Been a long time since I last rapped at ya...

Tweet Looks like I've fallen completely off the radar, eh? Thankfully, my absence from the 'Heap is indicative of actual progress on the day job, rather than the usual shameful yet well-intentioned dithering. I'm getting somewhere with my PhD write-up and, as I drunkenly put it to a friend the other night, I feel like I am now riding bareback on a gigantic dinosaur, whereas previously I was jogging slowly in front of said dinosaur. For the first time in four years, I am actually in control of the thing. The downside is that my blog is suffering. BUT...I will address this over the next few weeks. I'm writing a lot of discursive - as opposed to resulty stuff - in my thesis now, which means my brain is set a little more to 'blog'. MP3: Candy Claws-Catamaran This lovely song is released on our very own, spiffing, Indiecater label. I don't know much about Candy Claws apart from the fact that they made an album all about sealife - a pretty heroic fact in my book. I checked out this nugget of info on their myspace page and thankfully there wasn't a hint of irony involved; which again is pretty heroic in my book. I'm sorry Candy Claws, your music sounds very zeitgeisty so I didn't give you the benefit of the doubt. Don't blame me; blame the super-accelerated, clueless OR self-loathing 'post-animal collective' yank music scene - as featured on hipster runoff - which is really beginning to baffle me. In fact, I bet academically suspect and ill-judged PhDs will be written about the current hyper-intelligent, hyper-aware, hyper-self-obsessed, and hyper-white, american alternative music scene. 'Catamaran' is a delicate and pretty song which has been compared to Panda Bear a shitload of times already. To me, it sounds a bit more like those underrated Velvet Underground channelers Arthur and Yu. Either way, it's gorgeous. It's the real deal, and they REALLY do love nature. In an ideal world they'll end up supporting British Sea Power on a bird sanctuary somewhere... ...as opposed to soundtracking a water balloon fight in a suburb of New York (what the fuck has happened to bright young Americans?). NO REALLY. Most of the people in this photo look around 30. It's terrifying.

Christ, what's in his head?

Tweet I love words. This a cloud of descriptive tags I sporadically left on songs in my last fm library (2007 'til now). I like how it shows the way I grapppled with music I liked and made mental sense of it. I'm completely lacking in practical musical knowledge and abiltiy; I think these words indicate that. But they still look pretty cool, no?

80s  a giant domed roof  a great truth about to be revealed but never quite alien ambient american ascending autumn avant garde baked beautiful blissful brain scrobbling campfire cathartic chaotic church like close your eyes crackly delirium destroyed domed dreaming dreams where you can fly dry dub meets tech dusty early hardcore eerieelectonic electronic electronica enigma flying glitch gloom head-spinning heart-breakingheartbreak heebie jeebie heratbroken honest hot tar hypnotic if machinery could dreamimpenetrable impossibly vast ceiling infinite inistent insect buzz instrumental joyous KELLS SUMMER DRIZZLE kompakt late night stuff like being trapped inside a huge clock where all the cogs gears seem out of sync but…lingering lo fi magic mushrooms melancholic melancholy microhouse minimalmysterious noise noodly nostalgia percussive pos-punk profoundly sadpsychedelic romantic sadness scottish shamanic shoegaze sixties-ish skyscrapingslowcore snow soft solace sonorous sounds from a distant funfair across the fields on a warm summer night in 1996 spare spazzy squeaky clean stoned synth synthetic techno terrifying toothe other side trippy unutturable sadness visceral walt disney music from jupiter warm fuzziness windswept woody YEARNING 

If you lived in pigeon street here are the people you could meet

Tweet Everything seems so cheap and dreary and bet down recently...at least, that's the frame of mind I'm in today. It's pissing rain and there is an ice-cream van doing the rounds of the estate playing a warbling, dying-on-its-arse version of the Blue Peter theme tune. For some reason I'm not grabbed by the pavlovian urge to buy a 99. Well laydeez this one's on me...I'll see yiz at the junior disco afther I went to the pub on Saturday to indulge in a bit of Schadenfreude as a few of my mates from the football team were getting bits of their bodies waxed for charity. One guy in particular is so hairy that he has a hint of eyebrow on his cheeks. He also has a low pain threshold, so I figured it would be craic. During the night I took part in a raffle and actually won something, a meal for two in one of the nicer restaurants in Kells. Sweet? Not quite. I had another look at the voucher today. It reads that I am entitled to "a value meal for two". What's a value meal for two? Knock the 'e' off value and it could easily be describing tuna smeared on white pan followed by a pork-chop with ketchup on the side. I was going to treat someone, but now I'm worried we'll be subjected to the embarrassment of a compromised cheapo menu that is only available before half six. Bet down, cheap and dreary days. MP3: Kiki (feat. Chela Simone)-Good Voodoo Kiki is a Finnish/German techno producer who just released a stunning long player called 'Kaiku' on the BPitch control label. While the common thread running through his output is very deep and minimal, he keeps things admirably varied on Kaiku and the album works very well as an immersive home-listening experience. Get your best headphones out for it, because the production is deeper than the pacific trench. Listen to the above track 'Good Voodoo' and follow the sinister vocal line as it moves like a snake through a Haitin swamp. MP3: Harmonia-Watussi MP3: Engineers-Clean coloured wire Harmonia were one of the bands involved in the 'Kosmiche' scene during Krautrock's heyday. Featuring members of Cluster and Neu! they were a sort of Kraut super-group or should I say über-group, jah? Anyone who likes outward-looking, spacey music should check out Harmonia. Most of their ouevre sounds positively intergalactic. Synths appropriate flying objects, nebulous clouds and the dying pulses of distant stars. Watussi is the opening track from their first album, 'Music Von Harmonia'. Engineers admire Harmonia. How do we know this? Because the opening track of their wonderful new album 'three fact fader' is based around the synths from Watussi. Harmonia gave this act of reverence their blessing. And why not? 'Clean coloured wire' is a soft beauty of a song that does gorgeous things with the piece of music in question. The rest of Engineers' album is a winner too, melodic, panoramic, layered and deserving of the sort of attention that was ladled out to Elbow last year. MP3: The Flaming Lips-Silver trembling hands Finally, Flaming Lips in good song shocker. Is it just me, or has the whole world gone Krautrock doolally these days? There's more than a whiff of Bratwurst off the rhythm section in this propulsive shape-shifter from the 'Lips. I like how it reminds me of the Wayne Coyne of old - the guy who set drumkits on fire while screaming about priest driven ambulances, as opposed to the guy who tells soporific anecdotes while standing inside a giant beach ball.

Vassever

Tweet I wouldn't normally go for a cheap laugh here, but someone emailed me this Oxegen-related photo a few days ago and it's just too good. Captions are welcome below. As the submission date for my thesis approaches, I will find it increasingly difficult to post new content here. It's hard to open the little blogger window after spending hours tangled in qualitative data analysis. All I want to do is play computer games and eat fizzy sweets. The more mentally taxing the PhD gets, the more I regress during my free time. I found myself passively watching a programme called The Hoobs on CBeebies the other day. I will try of course to keep things ticking over until the end of September, and I am sure that there will be times when I use the blog as a release valve, but yeah, that's why things are quiet round here as of late. MP3: jj-ecstacy This hiphop plagiarising hymn to disco-biccies is from a Swedish electronic pop group called jj. Their new album jj - n° 2 (someone tell me how to ask for that in a record shop) is a treasure. Like fellow Scandis The Tough Alliance, their music radiates qualities of summer. World music influences, shuffling Madchester percussion, gorgeous vocals and an unashamedly drugged-up aesthetic melt into a sticky citrus puddle on the best album I've heard this year since Merriweather. Gleeful and gorgeous.

Stuff and bits part 2

Tweet Ian, who's always in first with breaking news over on thrillpier, has already pointed out that Silvio from the Sopranos, AKA little Stevie from the E Street Band will be broadcasting his radio show Underground Garage direct from Tower Records on Sunday (1PM to 3PM). Should be a pretty ace way to spend an afternoon for non-Oxegen goers. I believe he is into all sorts of classic rock, but primarily garage rock. He took a big interest in Dublin band The Urges a while back. Did he sign them or something? I dunno. I was always sorta curious about that Nuggets style scene in Dublin. All those resplendent mod guys turning out Lester Bangs-type music as if it were still 1968. I criticised one of these bands once saying they were pastiche, but in fairness if I ever formed a band it would be a Guided by Voices pastiche. Ahem - Speaking of which, this brings me neatly around to the most recent Times New Viking MP3. I have a hardcore grá for these guys, even though they are best buds with that Psychedelic Horseshit dude who seems to be on a one man mission to bully Wavves. I'll have to digress a bit before getting back to the TNV tune. The Psychedelic Horseshit stuff came on the back of an overall intimidatory journalistic beat-down against Nathan Wavves. This was ignited by a music website who clearly should have known he wasn't ready for the fame hoisted on him by said site. Yet, they blabbed MELTDOWN! during Primavera like they were an association of judgemental indie elders sitting proud on a moral cloud. The Greek Gods of alternative music. Some musicians struggle live. Thome Yorke has done. Kurt Cobain clearly did. Bright Eyes too. Recently, I've seen Beirut 'melt down'. Less recently, Grandaddy. It happens. Good bands will fuck up, with the aid of illegal substances or not. They are all too human. And sometimes a bit more difficult even than that. But just because one disgruntled Pitchfork writer had a blackberry at the right time, a vulnerable enough lad (if admittedly youthfully arrogant with - God forbid - a wee fondness for dope) was dragged through the coals like a sacrificial lamb. The information pitchfork.com (who didn't cover said festival properly anyway) provided about Nathan from Wavves was subsequentially digested by many other music blogs and bigger sites like NME. Also, in extension to their 'meltdown tweets', from Ryan Schreiber, Pitchfork followed up with a stinkingly childish, linked interview from a member of the Black Lips. Here, said macho hero blabbed explicitly about how a friend of his band gave Nathan the drugs he couldn't handle. That to me was the saddest part of all. What was the message there? Some pitchfork favoured bands are big and clever at taking drugs, others aren't? Oh look! it's the poor fucker who had the MELTDOWN! (tm) God have mercy on him. Heard it was worse than when Posh Spice stopped atein' celery last week. He'll never get over it. Nice promo for 'no hope kids'. It includes some fun clips from Dublin. And now, that Times New Viking Tune. It's awesome. They recorded it on videotape (VHS) apparently. It sounds clearer than the last album which was probably recorded on used fanny pads or something, even though it was still ace. MP3: Times New Viking - No time, No hope I suspect they'll battle it out with Jay Reatard this summer over who can get out the most nihilistic record title. They currently pip Reatard, because despite this TNV badboy having a ginormous melody, its refrain, "no time, no hope" sounds like an existential howl that mocks the generally accepted chirpy rules of life. Jay's almost equally life-affirming effort is called "you're gonna lose" and contains the heartwarming nugget "don't you know/ you're gonna lose". Giddy up for some REAL positive tunes on Matador folks! MP3: Jay Reatard-you're gonna lose The next post in the pipeline will be about Irish music. I did an interview with Deerhoof for State.ie. It's here. They're playing around Ireland this weekend and are well worth seeing.

waxing gibbous

Tweet The local Niteclub, Vibe, had a full moon party last Saturday. The concept was to capture the wild spirit of one of those trancey all-nighters that go down on the beaches out in Thailand. Some of the local boyos must have come back last Summer with the faces peeling off them and tales galore of the craic they had out there, atein' funny mushrooms and hittin' the sliotar around the beach with some ladyboys at dawn. Last week, it was time to bring a bit of that exotic magic to Kells. Forty tonnes of sand were dumped inside the niteclub and a hot-tub was placed in the smoking area to create that authentic beach experience. Not to be outdone by the lack of a full moon (it was a tiny fingernail on the night in question) the organisers bravely raised a huge smiley helium balloon against the uncooperative lunar calendar so the good people of the town could get wild n'funky. I went down with a few mates and we had the most magical, enlightening, loved-up night of our lives... Only kidding. It was pure shite. I knew in my heart we were chasing rainbows as the twelve euro cover charge was bled out of us at ten minutes to fucking two. "Typical Vibe" we muttered, the opening incantation of an inevitable, grim ritual. Subsequent highlights included someone getting sick in the sand, a local girl in a bikini horsing around the hot-tub with a ripped Germanic dude while a shadowy conglomeration of paunchy young farmers with buckeldy belts and wranglers looked on intently, and someone telling the black toilet attendant "ye must feel at home tonight with all this sand." Kells, I love you but I hate you. full moon party Thailand full moon party Kells. Something good is happening in Kells this weekend though, the yearly town festival which actually has a lot of engaging looking events. I know a few people end up on this site when they search for useful information about the town, because I tag the word 'Kells' a lot. Well, Kells information seekers - if you are looking for something fun to do this weekend may I suggest taking a visit to the Arches bar from 8pm on Sunday night (5th of July). Two talented local comedians, Aodhgan Comiskey and Fred Cooke, will be doing their thing and there will be an open mic too. If you see me, try to stop me going to Sunday night Vibe. Why? Because it is a bleak vortex of career alcoholics and cougars. Yet, despite all our best intentions it will start to exert an inexplicable gravitational pull on us the very minute the barman in the Arches yodels "Time now folks!"

No one can succeed like Doctor Robert

Tweet Ah lads, I can't handle this humid weather. It's suffocating. Earlier, a trip to the shop for a cooling lolly nearly left me collapsed in a wheezing heap. Night time is worse. I ended up rooting around the freezer for bags of frozen veg to put under my sheets last night. They sort of worked too, like reverse hot water bottles with broccoli florets in them. In case you're wondering, I didn't share my bed with the foodstuffs. I patiently watched a bit of BBC News 24 as they worked their magic. I can be a bit gross at times, but even I wouldn't sneak a bag of veg back in the fridge after it was semi-defrosted by the radiant heat from my crotch. John Daly: Keeping the Jimmy White flame of smoking in sport alive. My friend tells me it's terrible bad weather for 'golfer's hole'. This unsubtle euphemism describes an otherwise unspoken rash that will be familiar to any man who has spent a hot day doing repetitive physical activity in Penney's underwear. The aformentioned friend and his golfing chums periodically suffer from this embarrassing scourge. They've a lot of extra nylon to deal with, y'see. Indeed, it's so common in the golfing community that they talk openly about it in the pub and compare treatments. The slathering on of Vaseline at 7am, the sly dock-leaf dropped down your jocks behind the fifteenth tee. It's all part of a hot day's golf. I'm going to post a techno-y MP3 because I haven't done that in a while. MP3: Deepchord presents echospaceelysian This track is a cut from the monolithic dub techno album 'the coldest season', which is produced by Stephen Hitchell and Rod Modell. I associate dub techno with two wildly different types of situation. The first normally occurs on a bank holiday Sunday afternoon. You find yourself wobbling through the blasted wreckage of a house-party to open a window, any window, as long as it lets out the mong. Invariably, a few survivors are splayed on couches, staring at lampshades and muttering about heading down to others of their ilk in the Bernard Shaw. An impossibly cheery techno-wonk's ipod, running on the barest shred of battery, will be burbling through the speakers. What's playing? Why, dub techno of course. My second experience normally occurs at home, late at night when I am feeling a little down in the dumps. I put my headphones on and surrender to this music. It's a security blanket. So deep, dark, cavernous and luxurious. All those soft undulating effects following the sparse bass, echoing, hissing, drawing the mind further and further into space or perhaps more aptly 'a space' where everything melts away except form and texture. Often dub techno music is barely representative of anything (one of the tracks from the deepchord album I mentioned is called "ocean of emptiness"). Such a meandering, repetitive journey through texture maddens those who criticise the genre. But, to me anyway, it is the very abstraction they criticise which provides the ultimate means of escapism.