a week is a long time in record shopping

it's been a whole five days or so since my last post. I arrived back in Dublin eager to catch up on all the great seven inches that had been released whilst I was on my holidays and lo and behold there's fuck all to buy out there. that said I did manage to finally get my hands on the seven inch of 'Steppin Out' by Joe Jackson. It's a bit warped at the start of the record but I reckon I can live with that. A live version of the tune was recently released on 12 inch but its a complete bag of shite. On the new release front I only managed to pick up the latest seven inch release by Roots Manuva entitled 'Buff Nuff'. It's a dancehall flavoured bass-tastic piece of funk and the video is reminiscent of something that George Clinton was doing back in the eighties. The tune seems to be a bit of a departure from his usual stuff but I'm digging it wholesale. There's an instrumental of the tune on the b-side that rumbles.

Given the dearth of musical material on the seven inch front I've taken to reading the papers. All sorts of papers would you believe. Fergus Murphy was just over from Copenhagen and he dropped a few copies of Bitchslap into All City Records. It's a great magazine. It doesn't seem to be about anything in particular but would probably lean towards highlighting various cultural and artistic activities, which is nice. I was banging on about it before in this post.

Also just released is Issue 4 of the now almost nationwide 'Analogue' magazine. It's front page has been typeset in a font that reminds me of the old Open University graphic from all those years ago on late night BBC2. That aside its still choc a bloc full of news, reviews and interviews with all the up and coming bands that I should know about and with some bands that I already know about. A free Storkboy Choons CD came with the magazine but I haven't got around to listening to it yet. Soon come.

I was a great fan of zines years ago and I had just assumed that they had gone the way of the Sinclair C5. It appears that that is far from the actual truth. I'd seen the 'loserdom' zine around quite a few years back and I was intrigued to see that it was still going when I picked it up in a record shop the other day. There's a wonderful innocence about the medium of the zine. It's as if it was born without original sin. They're usually very honest in their tone and there's rarely the cynicism that's found in the more conventional media. The latest issue of Loserdom treats such topics as the Cork Ladyfest, the London Zine symposium and the end of the occupation of Iraq. It also has five pages devoted to reviewing other zines. I thought it funny that you'd devote time to reviewing what is essentially your competition and then I remembered that the zine world is most likely not that competitive.

I'm off to Farmleigh this weekend to check out this years instalment of the Farmleigh Affair. The weather ain't looking too good here so I'll have to hedge my bets. I got a little bit damp at last years event and I'd hate for it to happen again. I'll let you know all about it.

arcanadian fire lights up big tent

I was looking around the interweb for reviews of last nights Arcade Fire concert. Well actually I was looking for some photos of it for this blog. I made my first foray into gig photography and managed to take three of the shittest photos ever. I was going to publish them here but they really are that shit that I just deleted them instead.

Let's get to the gig itself. I was too busy having a few scoops in the local, the Hole in the Wall, to make it to any of the support stuff. Instead it was straight in and five minutes later the crowd were rocking to the first tune, Black Mirror. They proceeded to rock on and played most of 'Funeral' and 'Neon Bible'. There was bit of banter with the audience every now and again but they mostly did what they do best. That would be looking like a bunch of Pilgrim Settlers who took fashion tips from Boy George and my granddad. Fortunately when it comes to playing their music live they did that very well. Although a few people had a different experience the sound was great where I was standing.

I was standing beside two aul lads who were at least sixty years apiece. They were well into it. It's refreshing to see that bands like Arcade Fire still have such mass appeal. One of my main memories of the night was the overwhelming smell of freshly shampooed barnets. Everyone washed their hair for the gig except me. Another thing that struck me was the height of the Irish populace. I never really notice how tall Irish people are until they're standing in front of me at a gig. Blokes who I'd consider the same height as me suddenly become six inches taller. Maybe it was the undulating land or maybe I'm shrinking.

The atmosphere at the gig was akin to a football match. Lots of tribal singing and arms aloft. It was a bit like going to see Bohs play except with several thousand more people and better entertainment on offer. I liked Arcade Fire. I've searched for the last half hour for photos of last nights gig but my search capabilities are obviously limited. Here's a photo of Limahl instead.

arcade fire are fuckers!!!! (allegedly!)

Tickets went on sale this morning for Canadian band Arcade Fire's gig in a tent in the Phoenix Park this coming October. I was online myself right at the moment the tickets went on sale (and even though I had ordered four tickets approximately seven seconds after they became available) but I didn't manage to bag any. Luckily enough my sister-in-law has a magic broadband connection that is Arcade Fire/Ticketbastard friendly and I got sorted. Over at On the Record there's a few fans venting their spleen and they are none too pleased with the band or the ticket sales company. Here's what Sue had to say about the sorry sordid affair:

"I am so. Freaking. Angry. With both Arcade Fire and Ticketmaster. Arcade Fire are clearly not meeting the demand in Ireland, and need to rethink their concert venues and the amount of gigs they schedule… my dog could have told you that one gig was not near enough to satisfy Irish fans."

Are you listening Arcade Fire? You are not satisfying the voracious appetite of Irish music lovers. Sue is. Freaking. Angry. For God's sake she's lost all sense of grammar and syntax because of this. Not only is our musical appetite in overdrive but we're quickly turning into a nation of illiterates.

The Irish Nation demands that you stop pandering to the musical whims of the rest of the world and come and set up permanent shop here. If this place is good enough for Lisa Stansfield, The Thompson Twins and Def Leppard then it's good enough for a bunch of moose-loving, commonwealth, ice-hockey playing, sister marrying freaks, and Arcade Fire. Céad Míle Fáilte.

reggae vibes in D7

As I lay here in the bed with both a swollen foot and head I can hear the dubtastic sounds of reggae emanating from the Phoenix Park. I'd love to know what's going on down there? Have they started a Notting Hill style carnival without inviting Matt Vinyl? I should hope fucking not or there'll be wigs on the green! There's nothing more for it than to skin one up and enjoy the reggae reverberations. Jah Rastafari indeed!