, or how it was so difficult to hear the bass, and most unforgivably of all how low Bryan Devendorf's drumming (a.k.a. the thing that made Boxer brilliant more than any other contributing factor) was.

Oh and I get that they hired the 2 guys and want to get value out of paying their wages but if a song didn't need brass on the record it doesn't need it live either. I can happily live without the little added push that it gives the end of "Fake Empire" if it means I don't have to hear it on "Able".

In the interest of fairness I have no beef with Aaron Dessner's guitar volume.

Ticketmaster are wankers?

While trying to buy tickets for something just now this was the security image I had to type into the box.

Bell Orchestre news.

There's a new Bell Orchestre recording in progress.
We are working with John McEntire at
Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago.
It will be worth the wait.

This is good news. I really liked the orchestral take on post-rock that this lot had on Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light and with Arcade Fire off the road for a year hopefully they'll get over here at some point.

"Les Lumieres" live ...

Rapid fire May is loco yo gig reviews 1: Yeasayer - Whelan's

Wow Yeasayer are shockingly popular in Dublin. Well, I'm not shocked that they're popular because despite what I'm about to write I do think All Hour Cymbals is a good album but considering it's a Tuesday night, during one of the most insane run of gigs to ever hit Dublin and that there are 3 other bands that I've have been delighted to see play in town tonight the fact that they pulled as many people into Whelans as they did (however many it is to mean that it's so uncomfortably crowded that they had to open the upstairs, that many).

And they're a great band, that is to say, they're great musicians. I don't think I've ever seen a band so effortlessly tight in a long while. If there was a bum note played I didn't catch it. And yet, the whole thing felt a little soulless, too pristine. Aside from the sight of a punter clamboring up on the stage to try and lead a clapalong twice I could have been listening to a record.

I shoulda gone to The Hold Steady.

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - The Button Factory, Deerhunter - Whelan's, Jonathan Richman - ibid

Wow, 2 hip hop gigs in a couple of weeks is some sort of new record for me. Though when the MC's are a diminutive Jewish dude from Cincinnati and a guy from Essex with a gigantic beard
I must concede that I'm probably dipping my toe into safe waters. No angry black men for me, no sir (but my non-attendance at Saul Williams last night had more to do with the fact that from last Saturday until Tuesday week, the 20th, that night was the only one where I won't be at a gig and I think I'll need a night off at some point) and certainly none that focus on "guns, bitches and bling," which as Pip points out on his and Dan Le Sac's best known song, "were never part of the four elements, and never will be".

The pair of them can put on a show but; plenty of live laptop music types are conscious of the fact that 1 or 2 dudes hunched over computers for 30 minutes isn't much of a performance and bring video projections into the mix but Le Sac and Pip favour a much more low tech approach and deck the stage out like it's a grotty student flat. A ratty armchair, a shitty, flickering TV, the sort of carriage-clock you might expect to see sitting on your gran's mantelpiece and other similar paraphernalia make up a their stage set and the pair make copius use of their props throughout. During "Angles" Scroobius Pip dresses up as the various characters in his tale of diligent students, beaten kids and bastard security guards (sorry, hero security guards) and midway through the gig Le Sac slumps into the armchair for a rest as Pip goes back to his roots and recites a spoken word piece. It's something that I might have been interested in seeing more of but aside from that interlude and an encore featuring a cover of "Nightclub" by The Specials the pair stuck to material from Angles (which is out this week and which I like very much), every song off the album gets an airing with the room as expected going bananas for "Thou Shalt Always Kill," but I'm not quite sure about the logic of in one part of the song slamming call and response sections of songs and then throwing yourself right into it during the "Just A Band," part of the song.

Deerhunter on the other hand take a much different approach to setlist construction. They've got a brand new third album recorded and they're obviously really excited by it. So much so that they only play a couple of songs from Cryptograms in Whelan's on Thursday night. It's a risky strategy to dump so much completely fresh material on an audience and a tactic that apparently has already sent the hate mail flying when they tried it in the US recently. And one that for the first couple of songs I thought wasn't going to work out, the new material sees the band move away from the droney, looping stuff that featured so heavily on the band's last album and EP and towards more "proper" songs and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. However once I got used to the change of pace I came to realise that where the band was going was a really good place. There's one epicly long song that wasn't one of Bradford Cox's but was in fact written by bassist Josh Fauver that's astonishingly good. That being said nothing can match the behemoth that is the closing song, "Strange Lights" which culminates in 5-6 minutes of riotous noise, instrument swapping, piggybacks and disturbing bodily fluid exchanges. I can't wait to see them In Vicar street again next month.

Pride of gigging place however goes to Jonathan Richman. I'm not hugely familiar with his post-Modern Lovers work but my adoration for their first record is such that I had no compunction about taking a chance on him. With just a classical guitar in hand and a shit hot drummer backing him he had me, and most of the rest of the crowd in the palm of his hand from the off. Playing material mostly drawn from his latest album I couldn't give a damn that the only song I knew the whole night was "Pablo Picasso". He's just so incredibly charming and unendlessly charismatic, and there's a constant twinkle in his eye. People were giggling like kids in the back of a classroom at seemingly random points throughout the set and it was only midway through it did I realise that it was because he'd caught their eye and was giving them a funny luck. And boy can he dance.

Oh if anyone knows where that song about being 14 years old and walking through the New England winter with a girl a couple of years older than him might be found on record please let me know.

Okkervil River back in November.

One of my favouritist live bands. November 7th in the Acadamy.

Can't wait to see their Wrens'd up version of "It Ends With A Fall" this weekend at ATP.

The week and a half of gigging insanity begins ...

Tomorrow. Though considering that I've been to 4 gigs in the past 5 days maybe it began last Wednesday, and if I was so inclined I could pick between Saul Williams and Dinosaur Jr. tonight. I'll be sticking up a biggish hodge podge of a blog covering the last weeks gigs tomorrow when I half finish the half written reviews I've started but otherwise most of what I post in the next week will be short thoughts on whatever it was I went to the night before.

I'm tired already.

The National on The Kiosk.

Nadine O'Regan interviewed Bryce Dessner from The National on her show on Phantom FM today ahead of the band's 3 night stand in The Olympia. It was a really lengthy and interesting chat touching on the band's history, their inspirations and heroes, their working methods and the way they've grown in popularity since people realised that Alligator is one of the best records of the past decade. She also had an exclusive version of "Fake Empire" from their last gig in Ireland where Matt Berninger's voice could barely be heard above the crowd. If you're a fan of the band it's really worth your while listening to the interview.

The Kiosk is repeated tomorrow at 8AM but they've also started podcasting recently and you should be able to find it here once the latest one goes up.

The National play in the Olympia on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will be back in Belfast in a couple of months.

Liars play Galway edit: Dublin too.

Andrews Lane Theatre - June 21st.
Roisin Dubh - June 23rd.

MP3: Liars - The Other Side Of Mt. Heart Attack from Drums Not Dead.

According to Hot Press the WAIT is over for details.

HA HA HA, I kill me. Puns are fucking great.

A tent in Phoenix Park, July 30 & 31. An Aiken event.

Deerhunter is tonight.

I don't think it made many people's best of the year lists but I thought that their last appeareance in Dublin was one of 2007's most enjoyable gigs. As it happens Bradford Cox will be in Ireland a lot in the next couple of months because his Atlas Sound project is playing support to Animal Collective on May 19th in Tripod and to Low at the Future Days Fest though I'm not sure if they will feature the full Atlas Sound band or be laptop gigs. Oh and it's not been offically announced yet but via MySpace the cat has been let out of the bag, Deerhunter are one (of the I think 2 other) bands yet to be added to the billing of the Dan Deacon/Jape/High Places night in Vicar St.

Support tonight is from Health who also play upstairs in Whelans tomorrow. I gave their self titled debut album a go last night. Not sure about it to be honest, where are the songs? That being said a friend saw them in London recently and e-mailed me saying that he thinks I'll really like them live at least.

Earplugs are recommended tonight if you want to save your hearing. It's going to be jet engine territory tonight.

One of the best songs of last year ...

MP3: Deerhunter - Strange Lights from Cryptograms

Jandek playing Douglas Hyde Gallery

June 13th. Tickets are limited to 100. €20 from the Gallery (which is in the Arts Block in Trinity) or from Road Records.

(DHG will take phone bookings on 01-8961116 - they open at 11am)

Some information about Jandek:

Jandek is the musical project of an outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released 53 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical information. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is unique, but the lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of East Texas. The name "Jandek" is most commonly used to refer specifically to the main – often sole – performer, rather than to the project.

Tom is coming.

He doesn't say where, and he doesn't say when. But he says he'll be playing here ...

Despite what I'd initally been told it's probably not going to be the NCH. 2 people that work there have been in touch saying that he's not pencilled in on the books.

New music from Broken Social Scene - ish

From the next in the Broken Social Scene Presents ... series. A song from Brendan Canning's forthcoming solo album.

Here.

Broken Socal Scene play Vicar St. on May 20th.

Housekeeping: Phosphorescent, Why?, Crayonsmith, Big Monster Love, So Cow and Derby County

It's been a busy week. I've shockingly been required to actually do stuff in work over the course of the past 7 days and my evenings have been split between watching Champions League semi-finals (about which I now officially don't give 2 fucks for the remainder of this season but I think it'd be hilarious after all he stick he's received this year if Grant masterminded a Chelsea victory) and practicing for what I'll be up to a week from tonight (atonal dirges FTW) so I've not had a chance to recap last weekend.

Saturday began upstairs in Whelan's for Phosphorescent's early gig. I've been talking up Matthew Houck a lot since a friend mentioned him to me a couple of months ago. The more I listen to his most recent album the more I've become enamoured with it. Live and solo Houck's songs become less ambient and spacey and take on a more folkish tinge and his haunting falsetto becomes something much more raw and seemed constantly on the verge of cracking in a really enticing way. Backed only by a loop pedal and his skills at doing overdubs Houck built his voice up into a choir on a couple of occasions to great effect. I enjoyed it a great deal but it was quite different from what I thought I'd be hearing. He's planning on returning to Ireland in July or August with a full band so hopefully when he does things will sound a little more similar to how they do on record.

Following that I headed down to Andrew's Lane Theatre (my first time there and a really nice venue, good sound if you're not right up the front and as such beyond the PA speakers but boo to toilet attendants) and arrived midway through Crayonsmith's set. I don't think I've ever, in all the many many times that I've seen them play (which is seemingly at at about 20% of every gig I've been at in the past year), enjoyed them as much as I did last Saturday. With the release of their new album they really seem to have upped their game and with an upcoming US tour with Islands in the coming months booked they could win some friends when they're over there.

But the main reason I was there ... Why?. Aside from the unsettling sight of Yoni Wolf playing drums whilst standing which is just entirely unnatural and wrong but something that I'll concede is more of a personal foible on my part pretty much the only complaint I have about the gig was the absence from the setlist of "Fatalist Palmestry" a.k.a. my favourite song of the year to date, everything else was brilliant. The set dipped pretty evenly into material from this year's Alopecia and earlier stuff which seemed to keep recent converts such as myself and long time devotees happy. Possibly the best gig I've been to this year but certainly the best crowd that I've been a part of in 2008. Quite different from the somewhat cowed audience at Sebadoh a few days earlier I doubt there was a moments silence the whole night. The band merely needed to stand around doing nothing for more than 10 seconds before the audience filled the void with cheers from all around the room.

Afterwards everyone I spoke to, be it other bloggers, promoters, ordinary Joe punters or band members remarked on how hot for Why? the audience had been. I think perhaps things have been a little subdued around Dublin of late because booking agents have figured out that they can book their bands in midweek slots in the city when they're on tour and they know that a crowd will show up. It occurs to me that I've not been to that many gigs by foreign bands on a Saturday recently and the fact that there was no work to go to for most attendees might have let them cut loose a little more. It certainly impressed the band as afterwards I heard Yoni Wolf say that thy were touring Europe again in October and would be telling their agent to make sure they're booked to play Ireland again when they are.

Sunday wasn't as music heavy with a much more manageable single gig to go to, the launch of So Cow's second album I'm Siding With My Captors in Anseo. Support was from Big Monster Love who at this point I've seen play about 8 times now. During his set I found myself considering and not for the first time just how good BML's songs are; funny, lovelorn with really nice but simple melodies and came to a conclusion about them. Brian Kelly then articulated the exact same thing that I'd concluded as he began his set which pisses me off a little as it makes me sound like I'm biting So Cow's shit but fuckit. No one in Ireland writes better songs than Big Monster Love does and anyone that has any sort of affection for the ultra lo-fi stylings of Daniel Johnson or Jeffrey Lewis really needs to make the effort to seek out his music. As for So Cow, Jesus does he like to talk, the gig seemed to me to be equal parts spoken word show incorporating a mid-set Q&A session and "nonsense punk". Despite how entertaining a racounteur Kelly is it's really when he plays his tunes that things take off. Using by an iPod for backing tracks he manages to overcome the general lameness of doing such a thing with ease by putting as much effort and energy into his set as most 4-