A Pre-2008 Post...

Shortshortshort post...

I am off the alcohol so there'll be no drinking tonight...
Just lots of Cigarettes & Coffee to get me through the night probably...
Next year I need to focus on my French lessons, my Photography and my Skateboarding, so I don't want to interrupt that with alcohol consumption...
Poor O'Neills on Suffolk Street is going to lose a lot of business now that I wont be in my second home anymore drinking the night away...

I'll be back blogging later in the week, but for the meantime, I had forgotten how brilliant this band used to be...
Here is a fan made video for their sombre (and best) song "Steam Will Rise"...

Silverchair:

Sleeeaze Baaaaaag!

I know this is going to seem like a lame post (so I will apologise now, Sorry!) but I have been told that I have to post my favourite crushes of the past year...
Supply & demand yadda yadda yadda....
This isn't strictly limited to musicians though, so I can choose whoever the hell I wish...

One month ago I turned 22 and realised that I still behave like I am 15 (hence this post)...
Soooo in 2007 some randomer who stars in a Disney Channel musical thing posted nude pics of herself on the net (or someone stole her mobile and posted them instead), it's all the same really...
More Paris Hilton nekkidness...
Britney going starkers...
Meg White lookalike doing amateur porn...
Everyone finally realising that Suicide Girls is actually not great anymore (especially since they fired their best photographer)...
Lots of things to take into consideration...
I narrowed it down and have come up with eleven talented and attractive ladies...
P.S. I tried to make the pictures as PC as possible...

11: Raji Sohal...
This is the only picture I could find of her. It doesn't do her justice. She is a presenter on CBC Radio 3 and a fashion expert. Canadian of course (which helps if you want to get into this list)...


10: Amara Karan...
I saw her in the Darjeeling Limited and she was brilliant in it. This is a still from the movie, she is incredibly pretty, but this is a shitty picture.


09: Jemina Pearl...
Frontwoman of the mighty Be Your Own Pet. She has pretty fucking astonishing vocals and seeing her live is actually better than any of the times I have seen Karen O. Total Punk Princess (did I just say that!?)


08: Vera Farmiga...
Saw her in the fan-fucking-tastic Departed and she stole the show. Boston accents on girls are really hot. Scorsese done good casting her.


07: Megan Good...
Have any of you seen the movie Brick? 1960s film noir set in an American High School. Brilliant little indie/art house film from a first time director. Every scene with her in it, you are glued to the screen.


06: Sash...
Like I said, it's my list so I can choose who I please. This was the most PC pic I could nab of hers, so I know it's not great. She is an alternative model and is stunning. Angelina Jolie's lips don't compete here at all...


05: Alison "VV" Mosshart...
I blogged about her in the post below. Nuff said...


04: Natalie Portman...
I was like not even 9 when she played the 12 year old in Leon. I had a crush on her then and nothing has changed. Oh, and she seems to have the fucking best taste in music...


03: Annie Clark...
I don't think I even knew who she was last year (I'm not a Polyphonic Spree or Sufjan fan). But 2007 was the year Annie Clark stole my heart (and the show from The National in the Olympia)...


02: Maya Arulpragasma...
"Doggin' on the bonnet of your Red Hondaaa" is the lyric of the year from one of the artists of the year who created one of the albums of the year. Kala is a masterpiece and if any of you had bothered to get up close to the front at the Electric Picnic then you would have had the time of your life and not complained about bad sound. She is the shit...


01: Shannyn Sossamon...
Wow, didn't see that one coming.

It kills to be killer...

I am making this blog entry because of On The Record's Jim "Christmas" Carroll & his post about The Kills...
Well I'd like to add my two cents to this...
The absolutely-ridiculously-outrageously sexy & talented-as-fuck Alison "VV" Mosshart makes The Kills...
Sure Jamie "Hotel" Hince is a great guitarist and whatever but Mosshart's vocals and lyrics are brilliant.
You've got to love someone who openly discouraged smoking at any given opportunity and continuously condemned smokers for years on end, only to turn around a couple of years down the line and call herself a "chain smoking vegan"...
Take a bow Miss Mosshart, if it weren't for female musicians as gifted & skilled like yourself, then music would be boring testosterone fueled bullshit.
The Kills' live shows are not to be missed - you'll know what I mean when you see them live...
The album is out in March so there will be a Dublin show in Whelans or something around then more than likely...
Pre-empt the possible selling out of this gig by booking a ticket for the non-existent show this Christmas...

I'm not going to end with a download to one of their tunes...
Instead I am going to post the sexiest photograph of all time...

Flowers in the Attic...

Yesterday myself and Red both agreed that kooky & quirky girls are the most attractive.
I can't think of any girl who is as fucking mad as Amanda Palmer, one half of the most unique band around at the minute: The Dresden Dolls...
I know all of you know DD already so I wont go into a long-winded post talking bollox about how great they are...
Instead, I am going to point you towards a video which I watched so many times when it first circulated last year...
It was made when DD won the coveted opening slot for Panic! At The Disco's North American tour in 06...
It is an amusing little video (if you like both bands). The song playing over it is by the Dresden Dolls and it is called Backstabber (in my humble opinion - one of their finest moments)...
Amanda Palmer is just fucking brilliant. Her utter mind-boggling weirdness makes her pretty damn hot in my eyes...

Observe:



And to all the haters, Panic! are not that bad a fucking band.
The scene kids love them but I have heard a helluva lot worse than 'em...

Here is a Dresden Dolls song available for you to download...
It's a cracking tune called Dirty Business...
Listen to Amanda's lyrics in both the song below and the one in the youtube video...
Very witty and at times laugh-out-loud...

Dresden Dolls - Dirty Business: Download Me Now...

The best music magazine in the world...

Opening Doors in 2007...

So many people are creating a million music lists to sum up 2007...
Shit, even I indulged in it myself by creating a top 16 album list...
But my top 16 changes every few minutes so I probably shouldn't have taken part in the "let's compile a list of fantastic songs/albums/videos" farce...

What I really should have done is created a list of my favourite fruit's from 2007, my top pet names of 2007, my favourite piece-of-ass 2007...


So without further adieu, I give you my favourite front-door colours of the past year...



10. White Door:
The religious door. Too clean living and ridiculously irritable. Stay well away.




9. Purple Door:
A little too trippy for my taste buds. Definitely the home of a failed artist or writer.




8. Yellow Door:
Apparently this shade of Banana can drive you insane if your walls are painted this colour. I think it can apply to front doors too.




7. Brown Door:
Very dull colour. People whose front door's are this colour have a standard 9-5 job and are on the verge of monotonous frenzy.




6. Varnished Door:
This is a chippy's door & most carpenter's I know are fucking dodgy. Probably a drug dealer (and not the good kind of drug dealer).




5. Red Door:
Standard & ordinary. 2.4 children with the usual workaholic dad and his very hot wife. We all lived behind this colour door at some point in our lives.




4. Glass Door:
Pros: Capitalists - Greedy folk who want to show everyone on the outside just how much they've spent on the inside of their house.
Cons: Can be smashed by a brick & then looted quite easily.




3. Black Door:
Well educated, morose, sombre, self-loathing & Goth. Just some of the things that can be associated with you if you are the British Prime Minister and live behind a door this colour. Very stylish though.




2. Blue Door:
My ex-girlfriend's front door was Blue & she turned out to be a cunt in the end. However, I have fond memories of that door so it deserves to be at number 2.




1. Green Door:
Intelligent people drive Green cars. So in theory, super-intelligent people have Green front-doors. Paint your door Green and people will think you're smart. It's win-win.

Tomlab...!!!

I just bought the following from the mighty Road Records...
The best purchases I have acquired in a fucking long time...
Sinnbus Records and Tomlab have got to be the finest labels around...!


Various Artists:
Puppy Love - 10 Years of Tomlab
Tomlab Records



David Shrigley:
Worried Noodles
Tomlab Records



Ter Haar
Ter Haar 10"
Sinnbus Records

Needle in the Hay...

I've been listening to this song all day...
Literally cannot get it out of my damn head...
I think it is because I watched The Royal Tenenbaums over the weekend...
And the best scene in the entire film has that song playing over it...



Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay: Download Me Now...

City & Colour...

Let's all scream out a collective "Fuck Yeaaaaaaah!!!"
It's February.
It's 2008.
It's Dallas Green's new album....!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!oneoneone!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!one!!!!!1

Dallas Green cleverly goes by the solo name of City & Colour...
Dallas is a City - Green is a Colour.
Tremendous.

He is one fifth of St. Catherine's finest & Canada's biggest export, motherfucking "Alexisonfire"...
Possibly the best band to ever come out of the Maple State, they have written three of the most astonishing albums ever supported by a Canadian Government...
Proof of this is the current album "Crisis" going straight in at number 1 in the Canadian album charts.

Alexisonfire are the type of band you wish you were a part of...
This comes from their method of using multiple vocalists: Guitarist Dallas providing melodic, soft singing, and fellow-guitarist Wade MacNeil's implusively sweet punk rock vocals on one side, with the incredible frontman George Pettit's polar-opposite explosive screaming on the other.
The band describes their music as "the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight" which, in my opinion, is the best description of a band's sound EVER.



Easily one of my favourite bands around.
I would love to post a million of their videos because they are so good but I will settle for two..

This is the video for No Transitory - probably my favourite song of theirs...



And this video (Hey! It's your funeral mama) is just incredible. Funny as fuck but the main guitar riff is awesome...



Anyway, the reason I made this post is because Dallas has a new album coming out...
His solo material sounds nothing like his day-job in AOF...
It is singer/songwriter stuff - but it is completely different to the usual bland bullshit we are forced to accept from a male voice with an acoustic guitar...
Dallas' vocals are poetic and sincere...
It's rare for him to tour his solo material because Alexisonfire is full-time and he doesn't really need the money because he is one of the biggest selling artists in Canada...
You might find that hard to believe, but Alexisonfire (and Dallas) are bigger than your beloved Arcade Fire...!

This link is only going to be left up for 1 week and then it will go dead...
It's a very rare song Dallas wrote about 5 years ago...
The track 'Missing' (sometimes it is called Serravale) was written about Green's music teacher, Serravale, who died. One track CDs of this song were sold at his early shows and all proceeds went to the Denis Morris High School Starvathon that Serravalle had started, and continuously supported. Serravalle played a large part in teaching Green to believe in himself as a musician.

A lot of you may be surprised to find this out, but I have listed this song as one of my favourite songs of all-time...
I think it is flawless and ridiculously beautiful...

Download Me Now...

NEW ARTIST ALERT!!!!!!!

We all fall in love with new bands/artists on a daily basis...
We cheat on our old favourite acts with brand new ones...
Monogamy does not exist when it comes to new artists...
And I have discovered a love for another emerging superstar...

Fresh Cherries From Yakima is the moniker for Douglas Martin...
An unsigned multi-instrumentalist & lyrical-poet...
For the past 24 house (since I first came across his music) I haven't been able to listen to anything else...
The music is melodic and engrossing, the lyric's dreamy and delicate & the vocal's are nothing short of awe and wonder - dry & whispering...

A self-proclaimed reclusive scruffy book-worm, Douglas has so many enthralling features flowing within his music, it would be an absolute insult to him if I tried to explain how they will make you feel when you hear them...
I wouldn't be able to do them justice...
These songs need to be heard...
They need to be discovered by welcoming ears...



I was awake until about 5 am last night...
I couldn't sleep due to the amount of coffee I drank during the day...
The entire night was spent smoking cigarettes and listening to Douglas' songs...
They took on a whole new meaning listening to them at night...

I don't want to name any other artists whom he reminds me of because it just wouldn't be fair...
These songs don't need comparisons (and neither does Douglas) because their delicate superiority speaks volumes...
However, I will say this - If you can imagine a more melodic Jeffrey Lewis amalgamated with a softer, more diaphanous Isaac Brock, then that is how I would describe Douglas' vocal ability...

You really need to support his music,
I implore you to do so.



Douglas is going to be releasing a brand new online EP for free entitled "Bourbon and Bedsheets," very soon.
His debut album, "Buttons for North Caroline" will be available digitally on New Year's Day (fuck Radiohead, buy this!) and hopefully, it will see a physical release in June....right in time for those beautiful summer nights...

Not content with being a very talented musician, he is also an avid blogger...
And his blog is nothing short of superb and witty...

Some links to this impressive dude's stuff:

His Myspace music profile is heeeere!!!
And his awesome music blog is heeeere!!!


For your listening pleasure, I give you one of the most fantastic songs I have heard in a very long time:
Fresh Cherries From Yakima - Lullaby for a Retired Model: Download Me Now!!!

A lot more music can be found on his blog, where he also has some fantastic cover-versions to boot.
Is there anything this guy can't do!?!?

2007 Albums Were Sexy...

So that time of year has come again...
When every music fan feels they deserve a say in what was the best albums released over the past year...
I have seen some lists already which have made me laugh my ass off...
Like some people listing their top 100 albums or even their top 50...
How can you tell the difference between the album you position at number 96 to the one sitting at number 54?
How can you justify listing that many records?
It doesn't make sense and you end up looking like a pretentious dick.

I'm keeping mine under the 20 mark...
A top 16 to be exact...
I would like to say that all of these records WERE released in Ireland in 2007...
They might have been released in The States (or elsewhere) last year, but once they were released in Ireland this year then they are legit enough to be included in this list...

I have incorporated a compilation by Various Artists into the top 16...
It's a fantastic record and I felt it deserved to be in the list...
There is also an 8-track EP which makes an appearance...
It deserves to be there because it is quite simply better than most albums I have heard this year...

Without further ado, I give you my Top Albums of 2007:



16. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank:
I hate the way people dismiss Modest Mouse nowadays just because their sound has become a lot more accessible than their previous albums which had Seasick Steve at the helm. This is a fantastic follow up to Good News For People Who Love Bad News!



15. The Valerie Project - The Valerie Project:
I posted about this a month ago or so. It's terrifically esoteric and creepy. Grimm Brothers / Nosferatu / fairytale music. A pleasure to listen to.



14. Future of the Left - Curses:
Made up from ex members of McClusky & Jarcrew - this Welsh based trio released a stomper this year of alternative rock. Singer/Guitarist Andy "Falco" Falkous is one of the great British frontmen. His lyrics are laugh-out-loud fantastic.



13. Hauschka - Room to Expand:
Hauschka is the alias of Düsseldorf–based pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann. His work is based upon an exploration of the possibilities of the prepared piano, which he then turns into playfully disruptive songs. It is genius.



12. Pantha Du Prince - This Bliss:
Pantha Du Prince is the solo project of Hendrik Weber, fusing house, techno & shoegazey indie. Each track on this record is bittersweet take techno that'll appeal to dancefloors as well as living rooms. Listen to it with the lights out - You'll love it.



11. Alex Delivery - Star Destroyer:
Hailing from New York, Alex Delivery is a collective that takes influences from many different bands and genres to create a highly dense and psychedelic sound. The album can be seen as a combination of Krautrock, Musique Concrete, Space Rock, Prog Rock, Experimental & Electronic music with repetitive rhythms, jams, dense collages of abrasive noise and effects and a taste for inconvenient. I am certain this album would have slipped under your radar. Don't let it happen twice. It's quite simply a masterpiece...!



10. Love of Diagrams - Mosaic:
This Australian three piece floored me when I heard this album. Taking the Nu-Wave / Post-Punk sound of 1980's New York and making it sound fresh & original in 2007 is no mean feat. Fans of The Pixies will fucking love this album. A certain journalist was in his car listening to this album and without realising it - he was going over 120 mph. That's how fast & furious this record is.



9. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover:
Spencer Krug has got to be Mr. Indie 2007. The multi-instrumentalist from Wolf Parade produces gold after gold. When I first heard this album, I instantly thought it sounded like very-very early Arcade Fire. When the Montréal giants played the Phoenix Park a few weeks ago, guess who they were playing before they came on-stage...?



8. Various Artists - A Kind of Awe & Reverence & Wonder:
Can a compilation be included in an End of Year Poll? Of course! There's no rules implied to any polls. This has EVERYTHING you could possibly want on it: 12 intoxicating droplets of contemporary progressive rock, Eastern psych, folk and concrete siphoned from natural sources in England, America, France and Wales.



7. Enter Shikari - Take To The Skies:
They made the kids go crazy. They made me go crazy. They certainly made security at Oxegen go fucking insane to the point where they tried to stop the show because everyone was going wild for the St Albans 4-piece. A mammoth debut album that managed to fuse post-hardcore and heavy use of synthesised sound effects.



6. El Ten Eleven - Every Direction is North:
It's never easy for a band to follow up a debut album which is completely flawless. But ETE managed to do it quite easily. This LA-based 2 piece are probably my favourite band around. I can't get my head around the fact that the these 2 dudes can write music this beautiful. If ever there was an album to listen to in the Summer time - this was it.



5. Interpol - Our Love To Admire:
Aaaah, my boys break the top 5. I know a lot of people are not going to take this one serious as I am an obsessive and totally biased. But OLTA is an amazing album. So Banksy's lyrics are little less obscure and a little more tedious. So the music is a lot more Pixies than ever before. But you can't escape the sheer fact that they have progressed as a unit and this album is a much-much better follow-up album than Antics was.



4. MIA - Kala:
I'm going to sound like a juvenile shit now but she is the hottest piece of ass in music at the moment. This album comes thumping at you with powwa-powwa. An absolute force to be reckoned with. Switch and Diplo making magic happen here (along with Maya herself), this album has so many hooks, skips, beats & raps going on - it amalgamates them all into 12 tracks which will take you all over the world in under 50 minutes.



3. Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe:
Rollie Pemberton is changing hip-hop. He's making it old-skool again. He's an indie-kid who writes, produces, raps, thumps, screams and hisses the best rhymes you'll hear all year. Although it's 2 years old, this album only got released in September for the first time in Ireland. Prepare yourself for his new album in March 08. You wont hear anything else like this.



2. Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime:
Those of you who read this blog will have seen this one coming. Released in Canada last year but received its Irish release in February, TPC wrote an incredible EP consisting of 8 songs and put them all onto 1 little disc. There's a languid undertow on the EP, frontman Monks pulling you in with a slow, warm-water voice only to let his pals bludgeon you with just-so rhythms that, even in flight, last a sharp, fast two minutes on average. Debut album coming in March.



1. Emanuel - Black Earth Tiger:
Who??? (is probably what you lot are crying)!! Black Earth Tiger is Emanuel's second album, clocking in at 43 minutes and consisting of 11 songs which are so in-your-face raw and aggressive and melodic, it was a no-brainer to make this the best album of 2007. Matt Breen's vocals and lyrics are cynical & weary, yet he managers to turn them into massive sing-a-long anthems. Closing track Whiteflag (Reprise) is the best song I have heard all year. Please check this band out - they're too good to go un-noticed by music snobs.