You've Cried Enough This Lifetime, My Beloved Polar Bear

This weeks Gigs-That-I-Missed: Hot Chip and Open Prison. I'm getting used to it now, almost.




February is going to be fun. Look!

08.02 Test Icicles Magnet
13.02. Arab Strap Magnet
16.02. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Postbahnhof
18.02. the Figurines White Trash
18.02 Calla Knaack
19.02. Diamond Nights Magnet

For the past few days I have been listening obsessively to the MSTRKRFT remix of Bloc Party's "Two More Years". I found it here, after being pointed in the right direction by mister fancypants . I can't get enough of this song. Just! So! Good! That was last Thursday - imagine my delight when I went out dancing that night and it came on! I was not really into the origional version much - when I heard it first it sounded to me like a lacklustre copycat attempt. Loving the remix so much has definitely encouraged me to rethink that first impression.

I'm at home in Ireland for a few days, I was missing ham sandwiches and tea. Plus, my dad built a dancefloor in our back garden so we could rip it up till all hours in celebration of my sister's 21st birthday. Karl who normally djs at the Funk Up spun alooottt of great records for us - one in particular - "Going Nowhere" by Cut Copy, which was actually the song that started off the night's dancing. I was in the middle of talking to someone and rudely abandoned them to run over to the decks and ask "WHO IS THIS?!?!?!" I was very happy when I found out - I've loved "Saturdays" for a long time and Bright Like Leon Love is on my list of "To-Get" albums, along with eleventy bajillion others...I'll have to bump it up a few places. Their website is all kinds of RAD.

I'm definitely turning on the radio tomorrow night between 7-10pm cos Tom Dunne is talking to Jenny Wilson. I saw her at Bastard supporting Architecture in Helsinki, SHE IS GREAT! I have a good excuse for sitting in hugging the radio, I'm dying of the evil killer death flu (well thats what it feels like) and alot of late nights out from the past week have finally caught up with me.

Another first impression I have since deviated from is that which I was holding against the Arctic Monkeys. I can't remember what song it was, it was quite a few months ago, but I remember thinking, "absolute claptrap!" Apart from "I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor" being the best song ever, dancing to "When the Sun Goes Down" (not, "The Scummy Bastard Song"...) might be the best dancing ever.

i hope i actually get to go to a gig sometime soon.

Apparently Glamorous

HOT CHIP January 26th, the Water-gate, maybe 8pm.

There is a band called The Dirty Sweets. They're based in Galway, in the west of Ireland - oh, a rich musical territory! But, The Dirty Sweets don't sound Irish. They are doing their own thing. It's like how I feel about the Chalets: it's quite rare to have a band like this - never mind that the very Irishy words "pot" and "kettle" are in the title of one of their songs (which i can't stop listening to) - THEY'RE AN IRISH BAND THAT DOES NOT SOUND IRISH. That's deadly.

Download that song, Pot Calling the Kettle Black and more here.

This band makes music that seems to have an old-fashioned, haunting quality. Sort of Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey...and someone else I can't quite place. I'm glad they list early '90s indie pop as an influence, cos when I listen to them, it's like that hazy summer back in 1995 again, when the cassette in my walkman was always playing some scratchy mix of songs i'd recorded off the radio from Menswear, Echobelly, Gene, Elastica or Suede. A bunch of well known (in Ireland..) music industry people - djs, musicians, record industry types - were asked for their tips for 2006 and The Dirty Sweets were tipped by Jenny Huston, one of the cool indie rock djs on the Irish national airwaves. This is quite an endorsement. Swit swoo!

I found out about them because their new synth player, Leon is from my hometown. I don't really know him, but..There's a well established dancing party that happens in Sligo, called the Funk Up. This one time last summer on the dancefloor, i had requested some Arcade Fire, but the dj was reluctant: "Only about 5 people will dance!" he said. "Yeh, but they'll be 5 great people" i replied. Anyway, Rebellion (Lies) came on, and the only people ripping it up were me and my friend and Leon and his friend..so, he must be alright.

In Other News-

The Future Kings of Spain have told us the names of the songs on their new album! Yay. But like, dudes. Some musical accompaniment to the lovely titles would be wonderful. Anyways, here are the exciting NAMES! Oh wait. I've lost them. Another time then. No, wait here they are.

Chemical Burn
Disappear
Guess Again
Kick In The Teeth
Lost And Found
1981
One More Mistake
Syndicate Our Lives
This Is The End
This Song
You Dream In Solid Gold

Future Kings of Spain are similar to Biffy Clyro, I think, in that they can can make these really sweet, catchy songs with infectious melodies and jangly guitars but also loud, shouty songs with infectious melodies and dirty guitars. The new album is called Nervousystem and the first single to be released will be Disappear . I am excited. They are an amazing band to see play live, I wonder if they'll come to Berlin?

They are also AN IRISH BAND THAT DOESNT SOUND IRISH. Actually now that I think about it, Ash are in this strange little group too. So we have Ash, the Chalets, Future Kings of Spain, The Dirty Sweets.

The Chalets were on Morning Becomes Eclectic! Hooray.

Sad News: My Morning Jacket have had to cancel their gig here at the end of the month. Well, the whole tour has been cancelled. Jim James might have pneumonia.

A new Maximo Park song A19 is kind of boring. It's "not about a girl for once" said Paul. Maybe that's why. Maybe cos it was during a live-from-Spain-broadcast-on-the-internet thing that i heard it on. Regardless, definitely looking forward to hearing more new stuff.

I find it kind of wierd reading music blogs. I only started recently. I mean, I've never relied on them for finding out about new music...Anyway, at themodernage there is a fabulous account of the Editors rocking NY, with fabulous photographs aswell. I'm so jealous and also sad. they are not coming back to Berlin in February as Tom told me. There seems to be a ton of dates here there and everywhere. Except here.

i read a crazy thing the other day. the same producer worked on "Silent Alarm", "A Certain Trigger" "the Futureheads" and "Capture/Release".

Hrm.

It Took Me All Night To Get You But I Got You

Last weekend i went to see The Chalets. During the week beforehand, I found myself trying to explain to some people what they sound like, and ended up comparing them with bands that I have since found most other people have aswell - Le Tigre and The B 52's. Ne c'est pas? Like a Sunday morning in bed, Ireland has been such a warm and cosy nest for the sad and lonely, heartbroken, distraught, miserable singer-songwriter for a long, long time. But the Chalets are telling us, “You've got no time!”. There's no time for morose moping anymore! It's kind of nice to have a Irish band shaking things up for once. They're like, air the place out, shake off feeling down in the dumps and rip it up on the dancefloor, rih? The band has been described as “twee pop”, but I feel that that is only an element of what they do. As written in a message to the band on their Myspace page, “pop isn't always a bad word”. Indeed. But, their racy lyrics, killer guitar riffs and pounding danceable drumbeats make them deserving of a much broader description than that, which indicates to a much greater extent the rock and roll flair the band has.

The possibility of success in America seems more than likely for the band, especially since one of their deadly songs Sexy Mistake has appeared more than once in episodes of some hit show on the telly over there apparently. (i dunno, ich habe keine television..) It's probable that across the water people will be wondering what the band is going on about when they sing "So you can get your hole" or "get out of my kaks" but they can probably guess. And surely Theme From the Chalets relays a universal experience, everyone has been to a party and muttered these same words in their friend's ear, or under their breath or to the geeky boy in the corner:

boys: Let's fix some cocktails and make them so strong
girls: Let's not get too drunk but we'll play along
boys: Let's put on FM, sit back and relax
girls: You must be joking get out of my kaks
boys: Don't think it's working their coats are still on
girls: Just five more minutes and then we'll be gone

In the week running up to the gig, I heard the Chalets on German radio for the first time: No Style was getting airplay on Radio Eins – the lovely & amazing indie rock / alternative radio station here in Berlin. Some of the other music on rotation at the moment on the station is from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Knife, Ryan Adams and Stars, which reflects the esteem in which The Chalets material is being received with. Recognition is coming from all sides - Steve Lamacq playing No Style as his single of the week upon its release last September, and with their upcoming tours playing alongside Art Brut, the Kaiser Chiefs and We Are Scientists on the agenda the band are soaring at a steady 500 hundred miles an hour towards achieving massive success in 2006. (haha, sorry! i could not resist that.) Vote The Chalets. No, reallyVOTE FOR THE CHALETS! They are up for awards and stuff. They are included in the category for Best Irish Band at the Meteor awards on February 2nd this year.

So, the gig. It took place in Magnet which is a small venue in Prenzlauerberg where I've seen some great/great/goodish shows recently from American Analog Set, The Go! Team and The National respectively.

The support band, which hadn't been advertised, was slightly nondescript until their last song when suddenly they came alive in a blaze of electro rock glory. This served to liven everybody up a bit in preparation for what was about to come. The crowd was a bit random. There were a lot of pot bellied lank-haired middle aged men wearing Hard Fi t-shirts and then gangs of young obsessive set-list grabbing girls wearing t-shirts of bands that haven't been invented yet. Plus a load of young ones from Oireland. Which I think was a surprise for the five young ones from Oireland who had come to play.

Around midnight The Chalets emerged from the crowd and sauntered onstage to hearty applause. There were lots of “Vielen danke!”'s to the crowd for the warm welcome, and then ripping straight into the music, got on with the show.

Theme from the Chalets, Sexy Mistake, Got No Style, Nightrocker, Red High Heels, Feel the Machine, Two Chord Song, Fight Your Kids, Kiss Chasing, Gay Holiday, Check In all made it onto the setlist. Occasionally I've noticed that German crowds can remain quite stoic and unresponsive at gigs. However, as the glockenspiel tinkled alongside the vocal harmonies between the boys and girls, shoulders jutted and hips swayed - the temperature rose quickly. “I feel like a roasting turkey”, said rosy-cheeked Peepee. The band wasn't afraid to joke around a lot onstage, in particular about casserole (“auflauf” in German). “It's on menus here everywhere!”, they exclaimed unbelievingly. Songs were introduced as “Where's the Auflauf” and “the Auflauf Story” - this steaming dish is obviously something that has influenced the band muchly during their previous tour stops in Hamburg and Dresden. Peepee and Pony were a pair of steaming dishes themselves. Their flawless complexions, expertly applied eyeliner and lusciously shiny hair teamed with some very stylish outfits no doubt was encouragement enough for a rowdy member of the crowd to shout, “GO ON YE GOOD THINGS!” at them. Their faces lit up - doubtfully at the “compliment”, but to discover some familiar folk in the audience. “THAT SOUNDED IRISH!” they squealed happily. The band seemed very relaxed, more so than the last time I saw them live - when they played alongside Art Brut and the Rakes as part of the Budweiser Rising Festival last June. Even just looking at what they had chosen to wear, it seemed to me that they weren't trying so hard to be kitsch (and ending up seeming too gimmicky.) They were still dressed up to the nines - not in costumes this time, but fancy outfits nonetheless. In German there is a word to describe girls who know how to dress, which definitely applies to the girl-Chalets: “stylies”. The boys were also very smartly dressed in tight t-shirts and skinny jeans, instead of the suits and leopard skin ties. With the glitzy guitar riffs and luscious bass licks from Enda and Chris teamed with Dylan's tight and fast drumming the crowd was really bopping from the word “auflauf!” Coming back onstage quickly for an encore they claimed to have nothing acceptable enough left to play, but left us wanting more with Michael Kelly.

This is kind of minging, but after the dancing and singing along during the gig, when it was all over and we were hanging about wondering what to do and where to go, I was really thirsty and didn't really mind swigging out of Peepee's bottle of water which had been left discarded by the microphone stand, mostly full and very irresistible to my parched throat. Some German fans pushed me out of the way to get at the setlists – it was lovely of course to see that an Irish crowd had come out to see the Chalets, but Irish fans are a given. They have loads. It was cool to see the Germans fighting over the souvenirs from the night and chatting excitedly about the gig (the Irish had scrambled back to the bar).

I hadn't expected to have a chat with Peepee and Pony, but as I was on the way out I saw that the girls themselves were manning the t-shirt stand, I went over to say hello and thanks for a great gig. They were excited to meet a fellow Dub - “THIS GIRL'S FROM FOXROCK!” - they probably didn't expect any Irish people to be there, well it being a Berlin gig. I realized my preconceived notion that they wouldn't be friendly people, because I found myself surprised at just how sound the two girls are. They wanted to know some good flea markets to check out the next day on their day off and myself and my friend tried to persuade them with the aid of dodgy map to come out for the night instead of sloping off back to their tour bus. Peepee asked how long we'd be hanging around at Magnet, and I regret now not staying behind a bit longer to make sure they found their way, I think I missed a shiny golden glinty mirrorball opportunity to go boozing with the Chalets in Berlin.

i have no photographs from the show that night, but Abstract Boy has!

funny, ha ha!

Today. I was perusing Myspace. I was on Final Fantasy's page and there was a message posted from "Owen from Final Fantasy" and this is what he wrote:

Hey, this is Owen from Final Fantasy. I don't know who set this Final Fantasy Myspace up.

Whoever it is, YOU'RE IN BIG TROUBLE.

No, I'm kidding, you're not. What could I do, anyway? Send you an E-MAIL? Write a SONG ABOUT IT?

In other words, carry on. Me and Leon are four days away from completing "He Poos Clouds", which is quickly becoming known as "The Career Suicide Record" or "The Hilarious End Of Final Fantasy". If you enjoy the feeling of being duped, you'll love it.

Bye.

apart from Matt & Kimm's Silver Tiles, i keep going back to listen to Final Fantasy's cover of This Modern Love, for just one more nine more listens. My god. I'm calling him Final FanTASTY from now on. Yes i am. The message was posted under the name Germans. That's a funny name for a band. The closest i could find to it on AMG was "German Boys" under the genre, "holiday". !!!

I Aint Sayin My Goodbyes

This isn't meant to be an mp3 blog at all at all. But I am too poor to go to gigs this week!...this month. i still feed the need to update my blog despite the lack of live music. Pang. If i could have gone out, i would have had to pick between Super 700 and Black Wire last night, couldn't believe that both their shows were on the same night. Im not familiar with either bands' music, but I just had a feeling that Black Wire would be great. And I've heard a few good things about Super 700. They will look after your bunnies, and also have been working for a long time with Gordon Raphael on their new album. Swit swoo! Anyway, in the end, I decided to buy some groceries instead of a ticket to a show. Sometimes it's nice to eat, y'know. I tried to convince myself that they will be back around Berlin again soon. It seems to be that bands really like playing here, alot of them seem to come back within 2-3 months to play again. Coming back for more next month are Editors, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Test Icicles & We Are Scientists. Fun.

Since i got all hooked up with the internet last week I've been trying to remember all the music i've been wanting to search out and catch up on and ended up downloading alot of f-ing good stuff. Like Wolf Parade, of course. And Matt&Kim, of course. A song of theirs, Silver Tiles is available for download right here. Can't. Stop. Listening.

!!!!

Today i did remember this one song in particular that i wanted to find. Hard Fi's version of Seven Nation Army. i recorded it off the radio sometime last year & love it lots. So i stumbled upon this crazy thing. Ok it's not so crazy. But it's kinda funny. It's this family who make a weekly podcast of music & chat. Music like the Shout Out Louds and ...HARD FI! One of their podcasts from last October includes the unique cover of the White Stripes' song on it, so i downloaded it. Ok. This cover version is actually on Hard Fi's EP. It was a live version that I heard on the radio that one time, and the lead singer was doing this raucous howling. Unfortunately there's no raucous howling on the EP version. i can't seem to find that live version anywhere. it's oodles better. I found the plain ol' EP version on the podcast from 23.10.05. Right here at Positively 10th Street. Sometimes, families make me want to puke, but Hard Fi is the 2nd track in.

So. i still might go and see ADULT.tonight. I found another mp3 of theirs over at CallMeMickey where there is a biglonglist, and alot of mp3 tracks of bands playing SXSW. Hand to Phone. It's creepy.

omg im late for drum practise!

Gimme Something Cheap / Not Enough Sleep

I'm still not recovered from le week-end. the Chalets charmed the kaks off Berlin.

This Friday night at the Maria is the venue for an ADULT. show. A few weeks ago whilst perusing a local publication (go on, guess..) the picture + accompanying blab about the band -- "..as Berlin is suffering from a lack of 1980s inflected electro pop [is it? really? hm.] we should be thankful that ADULT. has arrived to fill the niche." -- caught my eye, so i cut it out, stuck it up on my calendar and sort of forgot. Today i arranged to meet up with a friend later this week, so i go to scribble it in on Friday 20th January and what do i see there? A nice black & white rectangley picture of a boy and girl sellotaped on there. So. Let's see.

They are from Detroit. Apparently they tried to keep quiet about who they really are. Who else is from Detroit? Brendan Benson, for one. Detroit Cobras (oK, i'm just guessing that one...) hm. Ok, Who else is from Detroit and tried and sort of succeeded at keeping quiet about who they really are? Yeh. But this is good. (I'm pretending that i don't know Eminem is from Detroit.)

ADULT. is three people with a lot going on. While Kuperus and Miller run the seminal Ersatz Audio label, show their paintings and photography and restore historic homes in Detroit, Consiglio participates in several other music and performance projects such as the art-cum-theater collective Perfect Wieners and Butts and Ersatz Audio's own Tamion 12 Inch.

That was interesting. And a little scary. Taken from their label's website, Thrill Jockey Records.

I believe the updated version of the band is now back to the origional line-up of just two. Alison Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. Alison is also a photographer. She took this, i like it alot.



here is Alison talking about her photography and ADULT. music:

".. well I think that there's a lot of weird anxiety in our music and I think there's an awkwardness and I think that my photography is very awkward. I think that the lyrical content of our songs could have double meaning, and I think that my photographs have a lot of double meanings. It's like you're kind of just giving the viewer, almost like a still, and you don't know where the story is going, and Our music is like that as well where you don't really know where the end is."

Their new record called "Gimmie Trouble" was released last October.

I only have a couple of mp3s to go on, and one of those is a remix. i do feel intrigued enough to check their gig out, but it all depends on how much currency i dispense this week.

oK. mp3s.

Insound has one and epitonic has two. The it-was-new-in-December-2005 single In My Nerves is Here. It's totally on the first page of artists under "A".

Nite Life and some remix of Flexidisc are right here. Both good! Even the remix! Before you can say "this is soo electroclash" your shoulders and hips will be doing jaggedy '80s moves. And your hair will get poofy.

So ADULT. are noisy. I like it alot. i can see (hear) that her voice might probably get annoying if you listened to it nonstop for like, an hour. should just about make it through the gig. Oh! Kesseteens are supporting. And some djs after too. Show starts at 9pm.

Being broke is really spleening me. i could not afford the ticket/u bahn trips to go see Black Wire tonight. Boo.

Let's Dance Just For Tonight

Tuesday nights at Magnet are just a little bit too much fun. FREE ENTRY before 11pm. FREE BOOZE from 11 til midnight. A VERY HOT DANCEFLOOR. Kids in Turbonegro t-shirts ripping it up to 50's rock 'n roll. (Which was funny because alot of people were wearing "Chuck Taylors" converse trainers on their feet -- the choice shoe for any discerning raging teen of the 1950's.) Boys swaying and girls jumping to Bloc Party, Elvis, Maximo Park...My favourite songs to dance to from the night had to be: Deceptacon, Pin, I Only Want You, Sheena is a Punkrocker, Hard to Beat, Boys Don't Cry, Michael, I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor...and lots more that are buried somewhere underneath my boozy tequila brain cells. The dj cleared the floor with Goldigger -- oh well, there was more room for us. The star of the night was the boy disco dancing in his wheelchair. And also the fox we spotted loping across the tram tracks at 4am.

Richard Hawley's new songs from his new album Coles Corner are getting lots of airplay on the radio, which is fantastic. Swoon. When i get enough money, I think this album will be my first music purchase of 2006. I CANT WAIT!

There is a reason why having a radio in the kitchen and being able to tune into Radio Eins is so sacred to me right now. At the moment I have no boombox in my bedroom, so the other day when i wanted to listen to some music, i turned to my laptop. And it just died. So then i got out my cd walkman & adaptor (to conserve batteries) but oh, the plug broke. There is still a metal prong stuck in the socket somewhere. So then i found some batteries, put them into the walkman. THE EARPHONES FELL APART IN MY HAND. Someone up there...The laptop is at least working again, except the internet is completely kaput. So, i cant download anything or listen to any music online. Which is really f-ing shabby. I can't afford new earphones either.

Ok im going home now to listen to my laptop.

..the Irish Keep Gate-Crashin..

TEST ICICLES -- 8TH FEBRUARY 2006, MAGNET.

This weekend the Chalets are coming to town. I hope they put on a good show. They are getting airplay on super cool Radio Eins -- breakfast and dinner just wouldn't be the same without that radio station. In fact, i just wouldn't have breakfast or dinner without Radio Eins. (Tune in at 97fm!) Over the weekend they did a Best Of Popkomm 05. I heard some Elbow and Hard Fi and some crazy band that did a cover during their set of "Maniac" and had a song called "1000 Sparks", i think. I don't know who they were???!!! Anytime i turn it on its always My Favourite Song. Today, bizarrely, I was thinking that I had never heard them play any Arcade Fire, and then BLAM! THEY PLAYED THEM! "NEIGHBOURHOOD # 2 (LAIKA)"! The "CD der Woche" (guess what that means) this week is Ryan Adams' "29".

I'm so ashamed. Yesterday, in my kitchen making toast, I dashed across to the radio to turn up the volume when Koufax came on. It was their song, "Isabelle". I thought it was Ed Harcourt! I hated this band when I saw them during Popkomm, for that very reason. They are totally ripping him off! I notice he is not mentioned in their band links on their website. Motherf.ckers. Oh, two of the Get Up Kids are in the band. I still hate them.

So I've been losing sleep over thinking about my favourite songs, albums and gigs from last year. I guess cos i've been seperated from my music for so long, and it's only in the past 2 weeks that I've gotten to hear everything again. And it freaks me out how all the gigs/festivals all meld together in my head into one big hootenanny, can't remember where, when...That's why I started this blog, so I could keep track. Anyway, how could i forget some of my really hot favourites from last-year-i-cant-believe-its-over???!!! Like, the Departure's "All Mapped Out"..or the Rakes "Retreat", or the Prodigy's "Hot Ride", or "Fuck Forever" from Babyshambles, orororor...

She Don't Think Straight

I should have done a Top 20! er, 21!...23!..Fuck it, 312!

What about,

the Greatest - Cat Power

Hard to Beat - Hard Fi Oh, you said it boys.

If You Want - Tom Vek

One Thing - Amerie

Blood - Editors

In the Morning - the Coral

Cold Hands - Brendan Benson

E-Pro - Beck

Dance Me In - Sons & Daughters

First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

Shine a Light - Wolf Parade

Graffiti - Postcard of a Painting

STARS - Your Ex-Lover is Dead

Ok I'll stop now. During 2005 I was addicted to these songs. Still am!

Black Wire. Who are they? I don't know. So i looked around for some information. They are funny! And photogenic! And supported the Cribs! And playing in Berlin next week! I have no idea what they sound like. I am there.

Next month when We Are Scientists come to Berlin to play a gig, I might get to chat to them. That would be one thousand nine hundred and forty 3 kinds of class.

Why Won't You Listen, When I Stomp My Feet?

Today was freezing. But I really wanted to check out this exhibition. Never mind that I'm too broke for a U-Bahn trip (and not enough of a chancer to chance it without paying....when sober.) 2 listens to "Funeral" later and I arrived at the gallery. I got to wander around the place totally by myself.

So I have been thinking about my favourite songs from last year. 2005. I couldn't help thinking of gigs instead. So it's a mix of gigs & songs. Hurrah! In no particular order, because that would take me another year. It's already January 5th! And sometimes I just couldn't whittle it down to one song.

Don't Save Us From the Flames / I Guess I'm Floating -- M83. I love M83.

All That You Can Do / Where The Humans Eat -- Willy Mason. Track number three and also the title track of Willy's debut album. Nobody else wrote a song about their greedy cats in '05 (i am glad that the photos i took at this gig are somewhere where i can't get at them. terrible. swooshy. can hardly make him out for the blurs.) The Sugar Club, Dublin January 2005. I hadn't started this gig-blog thing at the time I saw him play. He was drunk on guinness and stuffed the venue out completely. People were sitting on eachothers laps and stuff.

At The Hop -- Devendra Banhart. Nobody else made a song as sweet and lovely and singable as this in '05...maybe in '55. 29th July, The Village, Dublin.
(really bad phone photo from the gig. you can just about make out the big hair.)




Goodbye Little Rose -- The Little Flames. A stomper. Noone else made a song like this in '05...maybe in '65...

Slow Hands / Evil -- Interpol. I can't pick between these two songs. so HA!
(Oh. Another terrible photograph. Olympia Theatre, Dublin. April 6th '05)

Rebellion (Fire) -- Arcade Fire. The intro to this song kills me..who am i kidding, this whole album kills me.

Plans / This Modern Love -- Bloc Party. Like Eating Glass was on repeat for a long time, though.

Why Do You Love Me -- Garbage. Lovelovelove. (Ooh. in 2006, watch out for a band called Lovelovelove. Electro, maybe. Ssh!)

Satan Said Dance! - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Obviously going to keep the dancefloors filled this year.

Heartbeats -- The Knife. This song cuts deep. Cannot wait for a live show. Can. Not. (Feel lucky in a way though, have seen Jose Gonzalez & Jenny Wilson, both Knife-related artists. Yes. )

Did i do 10?

So. I'm indecisive and take terrible photographs!

Brendan Benson LIVE @ Mudd Club, Oktober 25th 2005

This month is going to be strange. I always find the new year strange anyway. I don't know why, it's like that little change in the last digit of the date is kind of this undeniable sign that time is slipping away and you're forced to reassess your life and how it's going and where you want it to go and who you want to go there with. Or something. So, there's like no gigs for the next two weeks. So here i am stuck with the new year shakes, wondering "what am i doing with my life?" and the sad answer is "not going to any gigs." which is tough when your life IS going to gigs. What am i going to do? Well, until January 14th, stare longingly at my ticket for the Chalets and wish that time goes by faster. Hot Chip and My Morning Jacket aren't coming til the very end of the month. Also at the end of the month is the "Long Night of Museums" when all the museums stay open til 2am and there are free shuttle buses to take you wherever you want to go. I can't wait for that! No - but - really - i cannot wait! Anyway, here are some of my photographs from that great Brendan Benson gig from back in Oktober '05. BACK IN OKTOBER '05. ??? !!!




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