the post with no name

I was doing some multiple texting today and whilst clearing out my inbox I came across a message from a bloke I used to houseshare with. The message included the MySpace URL for his new band. When we shared the house he was completing his music degree and his instrument of choice was classical guitar. This meant I was treated to much beautiful music in the 4 or 5 years we lived together. At the same time we also shared the house with two techno djs and a jungle dj (Big up Scott Logan, Mad Dog and The Don Rosco). It was a very big house. Given the musically diverse backgrounds of the occupants it meant that there was always something interesting on the turntable.

Although he plied his trade with the Dublin Guitar Quartet for a number of years, it appeared my old housemate always had a yearning to go back to his rock based roots. This is evident in the work of his current band The Souphounds and you can check out their MySpace here. Apple Pie is great.

On their MySpace i noticed that they were 'friends' with amongst others Fight Like Apes, 2-Bit and The Sick & Indigent Song Club. Peculiarly enough myself and The Sick & Indigent Song Club have a mutual friend. The mutual friend is a farmer in West Cork and when I was in his house a couple of weeks ago there was a picture of the band on the wall. I knew one of the members from college years ago and pointed this out to aforesaid farmer. He then told me that the band had played in his living room a few months before to a very appreciative crowd of his neighbours. As this weird trip continued another friend put some 'Crisp & Dry' cooking oil on a stiff scissors and proceeded to cut the farmers hair. Just as the haircut was finished there was a phonecall to say that the farmers bull had broken out of the field so he had to leg it. Myself and the barber then walked about 4 miles over a mountain to get home for dinner. I'm not sure why I'm writing this down but it's all sounds funny in my head if that's any defence.

On a completely unrelated topic, I came across a tune today that I hadn't heard in years. It's by a bloke from Estonia (I think) called Pastakas and he lives in a forest somewhere and makes great music. Or at least he used to. Here it is:

Tumedasse Tuppa - Pastakas

love me, in the morning

Nyah Luv - Steel Pulse

those were the days my friend

I've been noticing things in the last few days that I hadn't noticed before. All of those 'Subway' shops around Dublin have the same peculiar fake smell about them. It's rotten. I've also been wondering why every block of old corporation flats have those strange white plaster statuettes in their windows? There were lots of other things that I noticed but now I can't remember anything about them.

I was back in the suburbs where I grew up over the last couple of days and i remarked on how everything seemed smaller but still much the same. This area would have played a huge part in my musical development. I first learnt to read music and play a trombone in the local brass band hall. A few metres on and I passed by my old primary school and saw the conker trees I'd spend hours throwing sticks at every September. I also passed the community centre where the local disco took place. This hall bore witness to several gigs I played with my first ever band. It was a wonderful time. It was also where I decided that I'd like to be a DJ. There was a guy who'd DJ after the bands had played and he'd often need a hand setting up his gear. He was a nice bloke but he was your run of the mill Wedding/Special occasion DJ who'd lob a few teen favourites into his set list for our benefit. I also remember him throwing in a bit of heavy metal to pander to the many rockers that would show up. Peculiarly enough, this community centre was the place where my mother thought it might be nice for me to attend disco dancing lessons when I was eight years old. My abiding memory of those lessons was Joe Dolce's 'Shaddap you face'.

Anyhow, things have moved on in the intervening years and I'm no longer forced to dance to that tune. Instead I'm still delighting in bringing music into my life and others. I'm trying to do the MP3 hosting thing for the first time so here's hoping. It's New Zealand's finest, Fat Freddys Drop.

Hope - Fat Freddy's Drop