Cool video for My Car by Atlas Sound

Above is a really cool fan video for my car off the Things I’ll miss Ep by Atlas Sound (Bradford Cox’s side project from Deerhunter). The Ep is available on the Deerhunter/Atlas Sound blog here. Talked about by Graveyard shift Shane here.

Darragh went along to the recent Foggy Notions Deerhunter gig in Whelans and got a chance to have a chat with Bradford and from what I’ve heard it was a pretty interesting interview. So check back later in the week for that. Loreana has a taster of the photos she took up on her photoblog.

Alternative Trinity Ball

After this years radically disappointing Trinity Ball line-up, it’s time to re-evaluate the bands we get to play the event. Lets imagine, with a new Ents officer, arguably less in the pocket of philistine event management companies, the best ball we could possibly have next year. What do you suggest?

Here’s one idea for a line up, this isn’t a ‘My Favourite Bands’ list, it’s a group of folk, all excellent, mostly upbeat, many of whom have a large student following. Most importantly none of the acts listed are too big to play the ball.

Main Stage

Go! Team
Sigur Ros
Portishead
The Knife

Dance Tent

Squarepusher
Girl Talk
Zero 7
Boards of Canada
Thievery Corporation
Kompressor

Alternative Tent

Magnetic Fields
Final Fantasy
Strip Squad
Jens Lekman
TV On the Radio

Front Square Stage

Fight like Apes
Decemberists
Deerhoof
Regina Spektor
M.I.A

Realistically, nothing’s likely to change. No Ent’s officer, however decent, can wrest control of the ball from corporate interests. Word is, when tickets sold out in record time this year, Trinity got shafted for the unannounced ‘good’ Oxygen acts (sic). The ball’s become an event, not about the music, but about the socialising. That’s not the worst thing in the world. Trinity Ball is like a great big wedding, filled with mediocre bands and friends you haven’t seen in ages, all dolled up in tails and top-hats. But can you imagine, if they really tried, the night we’d have?

Omodaka – Kyoteizinc

Andy’s the expert on Japanese electro, but I’m captivated by one new chiptune artist in particular, the enigmatic Omodaka. The great graphic novelist and comic writer Warren Ellis recently posted the video below, which is a beautifully pure attempt to express music through imagery. I’m convinced there are only two ways to make a truly great music video, a piece that enhances rather than merely embellishes the music it illustrates. The method used in this video, is to create a pictorial analogue to the music, a constructed synesthesia, articulating the sounds rather than the conceptual content of the piece. The track is effortlessly fleshed out 8-bit drum and base, and the video, directed by Hiroshi Kizu, features a dance performance by Masako Yasumoto. You can subscribe to Omodaka’s ‘Far East Recording’ videos on Youtube.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfNoEYR2-8]

Peer Pressure’s An Awful Thing

They’re all bloody at it :

Paul McCartney has announced that he is to give away his current studio album Memory Almost Full, with the Mail On Sunday on May 18.

The album, which originally came out last year through Starbucks’ music imprint Hear Music, has already sold 100,000 copies in the UK to date (OCC) and reached number five in the UK album charts. However, with the free giveaway the album has a potential to reach upto 2 million homes.

Speaking to music industry business weekly Music Week, The Mail on Sunday’s managing director Stephen Miron commented on the deal, saying: “If you look at how he came to do the Starbucks’ album deal, it was a result of feeling unhappy with the music industry and looking at alternative ways of distribution. I can’t think of anyone else who has come up with the right alternative distribution than us.”

Though, seriously Paul, The Mail on Sunday? The Mail ‘Britain For The British, Let’s Uphold Conservative (With A Small ‘c’) Values’ on Sunday? What would Coretta say?

Part of the Weekend Never Dies

Bank holiday weekends are always good for gigs and this one was no exception; in fact, dance music fans in particular were spoiled for choice over the past few days with Villalobos, Dr. Lecktroluv, Cassius, MSTRKRFT and Soulwax all bringing their shows to town, not to mention the Dubstep/D’n’B/techno extravaganza that was Sibin taking place in Balbriggan on Saturday. While I realize it’s physically impossible to be in two places at the one time, I did make a good effort, getting to four gigs over the space of four days. Read all about it here…

Repping for club nights is a pretty sweet gig. Not so much the forcing flyers on people bit but rather the free gigs in exchange for sticking up posters part of the deal. My friend (whose identity I shall veil thinly by using the pseudonym Grain) and I, having been reps for a popular Wednesday night for quite a while now and tiring of being ill-treated by the bouncers in its host venue decided not to change allegiances entirely but to “expand” our promotion whorieness to bigging up Mr. Jones as well, tempted by the promise of free Electric Picnic tickets at the end of the summer.

Our first gig involved looking after Junior Boys when they played the Pod last Thursday. Upon arrival at around midnight, we wondered if the venue was open yet, as things looked deathly quiet. The turn out was underwhelming to say the least. In fact, there couldn’t have been more than 60 people there… Promotion for this gig was not the best, and it is exam season after all.

At least that’s the excuse we used when trying to explain to Matt and Jeremy why there were so few people on the floor in front of them… The boys were nay impressed. Having said that, they spun a great mix with Matt starting things off with a techno set before Jeremy moved onto a bit more house and disco. Having played a live set to what they described as an “awesome” crowd in Whelan’s last year, Thursday night was not exactly what they were expecting. Despite this, some friends of mine did earn the title of “Dance Nazis” from the boys in their attempts to fill the floor with their moves!

So what to do when there are no crazy after-parties to go to?, Well, if you’re Grain you bring the Junior Boys back to a grimy student house in Ranelagh for a few smokes and some wine picked up in a dodgy Indian restaurant… Crazy times… cough. Needless to say, the boys who rent the house and the few other stragglers at the party were slightly bemused when Matt decided to play some Booka Shade on youtube while broadcasting the fact that these boys are his “homies” and that Richie (Hawtin) and he are “tight”. The name-dropping did not go down well alas but Grain is quite sure the “guests” enjoyed themselves, even if chilling with students is not the usual thing for big names DJs to do of a Thursday!

Variety being the spice of life, I ended up at Jamie Lidell on Saturday. This was a complete spur of the moment gig, but what a gig it was. Having been offered a ticket at the last minute, I moseyed on over to the Academy not really knowing what to expect. Lidell appeared on stage shortly after nine, bounding on to play a live set with his band. Soulful and danceworthy with a heavy dose of funk, Lidell’s songs warmed the crowd up nicely for the DJ set/beat-boxing/crazy dancing performance that was to follow. As a performer Lidell is charismatic and full of energy with a superb singing voice to boot. While his sound is most certainly commercial, he (and his band) spice up the live show enough that he appeals to fans of a whole range of genres. He delivered an extremely impressive and varied performance that had us dancing from start to finish. A definite recommendation.

Sunday night was back to back fun. The evening kicked off with Radio Soulwax/2manydjs at Dublin Castle. The combination of beautiful weather, excellent surroundings and an act that never fail to impress made for a wonderful kick off to an evening of dancing. This was my third time seeing 2manydjs in the past year, but as always they were great, and equally so playing their nite versions live. Here’s a peek at them playing their remix of LCD Soundsytem’s ‘Get Innocuous” [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUzEVFdI_q8&feature=related]

Unfortunately licensing laws cut the show off at 10.30 much to the dismay of many wanting to continue the festivities but having taken this into account in advance we made our way onwards to Spy where MSTRKRFT and Gui Boratto were both spinning the tunes.

MSTRKRFT played the Black Room upstairs while Gui pumped minimal in the darker depths of Wax. I spent most of night upstairs in the sweaty surroundings of Spy. Hotter than ever, entering the upstairs room was literally like walking into a steam room. Sounds unpleasant but the heat really was unbearable, even more so than usual. So much so in fact that by the end of the night a lot of people had left. Silly, silly folk… Having persevered, despite the heat we were glad to hear that 2manydjs (presumably having enjoyed themselves at Dublin Castle) decided to roll on up to Spy where they played another set to a group of contented customers. I do get the impression that very few people actually realized that the boys who’d just stepped in to DJ were in fact the Belgians themselves but you can’t really complain when you’ve got that many quality acts under the one roof on the one night.

The music in Spy on Sunday was really top notch, an excellent mix of quality electro, cheesy pop and random 90s dance hits to cater to everyone’s tastes, with minimal just a staircase away if that’s what you were looking for. This song has been on constant repeat in my head ever since in fact, thanks to MSTRKRFT.

All in all, it was a pretty hectic weekend but worth it all the same. Roll on post exam craziness over the June Bank Holiday weekend. See y’all out and about!

Crayonsmith

Ciaran Smith, chief of Dublin-based three-piece Crayonsmith, is an excitable man. His tongue trips over itself as he tries to relate all his ideas and his answers, and he worries sometimes if he’s said the right thing. His thoughts can be seen effervescing like a roughly-shaken can of Club Orange after each question and he answers everything insightfully and sharply, referencing Gaudi as easily as Les Savy Fav while not coming across like, well, a wanker. He has reason to be excited of course. His sophomore effort, White Wonder, does not suffer from a slump but an upsurge of refreshing ideas and masterful execution, and the band are about to set off on a transatlantic flight to tour with Islands in America. We recently talked about the upcoming tour, anticon, inspiration, Out On A Limb and that album cover.

You’re supporting Why? this week and Islands on their American tour, which are pretty big coups- How do you feel supporting bands that influence your own sound?

It’s an honour, I guess. You’re delighted that somebody out there, either somebody in the band, or their promoter, recognizes the similarities between the music and thinks “Yeah, these guys would fit.” With Why? it’s Foggy Notions that picked us, and we’re totally grateful for that, and with Islands it was Nick Thorburn, we kinda know each other from the last time they played here. We hung out in Whelans afterwards, and stayed drinking at the bar all night, and he said he’d love to do a tour. We talked about different producers we liked, and different filmmakers, and records we loved and stuff and found we’d similar interests.

And is that the same thing that happened before with the other bands you’ve supported in America?

Yeah. It’s like, if you like somebody’s music, get in touch with them and tell them you love their music, say thanks for the positive influences, and ask if it’s OK for you to send an album, as a thank you or whatever. That’s what happened with Sparklehorse, and Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. It’s great with the whole Myspace thing that there’s no entourage between you and another artist, it’s just human-to-human.

Regarding Why?, anticon’s influence is all over your new music. What is it about anticon that you like, that you want to carry over into your music?

Between the last album and the new album, when it came to doing the beats, the guy I worked with is George Brennan, who’s in Deep Burial. He had this AKAI MPC sampler. We’d seen this DVD, this anticon tour DVD with cLOUDDEAD and he’s just hitting out beats with his fingers. It’s great if you’re into making drums sound different, or detuning things, giving it a different texture. It goes back to Beck with Mellow Gold. If you’re into that kinda stuff there’s a whole label making that music, and that’s where the template for the album came from.

The first album was quite slacker rock-influenced, did you feel sick of that kind of music in between, or did feel like you had to make yourself move on?

I think what it is, right, is you have your first album and all the bands that have influenced you up to and during the last album come out, and you kind of purge it. You’ve got all of that out of you. There’re certain bits that stay with you. In my case I’ll always veer towards melody and an interesting beat. So then when you move on to the second album and you listen to bands like Why? and Of Montreal, and Mice Parade and think “wow, this is influencing me on top of all the old influences”, and because it’s fresher you absorb all those in, and they’re there when you go to make your next album. I’m sure it’ll be the same way with album 3 or 4. It’s like Bruce Springsteen and Nebraska. He comes to the band with the songs, and they’re like “we’re not going to play on that. There’s no room, there’s no need for us to play.” You just go with the feeling at the time, and the circumstances. Also, you look back to what you’ve done before, and you don’t want to repeat yourself so you’re always trying to do something new. You have to keep yourself interested as well as everybody else.

Do you take inspiration from outside of music as well?

Yeah. I’m mad about nature, about movement. Gaudi said “Everything comes from the book of nature”, and it’s true. Whatever has been produced has occurred in nature, now it’s just documented. The Microphones use the studio so that you hear things like wind going through the music, it’s anything to represent what’s around you, what turns you on in the world.
Socializing is another one. Going out and drinking. But, that’s not in a… not in a…

Not in an Arctic Monkey’s way?

No, exactly. More like the idea of people releasing, they get their lives back at the end of the week and there’s a giddiness with people within this free time, they get to be fully themselves. There’s a certain energy when people get together. It’s how bands happen. People want to do something with their free time. I’m into how people integrate, and bounce off one another.

Is there any difference between Irish and American audiences, do you find, from having played extensively over there?

On the American tour with Mt. Eerie and Casiotone it was 14 dates from Vancouver down to LA, and the gigs were everywhere. In a house, in a clothing store, in venues. From my experience from there compared to here, there’s more of a can-do attitude there. Whereas here people associate quality with a certain established venue. We’ve played house gigs here in Ireland and I thought they were great, and they don’t happen enough. Ireland is so small that we’ve played pretty much every venue, and we don’t get offered house shows. Whereas in America you get offered to play and the gig can happen anywhere. That’s why we’re going to do these shows with Islands, and if we weren’t doing them, we’d be going back ourselves. I guess it’s because America’s so much bigger that you can have houses big enough in different towns along the coast. Here you’ll be lucky to get a house show every few months. There’s that whole scene in Kilcoole though they have house shows all the time.

The DIY hardcore punk scene?

Yeah, so I don’t know that our music exactly fits that. But I’m amazed by it. 16 and 17 year olds are putting on these gigs, and it’s totally independent of Dublin. They won’t pay more than 10 quid for a show in Dublin, which is how it should be I suppose.

Steve Shannon produced the album, what was it like working with him?

Very good, very good. Before we even recorded the album we’d been playing the songs for a year, just to make sure everything was ready to go, everybody was happy with their pieces. So we brought the beat tracks that we’d made with George to Steve, put them on the computer, and he tracked them. He’d make suggestions then, like to play certain things an octave higher. He helped us realize our ideas. He’d know if something should be put through a certain filter or whatever. He had the know-how we needed, and suggestions that we brought into our songs. You can definitely hear touches of Steve on the album. There was always room for criticism both ways. It was a great experience.

You don’t seem to get an awful lot of press in Ireland considering the success you’ve amassed, I think. Do you agree?

With this album we’ve got good reviews, wherever it’s gone. We’re going to do our thing anyway, and if people are coming to our gigs that what matters. Press can help and all, but if they’re not into it we still have the Myspace and stuff. Since we told people about the Islands support our profile views have jumped double, we’re getting comments from Americans and there’s no press there. It’s hands-on, DIY work, like sending bulletins to fans of Islands and stuff. You do your thing, and if the press want to get on board, cool, if not, if it’s not their cup of tea and that’s cool. If both the press and the people aren’t into you, then you have to ask yourself questions, you know?

You’re on Out On A Limb, what’s that like as a label to be on?

It’s great. In terms of our band dynamic, they’re like the business band-members. It’s totally candid, nothing is not said. If something has to be dealt with, it’s dealt with. Nothing’s put on the backburner. It’s always moving, it’s like a 24 hour shop, somebody’s always chipping away.

Do you ever feel like if you wanted to get bigger you’d have to move on from the label?

We’re totally happy where we are at the moment. If the time comes when we’re asked to make a jump, we’ll ask how we can keep Out On A Limb onboard, how can money go to them, because we love their way of working. That’s probably totally idealistic, but I’ve heard too many horror stories of bigger labels where the person who signs them loves them, but then when they’re moved on the person who takes their place doesn’t like the band. It fluctuates. Whereas with Out On A Limb the lads love every band that’s on the label. Grassroots is all we know for the moment, we seek refuge in that because it’s workmanlike. A needs to be done, B needs to be done. Has it been done and has it been done? If you call somebody you get an answer straight away, there’s no waiting on emails or anything in between.

Was the helmet D.A.D.D.Y’s idea?

Yeah! The day before the photo-shoot the guy who was doing it, Mike, told me he had this idea to do a lo-fi version of a high-brow painting, like a goofy version of Joan of Arc. So they brought me into the prop room of D.A.D.D.Y. and they had this white kind of bunny suit, and it had been made from bathmats. Mike had just been in Smyths and he brought back a rubber sword and helmet and breastplate and stuff. I didn’t even question it. I said he could do whatever he wanted, as long as it’s not a standard Irish album cover. It’s one of those things that sticks, I suppose. So at the album launch I wore the suit and helmet and it was a pain in the whole. It’s so sweaty. These things flap all over the place and hit you and… But it adds a mania to the gig. If you’re just about holding the whole thing together it adds excitement. Pavement were famous for it.

Are you going to continue wearing it?

We’re debating whether to bring it to America with us or not. The other lads aren’t in costumes so it’s a bit like the Super Furry Animals or the Flaming Lips. Or maybe it can be like Les Savy Fav, where the lead singer Tim Harrington can just do whatever he wants and the other bandmembers are just in their shirt and jeans, it could work from that angle. So I’ll keep you posted about that.

We could do a tour diary from the helmet…

Exactly, that’d be great.

So where to from here?

We’re working our jobs for the next month to get money together for America, for the tour with Islands. Then we’re going to try and focus on America for the next year or so. We’ve been given this golden opportunity. We’ll be playing to over 12000 people over those 14 dates and hopefully we’ll get offers from other bands to do tours with them. We’ll do a tour in between in Ireland to bolster the profile. People will be coming on board hopefully having heard the album since the launch, around September or October.

Do you feel like you do need to break internationally? Is Ireland too small?

It is, yeah. You do your first year or two of gigs here, and see how that goes, and you might get offered Oxegen or Electric Picnic. But at the same time, I don’t see what the point is to just be big in Ireland. Nobody makes music for exclusively one country, it’s meant to be universal, international. You have to push yourself. Each country is a new challenge. We use Ireland like our base, do our tours here, but try to play in other countries as much as here.

Do you think it’s a case that Irish acts are too comfortable being successful in their little clique, or is it just genuinely so difficult to establish a foothold in Europe or America?

I don’t know. Jape is doing well. He’s broken out in Europe. It’s the whole “who-you-know” thing I suppose, in a sense. But some acts are just satisfied to fill out Whelan’s every couple of months, and that’s all cool and all, but don’t you want to go somewhere else? Look at the Redneck Manifesto. They cut their teeth here, and then went off and did an amazing tour of America, and I think they’re going off to Japan next year. You have to see yourself as an export, that you can compete, or that you’re music is as good, as other bands out there. It’s not about you being the big fish in the small pond.

Jump into the ocean?

Yeah. You have to push yourself forward, or you get complacent. You can make loads of money and yet nobody in Europe or America will know you. You push and push and your music gets better, since you have more to play for.

Crayonsmith play their last Irish gig before embarking on their American tour on the 26th of May in Crawdaddy, with Mae Shi. White Wonder is available from yer usual outlets now.
Check them out at: www.myspace.com/crayonsmith

Greatest Will Oldham Interview eva’

At the risk of turning Analogue into a clip sharing site, I simply have to share this. Ian Svenonius, a sort of down tempo American Russell Brand, and former lead singer of parody politics punk outfit Nation of Ulysses, now hosts uberhip lounge interview show Soft Focus. The show (and the Vice channel on which it airs) represents at once the epitome of hipsterism and an utter send up of its too cool for school premise. When Svenonius met alt country darling Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, genius had to ensue.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=B1ybh2GaNeI]

One more thing. This girl, who covered this song better than the original, finally got her chance to play with this guy. Praise be the internets.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=4oOErBjY6HU]

An unlikely duo…

Via the Boombox.

Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson perform Superman together on stage in Amsterdam…

Stress by Justice

Shades of Man Bites Dog as Justice address the fear consuming France. Condemnation or celebration, you decide.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOP0IECS2FY]

Happy International Workers Day

Yes its May Day and a whole 40 years since the summer of 1968 where so many of our parents (probably) generation thought something might happen, and perhaps something nearly did. Anyway, here’s some music from that year.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ibjtq3LSm4Q]
It sounds almost ironic now, doesn’t it.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=OM9KRpEkGfY]
Amazing even now, The Beatles White Album was released in November, sending special messages to Charles Manson. John Lennon and John Hoyland exchanged letters in the media about the summers protests.

And more and more and on and on. The Yardbirds disbanded and Led Zeppellin rose from their ashes. Hendrix recorded Electric Ladyland. Small Faces released their first album. Et cetera…

And then after all, after the tear gas and petrol bombs of Paris had cleared, Elvis had his come back special…

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=CNDLWKdLCSY]

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