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.