December 22nd, 2005
Music, sweet music
* I had a big serious blog post to put up but my head is very tender and thumpy today so I’ll save it for tomorrow. I wanted to mention various music bits and pieces in no particular order.
* Having discovered the Broken Social Scene and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah albums at the same time, I think Broken Social Scene has surpassed CYHSY after many listens. BSS’ gig on February 11th 2006 has been moved from Crawdaddy to the Temple Bar Music Centre. Not a great venue, but then how would all 10 of them have fitted on the postage stamp that is the Crawdaddy stage?
*I think I’ve already heard one of the best albums of 2006. It’s by a Wisconsin band called Cougar and it has blown me away. It popped through the letterbox on Tuesday and I haven’t stopped listening to it or telling everyone I know who likes music about it. It’s mixed by John McEntire of Tortoise, who also mixed Spoons, the second album by Dubliner Jeff Martin. Cougar also sound like one of Jeff’s alter egos, Halfset with a bit of Fourtet, State River Widening, Mice Parade and the odd touch of The Redneck Manifesto thrown in. You can listen to it here and make up your own mind. It’s released on January 27th via Layered Records and they tour Europe and the UK in the same month.
* I made some people listen to lots of Kate Bush at around 4am last night (and the Cougar album more than once).
* Damien is trying to round up people to go and see Sigur Ros in Manchester in March. Am sorely tempted and it’s the day before himself’s birthday so I could also notch up mucho brownie points.
* Speaking of Sigur Ros, I was reminded of how brilliant they were by the fact that Paul over at In Fact, Ah is summing up his Gigs of the Year. Off the top of my head I’d have to go for the following and will probably leave out something major:
Kraftwerk at the Electric Picnic (as watched from the sound desk and I nearly cried)
LCD Soundsystem at the Electric Picnic - they blew everyone off the stage
CocoRosie at Whelan’s - wonderful, eclectic, weird, funny
Sufjan Stevens at the Village - Quite a meloncholic gig at the worst venue in the country.
Sigur Ros at the Olympia - Stunning. No other superlatives required.
* Richard’s Ashcroft’s new album is total pants. He sounds like Neil Diamond. And not in a good way.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Kraftwerk were pretty amazing Sinead, I can wholeheartedly agree with you there. I had seen them in 2003 in Australia, with pretty much the same format. I think the impact wasn’t as forceful the second time around, otherwise it probably would have been in my top 3. LCD Soundsystem were great also, I think they kind of ‘bottled’ the essence of Electric Picnic
CocoRosie I don’t know, I’ll have to check ‘em out. I didn’t go to Sufjan, mainly because it was the village, and I heard from some ardent Sufjan-loving friends of mine that they were a bit dissapointed with the gig :/
I was really hoping for a lot from the Sigur Ros gig as it was the first time I had seen them and I’ve been loving their records right from the off. Maybe I built it up too much or something I don’t know but it wasn’t _as_ good as I was expecting. Still a good gig though, the intro and outro to the set in particular were stunning.
I think it was inevitable that BSS were going to get moved, I can’t wait to see them though. I don’t know why you are anti-Temple Bar Music Centre? I think it’s a great venue. The sound in there is top notch and the (pleasant) bar area is seperate from the venue. Sleater-Kinney fairly rocked there this year and I’m glowing with anticipation to see Mogwai ‘exercise’ the sound rig there in January
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Well the Village is worse than TBMC. Village is too hot and the sound is patchy. TBMC is just horribly designed, uncomfortable and always cold. Not very nice to their staff either.
Loved Sigur Ros, but they didn’t blow me away the same way as the first time I saw them, but that often happens with bands.
I saw Kraftwerk in early 04 and it didn’t diminish the EP performance for me.
December 23rd, 2005 at 8:26 pm
Sinead, I meant to mention, have you seen this?
December 23rd, 2005 at 10:57 pm
the village is ridiculous - i mean the location of the bathrooms for a start! BSS are so much better than CYHSY… and thanks for that cougar tip-off, i’ll have to buy it to keep my finger on the pulse :p
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Speaking of Neil Diamond, have you heard Neil Diamond’s new album yet?
I got it on amazon.com mainly because Rick Rubin produced it.
I have loved Johnny Cash from about the age of 5 and Rick Rubin handled Cash’s legacy so well with the American recordings.
12 songs is actually quite good. Haven’t listened to it much and don’t think it’s out here for a bit but I was pleasantly surprised.