Messiah J & The Expert

December 19, 2007 at 7:13 pm (Uncategorized)

Messiah J, Twiddler and The Expert by Ian Oliver

Apologies for the delay in this post. I’ve been partaking in merriment consisting of a couple of Christmas parties, with all the mulled wine and mince pies that entails, and have only just resurfaced, already looking forward to my annual January detox. My kidneys are sore and I think my liver wants to emigrate to Jamaica.

We were joined by John, Paul and Cian on the show last week, who told us about what we have to hear, about hip hop in Ireland, Ryanair and polite hip hop lyrics that don’t focus on women’s posteriors. Messiah J & The Expert, with bass player Twiddler in tow, talked us through a few tracks from their 2006 album Now This I Have To Hear, as well as filling us in on their much anticipated follow up album, due to be released sometime in 2008. We heard FR112 and they also played a live version of Abandon Ship, both of which are on Now This I Have To Hear. We also listened to Superfamous Supertune, which is available via their website – all you have to do is join their mailing list and you’ll be sent the tune as a welcome present. Sweet!

We also spoke to Rupert from BATS, who released their debut EP Cruel Sea Scientist last Saturday in The Lower Deck in Dublin. We listened to These Ones Lay Eggs from the EP, a track which also features on the December Nialler9 podcast up on the blog now, with myself talking you through the winners of the nialler9 public poll for Best Irish EPs. The EP is available from Tower Records, City Discs, Road Records and Plugd Records in Cork, as well as on-line via Richter Collective.

We started the show with Story of Hair’s Udder, from their EP Ho!Ho!Ho! Stamp, released over the weekend in Radio City in Dublin. Nialler recommended Sunrise, taken from the debut full length All Hour Cymbals from New York’s Yeasayer, who may make it over to our shores in the new year when they hit a few venues in the UK.

The Lovely Mary Healy was with us over the phone for the gig guide, but unfortunately O2 must not have been tuning in as we lost her quite a bit, which made for not as informative gig guide as Mary usually delivers. I used to edit out any mistakes from the shows before I posted them here – mainly because the mistakes were invariably made by myself and I’m very vain – but I’ve stopped doing that and leave them in their organic state. So that explains Mary cutting in and out. In case you were wondering.

Ian Oliver was there as always and took some great pics of Messiah J & The Expert. I was in The Ambassador the following night, where they, along with Super Extra Bonus Party, were supporting Delorentos. I had come from a day long Christmas party and was rather inebriated so the air guitar was out in full force, even for the hip hop. All three bands played formidable sets; it was my first time seeing Delorentos, and I was suitably impressed by their tight set, as well as the amount of fans in the audience singing along to every word. Great to see an independent band proving that it is possible to be a commercial success without major label clout, in so far as nearly selling out The Ambassador is an indication to that. Here’s a pic from the night taken by Miss Lili, who’s rather handy with an auld camera.

Jaysus lads, we’ve packed The Ambassador! (unoffical quote – this may or may not be what he’s thinking)