finders keepers, losers weepers

"Hi Bertie, you're an awful bollix so you are!" - Brown Bag animation supremo, Cathal Gaffney greets Bertie.



I stumbled upon some rare new gems the other day courtesy of the staff of Road Records. They bent my ear to some new releases on the Battered Ornaments label. This new label appears to be the creation of Doug Shipton, also of Finders Keepers records. As such you know that whatever is on this new label is going to be a little bit left of centre. The first seven inch that I got is by Wolf People and the two tunes are best described as akin to some psychedelic folk music from the late sixties. The production reminds me of the raw sound you would have heard in early Rolling Stones or The Byrds songs. The second seven inch on the same label is by The Laughing Windows and its a very simple guitar riff that wouldn't be out of place in an old spaghetti western movie. Its overlayed with some gentle vocals and the drums slowly build whilst it gathers a head of steam. Both pieces of vinyl are a throwback to yesteryear and I'm sure if you steer clear of the brown acid when listening to them you'll enjoy them thoroughly.

Another piece that I picked up on seven inch is the new tune from Los Campesinos and its called 'The International Tweexcore Underground'. According to the bands MySpace they are the second most punk-rock band in Britain. To be honest its more pop than punk but its a great follow up to their last tune 'You Me Dancing'. They also have a keen eye for packaging their seven inches and this one is released on green vinyl. You can listen to it here. The lead singer does his best Terry Hall impersonation on it which may or may not be a good thing. I'll let you decide for yourselves.

I bumped into a chap called Cathal Gaffney the other day. I met him about ten years ago on a New Years weekend down in Galway. I haven't seen much of him since but apparently he's been busy getting Oscar nominations for his animation productions. I checked out his company , Brown Bag Films, website and found an animation he did with Paul Woodfull (Joshua Trio, Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly). It gives Ding Dong's revision of the history of Dublin. Take out a few minutes from your lives to have a look here. It'll only take a short while to download, bear with it!