sometimes it's hard to be a .................

Drifting around at lunchtime today, I decided to pick up a seven inch that I'd been looking at for the last couple of months. It's such a pain in the hole trying to buy vinyl in most shops these days. Both Tower Records and HMV hold the needles and carts for their turntables behind the counter. They will hand out said needle and cartridge for a deposit of €20. The rationale behind this is that they keep getting nicked. Fair enough but I'm not going to nick their needles. They must be mistaking me for some thieving urchin. I'll grant them that that's quite a common mistake made with me. I also have issues with Freebird Records (both shops). That fucker Chris is an ignorant bollix and I now refuse to use the shop that he works in. Instead I've taken to frequenting their other store on Wicklow Street. I've been buying vinyl there for ages now. They must know me! I'm the sad sap who goes straight to their 7" box a few times a week to check for new stuff. For ages I'd go in, listen to a couple of tunes and would regularly purchase items. Then all of a sudden last week, the bloke who has been watching me go through my routine for god knows how long, tells me that I need to ask him before I use the turntable. This is the turntable, on the counter, beside the 7" vinyl, that does not indicate in any way that I must ask to use it and it's also the one that I've been using without asking for an eternity. It was the final straw. It was a breach of trust that had existed between me and this particular store. The trust was broken. The relationship was over. Freebird can go and fuck off. There is a happy ending however. I still have Road Records. No matter how pissed off Dave & Julie are to see me most lunchtimes, me talking shite, clogging up their shop, they still cater to vinyl lovers like myself. Informative, witty and professional they stand head and shoulders above most others. I should also give thanks and praise for Big Brother Records and All City Records. Both Gerry and Cormac indulge my nonsense on a regular basis and for that I salute them.

Anyhow, that was a roundabout way of explaining why its taken so long to pick up 'It's a beat' by Simian Mobile Disco. It was in Tower, HMV and Freebird but not in Road, Big Brother or All City. I came across the SMD MySpace the other day and finally got to listen to it. It bears an uncanny resemblance to 'This beat is technotronic' by MC B feat. Daisy Dee. For the 90's EuroPop pedants This beat is Technotronic was also released by Technotronic in the same year. I'm not sure why they released the same tune twice in the same year under different names, but they did. I have a copy of both to prove it. Now I have a copy of 'It's a beat' to put beside them. Their new album 'Attack Decay Sustain Release' was released today and they'll be playing down at the Electric Picnic in September. SMD that is, not Technotronic.

I also chanced upon the new 7" from The Gossip and it's called 'Listen Up'. It's far more polished than 'Standing in the way of control' was but that's to be expected. The bassline is pretty funky and it gets you hooked fairly lively. The cowbell kicks in and all of a sudden you're galloping up the charts with Beth Ditto. That must be some horse of a tune. Indeed it is. It'll have the crowds rocking all over the festival circuit. It's rock disco (I'm not sure if that's a genre?)at its finest. You can listen to it on their MySpace. There's also a freaky version of George Michael's Careless Whisper there.

I had a bit of a rite of passage with my eldest son yesterday. I brought him to see Dublin v Meath in Croke Park. He seemed to take the whole thing in his stride. He didn't seem to mind the toothless Meath man (with some green and yellow string tied around his head and a heady aroma of stout and urine about him) sitting next to us. He kept telling me that Dublin were going to win but sometimes you can only smile to yourself as you look at their innocent optimistic cherubic faces. As it turns out he was spot on. If he makes a habit of this I'll be getting him a subscription to the Racing Post.