onfire presents Mark Eitzel @ Tobergal Lane café, Sligo

onfire is thrilled to announce that Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) will be rounding off his upcoming mini-Irish tour with his first performance in Sligo at Tobergal Lane café (upstairs) on Friday, November 13th. Eitzel first came to attention during the 1980's and early 1990's gradually establishing a phenomenal reputation as a singer/songwriter and performer with the release of four successive masterpieces - (Engine, California, Everclear, Mercury) - with his band American Music Club. Removing myself from the fence for a moment, 'California' was the record of the 1980's. Each album seemed to surpass the previous in terms of critical acclaim (Eitzel won Rolling Stone's Songwriter of the Year award for 'Everclear'), yet ultimately, AMC were never quite able to translate this into commercial success.
The band split in 1995 and Eitzel immediately went on to release the wonderful '60 Watt Silver Lining'. Again, despite near unanimous critical acclaim, the world chose not to listen and '60 Watt' remains an album of criminally ignored yet beautifully crafted songs, including a sublime cover of Carole King's 'No Easy Way Down'.
Several solo albums followed and there was also 1997's collaboration with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, entitled 'West'. With little or no fanfare, AMC decided to give it another go in 2004, releasing 'Love Songs For Patriots' and last year saw the release of the wonderful 'The Golden Age'. This October sees the release of his 6th solo album entitled 'Klamath' which Eitzel is releasing independently in the U.S. (Decor Records will be releasing the album in Europe).
Eitzel's live shows are wonderfully cathartic affairs - as a front man Eitzel seems to crave and yet shrink from the spotlight but when he loses himself in song and that voice sings;
"Some of them smile and it's phoney,
Some of smile and it's not,
Some of them never tell you just how much love they've got....."
Come see.
Tickets will be available from this Friday (October 2nd) from Tobergal Lane café and Third Wave Records, O'Connell Street priced €15 (€18 on the night).
Doors open at 9pm.

Take Courage - Mark Eitzel

Home - Mark Eitzel
Recent live review

Katie Kim @ Wolf on Arm, Sligo, Saturday 3rd October

Continuing the Model's excellent 'New Spaces For Music' series, Katie Kim features this Saturday night with support from Valerie Francis. Tickets cost €10 at the door or €8 in advance. There'll also be live visuals by Donal Dineen. It all begins at 8.30pm.

'Klamath' out now (sort of!!)

Mark Eitzel's shiny new solo record 'Klamath' will be released in the coming days. It'll be available on www.markeitzel.info (no link as the site's not quite operational yet) and also from Decor records. (Neither site is carrying the album just yet - I've checked.) The album will cost a mere $10 (plus postage) and will be available for purchase at all dates of Eitzel's upcoming European tour. There'll also be an acoustic record available for sale at the gigs containing some new tracks and an (as yet) unnamed cover.
American Music Club's most recent record 'The Golden Age' was a beautiful record and Eitzel rarely disappoints. Buy, buy, buy.

The Pixies this week

There is a mindset out there which laments the fact that great bands reunite, that somehow their legacy or greatness will be diminished by some lucrative gigs years after the band truly meant something. There are different cases to be made for this. The Sex Pistols, for one, was a clear example of a band in it for the money and John Lydon never disguised this fact. The Velvet Underground reunion in the 1990's was another case of milking it given the fractious nature of the live shows. Bands that choose to disregard the notion that you should never go back rarely make much of a creative splash - the creative spark has been lost and the lust for lucre supercedes everything else.
Few bands sculpted the American underground scene like The Pixies. They've become such a byword for cool and their name has been so readily disseminated as an influence that it's almost surprising to remember that they just released four albums before implosion. Quite what to expect next week then when they play 3 sold out shows from Wednesday to Friday is open to conjecture. Sure it's a 'Doolittle' show, but will they treat the songs as though they were merely a cover band going through the motions, or is that spark still alive?

Fucked Up win the Polaris Prize

Eschewing the opportunity to choose a 'safe' option, Canada's Polaris judges have opted for the, er, well rounded sound of Fucked Up as this year's winners. Fucked Up triumphed at the expense of the likes of Elliott Brood (would personally have given them the nod), Chad Van Gaalaen and Patrick Watson.

The XX Irish dates

Much hyped and over here in December. The XX will play a mini Irish tour during the pre-Xmas rush. The band play Belfast, Galway, Cork and Dublin from December 15th - 19th. Worth seeing just prior to making a pass at your boss.

Yo La Tengo - Take Away Show

Hoboken via France.....

Yo La tengo - A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Yo La Tengo - A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

'Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses' - Thom Yorke

It's been a particularly fruitful period for fans of Radiohead. This latest release (12") features two new tracks (the title track has been around in some form or another since 2001). If you liked 'The Eraser' then you'll like this.

'All For The Best' - Thom Yorke

I'm guessing Thom Yorke had little or nothing to do with this.

21st century Pavement?

At times it seems as if Pitchfork's raison d'etre is to disseminate various 'Pavement to reform rumours' but it seems that this time, the rumour may well have legs. One of the most consistently lauded bands of the 1990's split in 1999 having released some wonderful records including two of the greatest opening two albums, possibly ever (!) in 'Slanted & Enchanted' and 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain' (yet 'Wowee Zowee' remains a personal favourite).
In this case it's hard to imagine a reunion not working out (which is not to suggest that it will happen) - unlike, say, Echo and the Bunnymen - and if it means that Stephen Malkmus will stop releasing records with the Jicks, then it's all good. Pitchfork reports that they'll play a reunion show in September 2010, so nothing to get overly excited about yet. But that won't stop Pitchfork.
Edit: The band have now announced 3 dates (a fourth is likely) in Central Park, NY. The first, on Sept 21 has already sold out but there are two others on Sept 22nd/23rd. A 'world tour' has been tentatively mooted. I'm guessing Pitchfork were the moot-ers.

The Antlers - Laundro Matinee Session

Three tracks taken from a recent session by The Antlers promoting their recently re-released 'Hospice' album.

The Antlers - Atrophy from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

The BQE - Sufjan Stevens

So Sufjan's new film/cinema suite is coming out on October 20th. Much has been written about the project over on his site, so much so that the album is referred to as "an idiosyncratic musical soundtrack (composed by Stevens for band and chamber orchestra), evoking a romanticized musical choreography of perpetual motion vs. gridlock. Borrowing variously from Gershwin, Terry Riley, Charles Ives, and Autechre (to name a few), the music showcases skittish woodwinds wrestling out impressionist articulation (in 7/8) and imperial brass anthems evoking various incarnations of the music of the automobile."
In short, for those of you who felt the instrumental interludes on Illinoise were wanky, avoid.

THE BQE- A Film By Sufjan Stevens from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

'Seven Swans' - Sufjan @ ATP

What the world truly needs is a new Sufjan album and given the fact that he owes us another 48 (Illinois and Michigan apart), you'd imagine he'd have been somewhat more prolific. Well, the fortunate few to be attending ATP this weekend in New York will have the opportunity to hear the wonderful 'Seven Swans' in its entirety.
Closer to home, Spiritualized will perform a similar trick in recreating (the in no way better than 'Ok Computer') 'Ladies and Gentlemen' from 1997 in another ATP show at the Royal Festival Hall. This gig is sold out but they're playing the album in its entirety again on December 16th and 17th at the Barbican, London.

'Klamath' - Mark Eitzel confirms release date

Mark Eitzel's new record 'Klamath' will be released on October 1st via his own website. The album will come specially packaged and signed by the man himself. There will to be 500 copies available initially. And it's out just in time for Christmas. Buy, buy, buy.
He begins a European tour in October and his website confirms that "There are some Irish dates that will be added," two of which will be in Cork and Dublin.
There'll also be a new American Music Club record sometime in 2010.

Speech Debelle wins Mercury Prize 2009

No-one gives a fuck right? And Kasbian didn't win it. Hurrah for Speech. Here's a rather wonderful 'breaking news' piece from a lad destined to work with MTV.

Okkervil River @ Róisín Dubh, Galway

Fresh from their appearance at Electric Picnic some 24 hours previously, Okkervil River arrive in Galway for the first time on their only other Irish date this year. Tonight's gig is a perfect distillation of the band's oeuvre bookended by 'Plus Ones' and a typically raucous 'Westfall'. Sheff, unshaven and evidently Electric Picnified, somehow manages to channel his manic energy into each note sang and chord played. Nowhere is this more evident than on the show's highpoint, a stunning rendition of 'A Girl In Port'. Ballad of sorts it may well be, tonight the band bastardise its slight form (on record) into a compelling wig-out. Sheff's (almost) solo version of 'A Stone' brings to bear an intensity which inspires utter silence amongst the devotees.
But the night is not without difficulty. Sheff's voice wavers on occasion and during 'For Real' and 'Lost Coastlines' in particular, it seems as if proceedings may have to come to a premature end. Sheff asks for someone to buy him a restorative whiskey - cue stampede of indie kids racing to the stage proffering a Jameson to their hero. Regardless, it empowers Sheff to race through 'Our Life' and sees him finish a celebratory 'Unless It's Kicks' on his knees.
Tonight there is no 'Blue Tulip' or 'Another Radio Song' but the set still manages to read like a greatest hits compendium. The band borrow almost exclusively from 'The Stage Names' and 'The Stand Ins' but 'The Latest Toughs' from 'Black Sheep Boy' sparkles early on and 'Westfall' bristles as the show comes to an end.
There is the slightly bizarre sight of the band eschewing the traditional encore routine, by turning their backs on the audience for some 60 seconds then 'returning' to play the aforementioned 'Westfall'. Ultimately then, a triumph.

Plus Ones
Singer Songwriter
A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene
The Latest Toughs
A Girl in Port
Pop Lie
A Stone
John Allyn Smith Sails
For Real
Lost Coastlines
Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
Unless It's Kicks

Westfall

Okkervil River

Hot on the heels of their performance at EP '09, Okkervil River play their only other Irish gig tonight @ Róisín Dubh, Galway. Promises to be a cracking gig. Saw them play in the limited confines of The Academy last year, and in spite of the venue - poor sight lines, a non-existent stage and average sound - they played a enthralling set. Review to follow.

'6 a.m. Jullander Shere' - Cornershop

Pre-'Brimful of Asha' Cornershop were a very different beast. Curry-coloured vinyl, burning images of Morrissey at EMI offices and a worrying inability to play their instruments suggested that their shelf-life wouldn't be much greater than Menswear or Huggy Bear. And yet......both early singles contained at least one track which suggested there was a tunefulness amidst the artlessness. The band disappeared for a period (clearly to learn how to play) and re-emerged in 1995 with '6AM Jullander Shere', their finest moment. This is fucking great.

7:20am Jullander Shere - Cornershop

'Seven' (Remix) - Fever Ray

To be released on October 5th. There's also a new 7" for sale on the Fever Ray site featuring covers of Nick Cave and Vashti Bunyan.
'Seven' (Remix) (via Stereogum)

Triangle Walks from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

'Popular Songs' streaming on NPR and 'When It's Dark' video

Yo La Tengo's 12th studio album is set for release a week from today but you can hear it in its entirety - if you're not doing so already - over at NPR. Review of the record to follow anon.
Also, another in the series of promo vids has just been released. Entitled 'When It's Dark', it's one of the album's lovelier creations.