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.