Grand Pockets in my Orchestra
Tune in tonight from 9 to 10pm on 103.2fm when we shall be joined on the indie hour by Grand Pocket Orchestra. Not only will be having a listen to their delightfully anarchic yet poptastic recordings, but they will also be playing a few live numbers for our radio detectable delight.
We will also be having a listen to quite a few Hard Working Class Heroes tonight, so if you can’t get us on the real radio, head to the web.
Bats last Thursday
Christ. Did anyone happen to read Gavin Lambe-Murphy’s confessional piece in the Sunday Times? Words fail me. Poor little it boy.
We were joined last Thursday by Dublin based Bats, for a run through of some kitchen recorded demos and a chinwag about their contemporaries, how they got together and what their myspace address really means.
Photo by Ian Oliver
It was a bit of a Popular Records and Armed Ambitions // Organised Ideas extravaganza of an evening, as the bands featured in the first half of the show were from or have some relation to both DIY labels. I first heard of Bats through Adebisi Shank, who have played on the same bill as the lads a number of times. Hearing Terrordactyl at the beginning of this year was a mighty introduction to the refreshing scene (for want of a better word) which is made up of members of the DIY bands that play gigs in The Lower Deck and The Boom Boom Room in Dublin and I assume, similar venues around the country. These bands continue to release some of the most interesting and innovative music, in my mind, from Ireland (or Dublin at least) this year, most notably Adebisi Shank with This Is The EP of a Band Called Adebisi Shank, a favourite of mine. Bats have plans to release an EP later this year, as do Terrordactyl.
On this show, we heard the aforementioned Adebisi Shank’s Caddyshank, and Vimanas’ Black Train, from their EP which was released last Saturday in The Lower Deck with support from Bats, Herv and Adebisi Shank. Pam from The Moshpit, the show which follows the indie hour at 10pm on Thursdays, must have thought I was trying to steal her genre.
Nialler9 recommended Esau Mwamwaya’s Tengazako which samples MIA’s Paper Planes and The Clash’s Straight To Hell. Check the video out from Esau in his shop in East London:
Sweet! Incidentally, this month’s nialler9 podcast is up and ready to go.
We also spoke to Angela Dorgan from Hard Working Class Heroes, taking place in Dublin this weekend the 28th til the 30th of September. Angela told us about the eclectism (it’s a word now by gum) of the Irish acts this year, why she feels HWCH has helped the Irish music scene grow a little bit, and the reason for the venue change from the various venues in Temple Bar to the concentrated venue of the Pod complex. You can buy tickets through ticketmaster – it’s ridiculously good value at 30euro for over 100 bands so come down next weekend. To finish the show, we heard Miriam Ingram’s Inhale from her wonderful album Trampoline. Miriam will be playing at HWCH on Friday at 10pm in The Odeon venue.
Here you have it then…
MP3
BATS Thursday 20th September 2007
Feist
Going to Feist tonight in Tripod – yay!
BATS interview from last week will be up on this blog tomorrow…
Speigeltents and buzz cuts by kids
Great night on Friday in The Speigeltent with Super Extra Bonus Party and Lucky Soul, hosted by Mongrel and Monster Truck. First time I made it down to the Speigeltent this Fringe festival, glad I did too, such a lovely venue. Danced like a loon to the Bonus Partyers, but wasn’t intp Lucky Soul as much, although both bands went down rather well with the Mongrel reading crowd.
Got my haircut by kids on Saturday afternoon when I went down to CHQ on the docklands. After I signed the slightly unnerving ‘I will not sue if the kids hurt me with the scissors’ agreement, I was assigned to my two stylists Shane and Adam, who are in sixth class in a school in Fairview.They were proper little pros, full of the chat of true hairdressers. They were telling me they got involved in the fringe project because their teacher is “always putting us in for stuff” and they had two days training last week before their big days on Saturday and Sunday. Before me, Shane had cut four heads of hair and Adam had cut two. One of Adam’s customers had dreds, which he said he couldn’t even get the comb through, and Shane was telling us that one guy left a bit unhappy with half a shaved head dyed blue. “He said ‘Do whatever you want’ so I did” Shane said innocently.
This is not me
They asked me what I wanted done; did I want colours, a trim, layering, a shave (Shane at this point holding the electric razor menacingly close to my bonnet) and so I opted for the safe trim and some non-permanent neon colours. Adam was about to start cutting when he was admonished by Shane – “You have to section it before ya start cutting, Adam!!” – and so the hair was sectioned off and half my locks were clipped up. I heard a snip and an intake of breath – “Ehhh…is it ok if I take off that much?” said Adam, rather sheepishly, holding up about four inches of my freshly chopped hair in front of my face.
Hmmm…how to react?
“Yup, that’s perfect Adam.”
The lads worked together making sure the trim was straight as a ruler, while telling me about their school and what they wanted to do when they were grown ups. Neither of them wanted to be hairdressers. After the trim was finished, they applied some neon blue and red streaks, brushed me off for excess hair and I was ready to go, four inches of hair length lighter.
However – very conveniently one might think – the photos of this event were deleted by mistake. No, honestly, the kids did a great job, they did not butcher my hair and the photos were deleted by genuine mistake and not to save my folicle pride. There was a fringe photographer there so if the photos turn up on their site I’ll post them here as proof!
Looking forward to HWCH next weekend – congrats to our ticket competition winner. The mp3 from last Thursday’s show with Bats will be up on the blog shortly.
Hard Working Class Heroes tickets
We had some Chiropteras on the show last night which was a nocturnal pleasure. The show will be up on the blog in the next few days.
We also spoke to Angela Dorgan from Hard Working Class Heroes festival, which is taking place in Dublin’s POD complex next weekend, the 28th til the 30th of September.
We have two tickets for each night of the festival to give away. To be in with a chance for the tickets, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog answering this very simple question:
Which iconic British musician caused controversy by releasing one of the first popular songs to include the word fucking?
Hint: there is a relation to this song and the name of the festival. Hmmmm…who could it be?
This is NOT a shop
thisisnotashop is a great little art space on Benburb Street, just past The Dice Bar (get well soon!) after the Smithfield Luas stop. Do not be fooled by their uninformative website. I was down there today to see the last day of Fringe’s (pictured above) audio installment, and I’m looking forward to heading down that way again. There are a few things happening in this space for Dublin’s Fringe Festival.
I’m going to get my hair cut my children this weekend. This guy looks happy enough with it:
Also going to be checking out The Miser, The Personality Cafe and Super Extra Bonus Party in The Speigeltent on Friday night.
Kudos to nialler for the pic above. Hilarious.
Bats
Photo by Ben Murphy
Join us this Thursday the 20th of September for BATS who will be talking about their particular brand of progressive post punk.
We will also be talking to Angela Dorgan about next weekend’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival, which we have two tickets per night to give away on the show. You’ll have to tune in to win!
Remember if you can’t get us on a real radio
you can listen in on the web.
Until then, come say hello to us on our myspace.
KCDs last Thursday
Kill City Defectors launched their album Mutiny Sounds last Saturday night in Eamonn Doran’s to a crowd of revellers in the crustiest venue in town. I don’t care if the pizza is good – which it most certainly is – it’s still an awful kip.
Within thirty seconds of the KCD’s first track, there was a twenty person brawl, involving the stage crasher who had graced the stage during Super Extra Bonus Party’s set, and was back up for more straight into the KCD set. The Kildare representatives in the crowd were having none of it, and a cocktail of testosterone/alcohol-fuelled barney ensued.
It was in someways a very fitting beginning of the launch of an album which has actually seen drama after drama since its initial recording a few months back. Iain, Greg, Colly and Dave came on the show last week and told us tales of CSS buses, arrests, broken toes, server meltdowns, mysterious masterer illnesses and much, much more.
Each member of the band picked a track from their debut album to play for us – we heard Your Mutiny, Reveal, Black Sheep and Cartoon Coloured Antics, the last of which was promised for the launch gig on Saturday night. And what cartoon coloured antics they were too.
Check out more pics from the launch night by the incandescent Ian Oliver.
On this show, we started off with Cut My Wings from Seasick Steve, who is playing in The Speigeltent on Tuesday the 18th as part of Dublin’s Fringe Festival. We also heard the scandalously catchy Little Messy from Grand Pocket Orchestra, a band I’m delighted to say will be on the show in a few weeks. Looking forward to hearing them play at the up-coming Hard Working Class Heroes festival. Nialle9 recommended Cadence Weapon’s track Sharp from his album Breaking Kayfabe.
We finished off the show with Crystle Cat from Dan Deacon, in honour of him losing his head and finding it again. Sometimes there really is justice in the world.
Here it is so:
MP3
Kill City Defectors Thursday 13th September 2007
Kill City Bonus Parties
Fun and fights were had last Saturday night in Eamonn Doran’s at Kill City Defector’s launch gig for their debut albums Mutiny Sounds, with support from Super Extra Bonus Party:
Check out the rest of Ian Oliver’s pics here.
Stay tuned to this blog for the interview with Kill City Defectors from last Thursday on the indie hour – the mp3 will be up shortly.
Kill City Defectors this Thursday
Tune in this Thursday from 9 to 10pm on 103.2fm for Kill City Defectors. The boys are releasing their album, Mutiny Sounds, with a launch on Saturday night in Eamonn Doran’s. We’ll be having a run through of the album as well as a bit of banter in between.
Remember to catch us on live webstream if you miss us on the real radio…
The Indie Hour 