New Addition

A Fitzmotown Creation.

Sweet Fantasy

Owen Pallett, AKA Final Fantasy, has announced a gig in Whelan's, Dublin on Friday, 29th of May.

Anybody unfamiliar with Owen and his wonderful violin-driven ditties should ser. His amazing 2006 album 'He Poos Clouds' won the inaugural Polaris Prize in his homeland of Canada and remains one of my all-time favourites.

I was fortunate enough to see him play in Vicar Street in 2007 and I was blown away by his performance. It was just him, his violin and a looping pedal on stage but, by layering layers of music over each other, he managed to craft these incredible soundscapes that provide a perfect backdrop to his slightly eerie vocal delivery.

Tickets for the gig can be booked here. Whelan's is a pretty small venue so don't dilly dally!

This clip is an old favourite of mine. See how long it takes until you recognise the tune:


[Image: jessicaeaton.com]

If You Like Skateboards And/Or Explosions...

Check out this awesome video, directed by Spike Jonze and Ty Evans. The musical backdrop comes courtesy of the track 'Heaven' by Unkle and fits the footage perfectly.



Kudos to Allan D for the link.

Soundtrack To My Week

Imogen Heap - The Walk

Majiker - Strings and Wires

'Rent' OST - One Song Glory

Zoot Woman - Grey Day

La Roux - Bulletproof

Friendly Fires - Paris (Aeroplane Remix)

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (Twelves Remix)

[Image: Flickr]

Riddle Me This...

Is it physically possible to listen to this song:



without being reminded of this?:



The first track comes courtesy of American electronic artist The Juan MacLean. It's kinda refreshing to see popstars that are closer in age to Billy Ray Cyrus than Miley, isn't it?

23 Hours, 23 Years...

Do you see?

Making Mischief

Check out the poster and trailer for the upcoming 'Where The Wild Things Are' movie adaptation:





The book upon which this movie is based was one of my favourite bedtime stories as a child so it's a real blast of nostalgia to see it being brought to the silver screen by director Spike Jonze.

I think the use of Arcade Fire's 'Wake Up' in the trailer works excellently and news that Karen O is involved with the score for the film bodes very well indeed.

Frankmusik vs. Wino

I had kind of lost interest in Frankmusik until his recent 'Live and Lost' project, whereby he hitch-hikes his way from one end of Great Britain to the other, performing along the way and documenting his exploits on Myspace and Twitter.

Now comes a fantastic cover version of Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab', which you can download from here courtesy of Pretty Much Amazing.

I realise 'Rehab' has been done to death and appreciate that anyone averse to electropop will despise this but I, for one, think it's marvellous.

Hilly Billy Lily

'Not Fair', the secind single from Lily Allen's 'It's Not Me, It's You' comes with a suitably Western-themed video. It's not one of my favourites from the album but the racy lyrics compensate somewhat for the slightly inane refrain.



Lovin' the Dolly Parton lookalike in the background.

Mother of Mercy

If you have yet to see Duffy's 'Diet Coke' advertisements, click here. Otherwise, proceed:


[Via Popjustice]

Majik Melodies

Last Summer, I had a fantastic few days at the Europavox Festival in France, which is basically a showcase for up and coming European bands. One of the acts I saw perform was wacky French singer Camille, who delivered one of the most memorable live sets I've ever witnessed.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of the performance was the layering of acapella vocals and body beats, both from Camille and her backing singers, to produce wonderful soundscapes. When I was snooping around Camille's myspace after I returned home, I stumbled upon the page of Majiker and the origins of this unique live performance became clear.

Majiker was the producer of Camille's most recent album and his own project, 'BPM', takes the process to new extremes. BPM stands for Body, Piano and Machine and these are the only three instruments used in producing the music for Majiker's album (the machine being a vintage Yamaha keyboard).

This might sound a bit pretentious but you can't argue with the results. The tracks are unlike anything I've heard before, particularly 'Strings and Wires', which you can hear on Majiker's myspace. Plus, the knowledge that they were produced purely from Majiker's B, P & M certainly adds another dimension to the listening experience.

I also love the use of primary colours for all the promotional shots for the album, due out next month. It really fits with the concept.

Here's the video for the album's lead single 'Flesh and Bone':


[Image: Myspace]

System Booted

The lead single from Little Boots' highly anticipated album has materialised. The track is called 'New In Town' and, although perhaps not as mesmerising as 'Stuck and Repeat' or 'Meddle', it's a solid tune that should reassure fans of Boots (AKA Victoria Hesketh) that she hasn't let the ridiculous level of hype preceding her debut LP go to her head.



If you haven't already heard her cover of Freddie Mercury's 'Love Kills', right click here to download a slightly stonkin' remix courtesy of Buffetlibre Rewind. The whole Buffetlibre project is worth checking out actually. Some really cool cover versions, as well as some ill advised ones... I'll let you decide for yourself which fall under column A and which fall under column B.

[via State]

This Isn't Enid Blyton...

You could've fooled me.

I'm a bit disappointed by how underwhelming the Skins finale was. It's a pity to have such an unsatisfactory ending to what has been an excellent series I can only hope the awkwardness of the ending stems from the show's makers' intentions to pick things up where they left off in the next series. Despite initial reservations, I really grew to like the new cast.

Hopefully next time around there'll be more focus on characters like Pandora, Thomas, Naomi and The Twins who were completely sidelined in the last episode in favour of the love quadrangle that has dominated the series.

All in all, top o' the telly though, E4.

[Images: Skins Website]

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prints

Whopper.

Also, I stumbled across this picture the other day with Paula and Mariosa of Rupert Grint in upcoming Irish film 'Cherrybomb'. Where has he been hiding those guns until now??

Click image for an eyeful a better view.

[Images: Flicknews]

The Day The Music Died

Last FM have announced that they are to begin charging to stream music on their hugely popular site. Last FM has been a fantastic to resource to me throughout the past four years so I think it's a pity they've taken decided on this course of action.

What makes this news slightly more difficult to swallow is that charges for streaming are only being applied outside of the UK, the United States and Germany. Discrimination station.

Image generated from my own Last FM page by Alekc's nifty device.

Barometer of Judgement

Love it:

The Books - American 'folktronica' act The Books are certainly worth a spin if The Garden State OST features in your CD/audio file collection. And perhaps even if it doesn't.

Google Reader - This nifty device saves a whole lot of clicking by displaying any new posts on your favourite blogs and sites that have been made since you last checked.

Cute Overload - Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Charity Shops - Assembling the costumes for DCU Drama's production of 'Rent' has been something of a trial. On the upside, I now have a near expert knowledge of Dublin's charity shops and realise that there are so many treasures to be found at dirt cheap prices in these establishments.

TV3 - Despite the fact that it must rank among the most awkward places in Dublin to access, I was very impressed by the set up that the independent TV station have in the Ballymount Estate, Lucan. Anyone who sees how slick the operation is behind the scenes might be less inclined to deride the likes of Xposé or Martin King. Then again, they might not.


Shove it:

Patrick Wolf - I tried to convince myself the new stuff was good but I've now conceded that it's pretty pants. He's slowly morphing into Boy George and the video for 'Vulture' is vile.

Assignments - It's 'reading week' but I've yet to do any reading. Oh dear.

Career Doom - The next person who tells me there won't be any jobs when I finish in September should brace themselves for a whack attack. My mother even suggested I go crawling back to the Irish insurance industry. Please God, don't let it come to that.

Skins Series Finale - This series has been brilliant so I'm slightly devastated that it's coming to an end this Thursday. The trailer suggests it's going to be characteristically overblown. I'll be disappointed if it's not.

Lucy Kennedy - Why do RTE insist on shoving these 'personalities' down our throats?! She was decent as compere on 'The Podge and Rodge Show' but she's certainly not worthy of the amount of airtime she's been given in her own right. 'The Lucy Kennedy Show'? Pfft! Bring back Anna Nolan, I say.

[Images: Music Now & In Photos]

About Annie

One of the first posts I made when I resurrected this blog last July was about Norwegian popstar Annie.

Annie was a darling of the blogosphere back in 2004 when uber-cool music site Pitchfork took a fancy to her debut album 'Anniemal'. The album was moderately successful but its follow-up, 'Don't Stop' was shelved last year after it's lead single 'I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me' failed to make an impression on the charts.

It's a pity the release was scrapped because there were some fine pop tracks on 'Don't Stop', most notably 'Songs Remind Me Of You', one of my favourite songs of 2008.



Annie subsequently 'parted ways' from Island Records but, perhaps anticipating such an eventuality, Annie had stipulated in her contract that she would retain ownership of the master recordings. She intends to release the album, after some re-working, at some stage this year but it's unclear how exactly she'll go about doing that.

In the meantime, we can look forward to her new single 'Anthonio', which is being released on Richard X's independent label 'Black Melody' next month. A snippet of the track appeared on her myspace today and it's pretty promising. It reminds somewhat of Sally Shapiro's Italo Disco-influenced grooves and suggests that Annie is more at ease without the pressures of a major label on her shoulders.







[Images: Myspace]

Animals: Fed

Girl Talk performed at Andrew's Lane Theatre last Friday and, despite their best efforts, Ticketmaster failed to prevent me from attending.

Girl Talk, Gregg Gillis to his mum, is an American musician who specialises in 'mashing up' other artists' tracks. Mash-ups, of course, are nothing new but Girl Talk's tracks could hardly be described as bog-standard bootlegs. Drawing elements from tracks by Hip-Hop, R'n'B, Chart, Indie and Dance acts (Christ, Sinead O' Connor even gets a look in), he combines hundreds of samples to produce monster mixes that are seamlessly constructed.

His most recent album 'Feed The Animals' was a favourite of bloggers' last year so it's likely you've encountered his music before. If not, click here for a sample.

However much you might enjoy his mixes, Girl Talk's music is even better appreciated in a live setting. Seconds after his performance on Friday night kicked off, swarms of enthusiastic punters invaded the stage. Gillis seems to expect, even encourage, this sort of behaviour and, over the course of his ninety minute set, he provided a barrage of unfathomably brilliant beats that gave even the stimulant-free in the audience no option but to big fish, little fish, cardboard box.

I suspect Girl Talk will make appearances at some of the big European festivals this summer (Electric Picnic perhaps??) If you happen to find yourself in his vicinity at any point, do yourself a favour and check out his set.

[Image: Seamus Walsh]

Soundtrack To My Week

La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream Remix)

Bat For Lashes - Two Planets

Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool

Girl Talk - Shut The Club Down

Magic Wands - Black Magic

Marina and the Diamonds - The Outsider

Adele - Hometown Glory (Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Remix)

[Image: Ted Neuhoff]

One For The Road

My blog has descended into a celebration of all things camp of late but I can't resist posting this before I try to inject a bit of macho credibility into the old girl.

[via Marina's Myspace]

Plugging, Baby

Here's the obligatory post about two events taking place over the next couple of weeks that I'm involved in:

DCU Drama are tackling Broadway Behemoth 'Rent' and putting it on in The Helix, DCU this week from Tuesday the 24th to Thursday the 26th.

Ambitious, right?

Well, I've attended a few rehearsals and, let me tell you, this is shaping up to be one hell of a show. The vocals in particular are mind-blowingly brilliant.

Yours truly has been organising costumes for the show. It suffices to say that, at this stage, I'm completely desensitised to the embarrassment of purchasing skimply pink dresses and PVC trousers.

Tickets can be booked here. Miss this at your peril.

The fourth annual DCU Fashion Show takes place on Wednesday the 1st of April in The Mahony Hall, The Helix, DCU.

This year's theme is 'Cirque Du Couture' and the event will be hosted by MTV's Laura Whitmore who, rather fittingly, was a model in the first ever DCU Fashion Show back in 2006.

The fact that last year's event was named Best Society Event in an Irish College or Uiversity says more about the calibre of this show than I ever could.

Tickets can be booked here. Go on. You never know who you might see striking a pose on the catwalk...

Gay Jay To Play In May

I stumbled across the music of Jay Brannan a few months ago because Last.Fm recommended him as a 'similar artist' to Dangerous Muse.

Brannan's material is decent singer-songwriter stuff. His voice is nice and, even if the lyrics are a little twee sometimes, the songs are well put together.

There's no two ways about it though: the most interesting thing about Jay Brannan's music is the fact that he is a man singing love-songs about other men. I suspect this is why Last.FM deemed him to be 'similar' to Dangerous Muse because the artists' homosexuality is the only obvious connection. Their musical output couldn't be more different.

I guess Jay should be applauded for not trying to 'neutralise' his lyrics like Will Young or Wallis Bird tend to. I can't help feel that, in doing this, he limits his appeal to a predominantly gay audience though. The popularity of 'I Kissed A Girl' an 'If You Seek Amy' suggest that there might be a reasonably wide audience for an attractive, overtly gay female musician but I suspect this probably wouldn't extend to men.

Brannan is coming to play the Crawdaddy in May and I'm toying with the idea of going. Tickets are only €12/€15 and, based on the clips on his youtube channel, I reckon he'd turn in a decent live set.

Anyone fancy it?



[Image: Tow Le Road]

The Acceptable Faces of Pop?

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. I hope you made more of the festivities than I did. Today, I went to the shop and stocked up on junk food before staging a lock-in in our living room to catch up on a load of work I'd been putting on the long finger.

The soundtrack to my study? I'm not gonna lie. It's been provided by The Saturdays.

British girl-group The Saturdays are a 'manufactured band', the likes of which has almost become extinct. TV programmes like 'Popstars' revealed just how contrived the process of putting groups like The Saturdays together are and I think people have been more reluctant to buy into acts like this as a result.

The Saturdays embody some of the the most deplorable elements of manufactured bands. They're groomed to within an inch of their lives and butcher classic pop songs with the intention of marketing them to a generation unfamiliar with the original (as evidenced by their recent cover of Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough'). The girls are each assigned their own individual colour and, Christ, they even count two former members of S Club Juniors among their ranks.

Despite all this, I've developed a major soft-spot for their kitsch bubblegum pop. Aside from the aforementioned Depeche Mode cover, which to be fair was released in aid of charity, their singles have been solid and I'd even venture that 'Up' is one of the best pop songs of recent months. What finally forced me to succumb to The Saturdays' charms, however, was this cover of 'Beggin' by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons for BBC Radio 1.


[Power Rangers Image: Board Aloud]

Knock 'Em Out: Lily Allen Live Review

'Doors at 7:30.' Everyone knows that means support act at 8:30, main act at 9:30 if you're lucky. Everyone knows that. Right?

Wrong, apparently. By the time we arrive at The Academy at 8:20, support act La Roux have been and gone. Two chatty ladies beside us tell us they arrived half an hour ago to find the duo mid-way through their set, playing to a handful of people. Oh dear.

And so, all that remains is to wait for the headline act, Lily Allen. At €33, the tickets weren't particularly cheap but I figured that the infamous Allen would deliver value-for-money with outrageous on-stage antic and gobby outbursts. However, when Lily finally arrives onstage, sporting a demure black and white babydoll dress and thick black-rimmed glasses, I begin to realise that my expectations for the gig were some way off the mark.

'Everyone's At It' kickstarts Lily's latest album 'It's Not Me, It's You' and fulfills the same role tonight in The Academy. A rousing number, the song gets the crowd warmed up nicely and, despite the fact that the Dublin gig is just the second date of her world tour, the performer shows no sign of jitters.

Allen follows this up with a selection of other tracks from her current album such as 'Who'd Have Known', 'Chinese' and 'He Wasn't There', which she dedicates to her father. The set is peppered with snatches of earlier work like 'Everything's Just Wonderful' and 'LDN'. A live version of her cover of Kaiser Chiefs' 'Oh My God' is decidedly less pedestrian than the original version, recorded with Mark Ronson, and goes down a treat.

Anybody hoping for a drunken mess, hurling abuse at her audience will surely be disappointed because, on stage, Lily comes across extremely likeable and humble. Although banter between songs is kept to a minimum, she smiles throughout the set and occasionally bursts into fits of giggles mid-song, looking slightly bewildered by the response from the crowd.

The most surprising thing about Lily Allen is her voice. Granted, her songs aren't especially vocally challenging but, for whatever reason, I didn't expect her to be quite as tuneful. Her voice is sweet but powerful and only on 'Back to the Start' is she noticeably drowned out by the band. The music may not be all that sonically adventurous but Lily proves herself an able pop performer.

Highlights of the night are upcoming single 'Not Fair', earnest ballad '22' and the anthemic 'Fuck You', which inspires a dance move unlikely to be taught to members of the kids' club at Trabolgan any time soon.

Shortly after flashing her bum at the audience while exiting the stage, Allen returns for an encore, dressed in a simple white dress. Her debut single 'Smile' is given a new lease of life by the band's reworking of the track but the biggest cheer of the night is reserved for recent single 'The Fear'. A cover of Britney's 'Womanizer' is perhaps an unusual choice of swansong but the crowd lap it up.

Over the past couple of years, it has seemed that Lily Allen might follow Amy Winehouse and Britney down the path of self-destruction but, on tonight's evidence, it seems she has exorcised her demons and is very much alright, still.

Nommo'd

After two years of stalling at the starting blocks, I've managed to make it to the shortlist of this year's Smedia Awards. Perhaps this Journalism course I've paid an extortionate amount of bops to undertake hasn't been an entirely wasted venture.

There are still some shortlists to be announced but the categories for which nominees have been decided upon can be viewed here.

Watchmen Review

I always try to discourage those unfamiliar with the Harry Potter books from watching the films that have been adapted from the series. As accompaniments to the books, I find the movies a fantastic addition to the franchise but, as stand alone films, they don’t give anywhere near as good an insight into the wonderful world of Hogwarts as JK Rowling’s original novels.

Ten minutes into ‘Watchmen’, I begin to suspect that familiarising myself with the graphic novels upon which the film is based would have been similarly advisable. Despite a valiant attempt to explain the backstories of the various characters in the opening sequence, I get the distinct impression that there are many details that have been omitted to prevent the film stretching any longer than its hefty 162 minute runtime.

Set in 1985, ‘Watchmen’ tells the story of a group of ageing American former-superheroes that are forced back together after the mysterious death of one of their peers at the time of an intensified threat of nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union. As well as trying to grapple with an increasingly challenging present, the group must also face up to secrets from a fractured past that have festered for two generations of ‘watchmen’.

There were several failed attempts at turning Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original story into a movie before Director Zach Snyder stepped up to the plate. Snyder should be commended for finally bringing the story to the silver screen but, although visually stunning, the final product is unlikely to excite the same universal acclaim as its source material.

The challenge of making the film accessible to those unfamiliar with the world of The Watchmen while also being mindful not to patronise ardent fans of the series appears to have overwhelmed Snyder and his team. As a result, despite occasionally verging on greatness, ‘Watchmen’ ultimately does not stand on its own.

[Image: Sci Fi Pulse]

RTE In The Mix

A guy from my class kindly brought this gem of a musical venture to my attention. The Aengus Mac Grianna one is probably my favourite.

One question though: when are we gonna get to hear ditties inspired by Anne Doyle and Sharon Ní Bheoláin?

[Image: RTE]

Model Meltdown

Crazy scenes at the open casting in New York for the next season cycle of America's Next Top Model. Three people were arrested and six women required medical attention following a stampede.

And no, the girls weren't being chased by Ronald Mc Donald wielding carb-loaded hamburgers or anything of the sort. In fact, the pandemonium is being blamed on a back-firing car that was mistaken for a bomb by some auditionees.

This footage gives a pretty good sense of the chaos:

Fiddle With Fate

I'm crossing my fingers and toes that Daithí O' Droney will reign supreme in 'The All Ireland Talent Show' tonight.

I've made no secret of my love for Daithí's violin-driven ditties in the past and tonight looks set to be the first time in years that I vote in a reality TV show (the last time was for Anna Nolan to win Big Brother, I think). I'd encourage you to check out the stuff on his Myspace and throw a vote his way if you like what you hear.

If Daithí wins tonight, he'll walk away with €50,000, which I'm sure he'll put to good use. I've had a substantial amount of traffic to my site from google searches of variations of "all ireland talent show violin boy" so I guess that bodes well for his chances. Irrespective of the final result, I reckon he's got a bright future ahead of him.

[Image: Myspazz]

Soundtrack To My Week

The Saturdays - Up

Neonbirds - Surfer Echo

Patrick Wolf - Vulture

Marina & The Diamonds - Obsessions (Body Language Remix)

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

M83 - Graveyard Girl

Lily Allen - Back To The Start

The Sound of Arrows - M.A.G.I.C.

[Image: Wikimedia]

Paddy Boom

The first cut off Patrick Wolf's forthcoming album 'Battle' has surfaced. It's called 'Vulture' and, although I thought it was a bit tuneless at first listen, I've since decided that it's fairly amazing.



There seems to have been something of a backlash towards Mr. Wolf recently, perhaps because his last album was markedly more mainstream-angled than its predecessors, but I'm standing by my man. 'The Magic Position' was easily my favourite album of 2007 and, on this evidence, 'Battle' may be a contender for this year's title.

[Image: Andrea Heins]

Chap Schtick

I'm not a fan of Russell Brand at the best of times but Sarah brought this picture of him, paying homage to the wonderful Charlie Chaplin, to my attention and I think it's slightly brilliant.

The photo is one of a series taken for Vanity Fair celebrating some of the biggest names in comedic acting. The rest of the photos can be seen here.

Say Hello To The New Intern

Click here to see where I'll be working from mid-July to September. The Real World is so close I can smell it.

Separated at Birth?

Lily Allen and Natasha 'Bat for Lashes' Khan continue to morph into one another. Well, appearance-wise at least.

The video for Khan's current single, possibly my favourite track of the year, sees her kitted out in threads that are exactly what you might expect to find in an early Lily video.



Apparently her new album 'Two Suns' has leaked. The temptation to 'source' it is overpowering...

[Image: Virgin Media]

Starry Eyed Surprise

Not content with releasing records for the likes of Marina and the Diamonds and Passion Pit, Neon Gold Records continue to provide some choice recommendations on their blog.

Their latest endorsement is London-based producer Starsmith. I've previously gushed about Ellie Goulding and, in particular, my fondness for her more recent electronica-influenced material. The man responsible for her slick-beat accompaniment is none other than Mr. Starsmith (aka 'Fin'). Neon Gold have kindly posted Ellie and Fin's genius update of Sam Sparro's 'Black and Gold' here. They collaborate under the name Goldsmith (Goulding and Starsmith, geddit?)

Starsmith is working on more tracks with Goulding and has posted some tantalising youtube snippets on his myspace. He's also done a cracking track with Mr. Frankmusik, called 'Miss Jeckyll and Hyde', which is certainly worth a spin.

It seems there's a slightly brilliant electropop scene a-brewing over in London.

More, please.

[Image: Myspace]

Birthday Girl

Barbie turns 50 today, making her the same age as Material Girl Madonna.

Happy half century, ladies.

Check out this nice piece by The Guardian chronicling the definining stages in Barbie's evolution.

[Images: Current & Daily Mail]

Stop. Wait A Minute, Mister Postman...

[Via Hanoia Alias Fitzgerald]