May 19th, 2006
New music and Fujiya & Miyagi
This week Niall and Padraig have been sharing their new listening pleasures with us (delighted to see they’re both Mice Parade fans) so, I thought I’d do likewise. This week, my ears have been soaking up the following:
* the catchy, can’t-help-but-like-it Hot Chip
* Si Schroder’s excellent debut
* an album from last year I keep returning to by Iceland’s Emiliana Torrini
* a Boards of Canada sampler (only two tracks, first one great, second one not so much)
* The gorgeous electronic folky rhythms of Juana Molina
* Aquarian Moon by Osunlade
* Various acts (Black Bear, Peter Van Haaften and The Altamont) on a small Seattle label that has to be one of my finds of the year, Baskerville Hill Records.
I’m definitely buying the Final Fantasy album and was disappointed I couldn’t go to the gig last week. Did anyone check it out? Someone else I’ve been checking out are Fujiya & Miyagi, whose mini album Transparent Things was released last week and picked up a great review in The Guardian.
No, they’re not Japanese and they’re not a twosome. The trio are from Brighton and lucky for us, they’re playing Dublin tonight. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on later but I think these guys are definitely worth heading along to (especially as I didn’t make it out for Broken Social Scene last night). Fujiya & Miyagi have been likened to a big stew of Can, Happy Mondays, Alabama 3, Kraftwerk and Talking Heads and count DFA, Tiga, Andy Weatherall and Damo Suzuki as fans. Curious? Well, you can listen to some tunes on their myspace page.
They play tonight at the Maximum Joy club night at the Tap on the corner of North King Street, Smithfield. Doors are at 9pm, it’s on til 2am and there’s even a two-bottles-of-Corona-for-a-fiver deal. Admission €8 before midnight and €10 after.
Watch out for two other tantalising upcoming nights there with Hystereo and Halfset/Luke Vibert. Tonight’s gig is also the last at the Tap, as the organisers are moving to a bigger, secret, much-handier venue in the city centre.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Was at the Final Fantasy gig and managed to catch his sound-check too. Really good concert. Still prefer the catchier first album.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:32 am
I thought you were off getting drunk with a load of bloggers?
May 19th, 2006 at 10:21 am
That was the saturday night. The gig was on the Sunday.
May 19th, 2006 at 11:49 am
cool, thanks for the tip! Fujiya & Miyagi look right up my street.
I was at Broken Social Scene last night but might make it a 2-night run now
Hot Chip are good, alright.
May 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Why didn’t you end up at BSS in the end? It was a great night of course. They had Amy Millan from Stars singing but I thought her vocals were pretty poor/couldn’t hear them. Overall, It can never be as good as your first time but it was still great.
Fujiya & Miyagi sound interesting, but I think I’ll be elsewhere tonight.
Let us know more about the halfset/Vibert gig when you can.
May 19th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Justin, I’m kinda addicted to Hot Chip at the moment and I reckon you should definitely check out F&M. I reckon I’ll head in later.
Niall, I’ve had a throat/cold thing knocking the wind out of my sails this week so I figured that standing up for three hours in a packed, hot venue wasn’t exactly a trip to a spa.
Are you off to another gig tonight? F&M probably won’t be on until 12.30 or so.
May 19th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
I feel your pain, I have a bit of that cold myself although its almost cleared up. It’ll either be a house party or Ceephx Acid Crew / Chevron in the Legal Eagle tonight I reckon. And my mates Super Extra Bonus Party in the Boom Boom Room on Saturday.
May 19th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Oh, the Final Fantasy concert was soup-erb. Can’t wait to catch him again “in the fall”.
May 19th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Darn it! I was in recovery from a best friend’s hen night and was surgically attached to the sofa.
Is he playing again in the Autumn? My guess is that if Leagues brought him over, that he may turn up on the Foggy Notions stage of the Electric Picnic.