This arcade's on fire!

Okay, that was a bad Kings of Leon pun to start with!

Now, I accept that in the past I have been cynical or suspicious of Arcade Fire (like here, here and here), but then 'The suburbs' turned me around more than a little (as admitted here), and when I saw they were to play Dublin in December alongside Vampire Weekend, I decided that it was time to see what all the live fuss was about.   I read a review of the gig here, the author of which very much shared my view on the band, and my inability to 'get' them the way others did, but this was their chance to break down my final defences and claim me for their own.

I also decided it would be my 10-year-old's first big concert, as he linked both acts, and we had not managed to get a family  ticket to Electric Picnic, even after buying the tent especially (at least I got to finally see the National in Ireland in 2010, the night before the Arcade Fire gig, as ecstatically reviewed here).

It was also acrually my first concert at Dublin's key venue, the O2, which I had been to some gigs in years ago in its previous incarnation as The Point Depot (maybe Pulp, the Waterboys, and a Feile festival, if memory serves me right).

Even with dashing through the Dublin snow, we didn't get there in time for Devendra Banhart (who I had heard recommended through Uncut, and whose 'Smoky rolls down thunder mountain' I gave a good try during the week before the gig, before concluding that the cool name was my favourite thing about it), but I was quite keen to see Vampire Weekend.

Their debt was one of my favourite albums of 2008, but 'Contra' earlier this year left me severely disappointed; although it did contain my favourite song of all of their's ('Giving up the gun'), the rest of the tracks did nothing for me.  Live, they came across as technically excellent (particularly the drumming) but somewhat cold and unemotional, as if they had read the textbooks on how to make passionate music and could push the buttons, but did not bring real heart and soul to the deal.  All the clinical aloofness from their records was amplified on stage, and I was somewhat disappointed.

Interestingly, leaving the last three songs of your set to your debut suggested to me they might, deep down, share my view on its follow-up (they never played 'gun', alas), and my iPhone captured the three.  First up was 'Oxford Comma', on which I wrote one of the first posts for this blog here, and which I still love:



Apologies for the video quality on these, as I didn't get as close as I would otherwise have, due to my small-scale apprentics.  'Oxford comma' was followed by 'Walcott', which I always also loved on album, but much of the ornate instrumentation of which was a little lost by the more basic live set up:



Finally (I think, maybe I have order mixed up) came the wonderfully oddball 'Mansard roof', which was certainly a statement of aristocractic knowing intent at the start of the debut:



Then came the break and build up to the main event, which inevitably involved a fair degree of reconstruction of the stage to fit a significantly more expansive and ambitiously instrumented Arcade Fire.  They came on stage with 'Ready to start', loud and proud, and basically hurled themselves at their instruments with a level of energy and gusto which was all the more incredible for the fact that they maintained it for almost 2 hours.  The waves of raw energy and passion rolling off the stage were quite astonishing, and I can understand the longstanding hype about their live shows.

The sudden spike in levels of everything, crowd adrenaline included, proved at this point a little too much for my son, so we beat a tactical retreat back a little to a place where there was more space, and so the quality of the subsequent video clips suffered a little as a result, and I didn't film as much as I might otherwise, particularly at the start.  When doing a bit of research for this post, I found an incredible web-site called 'Setlist' which includes the set-list (below, thanks to their cool widget) for the gig as well as clips of all songs, albeit not from this actual gig, plus lyrics here). 

Edit this setlist | More Arcade Fire setlists

I must admit that, without my audio-visual props to remind me, the first half of the gig was a bit of an overwhelming blur, with snippets of memories of band members beating hell out of drums held by other band members, and routinely swapping instruments, and the 'drive-in'-like giant screen showing a variety of images, some abstract, some less so (including some strange images for one song of what appeared to be female heads bobbing in water like something from an early 20th Century German expressionist movie, if I actually knew what those really looked like).  I also remember that 'we used to wait' featured lots of images of stamps and envelopes, like an ode to a pre-emmail era.

I did capture 'The suburbs', which is a great opener to the album of that name:



and 'Intervention', which is my son's favourite:



The main set finished with 'Neighbourhood #3 (Power out)' flowing kinetically and through sheer power of momentum into 'Rebellion (Lies)'.  So many of their songs do seems like several songs co-evolving together and fighting to be heard that such flow seems completely natural and organic, and I did capture it:



They came back after the perfunctory absence for 'Keep the car running' and what is apparently their traditional closer 'Wake up':



So overall, a very good gig and undeniably powerful.  Their audience interaction is pretty good too, with a few reflections our economic woes and also a plea for support for Haiti before the song of the same name, and several references to Ireland being their favourite place to play (of course).

There is no doubt that their commitment, passion, musicianship and energy in a live setting are about as good as I have ever seen, and really takes the breath away.  They must be one of the best live bands in the world without any doubt.  My only problem comes back to my own personal relationship with the songs, which has never been that strong, despite my best efforts, and leaves in place a residual barrier to my fully engagin heart and soul with the concert.  It is hard to compare this behemoth with the small scale of The National but there is no doubt that the previous night's gig, stately and sedate by comparison, meant far more to me as I knew and loved every song so completely.

However, would I go and see Arcade Fire again?  In a shot. Click Here to Read More..

The National anthems in Dublin

It just felt unfair, unjust, when I couldn’t, despite many efforts, get tickets for The National’s Dublin gigs in the venerable Olympia Theatre when they were announced back in September. Who were those who had got there ahead of me and what had they done to deserve it more than me? Had they pathetically chronicled their obsessions with ‘High violet’ here or here, for example? Did I not somehow deserve a ticket for such loyal on-line advocacy?  

But then fate took pity on me, and a friend in need offered me his ticket for the Saturday night, just five days before the gig, and I seized both ticket and opportunity gratefully, and travelled from Cork to Dublin through an unseasonably wintry landscape that morning.

I arrived eagerly early (I went on my own), both out of predictable excitement for them and interest in the support, Phosphorescent (of whom a review will follow in a later post - but they were really good).  The ticket was for standing space, so I got as close as I ould to the stage without having one of the mysterious VIP-style wristbands (who the hell are those lucky folks?), and savoured the difference to the last time I saw them in the same venue, when it felt like I was watching them from a Google Earth satellite (I discussed this gig here).  I did get see my favourite drummer (indeed, perhaps, favourite musician) Bryan Devendorf checking his own drums during the set-up (right). 

Anyway, the video clip below captures the moments after the houselights dimmed and I love the image of the mike stands on stage against the light, like the cranes that once adorned Dublin's skyline in pre-bust days (alas and alack).  Then they appeared and started unexpectedly (for me, last time they started with the far more upbeat 'Brainy') with 'Runaway', but a lovely stately version of it, and I really liked the screen, which showed a range of images mixed with footage of the band playing, and occasionally the audience.

They then moved pretty quickly into 'Anyone's ghost', which has really grown on me as one of their rate moments of 3-minute pop, veering pretty close to New Order territory:



Then, introduced by Aaron as 'a song from Alligator' came the wonderful 'Secret Meeting', the last minute of which (with the shouty chanting I regard as one of my favourite National moments of all):



What a great start!  At this point I was almost faint with sheer euphoria, and resolved not to obsessively film every song, but to actually just enjoy most of them in the actual now, as opposed to heated emotion recollected in later tranquility (and then uploaded to this blog!).  For this reason, I didn't get clips of 'England', 'Bloodbuzz Ohio', 'Lemonworld' (the elongated intro to which allowed Matt to pop off stage briefly), or several others (as mentioned below). 

I did put the iPhone to use a lot, though, and I think the rest of these clips are in approximate order from the gig, starting with 'Slow show', of which I now have another version to add to at least three distinct ones I already have (including the demo from 'Virginia' and the Daytrotter session) in which Aaron ignored the keyboard behind him to do the ending on the guitar instead:



Of course, I had to capture my beloved 'Apartment story', with an acousticish drum-free intro leading into quite a laidback (for The National) version which I really liked:



At some stage later came the below version of 'Sorrow' (in which the way Matt sings the line 'I don't wanna get over you' always packs an emotional punch for me):



To this point, I thought Matt seemed less self-conscious and nervous (and perhaps drunk) than in previous gigs and clips and reviews, and the banter at the start of 'Conversation 16' below is genuinely relaxed and funny:



A little later, the intensity ramped up several dozen notches with an insane version of 'Abel', towards the end of which Matt launched himself into the crowd for the first time (and kept singing well, God bless him!):

I actuallycan't remember what they finished the main set with (blame the emotional overload) but I will never forget the encore, when they came back with an incendiary trio of 'Mr November', 'Mistaken for strangers' and 'Terrible love'.  Part way through the latter, Matt took off crowd-surfing once again, and ended up mere feet from me (see evidence left!).

At this point, my iPhone memory was starting to cry for mercy (why didn't I temporarily purge the fecker in advance?), which is why another reason I didn't capture the above trio, but I did have enough for the last track, when Phosphorescent joined them on stage for 'Vanderlyle Cry Baby Geeks' (no singing from the band really needed, the crowd did most of the work!):

At some point, they welcomed Richard Reed Perry of Arcade Fire to the stage, where he joined them on backing vocals and sometimes guitar for several songs.  Matt welcomed him with a joke about him owning the distribution rights to their music, and then mumbled about that sounding better in his head.  There were also two horn players on stage, and while I have always been ambivalent about the contribution of horns to The National's music, on stage that night it actually really worked, and filled in detail around the songs and little subtle but noticeable embellishments that definitely contributed positively.

Overall, a really really great gig, from a perfect position, with great sound, a crowd that more than earned their right to have got their damned tickets ahead of me with their enthusiasm and evident equal obsession to mine (as amply proven in the singalong to 'Vanderlyle'), and simply some of my favourite music ever to relish.

The next night brought a very different concert with Arcade Fire (review of which, including the Vampire Weekend warm-up slot), and perhaps more spectacle and even more madness, but at the end of the day it will always come back to the songs and how much they mean to you, and for that reason I find it very hard to believe last Saturday night in the Olympia will ever be beaten. Click Here to Read More..

Springsteen promises, and really delivers

No more excuses this time about the long silence since my last post; well, actually, lots of excuses, mainly revolving around a lot of travel, including the States and Iowa and Nebraska, which provides a perfectly apt lead-in to my first musical comment of this post, without further ado!

Music

I don't have a large repository of location-appropriate musical anecdotes, so occasionally you just have to sieze the day and manufacture one, as I bemused two colleagues by playing 'Nebraska' by Springsteen at full blast from my iPhone as we crossed the Iowa-Nebraska border (no highway patrolmen to be seen, nor state troopers) on my great midwestern roadtrip (if a 3-hour drive from Ames, Iowa to Lincoln, Nebraska could be called that.  I must admit switching to Counting Crows as we passed on the highway by Omaha (and it was indeed somewhere in middle America) but then it was back to Bruce. 

This is actually quite appropriate for reasons other than geographical, as I have also been listening to 'The Promise', the reissue of extra tracks recorded (mostly) around the time of 'Darkness on the edge of town' (an album I already really liked in its own right).  Having read first in Uncut about the whole box set reissue (see image below right), I was interested to check that out, by a €100+ price tag tested my real love for Bruce, and found it slightly lacking in these economically constrained times, so I downloaded the extra tracks CD from iTunes instead.

Anyway, 'The promise' is just brilliant!  'Darkness' earned its name in mood, but 'The Promise' lives in the light, and is incredibly uplifting and melodic for the most part.  My 10-year-old opined that it sounded like Christmas music, and it actually almost does, in tone and spirit and chiminess (?), and shows where songs from recent albums I have loved like 'Your own worst enemy', 'Girls in their summer clothes' and 'Queen of the supermarket' got their DNA, except these newly excavated masterpieces were recorded over 30 years ago, by far younger men, and somehow that adds to the thrill for me.  Songs such as 'Gotta get that feeling', 'Outside looking in', 'Someday (we'll be together)' (these three in a wonderful row near the start), 'Save my love', 'Talk to me' and, in particular, 'The little things (my baby does)' are just pop perfection, and reveal a lightness of touch and mood that I just never associated with that era of Springsteen.  In fact, the ones I sort of knew are my least favourite ('Fire' and 'Because the night', the legendariness of the latter never having made an impact on me in others' hands).  However, 'Come on (let's go out tonight) (boy he was going throug a serious bracketed subtitle phase in the late 70s!) reworks (preworks?) one of my favourites from 'Darkness' ('Factory') very nicely, and I always love finding the musical antecedents of well known songs, where early drafts with different lyrics or twists appear on later compilations (I can think of great examples for the National ('Slow show') and the Jayhawks ('I'm gonna make you love me')).  Overall, a brilliant album, and well deserving of the comment I saw in one review that this truly is the great lost Springsteen album.

It was hard to find tracks from 'The promise' on Youtube, besides tracks uploaded to still photo or blank backgrounds, so I will just include a contemporaneous live clip of the great 'Racing in the streets':

In a very different musical direction, I also downloaded 'The best of Suede'; firstly, it has to be said that when a band that have perhaps 5 studio albums to their name release a 35-track compilation, they may just be taking the piss to suggest this is their best, as surely one would have expected modesty to demand a slightly more winnowing choice of crucial cuts?

However, having said all that, I must admit that most of these songs are actually pretty damned great, and this is overall a great survey of the output of a great band.  I also must admit that I had almost forgotten how good they and their songs were, and had tended to retrospectively dismiss all bar 'Dog man star', but there are really really good songs scattered through this huge tracklist, and they unquestionably had that strange mix of their air of jaded glamour and epic drama married to great rock sensibilities and very good musicianship down to a tee.

I have wittered on about 'Dog man star' before (here), so I will include here two tracks from their later period, and start with 'Everything must flow' from 'Head music' (which I remember being somewhat bemused to find the now defunct Melody Maker picking as their album of that particular year); it appears second in the below set from 'Jools Holland':



I lso like this acoustic studio version of 'Saturday night' from 'Coming up':



Not moving quite as far as from Springsteen to Suede, but backtracking alphabetically, beings me to The National, who have released an extended version of 'High violet' (about which I almost had a coronary here), which iTunes kindly allowed me to download the extra tracks as an EP (although two of them, 'Sin eaters' and 'Walk off'', had previously somewhat underwhelmed me as bonus tracks on the download first time around).  Anyway, I honestly don't see all that much difference in the versions of 'Terrible love' and may soon have a playlist of live versions of 'England' alone, but I do like the MTV-unplugged style acoustic countryish version of 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' and really like 'Wake up your saints'.  The latter, to me, recaptures the playful spirit and lush instrumentalisation of 'So far around the bend' from 'Dark was the night' in a way that no track on 'High violet' really did, and I am pretty sure I can remember them playing this live in the Olympia in Dublin back in 2008 (they certainly did a song about saints, and when I heard 'Tall saint' some time later I was sure that was not it).  I found a live capture of it here:



There are other things going on musically right now, as the pre-1 December embargo on Christmas music passes (time to joyously hit 'Come on let's boogie to the elf dance' by Sufjan Stevens, surely the greatest unknown Christmas song of all), and I go to see Arcade Fire plus Vampire Weekend in Dublin on 5 December (woo-hoo!).  In addition, the first 'best of'' CD list has appeared, as Q magazine becomes I am sure only the first of many to put 'The suburbs', as their number one (Robert Plant as their number two, and 'High violet' around number 10), and such lists will surely become an obsession in coming weeks as in previous years.

In non-musical business, there has been lots of technology as I have waited in foolish anticipation for IOS4.2 to re-energise my iPad (it did!) and for Apple TV to to the same to my TV (it also did - damn you Steve Jobs!), books (on subjects from Ireland's wasters to HIV denial to the Large Hadron Collider), and TV (box sets of The Office and Firefly being worked through, and The Walking Dead being much enjoyed), if not many movies (a guilty enjoyment of 'Daybreakers' the exception).

However, it, like this post, is now late, and I think I will end this post, long enough as it is, here, and come back (honestly) soon to pick up the above threads.

That is, if Ireland hasn't been sold off by the IMF for scrap and spare parts by then.

Strange and worrying times indeed. Click Here to Read More..

A long overdue October post

It has been far too long since I updated (life too distracting, I guess) but I certainly have not become a cultural hermit nor lost the power of typing so time for even a quick update, as there has been quite a lot of good culture collected this October.

Music

Lots of CDs (or their virtual counterparts) this month, some of which I have tweeted about. Biggest surprise has been Kings of Leon's Come Around Sundown, which is really growing on me and is far better than anything they have done to date, in my view. Mary, Pyro and especially Back Down South are great songs, in a fairly shallow way, admittedly. This is pretty by-the-numbers rock stuff, but that doesn't mean it isn't catchy and highly listenable, and seems a little less effort-y than their last album, and a bit more laid-back, particularly 'Back down south', as seen below:

'Pyro' is one I first heard on the radio and really can't get out of my head (maybe the rare example of the use of the word 'cornerstone' in a song lyric was what snagged my ear most), and can be seen live below:



On an almost diametrically opposite track, I really like 'Invariable heartache' by Kurt and Cortney (no, not those ones, Wagner and Tillman, a.k.a. KORT), an album of oldish-style country duets (not sure if 'Invariable' is really a word, but it should be if it isn't!).  Kurt Wagner is of course the mainstay of cult alt-country ensemble Lambchop, who over last last number of years have released some of the most interesting music within that genre, always musically beautiful and complex and never commercial, and reaching their peak with the utter magnificence of 'Nixon'.  The new album takes Kurt's appropriately curt and clipped and typically understated vocals and mixes them with songs which are far more traditional (in tone and theme) than Lambchop's usual fare, but critically with a lovely voice in his new musical partner.  The songs are mainly slow in pace ('Incredibly lonely' fits the title perfectly) but occasionally less so ('Wild mountain berries').  There is a great trailer for the project below, and I thoroughly recommend it, perhaps as a quiet spot in the no-man's land between alt- and real country, where afficionados of either can meet in tentative truce.

I also liked the new Belle and Sebastian album 'Write about love', particularly and unexpectedly the absoultely gorgeous duet with Norah Jones (the splendidly named 'Little Lou, Prophet Jack and Ugly John'), which can be heard here.  I have always fallen into the trap of dismissing B&S as twee and harmless, but the new album contains a streak of steel and pop grandeur which work really well. 

Finally, for now, I was intrigued by the ads and reviews for 'The fool' by Warpaint (great name, great album cover, seen on the left). The album is growing on me, but I find it a bit dense and slow, mixing 80s-style markers that the reviews have mentioned like the Cocteau Twins and Souxsie and the Banshees with a strange girl-group vocal set-up, but with the vocals often buried relatively low in the mix, so as presumably not to over-emphasise the singing relative to the music.  Anyway, best track for me is 'Undertow', which is shown as a nice acoustic session below:

I have just downloaded a huge new Suede compilation, and have a few other downloads I haven't mentioned above (Antony and the Johnsons included) so lots more to talk about, hopefully after less of an interval than since the last update.

Movies

Saw 'The social network' (curiously underwhelming and obvious title for such a great movie) at the cinema and it did live up to the reviews, for once.  I have never been a huge David Fincher fan but the writing of Aaron Sorkin (the great god-like Aaron Sorkin) was as classy and sharp as expected, and I also loved the music, and overall it was thoroughly watchable and one of the best I have seen in a while.  Also took the kids to see 'Despicable me', which we all enjoyed, and I think the little yellow minions were brilliant and the best thing in it, although Steve Carrell's voicework was as funny as should be expected (great line about the neighbour's dog at the start).

On DVD or TV, got to see quite a few.  'Shutter island' was good but even wierder than I had expected, and I had sort of spoiled it by finding the twist on-line ages ago, so it seemed rather obvious when watching (I have really got to stop doing that).  Fell asleep during 'A serious man', as it was making no noticeable impression on me whatsoever, and not particularly interested in watching the rest, and 'Away we go' was sweet and nice and had fantastic performances by Maggie Gyllenhall and Allison Janney as completely mad and scary women.  I also thought 'Essence' was very funny and watchable, if not a classic, with some great performances (including the wonderfully deadpan JK Simmons and an almost thankfully unrecognisable Ben Affleck).  Have ordered my Apple TV on-line and interested to see how it will work, and will update on the next post (bit of an Apple product binge this autumn, but think my bank balance will bring it to a halt after this one).

I also got a tweet that the new trailer for the Benjamin Sniddlegrass movie is available on-line and it can be seen:

 Books

I saw Dom Joly as guest on an RTE (Irish state TV channel) comedy chat show and he was very engaging and likeable and spoke about a new book called 'The dark tourist', which I then downloaded and devoured with great interest.  It describes his travels to some less normal tourist destinations (North Korea, Iran, Beiruit, assassination sites in the US, Cambodia).  His writing is fluid and very funny, and he comes across as warm and curious, and the chapter on North Korea is absolutely fascinating as a shapshot of a completely bizarre and surreal (and thoroughly miserable) place of which we usually hear nothing, at least not through the lens and words of someone as witty and observant as Joly, while the chapter on Cambodia is mostly heart-breaking.  I also found 'Obama's wars' by Bob Woodward quite fascinating (I read all his Bush war books but found them quite boring by the end, so the change of administration being covered welcome, just was it was unbelievable welcome in real life!).   As before, I have no idea how Woodward got the access and permission that he has to write what he did, recounting what you would imagine to be top secret discussions and conversations apparently (but presumably with some liberty) verbatim, and at several points I wondered how the hell he had been allowed to write that in a book that was open for anyone (except presumably the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan) to read.  Now reading 'The accidental billionaires', on which 'The social network' was (remarkably closely) based.

So, that's it for now, but plan not to leave as long until the next update.  Heading to the US soon to visit Nebraska and Iowa for a work trip, and will actually be in Lincoln, Nebraska, but hopefully not with a sawed off .410 on my lap, so will update from there as part of new tour (total stops to date =1) of places mentioned in murder songs...... 

Click Here to Read More..

Sylvian dreams, myPad, and more

This week I want to catch up on some pop listening, some (relatively) different listening, and the curious tale of Benjamin Sniddlegrass....

Music

I downloaded two poppy albums, mainly for my 10-year-old, but also sparked by curiosity.  One was Hurts' 'Happiness', of which I had read several reviews consistently mentioning 1980s synth pop and such-like, which was enough to get me interested.  The album's opening actually 30 seconds actually even sounds like it is going to turn Depeche Mode-y, but after that it was all too bland and sub-Westlifey for me, much too nice and inoffensive to make an impact. Disappointing.

On the other hand, Brandon Flowers' 'Flamingo' is far more promising, even if I was positively predisposed as a mild Killers enthusiast.  To be honest, I don't think I would have known the difference if I were told it was actually a Killers album, and around half the songs are pretty bland, but 'Magdalena' is just magnificent, especially the 'whoaooaa's at the start (see live clip below), and 'Jilted lovers and broken hearts' is another really good song, as is the duet with Jenny Lewis ('Hard enough').  Interestingly, single 'Crossfire' has yet to make any standout impact yet, but all in all a very good album. 



Finally, on a very different set of notes, some random impulse drove me to download a David Sylvain compilation 'Everything and nothing'.  I always loved his voice, and 20 yeyars ago was listening to a lot of Japan, his first band, and 'Ghosts' always sends shivers up my spine.  Since Japan, I had the impression he went very inaccessible and obscure, dabbling in eastern music and lurking in the lands of the odd, but like I said something (perhaps an uncontrollable reaction againt Hurts) drove me to him, and I have been intrigued and overall very impressed with what I have found.  His voice is as good as ever (although I am not sure if his hair is as wonderful as it was in the Japan days), and I will include 'Orpheus' below:



and end with 'Forbidden colours', which I did know from his post-Japan days:



In a way, the line from 'Ghosts' to there is not that long, and I suspect I will be listening to him a lot longer than I, or anyone, will listen to Hurts.

My other favourite recent music-related stories of the last while were:
1. The guy who slowed down some crap by Justin Beiber (whoever the hell he is) 800% and found it sounded like Sigur Ros (hear it here), only to be followed by the guy who speeded up something by Sigur Ros proportionately and found it did not sound like Sigur Ros!
2. The Facebook campaign to have John Cage's 4' 33'' (that length of silence) downloaded enough to make it Christmas number one!  What a simply brilliant idea - dead air on radio for Christmas.  There is an amazing clip of a passionate performance of that track by an orchestra here.

Books

I read 'The fall' by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo Del Toro pretty quickly - fast and far pulpier than 'The strain', the first in its triology; it was enjoyable and readable but not as impressive as the first.  I have since been working on 'Zeitoun' by Dave Eggars (the incredible true story of a muslim man who rescued several neighbours and others in post-Katrina New Orleans only to be locked up by nervous National Guardsmen as a suspected terrorist), and have just downloaded 'Obama's wars' by Bob Woodward.  I got a bit tired of Woodward's Bush war books, but this is the first Obama administration book I have got and I am looking forward to it.

Movies

Actually, not much to report, except that I did enjoy 'Green Zone' on DVD (except the daft coincidence with someone catching up with the chasing protagonists at the precisely right time and place to make a climactic impact at the very end, which annoyed me a bit).  The main movie-related thing I enjoyed was the follow-up to Mark Kermode's (legendary and brilliant film critic on Simon Mayo's show on BBC radio 5 Live) review podcast where he invented, in a characteristic rant at 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief', a movie called 'Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins' (the theme being 'Harry Potter and the X of Y' clones).  Following this throw-away comment, several highly creative and perhaps slightly mad people have now done trailers which can be found on Youtube!  Three very different versions (again, I stress, for a non-existent movie) appear below, of which my favourite is the one which mixes LOTR, modern-warfare imagery and (of course) 'March of the Penguins' - brilliant!

Technology

Last but not least, biggest story of the last fortnight was the purchase of an iPad (64 gB, wifi+3G), which I have been contemplating for some time but had delayed until iPhone 4.0 fever has subsided a little.  Main conclusion so far is that it is much much better than I had expected, and I expect I will make more use and uses of it than I had expected (which I am glad about, of course, for that bloody price).  It really is much more than a very larege iPhone, and after using it the iPhone really feels tiny and cramped.  It is so easy to web-browse, of course, but many familiar apps have been really beautifully redesigned for the larger screen (my favourite is Calendar, for some reason, and books look as lovely as pixels can make them in Kindle), although the e-mail in portrait annoys me.  I have downloaded a few games apps (shooters) and they are really quite playable (NOVA, for example), and while some iPhone apps look crap blown up, Brushes, Scrabble and others make the stretch quite comfortably.  Initially, the thing seemed a little too precious to haul around casually, but I have bought the official slip cover and that really works for me and makes it fully portable.

Overall, a very very nice piece of gadget heaven, and more on the subject to follow.... Click Here to Read More..

Villagers, and Mick in my Village

Music

I downloaded 'Becoming a jackal' by Villagers and have been listening to it quite a bit this week.  I have heard quite a lot of talk about this band (or rather, this guy, Conor J. O'Brien - see Wikipedia article here) but hadn't heard a specific song I actually identified with them until this week, whern I heard and loved 'That day' on the radio on the way to work.  It was really one of those moments where you almost hold your breath after the song ends, begging the DJ to tell you who it was rather than cutting to an ad break or something equivalently cruel, which at least this time he did not (thanks Ian Dempsey of Today FM!).   The album is very good, and having read some on-line reviews the label of 'the Irish Bright Eyes' seems very fitting, in a very positive way (but not as whingey as the other Conor, i.e., Oberst, can get).  It also reminds me of the melodic theatricality of Duke Special on occasion, and for a one-man act the instrumentation is very good, in particular the drumming/percussion on several tracks.  My pick of the tracks so far include 'Home', 'Ship of promises' and 'Twenty-seven strangers', while 'The pact' is peculiarly 60s-feeling, and the pick is the aforementioned 'That day', the video for which can be seen below:

I also got sent a really nice clip of Josh Ritter and his band getting surprised at an American gig during 'Lantern' by a spot of on-target audience participation, and the looks on the band's faces just says all you need to know about how damn nice and sincere these guys, and their fans, are:

Last week, and previously, I have lamented by inability to get to see The National, despite my quite scary obsession with them and ongoing campaign to bribg their wonderfulness to anyone who will listen.  I have of course looked for clips of them playing at Electric Picnic, but the quality is generally not great (and occasionally depressing, such as clips which seem to show Matt in a state of advanced drunkenness), but I will include a clip of 'Mistaken for strangers' here:

Lastly, but not leastly, I have prevously reviewed here several gigs by Cork hero Mick Flannery (see here and here), and he has been gradually holding gigs closer and closer to my house, clearly in response, and on Friday night he played upstairs in my local pub, The White Horse, a mere 5 mins walk away (the only closer gig was when Mark Eitzel played a solo gig in a pub across the road from where I lived in 1998 or so).  The concert was, as always, far more enjoyable than Mick would have you believe it should be, and I took the opportunity to try the filming capabilities of my new iPhone 4.0, as showcased below for 'California':

Video quality is good, allowing for relatively good indoor light conditions, and I love the ease with which I could upload the clip straight to Youtube from the iPhone.  A clip of 'When I've got a dollar' (not quite the same without the accompaniment of his auntie Yvonne) is below:

That's enough music for now.  I have downloaded new stuff by Mogwai and Interpol, to band I have singularly failed in the past to really get in to (the former through never actually getting their stuff, to be honest) so am going to work on those and report next time.
Other cultural adventures

As I have quite a few videos above, I will keep the rest of this post short and sweet.  I went to see the Cork 'Star Wars invasion' show with my boys (10 and 4) and they thought it was pretty cool; well, to be honest, so did I.  Well put together and packed with enough to keep the many nerds visiting (myself included) happy, with lots of models (no, not that sort, large AT-STs, Y-wings and so on), cool light shows and even some of the actors for photos and chat.  The main draw was obviously Kenny Baker (R2-D2), and it was nice to see the guy who played Boba Fett, and the techie guy who apparently did the voice of General Grevious and others was funny and interesting in on-stage chat, but the other two ex-imperial officers were not exactly Harrison Ford-level novelty.  Anyway, quite well done and worth a look.

On TV, I watched 'The reader', of which it may be faint damnation to say it wasn't as bad as 'The soloist', and I actually found it more watchable and gripping than expected; I think it said something for my level of engagement, however, that I did not actually realise the 'affair' scenes happened after, and not before, the war - I could not work out the chronology, perhaps not surprisingly.    On Kindle, I pre-purchased and was sent 'The fall', which I am just starting (have a few books on the go now) as I really enjoyed 'The strain' (see here) - review to follow.

Tech-wise, I have just got an iPad, of which much more to follow, and my (iPhone) app of the week (and favourite in ages) is called My Artist, and when activated brings up a whole of of information about any artist in your collection, such as Wikipedia articles, Youtube clips and more - excellent for browsing while listening!

Click Here to Read More..

Typo eradication, National frustration and more

It has been a while since I have updated things here, and work pressures seem to keep me distracted in the long evenings which were made for blogging, but I am planning and resolute to get back on track from here. Anyway, gives me lots to catch up on.

Music

I am actually remarkably surprised to note that the best album I have got in the last few weeks has been The Drums’ eponymous one. I was interested enough by their iTunes live EP to chance this and it sounds completely different to the live band, with the vocal histrionics considerably toned down and the backing being the closest I have heard to genuinely capturing early 1980s sound, in particular that of very young Depeche Mode. ‘Down by the river’ is my favourite (although it sounds like ‘The trees’-era Pulp), followed by ‘Book of stories’, ‘Forever and ever amen’, ‘It will all end in tears’ and the bonus track ‘When I come home’. They do look remarkably silly, but they sound quite lovely, although the singles ('Best friend' and 'Let's go surfing' are my least favourite on the album).  I read somewhere that they are the least American (i.e., most English) American band ever, which I completely agree with.  The embrace anglopilia of the most extreme kind, but how bad!

I found a live clip of them doing 'Down by the water' at:



and a clip of 'It will all end in tears' at:

I also found another emphatic argument for why some albums simply cannot be downloaded (as I discussed before here) in ‘Crooked’ by Kristen Hersh, which I got as a book of lyrics and essays which contained a web-link at which you had to enter a password extracted in parts from different sections of said book, whereupon one got to download the tracks. Whatever the quality of the music, and I must admit I haven’t listened to it much yet, the concept is just great and is exactly the way for artists to keep people interested in the physical artefact.

I failed to get tickets for Electric Picnic (turned out the family tickets were actually quite rare and long sold-out) but have got tickets for Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend (which, put together, sounds like the strap-line of a good B-movie horror, like the ‘Dawn of the dead’ remake from 2004) in Dublin in December.

The National released tickets for a trio of Dublin gigs the same weekend (what a weekend!) at 9.00 Friday but they were gone by the time we tried to book an hour later to my incredible frustration, so we will have to see if I have missed the chance to catch them once again, this time under circumstances where I wouldn’t even have had to sleep in a tent for 3 nights for the privilege. I found an interview with Matt and Aaron at Electric Picnic at:



Movies

Not a whole lot to report here, although I did see ‘The last exorcism’. I actually started that evening fully planning to go to ‘The girl who played with fire’ and changed my mind about an hour beforehand when I read very good reviews of the former. Interestingly, that was the same day I very gladly welcomed Mark Kermode back to his podcast after what felt like an unfairly extended summer break, and listened to his podcast on the way to the movie, and the last thing I heard before entering the cinema was him blasting the ending of the film. I can honestly not speculate to what extent my reaction to the movie was shaped by this critical (literally) intervention but I suspect it was fairly formative. Anyway, I thought the film was good, less frightening than I expected from the reviews (I found ‘Paranormal activity’ far creepier) and yes the ending was as far off the wall as a misshapen demonic coathanger, and I can honestly not speculate on what exactly was shown or intended. On a minor point, while a key plot point seemed to revolve around a word the possessed girl used during her second exorcism, I focussed on a whole different word (‘involuntary’) which for some reason I could not see someone of her background using casually. Anyway, it that is what you dwell on afterwards, not really a great sign of the terror factor. I actually found a clip on Youtube called ‘Scary car’ (here) far more unsettling when discovered accidentally.

On DVD, I found ‘Cemetery junction’ really nice and funny (especially the muppetish cafe owner, while the final line as they board the train is just wonderful) and just genuinely sweet (kept reminding me of ‘Gregory’s girl’, which is as high praise as I can give), and would thoroughly recommend it. On the other hand, ‘The soloist’ sank so low it’s unwatchable (sorry), and made me re-evaluate my conviction that any movie with Robert Downey Jr in it couldn’t be all bad.

Books

I finished the Millenium trilogy almost without pause for breath (I think that was one thing which helped deblog my evenings); in fact, the second and third books are effectively contiguous so the pause was clearly more intended by the publishers than the late author. I did enjoy the books and found the epic sweep of characters and investigations more than outweighed the occasional silliness (Salander may have solved Fermat’s Last Theorem! And then forgot when she got shot in the head!). I think I had enough by the end, and while I bought the first movie from iTunes (you know, because you can) I have yet to watch it, principally because the cables I bought off eBay to connect the iPhone to my TV don’t bloody work.

I then changed direction pretty abruptly to read ‘The great typo hunt’ by Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, about one guy and some like-minded co-conspirators on a road trip around the US, fixing typos on public and commercial signage, sometimes by stealth, sometimes in partnership with the custodians of the relevant establishments. As an unabashed grammatical pedant myself, these guys are so much after my own heart that it makes me a little scared they might creep in some night and carve it out with a sharpened marker or other tool from Jeff’s typo-fixing armoury. I just loved this book, and identified with every point and principle and moment of madness, and think it blended real profound discussion of the nature of language and current standards of usage thereof with good humour, great eye for anecdote and the absurd and just a wonderful spirit. I was quite shocked when the later stages of the book took an unexpected twist into darker territory as they are charged with defacement of a national monument due to some unauthorised improvement of a sign at the Grand Canyon; that is honestly suffering for what you believe in.

The blog of the Typo Eradication Advancement League is here and I found a video trailer for the book at:



These guys deserve your support in their fight for all that is right about the English language, so give it to them.  My own favourite typo (which I inexplicably and unforgiveably omitted to obtain photographic evidence of) was a large sign at the end of my road proclaiming the source of funding for the Cork to Kerry fibre-optic broadband whatever as follows (presented in very large letters on a very large board exactly as shown below):

Project part sponsored by
by the European Union

Does no-one check these things???  In other favourites of mine, I honestly don't know if the author of the sign in the following picture (from an Irish teachers' conference) was being ironic or not:

and the newspaper headline below still amazes me every time:

Now, I am waiting for Kindle delivery of my pre-ordered copy of ‘The fall’, the sequel to ‘The strain’ by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, which I thoroughly enjoyed earlier this year (see review here), and in the meantime have changed direction once again with ‘Unseen academicals’, the first Terry Pratchett book I have read in ages.

On other fronts, the iPhone is needless to say simply amazing, and every day I discover new things to do with it (a garden family camping experiment was enlivened and facilitated by the discovery of a torch app! Quickoffice has made it really into a useful work mini-computer). I am also experimenting with iDisk to share files and stream movies rather than using memory on the device, but the high cost of subscription annoys me and I am not sure if I will pay when my 60-day free trial is up. Games-wise, I have explored a few new interesting apps like ‘The battle for Hoth’ and ‘Dungeon hunter’ which give me RTS and D&D analogues, respectively, and I have got some minor fun from each. Battery life still a pain in the arse, but have stretched a bit due to changes like controlling automatic e-mail fetches and keeping an eye on open apps in multi-tasking. I have significantly slowed in my feverish phase of appquisition, and only minor other niggles persist (can’t get Toodldoo toodle do what I need in terms of syncing with my Outlook tasks like the websites say I should be able to). Anyway, still a hell of a yoke, and the only question that remains is how it took me so long to get it! Click Here to Read More..

iPhone, I bought, it conquers

It has been a while since my last post, so a bit to catch up on. As the subject line indicates, there is one main topic for today (and I guess it will be a regular feature for some time until, if ever, the novelty wears off), but I will get there shortly.

Firstly, in a recent post I lamented the lack of cultural reference to the Donegal region of Ireland, which inspired a correspondent to write to me and point out there was quite a push on to promote tourism in that area, a sentiment I can only whole-heartedly support after many years of visiting the last ignored unspoiled place which matches what people might and should picture when they think of 'Ireland-that-is-not-Dublin'. Anyway, there was a Donegal Live Event in Temple Bar in Dublin in May, which showcased Donegal and included performances by numerous artists from the area. A facebook page (www.facebook.com/DonegalLive) was created and now has almost 2,000 fans, and which will continue to be used to inform visitors about events.  There has also been a Donegal Direct page set up (facebook.com/DonegalDirect) to provide information about offers, accommodation, attractions, events, and more in the region.  So, lots of information available for anyone who wants to find out more about music and more in Donegal, and I can only recommend it to anyone. 

Now, on to this week's bits of news....

Music

Okay, I admit that in previous posts I have been less than enthusiastic about Arcade Fire and their apparent effortless campaign for global critical dominance (see here and here for examples) and something about the adulatory tone of the reviews of 'The suburbs' sort of set my teeth on edge, but I did buy it (iTunes) and have to admit it has made me reassess, if not their past, then certainly their future potential.  It just seems and feels different to the others, less up-itself, less self-consciously epic yet far more organically epic, less dense and headache-induding, less annoying, and conversely lighter, more 80s, more identifiable and more memorable.  It is in my view not a masterpiece, and the album gets better as it goes on (and it does go on quite a bit), with the first few tracks (after the title) being a bit too reminiscent of their old stuff for me ('Rococo' is notably failing to win me over to its charms, and 'Modern man' is a bit basic) but it really gets interesting around 'City with no children', which is almost certainly my favourite Arcade Fire song to date, bar none.



From here, the album goes in much more interesting directions, and the two-parters are very interesting, in both cases the second installment being greater than the first, and 'Sprawl (Mountains beyond mountains)' manages to win me over (as opposed to Win me over) by not sounding like them at all at all:

While 'Half-light II' (for a wondeful moment in the early days I thought they may have written me a song called 'Half life 2' but alas no) is very 1980s (as almost every review points out) and certainly sounds more OMD than anything else to me (not a cricitism, mind you):



I also like the chug of 'Empty room' and the way it takes an abrupt turnaround after the first few seconds, which always make me think the iPod has skipped on to the McAlmont and Nyman orchestral album by mistake.  This and a few other songs really remind me of the direction they signalled on 'Lenin' from the great 'Dark was the night' compilation (which I reviewed here).

All in all, I have to admit it is a very promising album, and when my feeling of goodwill towards them was still in its rosy flushes, they announced a gig in Dublin, supported by Vampire Weekend, and I resolved to go, but failed to secure a ticket in the first morning of release.  I think they must hold my previous comments against me.....

Anyway, after all that, in other music news I decided to use the iTunes festival release series as a low-cost way to catch up on new bands I knew by name only, and bought mini-albums by Foals, the Drums and Bombay Bicycle Club.  I am afraid I haven't given them much time yet (The Suburbs remaining a demanding taskmaster as it pounds me into admitting I may have been wrong about them) but one song ('Forever and ever' by The Drums) has caught my ear (they appear to have been named after their most notable strength, in my view), as seen and heard below:



They do look a bit silly though, let's face it. Other recent acquisitions I need to listen to more before I can comment on include Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell (a true musical Beauty and the Beast) and the Magic Numbers (which had the odd effect of making me listen to their debut, a really good album, again, before I even listened to the new one).  I also want to talk about the great concept behind Kristen Hersh's new book/website/CD/whatever.  All to be covered more in future!

Movies

I will keep this bit short, but I did see 'Inception' and thought it was really really good.  I had for once tried to avoid spoilers in advance, while my normal habit is to proactively seek them out, and really think I want to see it again to digest it properly.  I absolutely loved allowing myself, in the days after seeing it, to finally browse the discussions on-line and seeing how many different interpretations of the plot, and especially the ending, there are out there.  I think it is just wondderul when a movie can get people talking and thinking that much.  Now, two weeks after, my brain has finally unentangled, but the images I can't get out of my head are those in the hotel, and the rotating fights and flight to the lift......At the other extreme, I saw the 'A-team' with my son and nephew, and have to ashamedly admit that I enjoyed it more than I expected, and thought the line about trying to fly a tank was (almost) worth the price of admission alone.

On DVD, I enjoyed 'The men who stare at goats' (having read and enjoyed the book on which it is oh so ephemerally based) but spent quite some time wondering how George Clooney had come to look so much like Denis Farina in 'Midnight run' and 'The crazies' (good zombie movie).  The ox-cart chase in 'Year one' was also one of the funniest things I have seen in a while, although the rest was a bit patchy. I also saw 'Brothers' which was fairly gripping although somehow old-stle predictable, and while Tobey Maguire seemed to be over-egging the omlette, Jake Gyllenhall is really a very watchable and believable presence.  I must admit that Natalie Portman resides for me with Leonardo Di Caprio as two actors who having once been seen as children I find very hard to accept as grown-ups (even in 'Inception'......).

Books

My big discovery here was 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' which I read on Kindle and absolutely loved; it really caught me by surprise and I found it absolutely compulsive reading and, although I found the resolution of the killer thread a little pat and formulaic, the subsequent relevelation of the fate of Harriet made up for it in spades.  I moved swiftly on to 'The girl who played with fire'; this started for me much more slowly and I sorely missed the claustraphobic setting and limited cast of the first book but it has proven just as addictive and is really sucking up far too much of my time and attention now.  The aurhor's habit of switching plot strands very quickly keeps you glued as you want to read the next it to see what is happening there, and then another bit, and suddenly the day is quite gone.  I just have to decide whether to watch the subtitled or dubvbed version of 'Dragon tattoo' now.  One of the really wierd things about reading on Kindle (at least the iPhone version) is the peculiar disorientation of not always being physically aware of how far you are through a book, as you constantly are with a physical book, which is actually quite liberating when you get used to it, although it can mean that the ending sort of sneaks up on you.

Gadgets (or at least one gadget)

Anyway, I got the iPhone 4, one week after release, and waved goodbye with a misty eye to my trusty Nokia N95 (which I traded in).  In fact, I have suddenly had my life significantly lightened as I have gone from three constant companions (Touch, Nokia and Blackberry) to one (plus the Blackberry at work - I swear I think it is sulking 'cos it knows I am checking my e-mail far more on the iPhone, and keeps doing wierd things like losing charge or date memory).  Such is progress!

Anyway, I am sure posts in future will frequently comment on it, but initial reaction is that I love it an unreasonable and unhealthy amount, and it is almost all I expected, and moreso in some cases.  Okay, the iTunes functionality and apps are largely as per the touch (except I have gone mad adding probably more than 20 new apps since purchase) but the introduction folders is fantastic, and has reduced everything to 2 screens.  I also get a real kick of the very neat screen-split effect they use when you open and closse a folder. 

I also love the way everything is so integrated, like being able to take a picture and send by text or e-mail, or open attachments and read files properly like you never could on the Blackberry (with the held of a few reader apps I downloaded).  I haave set up Myspace and Twitter on it, and find them really surprisingly usable on the iPhone, and spend a lot of time marvelling at the satellite finding me on Maps (sad I know).  I have even set up an App to allow me to use Blogger on it, but am still too unused to the touch keyboard to picture a decent-length post being composed on it.  I have not noticed anything about calls being dropped or my cheek doing a hang-up, and also admit I am not quite sure what the fuss about the screen resolution is.

On the negative side, the camera is far more basic in function than the Nokia's and the video has no zoom, so I fear my illicit concert clips in future posts may be even more distant.  I also found the texting a bit counter-intuitive at first, and mistook a few texts I had sent for incoming ones on the display, leading to some modestly amusing confusions.  It also took a while for me to work out how to set songs as ringtones, and that needed some internet digging to uncover.  The current ringtones I have set up to be used as mood dictates are the intros to 'WMA' by Pearl Jam and 'Love vigilantes' by New Order, and the guitar attack one minute in from 'Leave' by REM. A ringtone has to be simple, loud, distinctive and striking, and these three passages fit that bill perfectly for now.

For me, the really big grumble on the iPhone is the battery life, which is simply crap, needing a new charge every day, and currently having me in a state of constant mild anxiety about the state of the battery, especially since I set up the percentage reading.

All in all, it is no doubt a thing of wonder, and I am extremely excited by it, which I am sure I will continue to share annoyingly in future posts. Click Here to Read More..