The Spoiled Metropolis

2010-07-06T00:01:00.002Z

Mouse on Mars - Frosch (1994)

2010-06-24T16:37:00.002Z

This still sounds great sixteen years down the line.

Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room

2010-06-18T12:41:00.000Z

Handel's Largo

2010-06-04T18:33:00.011Z

Had the privilege of going to see Handel's opera Xerxes in Budapest's glorious Opera House (above) last Wednesday night. We were up in the cheap seats (the tickets were the equivalent of €3.50(that's three-fifty)) but it was amazing.

The production itself, apart from the incredible singers, bordered on amateurish (the choreography was especially ropey, but it was the opening night), but the 24(?)-piece orchestra stole the show.

To my shame, I had never heard an orchestra in the flesh til then and was stunned. Hearing the heavenly, centuries-old likes of 'Largo' (below) in those surroundings is an experience I'll never forget. If you ever find yourself in Budapest, don't miss the Opera. Spectacular.

'Largo' FLAC (13mb) - hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/339392308/05_Handel_-_Largo__from__Xerxes__.flac

Ganglians - Cryin' Smoke

2010-05-22T22:34:00.001Z

Great little tune. Unfortunately missed these guys in Dublin during the week.

Jim O'Rourke - All Kinds of People Love Burt Bacharach

2010-05-05T14:59:00.007Z

Japan-only release of Burt Bacharach covers, so don't feel too guilty about sharing it. Features Glenn Kotche on drums, Thurston Moore and four or five other guest vocalists. Bang of bad karaoke off some of it, but worth checking out overall. A few interesting arrangements.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?mdvd5wnlind

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

2010-04-23T16:03:00.002Z

I love blasting this album when the weather's good. It releases some happy chemical in my brain.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?zw3lw02i5lj

"Ahead of their time" is an understatement.

2010-02-07T19:01:00.005Z

Just chanced upon this via a mention in a Jeff Beck article in today's Sunday Times. Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan, Philips employees paid to try to come up with "popular electronic music" apparently, in or around 1958. These tracks sound like they came out in the Nineties on Warp Records. Very bizarre that this stuff isn't better-known. Thanks Jeff.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

2010-01-14T17:52:00.007Z

Apologies for my laziness, I'm supposed to be studying.

hXXp://www.megaupload.com/?d=8kdx0prq

Mulholland Drive OST (2001) - Angelo Badalamenti

2010-01-06T19:53:00.002Z

hmdp://rs760.rapidshare.com/files/211986489/Mulholland_Drive-Soundtrack.rar

Clint Mansell - The Fountain OST (2006)

2010-01-05T07:22:00.004Z

Epic, gorgeous, explosive stuff featuring contributions from Mogwai and The Kronos Quartet. Moves from ambient drones to plaintive piano music to slowly percolating minimalism to jaw-dropping, terrifying strings.

hXXp://www.megaupload.com/?d=LDHRSIV2

Somadrone - Providence

2009-12-20T20:38:00.002Z

Somadrone - Providence from ξοgΙιαη κιdηεγ on Vimeo.

A beautiful piece of work from Dublin's Neil O'Connor aka Somadrone and video director Eoghan Kidney.

2001 A Space Odyssey (OST)

2009-12-17T01:53:00.003Z

hXXp://www.mediafire.com/?yejc68sdlzi

2009-12-07T03:33:00.001Z

18 years ago.

These New Puritans - We Want War

2009-12-06T05:21:00.008Z

Quite brilliant. These dudes have taken a mighty step forward since I last heard them. To be honest, I've avoided them since reading that they do things like soundtrack Christian Dior fashion shows - but I have to admit this is pretty amazing. Maybe it's the drums. Maybe it's the spectacularly ambitious structure and production. The horn-section breakdown towards the end. Like all good music, it's probably just a lot of things combining to smack you round the head.

If I was to throw three bands this song reminds me of into the post, I'd say Pink Floyd, Trans Am and Massive Attack. Listening to it reminds me of the first time I heard "Atlas" by Battles. It's something new and you have to admire them for that if nothing else.

Their new album "Hidden" is out on Domino in January. Hope it lives up to this.

Roxy Music - Roxy Music (1972)

2009-12-01T17:17:00.002Z

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?2yhldzn3xmg

So What - Miles Davis (w. John Coltrane) (1959)

2009-11-27T01:08:00.002Z

Beach House - Norway (new song live)

2009-11-13T15:01:00.005Z

My most anticipated album of the next few months is Beach House's Teen Dream, which is coming out on Sub Pop/Bella Union on January 26th. According to Victoria Legrand, "There's a different kind of intimacy, a physicality on Teen Dream." Which probably just means "faster tunes". Introducing this live version of possible single "Norway", , Alex Scally deems it their "spiciest" song. I trust this pairly implicitly to deliver the goods once again, whatever the tempo. They haven't put a foot wrong yet.

Edit - the band have now released this song as a free mp3 teaser for the album.

Norway mp3

The Flaming Lips + Stardeath & White Dwarfs - Borderline

2009-09-10T02:10:00.004Z

What a fantastic cover. Really looking forward to the Lips' upcoming double album Embryonic, judging by this and the few tracks I've heard from the album they seem to be firing on all cylinders again.

www.mediafire.com/?1kjygj0qude (mp3)

Rachel's - Water From the Same Source

2009-09-10T00:11:00.003Z

The Beatles Remasters (Stereo/Flac)

2009-09-07T15:21:00.007Z

Not my uploads. These remasters are incredible, the hairs on the back of my neck have been on end all day.

http://tinypaste.com/d8fa0

Jack Nitzsche - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest OST

2009-09-01T18:25:00.005Z

Hawaiian-edged melancholia, with several haunting compositions. One of Jim O'Rourke's favourite albums.

hXXp://rapidshare.com/files/124620128/1975_One_Flew_Over_The_Cuckoo_s_Nest_-_Jack_Nitzsche.rar

Nick Drake - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

2009-08-31T21:25:00.004Z

I don't know where this recording came from, but I'm picturing a teenage Nick sitting in his bedroom doing endless amazing covers for his own pleasure.

I don't know if this really is Nick Drake or not (there is no known footage of him), but I can't stop watching this clip

Polvo - Beggar's Bowl (new song)

2009-06-29T00:43:00.005Z

Wow.

Polvo return after more than ten years on hiatus with a mouthwatering taster from the upcoming album In Prism, out in September.

This is Polvo in HD, all jagged shiny guitars and pounding, lean drumbeats. They sound like a new band, oozing belief. If the rest of the album is as good as this, it will be something special.

mp3 available here

Don't Fear the Reaper

2009-06-26T00:12:00.006Z

Sky Saxon R.I.P.

The Seeds - The Seeds (1966) - hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=S7VRD8TQ

Michael Jackson R.I.P.

Off the Wall - hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/113201472/1979_-_Off_the_wall.rar.html

Thriller - hmjp://www.mediafire.com/?aldmdjwgsk2

The Pretty Things - SF Sorrow (1968)

2009-06-24T21:09:00.004Z

Recorded in Abbey Road in the same period as Sgt. Pepper and Piper at the Gates of Dawn, by Norman "Normal" Smith, this is top-notch British psych with just as much warped imagination to it as the two aforementioned masterpieces, yet done on a far smaller budget.

I just bought the 2003 remaster today and its wonders are still sinking in. I can't believe I've missed out on it all these years. In my ignorance I always had The Pretty Things down as Stones clones, but this is way better than Mick n' Keef's psychedelic efforts.

It came out belatedly in 1968, was barely promoted by EMI, and duly bombed. A big pity.

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=yjtb4igk

Wire - Outdoor Miner

2009-06-12T02:23:00.002Z

I love Wire, but I really love this song.

mp3

Agitation Free - Malesch (1972)

2009-06-08T22:25:00.006Z

Agitation Free came from the same late-Sixties West Berlin commune scene as Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream but never gained the same level of recognition outside their native city as their contemporaries. This, their debut album, was partly recorded on a 1972 tour that took in Egypt, Cyprus and Greece and crackles with inventive, eastern-tinged psychedelia.

Underneath the duelling guitars and spacey, snaky synth-lines of Malesch, trance-like desert rhythms and taped sounds of humid dusky cities weave in and out, leaving you with the feeling you are right there in the smoky, smelly tour van with them.

Parts of this album really remind me of Tortoise's kaleidoscopic, genre-bending Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996). Gifted musicians having fun, but not at our expense.

If you like this, show them some love on Myspace. There's a good bio there too.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/142952148/556-agitationfree-malesch.zip.html

Here's "First Communication" from their follow up album, 2nd.

The Clean : News

2009-06-04T10:47:00.011Z

After an eight-year silence since their last opus Getaway, one of my most treasured bands of all-time The Clean are returning in September with what is only the fifth album of their stop-start 31-year "career". It is released on Merge, and is titled Mister Pop.

You can download an mp3 called "In the Dream Life You Need a Rubber Soul" here.

Here's a blast of classic Clean, from Unknown Country called "Twist Top".

P.S. Singer David Kilgour has released some damn fine solo stuff over the years, A Feather in the Engine (2001) probably being the high point thus far. His most recent album, a collaboration with poet Sam Hunt, Falling Debris came out in April and is streaming here.

The Clean Myspace

David Kilgour Myspace

Kaki King

2009-05-07T00:08:00.001Z

Oh my aching sides.

2009-04-13T02:45:00.000Z

Halfset - Another Way of Being There

2009-04-04T13:03:00.004Z

Sweet n' lowdown guitar/electronic interplay with perfectly laid back vocals from seemingly happy-under-the-radar Dublin act Halfset.

Myspace

Isan - Gunnera (2006)

2009-03-30T02:42:00.002Z

If Peter Pan and the Good Fairies were around in 2006, they might have sounded like this.

Peter Pan & The Good Fairies - Kaleidoscope (mp3, 1967)

2009-03-28T17:38:00.011Z

Discovered this fantastic psych-slice via the ridiculously great music blog Office Naps. This is what DJ Little Danny said to draw me in and make me click that button...

Welcome, strangers, to the chilly, rarified reaches of the stratosphere. There’s no oxygen up here, just the shimmering cosmos and harpsichords and fuzzboxes criss-crossing like satellites.

There are no guitars here, either. As a pure studio concoction, the question of what a group named “Peter Pan & the Good Fairies” might have looked like in performance is gracefully eliminated as well. The futuristic “Kaleidoscope” was in reality the brainchild of Jim “Jimmy” Gordon, a session bassist (I believe) who recorded a few other ‘60s instrumental freakouts on the Challenge label.

This gem was released in 1967.

There's a wealth of rare madness on Office Naps, I strongly advise a rummage.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=822231c7499f15481f8e0fff488e27e0e04e75f6e8ebb871

Evie Sands - I Can't Let Go

2009-03-28T15:20:00.003Z

Like Dusty Springfield pinning Phil Spector to the floor for 2 minutes.

MP3;

hCCp://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=822231c7499f15481f8e0fff488e27e0e04e75f6e8ebb871

The Darjeeling Limited (OST)

2009-03-04T16:47:00.004Z

Some fantastic Indian sounds, a few lesser-known Kinks gems, The Stones...and Peter Sarstedt.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?0f70omj3ydz

Grand Pocket Orchestra - Ballet Shoes

2009-01-28T13:08:00.005Z

Ballet Shoes - Grand Pocket Orchestra from Luke Franklin on Vimeo.

I know I keep going on about GPO, but they're deserving of far more attention than they're getting, in Ireland and elsewhere. Hope 2009 is good to them. "Ballet Shoes" is the lead track on their new ep, Make Happy War and is produced by Mario Thaler (The Notwist, Lali Puna). It reminds me of the fast, freewheeling hooks of Boces-era Mercury Rev.

Visit their Myspace to buy their stuff.

Pavement - Watery, Domestic (1992)

2009-01-27T17:46:00.004Z

Oh, only the best ep of all time.

hXXp://rapidshare.com/files/136611861/Pavement_-_Watery__Domestic.rar

(cd rip @320)

13th Floor Elevators

2009-01-27T13:30:00.004Z

The jug.

The whole band was compelling and magnificent; from the expressionless head on guitarist Stacy Sutherland (who was shot dead by his wife Bunny in 1978) to the don't-fuck-with-me Texan poise of Roky Erickson, but the key to the greatness of The 13th Floor Elevators will always lie within Tommy Hall's electric jug.

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators;

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=636D1BLB

Easter Everywhere;

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/37445238/13th_easter.rar

Shady - Narcotic Candy (mp3) (1994)

2009-01-13T12:25:00.004Z

David Baker from Mercury Rev's solo project. Narcotic Candy was a 10" single released from his album World. The guitar on this is played by Sooyoung Park from Seam and it's a gorgeous blend of their styles. I've been looking for this song for ages to replace an old blank tape I lost years ago, it's great to hear it again. One of my favourite tunes of that era. Also included is the b-side Micro Dot Bodi Con.

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=LS699VKF

Big Pink

2009-01-13T05:03:00.001Z

The Clean - Anything Could Happen (1982)

2009-01-12T15:43:00.004Z

"Anything could happen and it could be right now / The choice is yours so make it worthwhile"

Three chords and the truth.

MP3

Pete Drake - Forever (1964)

2009-01-09T00:31:00.005Z

Thanks to Mark Duggan for the tip off on this delicious slice of proto-vocoder saccharine weirdness. "He makes his steel guitar talk"!! (and thanks to Heinz for letting me know it's been re-upped on youtube).

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/171851323/pete_drake_forever.zip

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light (2008)

2009-01-08T18:06:00.008Z

Another fine, fine album from the prolific Will Oldham. I've been listening to the man since 1993, without being a rabid, obsessive fan - I might pick up albums years after they've come out, and then kick myself for having missed out on them. I don't think he's put out a bad record in all that time. At least I haven't heard one. I've only recently got around to this one, though it was released last spring to unanimously positive reviews.

Lie Down in the Light is one of the most optimistic-sounding albums Oldham has released. It's filled with exuberant guitars, banjos, horns, and keys played by a variety of new collaborators and overseen by Nashville producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Calexico). Oldham's voice sounds particularly strong and clear. The old-style melancholy is still on display on occasion - What's Missing Is, Willow Trees Bend and Missing One could sneak onto earlier albums without anyone noticing, but overall this sounds like a re-energised Oldham.

There's another album due in March called Beware. How does he find the time?

Irish readers; There are a rake of Palace/BPB cd's including Arise, Therefore, I See A Darkness, Viva Last Blues and Master and Everyone on sale in Tower Records, Dublin for €9.99 at the moment.

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/143925492/Lie_Down.zip

Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes (1968)

2009-01-06T22:54:00.002Z

Some of most melodic, yet bizarre psychedelia on the face of the planet. Forty bloody years old.

h==p://www.megaupload.com/?d=824EYXSU

Palace Music - Viva Last Blues (1995)

2009-01-06T21:51:00.004Z

Probably my favourite Will Oldham album that isn't I See A Darkness, There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You, or Master and Everyone. There are a lot to pick from.

* Liam Hayes – piano and organ
* Jason Loewenstein – drums and additional singing
* Ned Oldham – bass, slide guitar, and additional singing
* Will Oldham - singing and guitar
* Bryan Rich – lead guitar

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/54804261/Viva_Last_Blues.zip

Rian Murphy & Will Oldham - All Most Heaven EP (2000)

2008-12-19T01:09:00.005Z

The story; Initially, Oldham wrote the songs and gave a demo to Murphy to produce them as he saw fit. While the main singers are Rian Murphy and Oldham, the musical arrangements are by Jim O'Rourke, and Archer Prewitt had a big hand in the background vocals. Not only that, but David Grubbs, Bill Callahan, Edith Frost, and Laetitia Sadier make appearances, among others.

The finished EP is weirdly rewarding, and quite unlike anything Oldham has done before or since.

hXXp://rapidshare.com/files/63846926/pwo12allmh.rar

Plush - Three Quarters Blind Eyes b/w Found A Little Baby

2008-12-19T00:19:00.004Z

Absolutely beautiful single released on Drag City in 1994. This was Liam Hayes (Plush) first release and his followers had to wait four years for his debut album, "More You Becomes You". Heavily influenced by George Harrison and the more melancholic side of Brian Wilson, but carried off with such conviction that there was no doubt that this single marked the arrival of a serious talent.

hxxp://rs310.rapidshare.com/files/150660857/
Three-Quarters_Blind_Eyes_Plus.zip

Imagene Peise - Atlas Eets Christmas

2008-12-18T03:48:00.003Z

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=72b05e7e5ac28d3391b20cc0d07ba4d2ba1a0f7e6b78a885

In a world full of mysterious and timely entities, no one could be more exotic or more relevant. Imagene Peise is believed to have lived for a short time in Tikrit, Iraq. Her exact birthday is unknown. She is rumored to be just 18 at the time of this recording. Her extraordinary talent as a master jazz pianist at such a young age should, alone, put her in the realm of the stellar.

Available here for the first time Ms. Peise's Atlas Eets Christmas is a strange and beautiful experience. Little is known of her musical and recording life. Most of what is known is shrouded in clouds of legend and smoke of myth. But what is clear is her expressive playing and her unique arrangements.

The Atlas Eets Christmas collection is said to be a rehearsal for a doomed or poorly recorded session. But what an inspired OdoomedO session it turned out to be. The forgotten facts of the trio that accompanies her will perhaps be invisible to us forever. But, as we hear, Imagene is not the only musical star shining through. Ominog Bangh the synthesizer virtuoso (playing the outmoted The Laughing/Crying Glider Synthesizer) and Indian classical musician Shineyu Bhupal are obvious, added other-worldly treats.

Atlas Eets Christmas stands as a missed opportunity. It's uncanny coincidence of a Middle Eastern talent embracing such American themes (jazz piano, Silver Bells and Winter Wonderland) as we know now, are glimpses of a future that was never to be. With her powerful message of kindness and peace we can only imagine if Ms. Peise had become an international star her influence could have, in some other space and time, prevented the current apocalyptic environment.

We can not know if her story is truly triumphant or sad. She is rumored to have committed suicide in 1978. But if she really is gone from this world in the physical sense then she is gloriously hovering above us in the metaphysical dimension as a source of sublime pleasure and reassurance anytime we need her. By playing this CD she is reanimated and we are once again comforted by her loving vision.

Myspace

Pavement - Brighten the Corners (Nicene Creedence Ed.)

2008-11-30T04:48:00.003Z

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=EX1H04A2

Yummy.

trackinfo/buy

Beach House - Used to Be (mp3)

2008-11-30T01:45:00.004Z

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/
?sharekey=cb9f2557e35bba5cab1eab3e9fa335ca9f78f2dec965c24f

Beach House were magical last Thursday night in Whelans. I've been listening to their second album "Devotion" practically nonstop for the last four or five months, and they exceeded all my expectations live. This song, a recently released standalone single that is slightly pacier than their album material, got the best reception of the night.

Tom Verlaine - Songs and Other Things (2006)

2008-11-30T01:09:00.005Z

hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/136560460/
Tom_Verlaine_-_Songs_and_Other_Things.rar

Trans Am Irish Tour

2008-10-23T00:11:00.003Z

Finally getting to see the mighty Trans Am this Friday, in Dublin's Village. Have always managed to miss their Irish performances over the years.

Thurs Oct 23 - The Limelight, Belfast.
Fri Oct 24 - The Village, Dublin.
Sat Oct 25 - Ping Pong, Cork.
Sun Oct 26 - Roisin Dubh, Galway.

Doctor Who / Delia Derbyshire

2008-10-22T23:42:00.006Z

mp3 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/
?sharekey=cb9f2557e35bba5cd2db6fb9a8902bda

Yikes, I haven't posted for seven weeks. Been driving around the country working. I met a cameraman in Derry who claims to have worked on this Doctor Who title sequence in 1963. He says they spent a day pointing cameras at tv screens to get the right distortion. I see no reason not to believe him. The music is the most groundbreaking thing about it, though. Composed by Ron Grainer, but brought to life by Delia Derbyshire, using banks of reel-to-reel tape machines. This different piece illustrates her method;

Medicine - Shot Forth Self Living

2008-08-30T14:46:00.006Z

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=5HOE96NS

Recently dug out the vinyl version of this out of print 1992 album and was dismayed to find that it was destroyed with dirt and scratches and wouldn't play. I went looking for it in mp3 format then, and once i found it I thought, well I may as well spread the word about it here.

This debut Medicine album is absolutely essential for noisepop afficionados. It's highly influenced by JAMC/MBV's trailblazing experiments in marrying unsettling abrasion with soothing melody, but it's packed with enough menacing beauty of their own to set them apart from the early 90's shoegazing herd.

Shot Forth Self Living points to a musical aesthetic that sadly still hasn't been fully realised in the intervening years, by themselves, My Bloody Valentine, or anybody else. Someone needs to pick up that torch.

Wye Oak

2008-08-29T11:35:00.012Z

www.myspace.com/wyeoak

Really good new boy/girl duo on Merge Records. Jenn does most of the singing and plays guitar. Andy plays the drums and keyboards, at the same time. Their recordings are excellent...I'll wait til they come to Dublin in November before passing judgement on their unique live show.

They sound a bit like the noises Chan Marshall would make while having a torrid affair with Ira Kaplan. Apparently, they made a biker cry at SXSW.

"If Children" is the name of the album. If you have some disposable income, go and buy it. It's very, very good and they deserve to be big. I'll let you have the opening track as a taster.

Please Concrete -
hxxp://rapidshare.com/files/141030528/
01-wye_oak-please_concrete.mp3.html

MBV - To Here Knows When (Fuji Rocks festival, Japan 25/7/08)

2008-08-28T14:43:00.004Z

Now THIS is the best MBV reunion clip out there.

The debate is raging on youtube and elsewhere as to how much of it is actually being performed live, but in my opinion - after seeing them in the flesh - the vocals and Kevin's guitar are definitely kosher. Bilinda Butcher does not need to mime and Shields is a wizard with live guitar. There are obviously a few samples and a drum track thrown into the mix, but in fairness, it can't be easy to recreate a masterpiece like "To Here Knows When".

In any case, it doesn't matter - just savour this manna from audiovisual heaven.

Wilco & Fleet Foxes - I Shall Be Released

2008-08-28T14:33:00.002Z

Spine-tingling encore performance from last week's concert in Spokane, WA. Fleet Foxes are one of the discoveries of 2008 for me.

MBV - Soon (21/6/08)

2008-06-24T21:11:00.001Z

One of the better MBV reunion clips floating about. Going to see them in Manchester next Sunday, can't fuckin' wait.

Fast Man

2008-06-02T00:09:00.002Z

Silver Jews - Trains Across the Sea (Whelans, Dublin 16/5/2008)

2008-05-18T20:58:00.002Z

I've posted a live recording of this song before, but on Friday last I finally (after 14 years or so) got to see David Berman play it in the flesh. It was amazing.

Television; Vicar St 2002 videos & Marquee Moon

2008-05-13T01:14:00.008Z

Youtube is insane.

I got into Television in the summer of 1992, when my good friend Dave Colohan (of Agitated Radio Pilot - more of which later) lent me his Uncle's original vinyl copy of "Marquee Moon". I can remember the exact moment when it hit me how utterly incredible this music was - about 3.15 into the third song, "Friction" - check it out. Building on the two previous classics that kicked off the album, "See No Evil" and "Venus", it was clear as day that this album deserved all the hype it had received over the years. And I hadn't even heard the standout title track at this stage...

Reading Clinton Heylin's great book on the US "proto-punk" scene, From the Velvets to the Voidoids the year after heightened my obsession, but even though they had a reunion album out, I never really imagined ever getting to see them play. This unexpected 2002 reunion gig in Dublin's Vicar Street was one of my most-anticipated music-related experiences of all time.

Having been enraptured by "Marquee Moon" for a decade, it was a real privilege to see the original line-up performing the songs. I was wary before they came on as that self-titled, rushed-sounding 1993 reunion album was distinctly underwhelming. After that album, they went their separate ways again and it looked like that would be that.

Vicar Street that night was a total reaffirmation that here was a fantastic band whose music will still be played long after you and I are gone. They still had it. Greyer, balder and chubbier they may have been but no one present cared. It was like seeing Miles Davis and gang come back to life and play "Kind of Blue" in your front room.

Television in their crystalline, spiralling heydey were one of the greatest bands of all time. They rehearsed the songs that would end up on "Marquee Moon" four or five nights a week for three years before setting foot in the studio to record them. It was a joy to see that they could still unleash these intricate, multifaceted songs perfectly twenty-five years later. They no doubt had to go through the rehearsal grind like Sonic Youth murdering "Candle" below (a song that owes a debt to Television), but those years of toil in the practice room were still paying off.

I have an image in my head of Scorsese out on the street shooting Mean Streets in '73 and Taxi Driver in '76 and Television spending all that time between CBGB's and their Lower East Side basement, honing the songs to perfection.

They played Vicar St again about nine months later. It was a midweek show, no-one I knew was going but I went on my own just to make sure they were as good as I had remembered. Technically, they were, but a part of me wished I hadn't gone as it somehow dulled the Television afterglow that had lingered for nine months. The atmosphere in the venue wasn't the same, the band had been touring for a long time and seemed a bit world-weary. They played again about a year later and I didn't go.

Six years on, though, thanks to some guy with a camcorder on the balcony, I'm reliving that awestruck and exhilarating June night once again. Much respect, steiner62, whoever you may be! There are about eight songs from the gig up on Yootoob.

Here's a link for "Marquee Moon" album for anyone who hasn't heard it.

htvp://www.megaupload.com/?d=7C3VEGIF

Sonic Youth rehearse "Candle"

2008-05-13T00:00:00.007Z

Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall as a great band dust off the cobwebs in the practice room? This featured on a SY webcast from June of 2002, around the time "Murray Street" came out. Filmed in their Manhattan studio/rehearsal space Echo Canyon by Chris Habib.

I love the breakdowns, the rueful smiles, Thurston battling on while it keeps falling apart...captures the struggle well!

There are plenty of other bits from this webcast up on youtoob as well...and also a great three-part documentary about the making of Murray Street.

Four Tet - Ringer mini-album (2008)

2008-05-03T22:05:00.007Z

This post goes out to all the folks buying PC's legally in Cuba for the first time. Mondo Bizarro.

Four tracks, 32 minutes. Spacier, trancier than his usual output.

h"tt"p://www.mediafire.com/?ubndm4ccony

Why?

2008-04-29T11:17:00.004Z

Judging by reactions on various forums and blogs, ex-cLOUDDEAD member Yoni Wolf's Why? played one of the gigs of the year here in Dublin last weekend promoting their recent album "Alopecia" (on Anticon). I had a ticket but couldn't make it in the end. Double Gah.

I can't stop blasting the song "Fatalist Palmistry" on repeat these last few days. It's as catchy as chlamydia, a summery, fairly conventional indie-rock classic with glorious stream-of-consciousness lyrics like "I sleep on my back cos it's good for my spine/ and coffin rehearsal/ I know a psychic who reads her own palm/ and the findings are personal". Ok, maybe not everyone's cuppa, but if you've ever found yourself grinning at the cracked ramblings of Steve Malkmus or David Berman (who chose Why? as support on last year's Silver Jews US tour) you'll enjoy this tune and the rest of "Alopecia".

Here's "Fatalist Palmistry" and "Gnashville", which possibly is a better reflection of the darker, hip-hop influenced mood of the overall album.

Fatalist Palmistry mp3 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?0vtymw3mlmx

Gnashville mp3 - hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?zlmijnabjk1

Buy "Alopecia" if you like 'em. Why Go Bald?

The God Machine - Scenes From the Second Storey

2008-04-13T14:06:00.004Z

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?uovboze2yld

The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying

2008-04-13T11:40:00.002Z

I hate using the word awesome to describe a band, but The God Machine really were.

hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/2x4idk

Klaus Dinger 1946 - 2008

2008-04-02T22:53:00.008Z

"There were three great beats in the 70s. Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, James Brown's funk, and Klaus Dinger's Neu! beat."
- Brian Eno

A sad day for any Krautrock fan. The news has just been made public that Neu!, La Dusseldorf and Kraftwerk legend Klaus Dinger passed away on March 21st, four days before his 62nd birthday. I just happened to notice this myspace blog from his Neu! partner Michael Rother.

The video above is rare live footage of Dinger and his brother Thomas (basically La Dusseldorf) playing "Hero" from Neu! 75. Klaus is the man in white. Please check my post of December 26th for La Dusseldorf material.

Here he is playing drums in the curious Schneider/Rother/Dinger Kraftwerk line-up, before Rother and Dinger departed to form Neu!.

Max Koch channels Tony Soprano

2008-04-01T20:40:00.000Z

...just because it's absolutely brilliant.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Cortez the Killer (live) + Slint 's cover.

2008-03-22T00:12:00.012Z

This is from sometime in 1990/91, a legendary tour (supported by Sonic Youth) that would be documented by the incredible "Weld" double album.

And here's Slint doing their faithful version, in some dingy club in Chicago on March 3rd, 1989. They were about 19 at the time, but had already released their Steve Albini-recorded debut, "Tweez", and were in the process of writing their masterpiece, "Spiderland". Not your typical garage band.

h==p://www.mediafire.com/?mn8mfwijaem

P.S. Here is where I found that Slint cover - transmission3000, a fantastic site with live recordings from Fugazi, Blonde Redhead, Shellac, Drive Like Jehu etc, etc...

Super Electric (+ Ger Griffin interview)

2008-03-13T19:42:00.013Z

Superelectric

Along with My Bloody Valentine, Rollerskate Skinny were the most staggeringly imaginative band to ever emerge out of Ireland. Their fearless studio experiments, funded by labels such as Warner Bros and Chrysalis and released on the albums “Shoulder Voices” (1993) and “Horsedrawn Wishes” (1996), were met with across-the-board critical acclaim and left scores of their contemporary noisepop bands in their wake scratching their heads.

Their music still sounds five years ahead of its time. “Horsedrawn Wishes” was recently named the 7th best Irish album of all time by the Irish Times (“Loveless” was No.1). The band played on Lollapalooza and supported Pavement, Mercury Rev and others across the US and Europe. Unfortunately, the universal critical success that greeted each record did not transfer into the record sales major labels require to continue funding such extravagant projects. Labelmates The Flaming Lips were still some years from recording “The Soft Bulletin”, which showed how it can pay off to stick by your artists if they have a strong enough vision.

The band, comprised as it was of several creative forces, and seemingly lacking a dominant leader-type, split up over the course of the late Nineties. Ken Griffin’s move to New York was the final nail in the coffin.

Like The Flaming Lips and MBV, one of the main reasons why their reputation and profile (albeit posthumous in this case) has increased over time is that, for all the radical studio trickery, sampled feedback and crunching riffs, a lot of the songs are beautifully melodic and lodge themselves in your head.

Singer/guitarist Ken Griffin has gone on to front the US-based Favourite Sons, bassist/guitarist Stephen Murray is now in The Radio and drummer/guitarist Jimi Shields (brother of Kevin, who left after the first album) has been in Lotus Crown and is now in The Wounded Knees, when not designing gardens.

To my ears, the work of those ex-Rollerskate Skinny boys, while great in spots (and I haven't heard the Lotus Crown album yet), has never really reached the peaks of their first band. There has always been some spark missing. Perhaps it was because lead guitarist Ger Griffin was the one pulling (and bending) the most important strings and adding the more imaginative textures and flourishes to the songs.

I’ve often wondered what Ger has been getting up to since the band split up, and was delighted to discover this week that he has put some “work-in-progress” (his words) recordings up on Myspace under the name Super Electric. His high, hushed vocals were mostly unused in Rollerskate Skinny but are a revelation here, bringing to mind the wavering tones of Jonathan Donahue or Kevin Shields. Listening to these songs is an eyeopening experience for any RSS fan. “Hurricanes”, “Silly Thing” and “Summertime4” are songs that deserve to be blaring out of car windows all summer long, everywhere.

I tentatively got in touch with Ger and proposed asking him a few questions for this blog. He has been so completely out of the limelight and uninvolved in any recognised musical projects here in Ireland for so long, I was wary of what reception (if any) I’d get. Thankfully, he was more than happy to do an interview.

SC; Hi Ger. I suppose the burning question is whether you’ve recorded much material between the split of Rollerskate Skinny and the appearance of Super Electric? You must have a backlog of ideas/songs?

GG; Yes, I am always making music, but only now am I putting it together the way I like. I’m way too fussy. To me, music has to blow me away. I’m beginning to get there.

SC; Are you planning to get a Super Electric band together and play the songs live? They’re crying out for the full-on strobes and earplugs treatment!

GG; I am thinking about playing. I would like to get a great band together. But I am a bit out of touch. It’s hard to find musicians. Playing guitar live, I fucking love. It might sound big headed, but i would love to show people how good I am. I feel
I have been forgotten. The only time I’m really happy is when I play guitar. It’s a case of having to.

SC; What inspires you to write your songs? Do you listen to much recent music, or find it inspiring at all?

GG; Everything inspires me. Every aspect of life. Movies inspire me as much as songs sometimes. All the usual indie bands. I was listening to The Pixies and Bach today. I’m not trying to be pretentious, its just how my mind works.

SC; Do you look back fondly on your years of recording and touring with Rollerskate Skinny? It seems like it was quite a rocky ride at times, with several very creative personalities involved. I notice most of the ex-members in your Myspace friends list though, do you have much contact with them?

GG; I see Steve the most. I sometimes see the rest, but the band broke up with bad vibes. There was great times ,but we always argued. We should have went to group therapy, I’m not joking. But some of the gigs were amazing to be part of. I'm getting chills thinking about it. There is also a third unreleased RSS album. It’s really good. I’d love for people to hear it. The last chapter.

SC; How did such a group of like-minded, highly talented people find each other in the first place? Were you all friends growing up, or did you place ads looking for people into the same music?

GG; Steve met Ken working in Atlantic Homecare. I went to school with Steve and we were best friends.

SC; Atlantic Homecare, where would we be without it! The influence of Rollerskate Skinny seems to grow larger every year. I notice plenty of people online talking about the band who wouldn’t even have started school when “Shoulder Voices” came out. “Horsedrawn Wishes” came in at No.7 in a recent Irish Times list of the best Irish albums ever. Do you ever feel like you have unfinished business when it comes to recording and playing music, or wonder what might have happened if the band had kept going? Is Super Electric a low-key, spare-time project or one started with an intention to give Irish music the kick up the arse it needs!?

GG; I cant believe 10yrs on bands still name check RSS. I heard in the States we still have a cult following. Yes, I would love to give this scene a kick in the ass! Rock the fucking indie scene. Although there are great indie bands in Ireland, maybe the days of the gods are over. I always speak with passion about music - I hope it doesn’t seem too egotistical.

SC; I have been wondering about this for a long, long time and have marvelled at the song with other stunned people since it came out. How did “Speed to My Side” come about?

GG; Speed to my Side. Well done. It is Rollerskate Skinny. We all put it together. None of us can remember totally who did what. It came together so quickly, as a result of the three of us.

SC; Has a reunion ever been discussed?

GG; Never say never. But probably in another life! Rollerskate Skinny was a dream and a nightmare…apocalypse now. I thinks that’s it.

SC; Thanks a million, Ger, and best of luck with Super Electric.

GG; I’ve not gone yet.

There are four tracks available to download at www.myspace.com/superelectric66

Rollerskate Skinny - Speed to My Side

Archers of Loaf - Web in Front

2008-03-06T13:31:00.003Z

"DN. DN. DN. DN. DN. Stuck a pin in your back bone"

And so begins one of my favourite songs. So many good memories of listening to this tune. It was 1993, I was learning the guitar, big into Pavement, had just discovered GBV..great music seemed to be everywhere. It felt like a baby band in every town was capable of writing at least one classic tune. This song, by North Carolina natives Archers of Loaf is a perfect example - it sounds like something Bob Pollard and Steve Malkmus conjured up over a drunken game of scrabble.

My friend Rank Krobix of the fantastic Rank Krobix and Sons has had the start of this song as his ringtone for years, and every time I hear it I can do nothing but laugh and sing along.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?s1zcyunatdr

Jim O'Rourke

2008-03-02T02:48:00.001Z

"Not Sport, Martial Art" & "Fuzzy Sun" at Manchester's Contact Theatre in May 2000. Hurry up with the new album already, Jim.

Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On (1997)

2008-02-29T00:17:00.005Z

every thousand years
this metal sphere
ten times the size of Jupiter
floats just a few yards past the earth
you climb on your roof
and take a swipe at it
with a single feather
hit it once every thousand years
`til you've worn it down
to the size of a pea
yeah I'd say that's a long time
but it's only half a blink
in the place you're gonna be

("Randy Described Eternity")

"Perfect From Now On" is one of the finest records of the 1990's. Eight long, twisty, tracks full of guitar invention, lyrical wonder and just downright beautiful melodies. It's said that the band recorded the album three times before they felt it sounded the way they had envisioned it, and that dogged perseverance to a shared vision paid off in bucketloads. I've always found it's not an album to dip in and out of, it demands a one-sitting immersion. Doug Martsch's fantastic guitar lines have me riveted every time.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?xxrp21zxcn1

Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians (1976)

2008-02-26T02:55:00.005Z

Music for 18 Musicians was written for a cello, violin, two clarinets (both players double on bass clarinet), four pianos, three marimbas, two xylophones, a metallophone, maracas, and four women's voices. Talk about imagination!

Glorious pulsing repetition.

http://link-protector.com/328796/

Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

2008-02-26T02:43:00.002Z

One for the desert island.

hccp://www.mediafire.com/?6uzuz0z1yz3

^^ I Am A Scientist video

The Flaming Lips - Enthusiasm For Life (Defeats Internal, Existential Fear)

2008-02-09T00:08:00.003Z

They've been letting me down in recent years. I hardly ever play "Yoshimi" or (especially) "At War With the Mystics" and their live show is a bit of a stale joke, but as long as they are able to come up with a song like this, I won't be officially resigning from the fan club. I couldn't anyway even if I wanted to.

Recorded sometime between 2002-2005, "Enthusiasm For Life (Defeats Internal, Existential Fear)" leaked out during the long wait for a new Lips album to follow 2002's "Yoshimi" and was passed among fans throughout 2005/6. It made its only official, low-key, appearance on "20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986-2006" a compilation CD first given away for free at the SXSW premiere of "The Fearless Freaks" documentary. The cd was later expanded and given a limited global release. (Tracklisting/Buy it here)

How it was left off AWWTM is a mystery. It dwarfs most everything on that album.

It is their best non-album track in my opinion, and features the most beautiful reverberating, echoing, banjo solo you are ever likely to hear.

hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/yuxwjb

Here's a link to "The Box", a huge online archive of downloadable Lips rarities.

Clinic - free single download

2008-02-03T12:44:00.000Z

The first single from the forthcoming Clinic album 'Do It!', 'FREE NOT FREE' is now available to download for free from their website, backed by the exclusive b-side 'Thor' and with accompanying artwork. Cool eggs.

Go to www.clinicvoot.org/free

Monade - Monstre Cosmic (2008)

2008-01-29T15:35:00.000Z

Following on from the recent post of Stereolab BBC sessions, here is the new album from Monade.

"Monade is the nom de plume of Laetitia Sadier when she isnt fronting Stereolab. Originally starting out as her bedroom-recording project, Monade is now a far bigger beast and a four-piece band based near Bordeaux, France." (-from their Myspace profile)

Of course it sounds extremely like Stereolab. Stereolab sounds extremely like Stereolab too. It's a good thing.

harp://rapidshare.com/files/87252658/monstre_cosmic.rar

Here's an interview with Laetitia about Monade from about a year ago.

The United States of America (s/t, 1968)

2008-01-29T12:21:00.000Z

"And the price is right - the cost of one admission is your mind"

This lost classic from 1968 (recorded Dec 1967) conjures up images in my mind of the Mamas and Papas on far-out crops, struggling to make sense of daylight nightmares. The United States of America were one of the first outfits, along with Silver Apples, to combine synths and electronic whirlygigs such as ring-modulators with folk and psychedelic-rock forms. They had no guitarist, which must have been radical enough in '68, and instead featured violins, harpsichords and calliopes (think merry-go-rounds and circuses).

Broadcast claim them as a major influence and you can hear it especially in Dorothy Moscowitz's vocals on songs like "Cloud Song" and "Coming Down". There are a couple of moments on the album that stylistically jar (still far from bad songs though) but for a debut in such a chaotic time it's a compellingly consistent listen.

Apparently the collaboration of the five members was never meant to be permanent, and after the failure of the album to reap any commercial success, combined with tensions on their one-and-only tour, they split and disappeared into the ether.

wiki article

More detailed article

Myspace

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?4nj5nzmnhww

Alex Chilton & Yo La Tengo - Femme Fatale (7/12/2007)

2008-01-26T04:35:00.000Z

I'm being a bit lazy with these video posts, but hopefully you folks will enjoy them. This is a gorgeous rendition of "Femme Fatale" (Big Star covered it on their third album) captured during Yo La Tengos annual Hannukah residency in Maxwells of Hoboken, New Jersey. Alex Chilton's voice is sounding as sweet as ever.

JAMC - Darklands

2008-01-26T02:39:00.000Z

^^ video for the single

Below is a live recording of the song from Brixton Academy, 7/9/2007.

hccp://www.mediafire.com/?a0tdjrkwjn2

"Flying Nun - Heavenly Pop Hits" Documentary

2008-01-23T06:14:00.000Z

This is part one, the rest of this fantastic doc about the famous New Zealand indie label is also up on youtube.

Some of my favourite bands on the label;

The Clean

The 3D's

The Jean Paul Sartre Experience (no myspace profile, but d/l this album, "The Size of Food" - it has one of my favourite songs of all time on it, the glorious "Elemental" - thanks to Kiwi Tapes for the link)

The Chills

Bailterspace

Stereolab - ABC Music (BBC Sessions 1991-2001)

2008-01-23T02:38:00.000Z

ABC Music, the two-disc, 32-track compilation of Stereolab's BBC Radio 1 sessions from July 1991 to August 2001, is a surprisingly illuminating and listenable set. Although this may come as a shock to some casual listeners, Stereolab can be a ferocious live band, and their trademark blend of Krautrock, easy listening, and Brazilian influences (in different proportions throughout their career) usually has an added aggressiveness in a live setting. This is particularly apparent on the earliest tracks, including an outstanding version of their early signature tune "Super Electric" on which the Neu!-like motorik pulse is buttressed by some almost punky guitar work by co-leader Tim Gane. Several tracks appear in embryonic versions, with a very different early take of "Seeperbold" called "Working Title (The Pram Song)" of particular interest. The familiar songs tend to sound more stripped-down here; "International Colouring Contest" loses its samba-like beat but gains a more heartfelt vocal from Laetitia Sadier, who also steps away from her usual deadpan on glorious revisions of the rarity "Brigitte" and the 1996 single "Cybele's Reverie," which sounds just as catchy and propulsive without the studio version's full orchestral setting. ABC Music is probably not the place to start for the complete Stereolab novice, but any fan will be impressed. (AMG)

h11p://www.mediafire.com/?4zkzzr4namm (Disc One)

h22p://www.mediafire.com/?ctkuxijjmnz (Disc Two)

John Lennon/The Beatles - 48 Takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever"

2008-01-04T19:25:00.000Z

From the earliest mumbling demos while JL was off shooting "How I Won the War" to the full-on psych-work in Abbey Road. These files should be in a aural glass case, playing eternally.

hyep://www.mediafire.com/?ceijjq0yjyt

Sonny Sharrock (1940 - 1994)

2008-01-04T03:20:00.001Z

Sonny Sharrock "Guitar" (1986)

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?d0kxndltok1

(Live at The Knitting Factory, NYC, 1988)

"I'm a horn player with a really fucked up axe"

Read his story here

Anyone out there have "Ask the Ages" to contribute to this post? It's out of print.

La Dusseldorf

2007-12-26T00:39:00.000Z

"La Dusseldorf" (1976)

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?9zmhjcfo7t2

"Viva" (1978)

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?6yejikxte0a

La Dusseldorf was a mid-late 70's German outfit founded by former Neu! member Klaus Dinger after his musical partnership with Michael Rother ended. The two stubborn musicians had been drifting apart, Dinger's songs becoming more spiky and aggressive in contrast to Rother's blissful drifting melodies. Dinger was a guitarist/keyboard-player who had become a drummer out of necessity, developing his own unique bombomBOMbom 4/4 style along the way. When I first heard Neu! I was shocked at the way Stereolab had lifted the drumming wholesale. "So that's where they got it". Any beginner can play the beat but only Mo Tucker had the (metaphorical) balls to constantly pound out a primal rhythm like that before Dinger.

What made Neu! was the melodies they layered over that less-is-more beat, and La Dusseldorf is no different. Dinger even scored a couple of major hits across Europe with songs from these albums. I'd love to have been around to hear the likes of "Silver Cloud" (from "La Dusseldorf") played on daytime radio. Synth-lines shooting off like fireworks...it must have sounded crazy in 1976. Conny Plank's production on these albums is stellar.

The debut album "La Dusseldorf" was a massive influence on the more clued-up UK listeners like Johnny Rotten, David Bowie and yes, Julian Cope, helping to kickstart punk and mercy-kill prog. You get the feeling that Dinger didn't care what happened either way though. He followed his own "white-hot mantras", to use his term.

Of these two albums, I am fonder of "La Dusseldorf", it has a bit more wallop and surprise but "Viva" is a stunning piece of work as well. "Rheinita" (TV appearance video below) and "Cha Cha 2000" are goddam krautrock klassiks.

I thought Michael Rother was the brains behind Neu! till I heard this shit. Fantastic.

Fugazi - Waiting Room (Helsinki, 2000)

2007-12-25T21:35:00.000Z

Great band, great song. And check out Guy Piccioto's slinky moves.

Adebisi Shank

2007-12-15T16:13:00.000Z

Adebisi Shank (Lar - Gtr, Vin - Bass, and Mick - Drums) are a three-piece from Wexford who came to my attention earlier this year through Myspace. I haven't seen them yet, but by all accounts they are something special live. Please do yourself a favour and listen to the two songs on their Myspace page. If I was to glibly compare them to anyone I suppose it'd be Shellac/Big Black with a muzzle, Trans Am on Ludicrous Speed setting, The Redneck Manifesto hopped up on goofballs...y'know, math-rock, post-hardcore...that general tornado region.

They're Adebisi Shank though, three dudes doing what comes naturally and to be honest they rip off no-one. The stop-motion, queasy, seasick guitar lines are especially impressive. He's a technically brilliant player but that will only get you so far. A lot of math-rock bands bore me to death, but the imagination on show here, even at this early stage, is frightening. The aggressive, inventive rhythm section keeps pace with him all the way, twisting and turning like Chubby Checker's Fat Boys having their fingernails ripped off.

Can't wait to see where they go from here.

Myspace (buy the ep)

Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy

2007-11-30T17:25:00.000Z

Thurston Moore is now 49 years old. This album is one of my favourites of 2007. Dig in.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?0htm30t9xkd

Here he is performing with Tom and Christina Carter of Charalambides at SXSW last March. Christina joins him on vocals here and there on "Trees Outside the Academy".

^^The album is nothing like that, btw. It's got acoustic guitars and violins n' stuff. I shit you not. It's lovely.

EDIT; Hell, here he is playing "The Shape is in a Trance"...

Thurston Moore plays Tripod in Dublin, next Tuesday Dec 4th with a full band including Steve Shelley and Mark Ibold.

Devastations - Yes, U

2007-11-30T13:08:00.000Z

Been impressed with Australian three-piece Devastations' latest album, "Yes, U". They've moved to first London and then Berlin in the last couple of years and signed to Beggars Banquet for this album. There has been a major progression from the Nick Cave/Tindersticks-derived sound of their earlier material to the Can/Kraftwerk/80's Bowie echoes on this album. A indefinably Berlinesque (you'll know it when you hear it) electonic neon sheen complements the lean, dark pulses of the rhythm section.

Devastations are notable for the presence of two excellent songwriters, Tom Carlyon (guitar, vocals), and Conrad Standish (bass, vocals). On their two earlier albums, Standish provided the vocals but on this one Carlyon steps forward for about half the tracks. There is nothing between them, both have fantastic, expressive voices and know how to pen a tune.

They play the Ballroom of Romance in Dublin tonight, Friday, if any of you locals are at a loose end. Can't make it myself but I predict an excellent night.

hccp://www.mediafire.com/?7cwz2yitbzx

The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

2007-11-10T16:15:00.001Z

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?cr1bcyd908v

The Byrds - Fifth Dimension

2007-11-10T15:58:00.000Z

(1996 remastered and expanded version)

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?9njfcy04ld1

To be honest, The Byrds' third album is fairly patchy owing to the void left by the departure of main songwriter Gene Clark. There's four covers and two instrumentals, but this is the point where the remaining members started realising their lofty ambitions and tapped into something extraordinary.

Though there are some leaps forward for the band in intricate proto-psychedelic songs like "I See You" and "5D", the centrepiece (and reason I'm upping this album here) is the monumental achievement that is "Eight Miles High".

Clark wrote the bones of the song, but Roger McGuinn's Coltrane-inspired drips and blotches took it into the stratosphere and practically redrew the boundaries of what hands can do with an electric guitar. The sudden force of the musical breakthrough is staggering really - it was recorded on January 25th 1966, months before The Beatles had even started working on "Revolver", and the song is basically the definitive psychedelic statement.

This edition also has the legendary "RCA Studios" version of "Eight Miles High" which was recorded a month before the released version. It's interesting to hear McGuinn's earlier, more Eastern-influenced guitar sketches for the song.

Polvo Reform for ATP!!

2007-11-10T13:49:00.000Z

Speak of the devil! That's a bit mad.

ATP myspace blog

If somehow I don't see them, I will cause mayhem. This is massive news in my little world.

It's a good time if you're a Polvo nut...some kind soul has recently stuck up live footage of the band from 1996 on Youtube. It's great to finally see them in action, wringing the noise.

"Fast Canoe"

"Every Holy Shroud"

"Fractured (Like Chandeliers)/ Solitary Set"

Maybe see you down the front in May!

Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret

2007-11-03T11:24:00.002Z

Polvo were true artists. Master craftsmen. The name means dust in Spanish, and sadly the band has long since returned to dust. Their swansong, "Shapes" came out on Touch and Go in 1997. They made their mark without ever making much dough from their glorious noise. To me, this band is up there with Sonic Youth, Slint and Television in the pantheon. May the guitar gods strike me down for this, but at times I feel they even edge Sonic Youth.

"Cor-crane Secret" arrived with a discordant clang in the grungy days of 1992. Even on this, their debut album, it was obvious that the four-piece, with their traditional two guitars, bass and drums configuration, had somehow stumbled upon their own bizarre musical language.

I can't even begin to describe it. Let's just say it involves alternate slack-string tunings and time-signatures that are not just out of left-field but several jagged miles beyond left-field.

The amount of practice they must have done boggles my tiny rudimentary mind. But don't let that put you off. Even though they know exactly what they are at, they make it sound like the whole shebang could all fall apart at any minute as they lurch up and down through the gears of their songs.

If you haven't heard of them before go to their Myspace page and have a listen to "Vibracobra". It's on this album and will give you a taste. Befriend them as well...my fecking band has nearly as many profile views as these legends - it's embarrassing how overlooked they are by the world at large.

People will be talking about Polvo in a hundred years time.

Please buy their stuff. Their other albums are even better.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?yu1vmdwmymn

http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/band.php?id=61

Dazed and Confused OST

2007-10-20T12:58:00.000Z

1. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
2. Slow Ride - Foghat
3. School's Out - Alice Cooper
4. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas
5. Tush - ZZ Top
6. Love Hurts - Nazareth
7. Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
8. Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
9. Fox on the Run - Sweet, Sweet
10. Low Rider - War
11. Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
12. Highway Star - Deep Purple
13. Rock and Roll All Nite - Kiss
14. Paranoid - Black Sabbath

Put it on a cd and drive around with it on at top volume for the craic.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?77zd1d2r53m

Grand Pocket Orchestra (again)

2007-10-20T12:45:00.000Z

I love this Dublin band, Grand Pocket Orchestra. Mentioned them in one of my first posts when I started this yoke back in May and can't get enough of them lately. They've added a member or two since then and the noise has been cranked up a tad.

My first thought when I heard their new stuff was "this wouldn't sound out of place on "Wowee Zowee". Really catchy but as off the wall as a barber's pole.

When they finally release something, I hope it's on a decent label and gets a good push.

They have just stuck up a few new songs on their Myspace page.

And there's an mp3 of an interview and some radio studio frollicking here

Philip Glass - Glassworks (1981)

2007-10-20T11:42:00.000Z

Glassworks was my debut record on CBS. This music was written for the recording studio, though a number of the pieces soon found their way into the Ensemble repertory. A six-"movement" work, Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.

— Philip Glass

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?4wytnjj4jwe

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum

2007-10-06T17:18:00.000Z

Dandelion Gum.

I came across this album at the start of the summer and kept meaning to stick it up here, but only now, in this unseasonally delicious October weather, am I getting round to it.

Black Moth Super Rainbow, from Rural Pennsylvania are the band.

There's five members.

They have songs titled "Lollipopsichord", "When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue" and "Drippy Eye". Getting the picture? Their singer works exclusively through a Vocoder on this album. Their keyboards sound vintage, all moogy and mellotronny. Warmer?

Without a doubt they take far too many psychedelic drukqs, and their parents probably did too (I hope "Tobacco" isn't the singer's real name...).

The obvious comparison is "Boards of Canada meets Air", but there's a darker side to the mooning about of these spacecadets. It's like they take "Music Has The Right To Children" and "Moon Safari" into Photoshop and mess with the Unsharp mask a little bit too much. Oversaturated acoustic guitars peal out over contrasty drum tracks and fuzzed keys, but the combination is surefooted, and never garish. The songs are there, then they're gone. I like that.

Right now, I'm looking out my window as the sun sets over trees and fields. It's 6.50pm on a Saturday in 2007. "Dandelion Gum" is on the headphones (big clunky headphones that belong in 1971). I've had a few glasses of wine.

This album is like a pint glass of red bull spiked with two rohypnols.

Happy daze.

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?3jl96ti1lew

Apologies in Advance

2007-09-17T10:30:00.000Z

Visitors, I'm sorry to report that the next while will see a marked decrease in the amount of posts going up here. I have moved into a house with no internet and am back in college, where all the filesharing sites I know of (sendspace, mediafire, megaupload etc) are blocked. I'll still try to put stuff up from time to time, so maybe check back every couple of weeks or so.