Don't You Remember You Told Me You Loved Me Baby

berlin loves me. look see:

SOUP FESTIVAL!
Kreuzberg Löffelt (1)
3rd September, 2pm, Wrangelstraße

Tom Vek September 26th, Magnet Club

Supergrass, Stars, Editors 14th September, Postbahnhof

Art Brut, 15th September, Roter Salon

The Magic Numbers, Shout Out Louds, 23rd September, Magnet Club

Talib Kweli, 27th September, Knaack

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, The Cribs, 28th September, Postbahnhof

just for fun i put up a picture (that i actually took! woohoo) of the Kills from when they played a show at the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin last June for the Budweiser Rising Festival. Anyhoo, they are pretty scary onstage. Check out those demonic red eyes! It's totally not a result of my amateurish camera skills. OK.

Wanna Disco, Wanna See Me Disco?

Ladies and gentlemen, set yourselves on fire!

Yesterday we found an Oxfam charity shop, of course i rifled through the cds, and found one from my "youth" i.e 7 years ago when I was 16 and used to go out more times a week than i had hot dinners and dance, dance, dance. Novy V Eniac "Superstar". The video was this blonde chick having the best time ever dancing.

At the time, there were only two places that played good music. I was wierd. I was listening to Blur and Pulp at home and then out all night dancing to Delerium et al 4 nights a week. One place was a regular nightclub with a back dancefloor called The Garden, of course it had vine leaves and flowers painted all over the walls. If you paid in you could eat for free in the restaurant, that was bizarre, but good. The other was the nightclub of a hotel. All mirrors on the walls, dodgy alcahol at the bar, a shiny disco ball and fancy seating area.

..a little bit of nostalgia for 1 euro, donated to charity and all.

My legs are so dead from riding my bike all over Berlin today in search of a place to live. I got one (there's a balcony that runs the length of the apartment!) and I also got the new album from Stars. "Set Yourself on Fire". I love Stars. Who else would depict a naked chick wearing a pink balaclava and holding a blowtorch on the cover of their third album? STARS! Lovely. Ok so I love it. They haven't strayed too far from the sound of "Heart". There's more, though. More happy, more urgency, they have given us alot more with this new record. I just love the juxtaposition of Amy and Torque's singing voices. A standout track for dream days and evening sighs is definitely "Ageless Beauty". Ok they all are. It was a brave/stupid decision to leave all my music behind me in Dublin, but I had to really. There may not be logic in simply gathering another collection while I'm here. I am very happy that this album is the extent of my music collection right now. I shouldn't have written about it when I'm stil only in the middle of my first listen. but HOORAY! It's just gorgeous. Dreamy pop indeed.

Sprechen Sie Deutche Baby?

North American Halloween Prevention Initiative.

In aid of Unicef, this project is going down with the help of -amongst others- Beck, Devendra Banhart, Jimmy Tamborello, Karen O, Feist, Buck 65 (above, albeit blurry), (Win & Regine from)Arcade Fire, Thurston Moore and Malcolm McLaren. THEY ARE MAKING A HALLOWEEN VERSION OF "DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS", YO.

You can listen to it here!

Berlin is a really good place to be next month, what with Wilco and Stars stopping by.

September 10th, Wilco @ Postbanhof
September 14th, Stars @ Maria

Buying fun beads with Le Tigre in the background is always a good time. Hooray for Tukadu bead shop in Hackesher Markt. Afterwards we stumbled into an alleyway with wooden tables taking up the space between the two graffiti-ed walls. This might be Cafe Bravo. Hot chocolate in a bowl with lots of sweet cream, outside on a bench or inside where it's dark, the furniture is antique (see 1 ornate couch and 1 white piano) and the walls are papered with magazine covers.

Wir Sind Helden. They are German. They make nice songs. Like "Gibt Mir Ein 'O'. They have a band-member called Jean-Paul Tourette. In another language their name means, "We are heroes". Hooray!

Hip Hip

Some stupid band was billed to play with "special guests" last Saturday 13th August at Crawdaddy. It would turn out to be a very exciting night, before said stupid band ever got to the stage. It happens on occasion that the “special guests” do not live up to their lovely description, but on this night the special guests were very special indeed. (Much special-er than the main attraction, !!!) The first performer reminded me of Elliott Smith and Nick Drake- fatalistic, beautiful, and haunting. His voice conveyed pain and emotion, despite a little nervousness, quelled I hope by an appreciative crowd who got a shy smile in return for their applause. In direct contrast, next up was noisemaster Crayonsmith. He was wielding all the right tools: a noisy guitar, a drum machine, Xylophone, one of those gadgets that he could record noises/vocals onto so that it repeated while he got on with the rest. He is a fearless character, not afraid to actually look at the audience and say "COME CLOSER TO THE STAGE YOU BIG EEJITS", except he was a bit more gentlemanly about it than that.

I remember late one Sunday night on the radio a few years ago, Jay Aherne mentioned something about indie-tronica, and I believe Crayonsmith has something to say about it too. He has put together an EP called "You Get Down Here". Two of the songs he played that night, "Scarytale" and "Unnatural" are available as mp3s on his website.

The "headliners" at this gig do not deserve any space here. They trundled their way through their set like a group of karaoke singers at Vera and Jack Duckworth's vow-renewal ceremony. Life is too short for bad music, and I escaped out into the warm night. Whew.

Pirate/Jesus/Devendra

i heard Devendra was up to no good after the show he played in Galway. I thought Joanna Newsom was his lady? Pirate to the core, Jesus would never do a thing like that. Tsk tsk tsk.

Ed Harcourt is coming to Dublin but im pretty pissed about it. He is performing as the opening act for a little popstrel that has had a couple of hits over the summer. BLEUGH! He should be the main attraction!

i should be shot, I am going to miss this years Hard Working Class Heroes hootenanny in Dublin on the 27, 28, 29 August. Boohoo. I would lovelovelove to see 66e, Betamax Format, Fred, Mainline, Me in the Park, Ann Scott and Jape. It looks to be a blast.

I'm Not That Bad...I'm Worse

Herm (& the selves) hit Crawdaddy's this Saturday at 8pm. I'm going. Herm are signed with Catchy Go Go Records...I think, the site doesn't seem to have been updated for the past couple of months. Maybe they are away on holidays. Actually this Herm gig is proving to be rather elusive, it's not even listed on the venue website. Popping up now and then on Dan Hegarty's playlist, Herm sound different, although they also sound like Ben Kweller.

Herm @ Crawdaddy, 13th August 2005
Show starts 8pm
Adm: ???...Mysterious price. Find out on the night! Can't wait.

I'm going to Germany soon. Don't be like me and miss out on these these shows:

the Cribs, Whelans, 22nd August
Saul Williams, Crawdaddy 25th August
Jurassic 5 Vicar Street 28th August

Us Kids Know

The 1st Saturday of every month is a special date in everyone's diary in Sligo. The Funk Up takes place, upstairs in the Garavogue bar. It's a night of possibilities, an event that brings out the strange and wonderful people, a different kind of crowd than a normal Saturday night, probably. The best spot is beside the dancefloor, at the extra large window-sills that overlook the river. You're close to all the action: you bump into everybody there, you can stash your stuff and when your favourite song comes on, the dash to the dancefloor is so close (mind the steps). There is a cosy corner with couches and chairs and tables to sit down, if you can resist the dancefloor. Tonight the mix was random and very good indeed."Need You Tonight", "Teenage Kicks", "Summer in the City", "1 thing", "Jackie Wilson Said", "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", "Rebellion (Lies)". Nobody stopped dancing when the lights came up. The music played on. Everyone clapped and hooted for more. Nights like this are special because they don't happen that often, or at any other venue in Sligo. We are lucky for this once monthly funk up. Great.

Twinkle, Twinkle...

STARS are coming to town! September 10th @ the Sugar Club.

This is the best news ever in the whole world. Their new album "Set Yourself on Fire" has apparently been available as a US import since last March but it will get it's European release here on August 15th. Pretty soon, but not soon enough!

I'm also starry-eyed about these upcoming dates:

Nada Surf 6th September @ the Village
Tom McRae, 25th September @ the Village
Super Furry Animals, 27th September @ Olympia
Bloc Party, November 7th @ the Olympia
Sigur Ros, November 11th @ Olympia

Ouch, the Editors gig in Dublin is all sold out.

Put Me in Your Blue Skies, Or Put Me in Your Grey

On a terribly rainy evening in Dublin last Friday 29th July, I traipsed across the city with a friend in tow and my heart all a-flutter in anticipation for the gig by Devendra Banhart in the Village. Though i know several songs by Devendra, i don't own any of his records. Yet. So i felt that going to see him live was special for me. Even though i only knew a select few tunes, they are enough for me to know that Devendra Banhart is something special, and definitely worth checking out when the chance arises to see him live.

When we arrived there was a huddling crowd outside the entrance, smoking, and also a queue for tickets. Squelching past everyone and heading inside, I hadn't expected the crowd to be so big, I was excited to see that so many people had come to see Devendra play. My expectations of the gig were that it would be quiet, i imagined that Devenrda would be by himself, just him and his guitar, gently serenading a contemplative crowd from the dimly lit stage. Well, it wasn't exactly like that. When several hairy men walked onstage and the crowd let out a joyous roar, I realised we were going to get a whole band experience- drummer, 3 guitarists and keyboards (i think) and that this crowd was good and rowdy. Devendra said hello and introduced himself and his band as "Hairy Fairy". The boys are all very hairy indeed, with their beards, moustaches and luscious long hair. One of the guitarist boys and the drummer were a little less hairy than the others, and took turns wearing a fake beard.
hee hee.

Devendra is totally gorgeous. He sort of looks like Jesus - he's tall, with shoulder length mad curly shiny brown hair and a nice beard. He also looks like a pirate, with his beard and hoopy earrings. However, the similarity (sort of) ends there, with his skinny frame, thrift store threads and child-like eagerness and enthusiasm, Devendra is really a wonder to watch perform. His unique voice and unforgettable lyrics made for a really enjoyable show for everybody there. In the crowd there was alot of smiling, laughing, clapping, singing along and hollering requests at the stage. Devendra and his Hairy Fairies played several songs from his new album 'Cripple Crow', due for release in September which has a very generous 22 songs. There were many stomping, jingly jangly tunes played that night. A good mix of the old, like "Will is My Friend" and "Little Yellow Spider" from Devendra's previous albums Rejoicing in the Hands, and Nino Rojo and the new, like "I feel like a Child", "Long Haired Child" and some Spanish songs, all featuring on "Cripple Crow". Devendra grew up in Venezuela, speaking Spanish as his first language. His artistic creativity as an artist shines through in the beautiful Spanish songs on the new album which Devendra played for us that night. They went down really well, and that new record will do very well i imagine. When he played "At the Hop" everybody sang/shouted along, "Cook me in your breakfast, and put me on your plate, cos you know I taste great". I have to say my favourite song from the set list that night was the one about the transgendered schizophrenic. A masterpiece.

A nice moment of the evening was when Devendra asked if there was anyone in the crowd who had written a song lately that they would like to share. A lucky young man was picked to go up onstage and he sang a song about being a stalker. It was a really great song, he wasn't a bit nervous and the Hairy Fairies even stayed onstage while he played, bopping along. Devendra sang along to the chorus from the wings and the drummer provided some gentle percussion.

i wouldn't do Devendra the injustice of posting up any of the photographs i captured that night with my camera phone. (em, i don't know how to anyway..) i can make out the big hair, but that's about it. so i hope you enjoy this other image of him that i stole. (see the hoopy earring?!!)

Picturing Devendra doing his out of sync shimmy onstage, with his band
all around him, singing and playing their hearts out, i can't help but have a big smile. It was one very special evening for all those lucky enough to be there that night. The band were really great and worked really well together with their pirate captain. Though it didn't seem like work at all. It was like magic.