"Songs about hospitals, or people in hospitals, or people visiting other people in hospitals carry with them an agonizing sort of heaviness. These kinds of songs are usually a result of some life-changing altercation with body failure or an untimely, unavoidable freak accident - landing someone in the last place that they'd ever want to be, laid up and forced to be cared for, rehabilitated, while those around them are fretting and treating them as if every extra moment is precious and maybe even needs the silent treatment so the damaged soul doesn't get spooked away"......thus begins the Daytrotter post for a new session by The Antlers. Three of the finest tracks from 'Hospice' available for download right here.
The Antlers - Daytrotter session Shiva Cold War Kettering Two
Now this sounds just fucking great. As has been mentioned on here many times before, one of 2009's finest albums - national or international - is Adrian Crowley's Season of the Sparks. Crowley, having recently signed to the Chemikal Underground label, is having the album reissued at the end of November. Coinciding with this is the inaugural Homelights festival which will take place in Whelan's, Dublin on the weekend of November 27th - 30th. Crowley himself will kick things off on the Friday possibly joined by the likes of James Yorkston et al. Yorkston will play on Saturday 28th but, most exciting of all is the fact that the rarely seen Vashti Bunyan will play the same venue on Sunday 29th. A limited number of weekend tickets priced at €45 are available here.
Friday, November 27th (Upstairs @ Whelan’s, 8pm, tickets €12) Adrian Crowley & Friends (solo performances & collaborations)
Saturday, November 28th (Whelan’s, 3pm – 10.30pm, tickets €20) Adrian Crowley (full band performance) James Yorkston Adem Alastair Roberts & special guests tbc
Sunday, November 29th (Whelan’s 3pm – 1.30pm, tickets €25) Vashti Bunyan (full band performance) Adrian Crowley (accompanied by Geese) Andy Irvine Minotaur Shock Lord Cut-Glass & full line-up tbc
Monday, November 30th (Whelan’s 8pm – 11pm, tickets €15) Dosh Hulk & special guests tbc
Yo La Tengo play Tripod next Thurs, 5th November. No support act which probably means they'll extend what is generally - in comparison to most bands - an extended set. Meanwhile, courtesy of Pitchfork.tv, here they are performing the opening track from their most recent album 'Popular Songs'.
This one has stayed under the radar somewhat. Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's Euros Childs have been collaborating of late and will play a 4 date Irish tour at the end of October. Playing under the moniker 'A Mislaid Album' the pair will be accompanied by flautist Nuala Kennedy and fiddler Caoimhín O'Raghallaigh. An album entitled 'Jonny' is expected early in 2010. 27th Oct - The Black Box / Belfast 28th - The Pavilion / Cork 30th - Ballaroy Arts Centre / Ballybofey 31st - Whelans / Dublin 1st Nov - The Spririt Store / Dundalk
Having already announced a spate of dates in New York and in the southern hemisphere, the recently united Pavement announced a not-entirely-unexpected date at Brixton Academy in May 2010. As is the norm, this became two dates and now a third has been announced. The band will play Brixton on May 11th-13th. The show on May 11th is already a sell out but there are still tickets available for the 12th here and the as-yet-unannounced third date on the 13th here. It's unlikely that they'll announce dates in Ireland unless they choose to play one of the summer festivals so this may the only opportunity to see them live.
Some bands just consume me with nostalgia. Creators of one of the finest Irish pop albums ever (1990's Chemicrazy) That Petrol Emotion announced their comeback last year in a series of stunning gigs and a well received performance at EP '08. The good news is that there are more live dates and the hope that there will be some new material to follow in 2010. DEC 6 DUBLIN -ACADEMY DEC 7 BELFAST – LIMELIGHT DEC 8 DERRY – NERVE CENTRE No ticket details available just yet. With The Antlers playing The Academy on December 4th, it's shaping up to be a bright start to the festive season. Ahhhh, 'Cellophane'.......
It's been a good day. Just back from seeing Beautiful Unit play a quite bizarre yet somehow fucking wonderful gig at Wolf on Arm on Wolfe Tone Street, purchased a ticket to see The Antlers bring their oncological masterpiece to The Academy 2 and have now just been listening to some new weirdness from Piano Magic. The new album is called 'Ovations' and was released during the past week. Think Dead Can Dance married to Cocteau Twins and you're nearly there....... 'Exit' - Piano Magic by onfire
Now that Pavement have finally confirmed they're reforming (more dates added in New Zealand and Australia today), there's still enough time for Spiral Stairs to squeeze out one more solo album. 'The Real Feel' will be released on October 20th on Matador Records and is being streamed in full over on ThinkIndie. Stream: 'The Real Feel'
Bleak times these may be so how appropriate that the band responsible for the bleakest album of 2009 visit these shores on December 4th as The Antlers play Dublin's Academy 2. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. Absolutely worth checking out. The band also recently released a cover of My Bloody Valentine's 'When You Sleep'. mp3: 'When You Sleep' Here's the finest track from their album 'Hospice'. 'Kettering' - The Antlers by onfire
As a rule, I dislike attending a gig by a band with a record ready to be released. I recall seeing Flaming Lips play Vicar Street some years back, just prior to the release of 'Yoshimi'. That night Wayne Coyne reminisced about his excitement at seeing Husker Du and his ultimate disappointment at the show's conclusion as the band chose to concentrate on the then unreleased 'New Day Rising'. I shared his trepidation last night entering the Olympia. That Massive Attack choose to play a set laden with tracks from their forthcoming fifth studio album attests to either their sheer bloody mindedness or absolute confidence in the material. It is most definitely the latter. From the outset the band utterly blitzkrieg any lingering disquiet there may be in the crowd about the band unveiling their new material. Troubled times these may be for one and all, yet it seems to have breathed new life into Massive Attack, as if they've rewritten their own manifesto. Last night, with scarcely a misstep, the band were relentlessly astonishing. Their entire set is an assault on the senses, indeed to these ears the new album shares, at the very least, a spirit with Primal Scream's 'XTRMNTR'. There's a hypnotic lightshow with screens which dispense a barrage of dystopian news feeds. On one new track, the LED display flickers with text which read like a distillation of the carnage in Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine'. It's powerful stuff but at no stage is the music lost amidst the message. Though 3D and Daddy G remain the focal points of the band, Massive Attack is very much a collective. The ubiquitous Horace Andy shuffles on and off stage, crooning wonderfully on 'Angel' whilst Martina Topley-Bird adds some light to the seemingly insistent menace. There's also a star turn from singer Deborah Miller who utterly lays claim to 'Unfinished Sympathy'. 'Shara who?' indeed. That the new material shines brighter than perennial favourites such as 'Risingson', 'Inertia Creeps' and 'Safe From Harm' (all of which are rendered immaculately tonight), says much for their forthcoming album. A night to celebrate. Faith utterly restored.
The ever excellent Matablog today reports that Pavement will now curate the All Tomorrow's Party festival, May 14th-16th 2010 at the Butlin's Holiday Centre, Minehead. Tickets go on sale for this tomorrow morning (October 8th) at 9am and can be purchased here. Sure to sell out fast. Tickets cost between £160-£170. Bound to be a great line up.
Fans of AMC will most probably already be aware of this but a recent search on youtube resulted in a truly serendipitous find. Past member of the band (some might suggest pivotal) Tom Mallon now has his own channel which features a veritable cornucopia of wonderful live performances dating back to the release of 'California'. 'Now You're Defeated' circa 1989? Priceless.
Creators of one of 2009's finest albums - the impossibly bleak 'Hospice' - The Antlers have released details about a track which can't be found on any oftheir albums. Listen to 'Cold War' here. Similar to Bon Iver in 2008, The Antlers have created a sound which is uniquely theirs.
For the latest instalment in 'Actors Who Think They're Musicians', head over to the Dead Man's Bones myspace page where their new album is streaming. I think these guys may have cracked it. 'Pa Pa Power' is a wonderful tune. It's all backed by a children's choir which has the effect of lending the music a sense of menace, unlike, say, Sigur Ros's 'Ara Batur' which overdid the Aled Jones accompaniment. The album is officially released on October 6th.
And about friggin' time. Looks like 2010 will see the release of a new studio album from Sufjan Stevens. He's been playing a few dates on a mini-tour of the US and has played several new tunes - many of them seem to follow the template mapped out on his contribution to the 'Dark Was The Night' compilation. The last video - 'Majesty Snowbird' - has been knocking around since the last European tour. Better still, you can download the show in full here and judging by the duration of some of the new tunes, Sufjan's new album promises to be of Biblical proportions.
And so Boston's second finest band's much heralded return finally happens. Having secured a coveted ticket in ticketmaster's fucking lottery system, I arrived early to imbibe the atmosphere of the old place in advance of one of the most eagerly awaited gigs at the tail end of this decade. There is a fear (within me at least) that this expectation will prove too much, that this will be the gig where the band came, saw and lifelessly ran through 'Doolittle'. Upon arrival the first thing you notice is the iconic 'P' upon David Lovering's drum kit and with no support act (who'd want to open for The Pixies tonight eh?) we're left with an irritating compilation of hastily cobbled together 80's underground hits which loops endlessly. Wonderful it may have been to hear 'Just Like Heaven' but by the third fucking play the novelty had worn off. There's much speculation beforehand about what the set list will be made up of other than 'Doolittle' and more hope than expectation that the band will dip into their pre- and post-'Doolittle' period. And then just after 9pm, the lights go down, the compilation finally eats itself and the mythical is about to become reality. The sense of expectation is genuinely palpable and then, with little or no fanfare, the band emerge from the shadows to take up their positions. Now, call this churlish if you will but we're all here to listen to 'Doolittle' with the hope of some surprises thrown in for good measure but it is fucking imperative that the band begin with 'Debaser'. But they don't. And it's possibly the only anti-climax of the night but it's one that lingers as, perversely, the band hold off until Song 5, when the spotlight focuses solely on Kim Deal for that intro and, holy shit, it's 1989 again. It takes me some 3-4 songs for it to sink in that I'm listening to The Pixies race through note perfect renditions of 'Debaser', 'Tame', 'Wave of Mutilation' and 'I Bleed'. Ah, but once 'Here Comes Your Man' strikes up and 1,300 indie kid wet dreams come true, it's the prelude to a set of unrelenting tightness and unfettered nostalgia. The band, quite literally, race through 'Doolittle' in its entirety from 'Debaser' to 'Gouge Away' and they don't miss a beat all night - 'Monkey Gone To Heaven' is as epic as you want it to be and that riff on 'No. 13 Baby' remains note perfect. Given the fact that folk know exactly what's coming next, unlike most gigs, they can choose their moment to head for the toilet or another pint. Unfortunately for Kim, this occurs during 'Silver', when everyone heads away to return in time for 'Gouge Away'. That Kim Deal is the star of the night is unquestionable however, standing stage right and exuding an insouciant cool throughout. Tellingly she is the only Pixie to communicate with the crowd for the duration of the show. And then, just under an hour after they began, the band exit stage right. Touchingly, the four members move to the front of the stage to wave to all corners of the audience, seemingly reluctant to leave. They return and run through the surf version of 'Wave of Mutilation' and close out the show with 'Into The White'. No frills, no 'Caribou', no need. A magnificent night.
"Songs about hospitals, or people in hospitals, or people visiting other people in hospitals carry with them an agonizing sort of heaviness. These kinds of songs are usually a result of some life-changing altercation with body failure or an untimely, unavoidable freak accident - landing someone in the last place that they'd ever want to be, laid up and forced to be cared for, rehabilitated, while those around them are fretting and treating them as if every extra moment is precious and maybe even needs the silent treatment so the damaged soul doesn't get spooked away"......thus begins the Daytrotter post for a new session by The Antlers. Three of the finest tracks from 'Hospice' available for download right here.
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