Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Wonderful Life: Win Tickets To Hurts

Hotly-tipped Mancunian synthpop duo Hurts touch down at Whelans in Dublin this Thursday for their debut Irish gig. With tickets costing just €14, it's well worth heading along to see if they can deliver on the promise of their unfathomably brilliant debut single 'Wonderful Life'.

But, then again, why pay at all? The lovely people at Heineken Music have kindly given me a couple of free tickets to give away.

Inspired by the band's name, I'd like you to tell me about your most hilarious injury to be in with a chance to win. E-mail your answers to thebubbleboyblog@gmail.com pronto.

In case anyone's wondering, my most hilarious injury was probably when I started jumping with joy upon discovering I'd been hired for a new job, jumped so high that my head connected with a beam, and gave myself a mild concussion.

The job was doing market research in a call centre.

Anyway, less about my idiocy. Here's the video for Hurts' new single, 'Better Than Love':

Live Review: Foals @ The Academy, Dublin

There's always a certain sense of occasion about the Heineken Green Spheres events. Maybe it's that people tend to get a bit carried away when it come to free stuff? Maybe it's the extensive promotion in the run up to the events? Or maybe it's the fact that the roster of artists they've had play are worth getting excited about.

Either way, there was a palpable sense of anticipation when my friend and I touched down at The Academy for the latest installment in the Green Spheres franchise and promptly took advantage of our free beer voucher.

First up to entertain the crowds were Belfast rockers, LaFaro. Not short of enthusiasm, the quartet are a bit too 'heavy' for my liking and, dare I say, a tad derivative. That said, they seemed to appeal to some audience members, who thrashed about almost as violently as their guitarist (who, at one point, lost his balance and fell over completely.)

Next to grace the stage were London four-piece Bombay Bicycle Club with their charming brand of sprightly indie-pop. They can hardly be described as the 'edgiest' of outfits and banter between songs was kept to a minimum, but Bombay Bicycle Club adeptly proved that they've got the chops.

Jack Steadman's lilting vocal is just as impressive in a live setting as it is on record and hefty portions of the crowd sang along gleefully to their signature hits 'Always Like This', 'Evening/Morning' and 'Dust on the Ground'. On most occasions, they'd have upstaged the main act. No pressure, Foals.

I'd seen Foals play at this same venue a little over two years ago and have always regarded it as one of the best gigs I've ever been too. However, I've seen them play twice since but never experienced quite the same headrush, so was beginning to question whether maybe I'd exaggerated how good they'd been on the first occasion.

On top of this concern was the unavoidable issue of how different their latest album, 'Total Life Forever', sounds to its predecessor 'Antidotes'. I'm a fan of both but, honestly, I struggled to see how it was all going to fit together in a live set and presumed they'd just shoehorn some old stuff in at the end.

Not so.

After opening with the title track from the new album and following it with early hit 'Cassius', these concerns were obliterated. As a friend said on the night, seeing Foals play live kind of makes sense of the apparent change of direction they've taken with the new album.

As for the headrush? Oh, it was there alright. Within moments of the band taking to the stage, I found myself swept away in the crowd, bouncing up and down like a 16-year-old fanboy. As they worked their way through a near-flawless set, I was able to assert that there was nothing rose-tinted about my memories of that first encounter with Foals.

Highlights of their set included frontman Yannis indulging in an extended bout of crowd surfing and a rousing performance of the incredible 'Spanish Sahara'. The build in the song lends itself really well to a live setting and the big release towards the end of the song felt positively euphoric.

If I'd one complaint it would probably be that they neglected to include 'Hummer', the song that first introduced me to Foals, in their encore. However, considering how much Foals have matured musically since releasing that track three years ago, it's understandable that they'd want to distance themselves from it. Frankly, I'm more excited about the next phase of their sonic evolution.

[Images: Kieran Frost and Sarah Buckley]

Friday, May 14, 2010

That Time O' The Month

Bat time: 11pm, Saturday 15th of May
Bat channel: The Mezz at Twisted Pepper
Bat price: A fiver if you put your name on this here bat-cheaplist - http://short.ie/kick

Somewhere,
In a mezzanine above Twisted Pepper...

Trouble was a brewing. Captain Trouble, that is, brewing her Come As Soon As You Beer, under the watchful eye of The Alchemist, Shadowcat, and Concussion. Their dastardly plan to turn the whole city of Dublin into aloof, cynical hipsters by way of poisonous elixir was well under way.

Meanwhile,
In a secret lair under Clarendon St...

Helpful Girl, with the aid of her trusty binoculars, had those wretched villains well within her sights. She, alongside Basilisk, Lockjaw and Frostbite (known as The Hyper Friends) would thwart their evil plans once and for all. Now that you have Heard, Come join them in their quest to save our city!

Your mission:

Come to The Basement @ Clarendon House at 8:30pm and bring your own beer to counteract the poison. Here you will be given your Superhero name, and kitted out in appropriate garb, if you have not already done so. Then we will ambush The Twisted Pepper at 11pm sharp, and engage in a battle to end all battles.

When you hear the klaxon, that's your chance to grab the nearest sticker labelled "POW", "ZWANG", "KNARG" "ETC", and whack it on your enemies. So villains, heed our call! You can Run As Soon As You Hear but you can't Hide As Soon As You Hear. All my single superheroes, put your hands up, and Kick Some Ass As Soon As You Hear.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Don't F@#k With Me...

Music bible 'Guardian New Band of the Day' has always served me well but, earlier this week, introduced me to an especially promising musical prospect in the form of 21-year-old Londoner Jai Paul.

His genre-melding production style and idiosyncratic vocal style works a treat on tracks like 'BTSTU' and the demos on his Myspace are loaded with ideas, earning him comparisons to musical innovators like M.I.A. and Hudson Mohawke.

Jai Paul is supposedly at the centre of an A&R battle at the moment, so here's hoping we hear some fully-formed material from him in the not-too-distant future.

Jai Paul - BTSTU (free download here)



Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum (Jai Paul Remix)

Fair and Fowl

I've probably posted about Penguin Prison far too much given the sparse amount of material in the public domain but, honestly, I'm obsessed.

His latest release 'Something I'm Not'/'The Worse It Gets' has inspired all manner of wonderful remixes, some of which I've already posted. And they keep on coming.

This funk-flavoured mix of 'The Worse It Gets' by Shook is the latest to land in my inbox and aggravate my infatuation.

Penguin Prison - The Worse It Gets (Shook Remix) (free download)



Here's a couple more mixes I've been hooked on:

Penguin Prison - Worse It Gets (RAC Remix)



Penguin Prison - Something I'm Not (Friends Electric Remix):

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

So I Stayed In The Darkness With You

I was fortunate enough to nab myself a last-minute ticket to Florence and the Machine's gig at Dublin's Olympia Theatre last week.

I've gushed over her live set more than once before so a full account probably isn't necessary. It suffices to say that she remains the most pitch-perfect live singer I've ever seen and, although there seems like so little scope for improvement, she's getting better all the time.

At the gig, she told us it'll be the last time she tours 'Lungs'. She's certainly got great mileage out of the album and it seems like she's constantly had a single to flog for the past eighteen months or so.

That said, I'm perfectly happy to accept one final release from the record, given that it's my favourite track: 'Cosmic Love'.



The video is, in my opinion, her best to date. The song is one I'll never tire of. But, Flo, once this becomes a monster hit, get ye to the studio and cook us up some new tunes.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Rude Remixed

I've never had particularly strong feelings about Rihanna and, frankly, thought the most interesting things about her were her domestic difficulties and bizarre pronunciation of the word 'paper'.

However, I will gladly concede that her recent single 'Rude Boy' is one of the best pop singles of the past twelve months and has, deservedly, been inescapable the past few months.

The song is notable also for the fact that it seems to lend itself extremely well to souped up, dancefloor-destroying reswizzes. These mixes by Rude Crew and Debauched, that landed in my inbox a few days ago, are prime examples of this:

Rihanna - Rude Boy (Rude Crew Remix) by thebubbleboy

Rihanna - Rude Boy (Debauched's Fashionably Late Remix) by thebubbleboy

Also worth a spin are the Cosmic Dawn and DVW remixes:

Rihanna - Rude Boy (Cosmic Dawn Remix)



Rihanna - Rude Boy (DVW Remix)

Stuck On Repeat - Bop 'Til You Drop

La Roux - Bulletproof (Hyper Crush Remix)



Designer Drugs - Drop Down



Kelis - Acapella (Benny Benassi Remix)



Rihanna vs Crystal Castles - Rude Baptism (The Hood Internet Mash-up) (free download)



Deadmau5 - Some Chords



Peaches - Mommy Complex (Barletta & Ernold Sane Remix)



True Pseudo - Freaking Me Out

Just Like A Pill

An artist I've watched with keen interest since first being introduced to him by Illegal Tender in early 2009 is electro whizz-kid The Aspirins For My Children.

Eimear and I played some of his earlier tracks like 'Hollow Out' and 'Cutter' to death but then, after a clutch of great remixes for the likes of Frankmusik and Marina & The Diamonds, it all got very quiet and seemed as though The Aspirins had been, um, swallowed.

Thankfully, in the past couple of months, TAFMC (aka 23-year-old Daniel Barker) has returned with a clutch of new material, including collaborations with the rather brilliant Talking Pictures.

Here's a couple of my picks of his stuff but I'd seriously encourage delving into his Tumblr and SoundCloud account.

TAFMC featuring Talking Pictures - Someone Else by theaspirinsformychildren

TAFMC - Confusion Girl (FrankMusik Remix) by theaspirinsformychildren

The Good Natured - Your Body Is A Machine (The Aspirins For My Children Remix)

Plush Plumage

I really love the boldness and movement captured in these photos of a McCaw parrot by noted fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo.




Last year, fashion, film and communication group Surface to Air collaborated with Sundsbo, turning some of his photographs into fashion prints. Guess who made the cut?


[via DRN]

Pony Kids

Gallic trio Pony Pony Run Run's 'Hey You' has been something of a fixture in my playlists ever since I stumbled upon it a few months ago. A sunny slice of synthpop, it's tailor-made to get toes tapping and heads bopping along.

If new single 'Walking On A Line' is anything to go by, it seems that little gem of a track was no fluke. Although slightly more subdued that its predecessor, the track features some seriously slick production backdropping singer Gaetan's endearingly awkward pronunciation:



There's a pretty slinky remix by Lifelike to boot. Probably not quite as mindblowing as Crystal Fighters' re-working of 'Hey You' but good effort all the same.

Pony Pony Run Run - Walking On The Line (Lifelike Remix)



Pony Pony Run Run - Hey You (Crystal Fighters Remix)