Much More Van Etten
I saw that The National are playing in Berlin when I’ll be there in a few weeks, but given that I caught them in the Olympia before Christmas, I wasn’t pushed about seeing them again. A good old-fashioned catch-up chat over a bottle of wine in an alleyway should suffice. But the other … Continue reading
Other Voices Series 9 – Broadcast Schedule
The 9th series of Other Voices kicks off on our screens in three weeks, which now feels like an eternity because the line-up just looks so, so good. In a particularly fine year for the long-standing favourite, a delicious bunch of bands were gathered down in Dingle while the rest of us were moaning about … Continue reading
Nominations for The Meteors 2011 Announced
Yesterday it was announced that there would be no Meteor Ireland Music Awards this year due to the people what normally do them not wanting to do them. The out-pouring of grief from dedicated music fans that followed this announcement brought a tear to my eye. What are the people of Ireland supposed to do … Continue reading
My 25 Favourite Songs of 2010
Here I give to you my own personal selection of the 25 songs I enjoyed most in the last twelve months in no particular order other than the order I think they sound best in. I tried to keep it down to 20 songs, I tried really hard. Then I realised that I did 25 … Continue reading
My 20 Favourite Albums of 2010
1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy I love Kanye. I love his arrogance and unpredictability. I love his cartoon fun-fair hip-hop on his early albums. I love the sparse honesty of 808s & Heartbreaks. His habit of pissing people off is a testament to his insistence on telling it how he sees … Continue reading
Local Natives – The Village – Photos
I had felt bad about being unable to attend Local Natives‘ previous gigs in Ireland, sure I had missed out on something wonderful. It’s still entirely possible that I did, but during Monday’s gig in The Village, when the band thanked the fans for bringing them there “after that awful Academy 2 thing…” I began … Continue reading
The Cat Empire – Academy – Photos
During the summer I caught up with The Cat Empire in Calgary and got the chance to interview keyboardist Ollie McGill. That interview went up on State last week ahead of their first ever gig in Ireland, which took place last Friday night. My review of the gig can also be found on State and … Continue reading
Hard Working Class Heroes 2010 – Preview
It’s that time of year again. The Hard Working Class Heroes festival returns for another year with a whole host of new ideas and changes that should make this a great year. One of the big changes is that this year the 3-night jamboree kicks off on Thursday night rather than Friday, meaning that there’ll … Continue reading
Bad Wolf
So, um, hi. I’m back now. The blog has been inactive for 3 months while I was away, which I think entitles it to some kind of Tibetan monk style enlightenment for remaining silent. Apologies for the absence, I was captured by a big, bad wolf.
