onfire has left the building.....

...temporarily. It's a big world out there and onfire is tying on the hiking boots and off to explore some of it. Well, as much of it as one can in 13 or so months of travelling. The sole purpose of this post then is to say thanks to those who've read anything on here in the last 12 months and even to those who came on here hoping to find links to Mediafire or Rapidshare downloads of the latest Half Man Half Biscuit album. It's unlikely then that anything will be posted here until August 2011 unless, say, Galaxie 500 announce that they're reforming. I've set up the obligatory travel blog thingie so if you're procrastinating at work and you've just added your 597th friend to your Facebook profile, then come see. Thanks for listening.

Holy Fuck

Ah, bands who use profanities in their band names. Always been wary of them. Skewed logic along the lines of 'Well if they need to be that deliberately provocative, then the music's probably lacking something.' Which is bullshit of course. Fuck Buttons for one, and now Holy Fuck are deserving of side-stepping the puerile names. There is definite substance here. I've only recently given Holy Fuck a listen and new album Latin is a gem. Think of them as an organic Battles. I can think of no higher praise.

Tindersticks to play Kilkenny Arts Festival

Tindersticks have finally announced details of an Irish date on their sporadic European jaunt promoting the quite beautiful Falling Down A Mountain. Seemingly destined to remain on an Alexander the Great-esque tour of outer Europe, the band will play their first gig here on Irish soil - "the last mean spit out of the gob of Europe" - since a sold out show at Vicar Street some two years ago. Tickets ain't cheap at €37/35 but this is a band who seldom touch down here and are invariably worth every cent. They're also playing in St. Canice's cathedral, a venue which should be ideally suited to the band's orchestral sound. More details about the Kilkenny Arts Festival here and tickets for Tindersticks here. Show starts at 8pm.
And if you're going that far you could also check out - and I'm not sure if he's tired of this yet, but - the Choice Music Prize winning Adrian Crowley as he'll also play with Valerie Francis on the same day in the Set Theatre at 3pm. Tickets for that are available here.

Adelia, I Want To Love - Mogwai

Video: 'Lights' - Interpol

GSY!BE to play Tripod

Having already confirmed that they'll curate this year's ATP 'Nightmare Before Christmas' (following on from My Bloody Valentine), Godspeed You! Black Emperor have announced their first show live in Tripod, Dublin in quite some time. They'll play Tripod on Friday, December 10th and tickets are priced at €24. By then there'll undoubtedly be a product to promote but no news as yet. Invariably I'd link to the band's website for upcoming details of future releases but that kind of thing seems beneath GSY!BE.
Tickets onsale here from June 24th at 9am.

The Suburbs - all 16 tracks of it!

So, The Suburbs is 16 tracks long. 16 fucking tracks! In the same way that the sight of Neil Hannon naked in a bath tub save for a bowler hat and bow tie made me queasy prior to the release of his new record (justifiably as it turns out), the notion that Arcade Fire have, during their hiatus, recorded 16 tracks that could hold your attention from beginning to end simply does not compute. I struggle to think of one rock band who have stretched things out to this length with even the remotest success. Shit, Neon Bible sagged more than a little with a comparatively penurious eleven tracks. Regardless, here's that tracklisting.....
01 The Suburbs
02 Ready to Start
03 Modern Man
04 Rococo
05 Empty Room
06 City With No Children
07 Half Light I
08 Half Light II (No Celebration)
09 Suburban War
10 Month of May
11 Wasted Hours
12 Deep Blue
13 We Used to Wait
14 Sprawl I (Flatland)
15 Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
16 The Suburbs (continued)
"Hope that something pure can last" indeed.
You'll already be familiar with two of the new tracks - Suburbs/Month Of May and now here's two more - Ready To Start has been mooted as the first single from the album.

R.I.P. Frank Sidebottom

Frank has, at some stage in the past, freaked me in the same way people get freaked about things you shouldn't, clowns for example. I could never quite figure out his appeal - I'm not English or, more specifically Northern enough. Frank was Max Headroom with a soul. But now he's gone. Hit The North-uh.

'Rancho Tetrahedron' - Cathal Coughlan

4 years on from his wonderfully demented song cycle Foburg, confirmed details of Cathal Coughlan's fifth solo album. His Facebook page has seen more updates these past 24 hours than a hormonal teenager.......

"Cathal Coughlan's fifth album, recorded with the Grand Necropolitan Quartet, is Rancho Tetrahedron, and will be released on Kitchenware Records on August 9, 2010. The album was recorded in various locations in London, California and Ireland, and contains 12 new songs. It was recorded by various people, including Oliver Knights of Turin Brakes (who also sang), Andy Ramsay of Stereolab and Coughlan himself.

Mixing, fittingly, ended in a breezeblock construction, adjoining the freight airport in San Diego, Xmas ‘09. It was freezing cold and, periodically, booming sound-systems would circle the empty parking lot outside. A giant East German flag decorated the wall."

There are also two live dates for now.
September 7th - Bush Hall, London
September 11th - Whelan's, Dublin
Tickets for the Whelan's gig, priced €20, here. Support from the frankly pointless Thread Pulls.

'Angel Echoes' (Jon Hopkins mix) - Four Tet

Another mix of one of the standout tracks from There Is Love In You. Worth a listen - the last music I heard from Jon Hopkin's was a sublime cover hidden away at the end of a bonus disc from James Yorkston's covers CD with the deluxe edition of When The Haar Rolls In.
Angel Echoes (Jon Hopkins remix) by Four Tet
mp3: Heron - Jon Hopkins

New Belle and Sebastian album imminent

The album - titleless at the moment - has been recorded in the US and now the band are seeking volunteers (preferably couples) to feature on the cover. Applications - in a typically B & S 'Readers Wives'-esque style - can be forwarded to coverart@banchory.net

Video: Gil Scott Heron/Hunter-Gatherer

New videos from two uniquely great albums.

'Angel Echoes' (Caribou remix) - Four Tet

Two creators of 2010's best records dry hump each other.........
Angel Echoes (Caribou remix) by Four Tet

33rd Galway Arts Festival

This year from July 10th to 25th. A list of the highlights then........

Adrian Crowley

....and that's your lot.

New James Blackshaw album

So eight albums in and he's decided to go electric on us. James Blackshaw has unassumingly carved a niche for himself to date as a 12-string acoustic guitar virtuoso and on his forthcoming album entitled All Is Falling, he's going all Dylan-went-to-Newport on us and has created a 45 minute song cycle featuring his first use of an electric 12-string. 2009's Glass Bead Game was overlooked in many quarters but was a compelling record deserving of wider recognition. Such is life. All Is Falling is out in late August.
mp3: Cross - James Blackshaw

Interpol to play the Olympia in November

Given their last gig - and I'm open to correction on this - was at the cavernous RDS Main Hall when the sound of the band ate itself whole, this should be an altogether more visceral show. Tickets go on sale next Wednesday (June 2nd) at 9am (these will sell quickly) and are priced €44.20. The band release their as yet untitled fourth album this summer and if the free download track Lights is anything to go by, it's more of a return to the gloom rock sounds of Turn On The Bright Lights than the pretty bland Our Love To Admire.

Joanna Newsom for Grand Canal Theatre

Going to miss this but Joanna Newsom will bring her fucking great Have One On Me record to Dublin on September 14th. Cracking interview with her here in which she, gasp, comes across as just a regular human being after all. Oh and she hates Lady Gaga and Madonna which is always nice. But none of this matters, right? No ticket details for the gig just yet.
EDIT: Tickets on sale tomorrow (28/5) priced €33.60 (which probably works out at a €20 ticket and €13.60 to Tickemaster).

The Suburbs/Month of May in full!

"Where the hell have you been, We've been waiting with our best suits on...." The wait is over then, the new single was played tonight on BBC radio. Hugely contrasting sounds they are too - Suburbs/Month of May will be physically released - none of this cyber-streaming bullshit - on June 1st. Initial reaction is that it's all rather promising - Month of May, in particular sees the band punk out impressively.
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs by meanwhileinaustin
Arcade Fire - Month of May by meanwhileinaustin

'Baby You're Blind' - God Help the Girl

So whilst we wait for Stuart Murdoch and co. to get their shit together and release the follow up to 2006's wonderful The Life Pursuit, we'll have to make do with a further exploration of his more whimsical side by way of God Help the Girl. The new single was not available on last year's eponymous (and frequently cloying) album and is backed by a new version of Down and Dusky Blonde. Shouldn't be long before something stirs in the Belle and Sebastian camp as they've pencilled in some festival dates for the summer.

Best records of 2010 (thus far)

10 records you probably should have purchased thus far this year.......
1. Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom
A record I have played more than any other this year.

2. Queen of Denmark - John Grant
Sure, at times it evokes images of Dennis Wilson, open denim shirts, big hair and summer in 1970's California but....is any of that really such a bad thing?

3. There Is Love In You - Four Tet
My favourite Four Tet record to date.

4. Falling Down A Mountain - Tindersticks
Looser, happier....more productive. And probably the best record David Kitt will ever feature on.

5. Swim - Caribou
Because Odessa is a fantastic tune.

6. High Violet - The National
Perhaps not the record to catapult them to the heights many have expected them to reach, but a frequently engrossing record nonetheless.

7. Shadows - Teenage Fanclub
Scotland gets Teenage Fanclub and Ireland gets The Frank and Walters. Bastards. And because it's the summer.

8. Together - The New Pornographers
America gets The New Pornographers. Scotland gets Teenage Fanclub. Ireland gets The Frank and Walters.

9. Forgiveness Rock Record - Broken Social Scene
On World Sick the band finally sound like the band I've been reading about for almost a decade. On Me and My Hand, they sound like the band I've been ignoring for the best part of a decade.

10. Heligoland - Massive Attack
Their best record since, ooooh............Mezzanine.

Video: 'I Wanna Go To Marz' - John Grant

First single lifted from the frequently lovely Queen of Denmark featuring Midlake as his very own house band.

'The Suburbs/Month of May' - Arcade Fire

Video: 'Live at XX Merge' - Lambchop

As part of Merge Record's 20 anniversary celebrations last summer, Lambchop laying waste to some folk in a room. Quietly.

Arcade Fire to return

Interesting to see how the upcoming third record from Arcade Fire is received. Funeral was rapturously received and deservedly so, yet Neon Bible received a much cooler reception which was inevitable given what the unrealistic expectations surrounding it. In truth, Neon Bible was a largely disappointing record in which the blue-collar Springsteen fixation married to an apocalytpic world view resulted in a band which sounded confused - are we headed into U2 territory or do we create Funeral Mk II? In the end it was neither and so the expectation for album number three is not at the same level for Neon Bible. Still a compelling band as the Blogotheque clip below confirms.

Video: 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' - The National

The National. Does any other contemporary band get such fawning press? And are they worthy? I like The National, sure, but having immersed myself in High Violet these past couple of weeks, I remain unconvinced by the claims made widely on its behalf. There are three wonderful songs on there, as good as any I've heard from the band but the rest, thought it entertains just doesn't grasp me. And Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks isn't half as epic as it so badly wants to be. Then there's the fact that the recorded version of Terrible Love scarcely resembles the song taken by the throat and fucked around by Matt Berninger and Bryan Devendorf on Fallon. Good, sure, just not great.

The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" (official video) from The National on Vimeo.

Lambchop session on Daytrotter

If the day ever comes that I compile a list of, not just my favourite gigs, but live tracks then witnessing Lambchop conquer the Olympia theatre once with You Maculine You will be right up there. (This has me thinking now - Cop Shoot Cop by Spiritualized with full backing band/gospel choir/kitchen sink, The Cutter by Echo and the Bunnymen back in 1997 and Mark Eitzel throwing his heart and soul into Nightwatchman as recently as last year are in there too.) You, alas, is not on this session but Lambchop are a fiercesome live band nonetheless and have released some of the most compellingly understated music of the past decade. You may know them as the band who recorded Nixon but OH (Ohio) is equally deserving of your love.
Daytrotter session: Lambchop

Video: 'Bury! Pts. 2 + 4' - The Fall

Get a flat dickhead.

Pavement @ Tripod, 4th May 2010

Fuck dance, let's art. Fuck art, let's dance. More on last night's gig when I have time but for now my memories are a blur of how everything from Slanted sounded at once epic yet remained rooted in that wonderful early Pavement grot-rock sound. Perfume V, Two States and No Life Singed Her were as welcome as they were - to these ears at least - out of place with what has become a perfectly polished and cherry-picked setlist from the wealth of Crooked Rain through to Terror Twilight's more modest delights.
Last night was a reminder of how fucking great Wowee Zowee is - that wonderful mid-period record which saw the band try their hands and succeed at what passed for cutesy indie-rock of the time (Black Out - alas absent from last night), alt-country with a slacker twist (Father To A Sister of Thought) through to anthemic rock (Grounded - a personal highlight from last night but this changes regularly).
The band stayed onstage for two hours and hurtled through a flawless set and yet as I drove home I wished I'd heard Lorreta's Scars, Hit The Plane Down, Fillmore Jive or even Best Friend's Arm - I think that says more about the strength of Pavement's back catalogue than it does my occasional random dissatisfaction with life itself.
Given the nature of the band's split, it was inevitable that folk would look for visible manifestations of tension onstage. As far as this goes, Malkmus marooning himself stage right probably gave cause for idle chatter despite the fact that he's consistently eschewed the frontman spotlight thing. He didn't engage much initially but there was a moment on Gold Soundz when he cracked a smile which seemed to last the duration of the gig.
So.......once, twice, three times a triumph. A magical evening.

Video: 'Your Hands (Together)' - The New Pornographers

Cocooned in an almost post-coital Pavement glow today, here's The New Pornographers taken from the rather lovely Together

Live: 'Terrible Love' - The National on pitchfork.tv

Be honest now. You'd seen The National tear through Terrible Love on the Fallon show a month before the release of High Violet and it heightened your already unrealistic expectations of the record. And then you listened to the stream of the record on the NY Times website, played the aforementioned tune and wondered how the band had managed to dilute its visceral, shock and awe spirit. Where High Violet should begin with a sprint, it plods. And yet, courtesy of pitchfork.tv, proof that the song is as spectacular as was hinted at on Fallon. I don't know if it's possible for a drummer to be the star of the show but with The National, and on this track in particular, it's with Bryan Devendorf that the song ebbs and flows to its epic conclusion.

'World Sick' - Broken Social Scene

Been very very difficult to see past the hype with this bunch over the years. Was suckered into buying You Forgot It In People when it came out only to be left utterly cold. Decided to follow a link to this over on NPR and give it a spin and it's glorious - epic chorus and sounds like what You Forgot It should have been. The album Forgiveness Rock Record - great title, shit cover - comes out on May 4th.

Video: 'At The Indie Disco' - The Divine Comedy

This man once wrote Going Downhill Fast. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Interpol - 'Lights'

The return of Interpol then, almost a decade after their only truly visceral record. Here's hoping.

Stream: 'Together' The New Pornographers

When I finally wean myself off John Grant's wonderful Queen of Denmark (sample lyric: "I wanted to change the world, but I could not even change my underwear"), Together by The New Pornographers awaits. Together features the talents of AC Newman and Neko Case and guest turns by Will Sheff (Okkervil River), St. Vincent and Beirut's Zach Condon.
Stream: Together

Stream: 'Your Future Our Clutter' - The Fall

28 studio albums. 28 fucking albums. The Fall are back but, in truth, they've never really been away. They're playing Tripod this Thursday (26th) and tickets are very much still available here. Check out the footage below of Mark E Smith reading the classified footie results on BBC a few years back. Sample quote: "Tottenham Hotspur Postponed West Ham United 1h"
Stream: Your Future Our Clutter (via NPR)

Play it again Lenny

Having sold out his original show in something ridiculous like six minutes, it's just been announced that Leonard Cohen will play a second show on August 1st. Tickets on sale here now but probably not for long.

John Grant - 'Queen of Denmark'

Given that their most recent record stilled the pulses they'd set racing with The Trials of Van Occupanther, it's somewhat ironic that Midlake have given a leg up to John Grant on his debut solo effort. There are Midlake-esque flourishes all over this wonderful record and yet everything it's all done in such a perfectly understated way. But regardless of who's backing him here, Grant has created one of the most prefectly formed collection of songs of 2010. It's not as if he's come from nowhere - Grant once fronted The Czars with whom he released several albums before they went their separate ways in the face of public indifference. But with Queen of Denmark he's crafted something as compelling as, say, For Emma, Forever Ago. Stunning music.
MySpace
TC and Honeybear - John Grant

'Jacqueline Susann' - Pernice Brothers

Goodbye, Killer is the soon to be released sixth album by Pernice Brothers. To me they've been trying - and failing - to match the consistent highs of their 1998 debut Overcome By Happiness in the intervening 12 years. Each of their subsequent 4 albums have featured an archetypal moment of Joe Pernice pop greatness (see videos below) but rarely have they extended themselves beyond such moments of thrilling immediacy. They lost me after Yours, Mine and Ours, a record which features the vividly bitter Number Two; "So take this, my back-stabbing pay back number, This is all mine, Cause you were my life-sucking power monger, Even still you were mine." Think Okkervil River's Love to a Monster on downers. Here's to holding grudges and a sample from Goodbye, Killer then. The album is released on June 15th.
Jacqueline Susann - Pernice Brothers

'At The Indie Disco' - The Divine Comedy

Neil Hannon has developed a neat line in releasing depressingly underwhelming singles in advance of albums in recent years. This has not changed in advance of Bang Goes the Knighthood. Sure, it's only pop music but when it's this teeth-gratingly trite, when all the faux Joby Talbot strings in the world can't disguise the mundanity of a 3'16" exercise in indie wallpaper futility, why bother?
At The Indie Disco - The Divine Comedy

Stream: 'High Violet' - The National

Awash with expectation, the time for The National to reveal their hand is nigh. Due for release on May 11th, High Violet has been kept strictly under wraps with the exception of Bloodbuzz Ohio and Afraid of Everyone. To date The National have existed, to a large extent, on the periphery but with the deliberate drip feed of tracks from Violet and a stunning rendition of the album's opener Terrible Love on the Jimmy Fallon show a month ago, there's an increasing momentum behind the band's progress from everyone's favourite other band to the band du jour. Initial reaction i.e. track 1, is that their studio version of Terrible Love pales in comparison to the incendiary version on Fallon. But this is The National and they do getting under your skin records better than anyone.
Stream: High Violet (via NY Times)

The Scaffolder Falls

Yet another Cathal Coughlan/Johnny Gogan collaboration this. The good news is that Mr. Coughlan - still Ireland's finest singer/songwriter - will return with a new album sometime in July entitled Rancho Tetrahedron. Looks like his old label Kitchenware will be releasing the record. Meanwhile, unlikely as it may seem, there's a Cathal Coughlan page on Facebook.
Coughlan has also collaborated with the excessively jaunty Dave Couse on the latter's new album. The pair sing together on Couse's new album Alone Walk.

The Scaffolder Falls from Sleeping Warrior on Vimeo.

Video: 'Drunk Girls' - LCD Soundsystem

'Fool's Day' - Blur

So yesterday was Record Store Day, a concept I find about as relevant as Earth Hour or whatever the fuck it's called. The idea of going to your local indie record store on a specific date because someone tells you to is quaint at best. The upside to it though is that many bands choose to enter into the spirit of the day, unlike yours truly, by releasing one-off collector's items for the day. So it is with Blur and their first collective recording since, oh, 2003? Anyway, here's Fool's Day. One of the more appealing aspects of Blur has always been Graham Coxon and he duly gets his wig-out moment towards the end of the song. If you're expecting End Of A Century or Parklife, click elsewhere. Official download info available on the official website here.
Fool's Day - Blur

Leonard Cohen confirms Sligo date. No, really.

It felt strange just typing that. It has been confirmed however that the Dorian Gray of popular culture will play Lissadell House on July 31st. Now that is a coup. The show will be part of a series of gigs over that weekend with other acts yet to be confirmed. Tickets not on sale yet but there's a presale on April 22nd should you wish to beat the rush - and what a rush it will be. More details here.
EDIT: Now it seems the gig has been removed from Len's official website pending official confirmation, though if the gig being announced on his own site isn't official confirmation, then I'm slightly lost. Anyway the latest is that there will be, in this case an official announcement about the official announcement, regarding the gig this Wednesday.
EDIT: This gig is now happening. Tickets go on sale on Monday next priced €80. If folk are willing to pay over a ton for the opportunity to watch Whitney Houston fall apart in the flesh, this one will sell out rapidly. If you fancy beating the rush, there'll be a link to a presale on this site on Saturday 24th April.

'Baby Lee' - Teenage Fanclub

Yup, it's pretty standard Teenage Fanclub fare and in this case, this is a good thing. Taken from Shadows which hits the streets on May 31st.
Baby Lee - Teenage Fanclub

Video: 'You Turn My Head Around' - Dean & Britta

Because it feels like the summer. And because it's Britta on a bike. "And baaaaayyyyyy-beeeee....."

'Horses' - To Rococo Rot

Veteran palindromic electronic trio To Rococo Rot return on June 29th with a new album Speculation. You can get a taste of what's to come by way of a download here. There's also a track entitled Working Against Time streaming over on Domino's site.

John Lydon still whoring himself then

In the week when Malcolm McLaren passed away, John Lydon proves that there's nothing he will not prostitute.

Godspeed You Black Emperor to return

Missing in action around these parts since late 2002 - has it really been that long? - GYBE are finally stirring once more. The band have announced plans to curate this year's Nightmare Before Christmas (curated in 2009 by My Bloody Valentine) and have announced a smattering of upcoming British and European shows. No word of a record yet and as the band don't really play the record business game - their website is an exercise in austerity and, bless them, looks as if it hasn't been given a facelift since they last released a record - it's unlikely they'll be tweeting news of forthcoming releases.
There's also a full, er, statement from the band regarding the above here.

Morning Becomes Eclectic: The XX & The Low Anthem

'Goodbye Sweet Dreams' - Roky Erikson & Okkervil River

True Love Cast Out All Evil, a collaboration between Roky Erikson and fellow Austinites Okkervil River is due for release on April 20th on Anti Records. The opening track can be downloaded for free here.

Roky Erickson and Will Sheff - Austin, TX from Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River on Vimeo.

Knock, knock. It's Google here.

Yesterday I posted a brief message regarding the release of Bloodbuzz Ohio, a new track from the forthcoming album by The National. The content was as follows......

"Following on from the thrill of seeing Terrible Love on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, now this - available from the band's album specific site. Building up beautifully to the - by now - highly anticipated release of High Violet in May."

And that was it. At the bottom of the message I added a link to the aforementioned track which is available freely for download (for the price of your email address) on the band's site. So, the track is freely open and available, I wasn't offering it for download and you'd be stretching it to suggest that I was infringing any copyright laws. Not so say Google who, now that they're about to cut their losses in China (not that the Chinese will notice), clearly have time on their hands to continue their rather petty witchunt against alleged copyright infringers.

What fucks me off is that someone can make an arbitrary decision to change the status of a blog post to 'Draft' status on foot of supposed (and anonymous) complaint Google received regarding the content. It's unlikely the band's record company made a complaint given the fact that the track is freely available for download and given the fact that, whatever number of people read this blog - Pitchfork this ain't - I was merely advertising the product and pointing them in the direction of the official site.

It all brings me back to a post I made some months back regarding Google's heavy handed approach to bloggers in general with regard to copyrighted material. This is how it is to be it seems. Anyway, should you be interested, here's the text of the aforementioned email.

Oh, and in case you missed it yesterday, you can listen to Bloodbuzz Ohio for free here.

Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again. A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. For more information on our DMCA policy, including how to file a counter-claim, please see http://www.google.com/dmca.html. The notice that we received, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects at http://www.chillingeffects.org

. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can search for the DMCA notice associated with the removal of your content by going to the Chilling Effects search page at http://www.chillingeffects.org/search.cgi, and entering in the URL of the blog post that was removed. If it is brought to our attention that you have republished the post without removing the content/link in question, then we will delete your post and count it as a violation on your account. Repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account including deleting your blog and/or terminating your account. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

The National 'Bloodbuzz Ohio'

Following on from the thrill of seeing Terrible Love on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, now this - available from the band's album specific site. Building up beautifully to the - by now - highly anticipated release of High Violet in May.

The Divine Comedy 'Bang Goes The Knighthood'

Ah, Neil Hannon. The first time I learned of the man was upon receiving a postcard - with a mail order arrival from Setanta Records - featuring a weedy looking man in a suit, holding an umbrella, standing, trousers rolled to the knees in a stream. It turned out that the postcard was a promo for the wonderful Liberation and I was hooked. That he followed it up with Promenade (Tonight We Fly remains the most thrilling thing he's done, and I can still recall that original grainy video of the tide rolling in and out which accompanied it on its occasional airings on No Disco) was confirmation of the man's Scott Walker-on-a-budget pretensions. In short, good enough for me.
Ah but there the story ends in some ways. His next album was Casanova and it was at this point in his career that Hannon seemed to blur the lines between his art and reality. Chris Evans liked him a lot but the truth was that he'd become the annoying fop he'd mocked on much of Casanova. A series of seemingly contract fulfilling dross followed until Hannon decided to call it a day.
Except, he didn't really. He kept the name and some of the band members and the show rolled on. Absent Friends proved that there was life there yet and Choice Music Prize winning Victory For The Comic Muse (which, if nothing else, paid for a new kitchen) was a slight yet likeable record. And now he's returning once more having hopefully grown tired of the novelty pop, lighting-your-farts-and-laughing-at-it dross of The Duckworth Lewis Method. Bang Goes The Knighthood will be released on May 31st and the band will be playing an intimate show in The Sugar Club on May 7th. Tickets are priced €25 and are available here.
Anyway, here's hoping for the new album but - I'm heading into book by cover territory - if the album cover and song titles are anything to go by, perhaps he's just not listening to Scott Walker any more.

Tracklisting
1. Down In The Street Below
2. The Complete Banker
3. Neapolitan Girl
4. Bang Goes The Knighthood
5. At The Indie Disco
6. Have You Ever Been In Love
7. Assume the Perpendicular
8. The Lost Art of Conversation
9. Island Life
10. When A Man Cries
11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
12. I Like

Joanna Newsom live on NPR

There are some two hours of music on Have One On Me, meaning it's a record that's nigh on impossible to sit through in one listening session, but also one that's hard to tire of. Here's most of it live.
Live: Joanna Newsom on NPR

Tracklist

'81

Kingfisher

The Book of Right-On

Easy

Soft as Chalk

Inflammatory Writ

Good Intentions Paving Company

Have One on Me

You and Me, Bess

Monkey & Bear

Encore

Baby Birch

New Jonsi stuff

New album about to drop soon and there's an acoustic DVD to accompany it entitled Go Quiet. There's also a raft of covers and acoustic video performances from the new album, including a cover of MGMT's Time To Pretend.

The Middle East

They're from Townsville, Queensland and have been creating something of a stir at this year's SXSW. Blood, in particular, is a beautiful tune.

Get your Bonnie 'Prince' Billy wine stopper

Alas, these have now completely sold out.

To celebrate the release of the new Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Cairo Gang album, The Wonder Show of the World, 150 Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy bottle stoppers have been commissioned and are now available to pre-order exclusively through Domino Mart. Each bottle stopper was individually hand carved by the artist Scott Millar, so each one will be completely unique. Anyone ordering the bottle stopper from the mart will be sent an email to download all the album tracks on the release date, 29th March 2010.

For this new album of songs, Bonny Billy and The Cairo Gang together have built a bridge forward, assembled with riffs and bits from Emmett Kelly’s guitar and the lyricism of Bonny’s heart. But mostly, The Wonder Show of the World was, in its making, about trust. It’s a record made eye-to-eye in a room, close and careful, by and for a few men who wanted to be together, who wanted to make music that sounds as good to listen to as it did to make, and who in doing so forged something new in space, the wonder of you and of them.

The Cairo Gang belongs to Emmett Kelly, alternately him and his.