all sixes and sevens

Both myself and my good lady wife are awaiting the imminent arrival of our fourth child. It was due today, but in typically Irish fashion, it's late. Most people are quite bemused when they hear its our fourth. Isn't that an awful lot they ask? Well not really. Once you've gone past two kids it doesn't really make much odds. As an old relative of mine used to say 'Sure you need four to carry the box!' What a nice sentiment.

I haven't wandered too far from home but I did go to watch the Arsenal match in a friends house today. I won't be invited back in a hurry. The last time I was there we got hockeyed by Tottenham and today it was 4 - 0 to Man Utd. I'm quite sure I watched in his house when we lost the Champions League final to Barcelona. i think its best for all concerned if I just watch all future matches on my own somewhere. Anyhow the match was shite but when I arrived home my seven year old son was watching TV and an advertisement for the 25th Anniversary Edition of Thriller came on. My son looked at Michael Jackson, looked back at me and said 'Dad, he looks like Mully!. This kind of stuff is the reason to have kids, they come out with some great shit. As Mully, an old pal of mine, is a Man Utd fan that really served to soften the blow of the result. We may have lost but at least I don't look like Michael Jackson. Well done son.

I also got my copy of Mr Amperduke by Bob Byrne in the post yesterday. It was worth every penny of the €14.95 I paid for it. Support Irish comics and go and buy it.

In terms of musical activity I picked up some nice seven inches in All City Records on Friday. Both are brand new recordings but have a massive soul sound of yesteryear. The first is a new seven by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings doing a cover of an old Kenny Rogers song 'I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in'. These guys are great. I didn't bother buying their recent album (100 Days, 100 Nights) but I'll most likely go and buy it after hearing this tune. If you get the chance you should check them out live in The Button Factory here in Dublin on April 10th.

The other seven is by Baby Charles doing a cover of 'I bet you look good on the dancefloor', the Arctic Monkeys tune. Baby Charles a UK based soul band who mix up quirky covers with their own material. They seem to be flavour of the month at the moment and deservedly so. They're the British version of Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

Finally, I'm a man who likes to keep my finger on the musical pulse. Well that's not entirely true. When things are hyped I tend to give them a cooling period before i touch them. I ignored the entire Radiohead 'In Rainbows' furore of a few months back. In fact it wasn't until this week that I got the album. I'd seen them perform a couple of numbers on Jools Holland's Later some weeks back and was really impressed. I'd also bought the first single from the album and I really like it. Unsurprisingly I like the album. I'm not a big fan of theirs, never have been, in fact I own nothing else by them. This album is great though. I listened to it when I was varnishing the back door today. They can put that on the album: 'Great for varnishing your back door to - Matt Vinyl'.

Matt's briefs

Buy the new single by The Nackers. This Italo/Irish garage punk band has my mate on drums. They're recently returned from a string of dates in Italy.

Buy Bob Byrnes new book 'Mr. Amperduke'. Bob is the creator, publisher and dogsbody behind The Shiznit. You can buy his new work here.

It behoves me to publicly acknowledge that not only was someone stupid enough to nominate me for Best Music Blog at the upcoming Irish Blog Awards, but it now appears that there was further insanity when I was included in the (long) shortlist. If I win I'll put my trophy/scroll beside my Certificate that I won in the Superquinn Art Competition when I was six and the Gradam an Choláiste that I won in the gaeltacht when I was 15. Trophies and I are uncomfortable bedfellows as you might tell. I never actually realised there were so many Irish blogs. It's all a bit common really. I might have to stop.

the politics of blogging and bob byrnes biro stuff

I've been at this blogging lark for just over one month now and a few things have become clearer. There seem to be a number of blog types out there, namely the self-obsessed type, the informative type, the vindictive type and the ultra specialist type. They range in quality from downright shite to intriguingly brilliant. I would hope that my own blog straddles both qualities in being 'intriguingly shite'.

I've been grappling with what exactly my own blog is actually purporting to do. I started writing it because I believed there was enough interesting stuff going on in the vinyl and turntable world. I still believe that this is the case but over the last few weeks I'm wondering if I've strayed from the original cause. It's been ranging in type from informative to self-obsessed and anywhere in between and an increasing amount of nostalgia is creeping into my writing.

At first I thought that it was becoming a little like a diary of old, my thoughts and musings formulated into words. However I don't think that my blog is introspective enough to accept that charge. I never expected that this blog would be widely consumed by the computer-friendly world but the hit rate is slowly and steadily creeping up.

This brought me to thinking about the relationship between bloggers. I tend to surf the web, find some interesting blogs and if i like them I post a link on the right hand side of the page. I've done this with a few blogs at this stage. It appears that there is a reciprocation on most bloggers parts but then it turns out that there are a number of bloggers where there is not. Then it struck me! They probably just think my blog is shite. All I can say is that there is no accounting for taste.

I was strolling through Dublin today doing my cursory round of high street and second hand record stores when I came across the latest edition of 'The Shiznit' comic freezine. The latest issue, Issue 4, is the best yet. I've been fortunate enough to pick up all of them so far. The best thing about them is that they are free. Quality at the right price. Their writer and creator, Bob Byrne, knocks out his comic (or is it a graphic novella?)when time and cash allow and I for one commend him for his efforts. Check out his website here and download previous issues of The Shiznit here. Bob also blogs on his website in the 'Rants' section. It lightens my heart to see that people are still passionate about stuff that isn't really mass fodder. Harking back to the start of this post I suppose that this is also why I keep writing this blog. It's never going to be everyone's cup of tea, Christ knows that i get pissed off with it somedays, but I reckon that there's enough sad stoner vinyl-loving saps like myself who may inadvertently stumble across it and maybe even like what they see.

Bob Byrne, we (well me anyway)salute you for your illustrative efforts. Long may you hold a crayola in your hand.