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    Wednesday, July 30, 2008

    Autumn Winter Gigs 2008

    Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Whelans, Tuesday Sep 7
    Shearwater, Whelans, Friday Sep 19
    Bon Iver, Tripod, Tuesday Oct 7
    Spirtitualised, Vicar Street, Sunday Oct 19
    Holy Fuck, The Academy, Monday Oct 20
    Lambchop, Tripod, Saturday Nov 1
    Mercury Rev, Vicar Street, Sunday, Nov 2
    Okkervil River, The Academy, Friday, Nov 7
    Goldfrapp, Tripod, Friday, Nov 7
    Fleet Foxes, Vicar Street, Friday Nov 7
    The Jimmy Cake. Vicar Street, Friday, 21 November

    Sunday, July 13, 2008

    Best of 2008 to July

    3 Five star bonafide truly great albums destined to be regarded as absolute classics by a lot of folk in the years to come

    Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
    Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
    Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

    7 flirting with future classic status

    Elbow, the Seldom Seen Kid
    The Jimmy Cake, Spectre & Crown
    Sigur Rós : Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
    Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree
    Portishead, Third
    Jape, Ritual
    Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Pt 1: 4th World War


    5 consistently excellent albums


    Lykke Li, Youth Novels
    Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
    Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus! Dig!
    Laura Marling, Alas I Cannot Swim
    Martha Wainwright, I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too


    2 Quality albums

    Cat Power, Jukebox
    The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely

    7 intermittently excellent efforts

    Santogold, Santogold
    Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
    Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
    Beck, Modern Guilt
    The Dodos, Visiter
    Gemma Hayes, The Hollow of the Morning
    My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

    7 good, solid but not amazing albums

    Coldplay, Viva La Vida
    R.E.M., Accelerate
    Foals, Antidotes
    The Breeders, Mountain Battles
    Tapes’n’Tapes, Walk it Off
    The Roots, Rising Down,
    Vetiver, A Thing of the Past

    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    Electric Picnic Line Up Final Verdict

    An almost final verdict on the Electric Picnic line-up - can’t see them adding too many acts in the next month or so.

    The line up features as has always been the case, less hugely well known successful artists than Oxegen but a lot of acts that have released brilliant albums over the last year or so including rock royalty Sigur Ros, Wilco, Elbow, the Breeders and Tindersticks.

    Some of the best electronic artists out there in Modeselktor and Crystal Castles, and lets not forget Underworld. Great dance oriented acts in Cut Copy, Santogold and Hercules and Love Affair. Backed up by lesser known quality electronic/dance in Digitalism, the Presets, and Midnight Juggernauts.

    Plus Goldfrapp whose new album is amazing. And the legendary My Bloody Valentine.

    Some of the best DJ’s in the world with A-trak, Diplo, and David Holmes.

    One of the best hip hop acts bar none in the Roots.

    A strong selection of Irish talent with Jape, Gemma Hayes, Cathy Davey, Lisa Hannigan, and Adrian Crowley.

    Some very fine acts in the singer songwriter folk/alt country range with the Dodos, Bright Eye’s Conor Oberst, Stephanie Dosen, Juana Molina, Louise Rhodes and Terry Callier.

    Franz Ferdinand, Foals and Gomez filling out the supply of decent guitar bands.

    Plus you’ve got the Balanescu Quartet, Tinariwen, and the Congoes so its not all indie rock/dance.

    All in all there’s over 40 acts I’d like to see playing at the Electric Picnic.....*

    Sigur Ros
    My Bloody Valentine
    Wilco
    Goldfrapp
    Elbow
    The Breeders
    The Dodos
    Cut Copy
    Laura Marling
    Santogold
    Gemma Hayes
    Modeselektor
    Franz Ferdinand
    Hercules and Love Affair
    Jape
    Stephanie Dosen
    The Roots
    Underworld
    Dan Deacon
    Crystal Castles
    Tindersticks
    David Kitt
    Balanescu Quartet
    Juana Molina
    Martina Topley Bird
    Cathy Davey
    Foals
    Conor Oberst
    Lisa Hannigan
    Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
    Tinariwen
    Joan as Policewoman
    James Yorkston
    David Holmes
    Terry Callier
    Louise Rhodes
    New Young Pony Club
    A-Trak
    The Congos
    Diplo
    Adrian Crowley
    Midnight Juggernauts
    Booka Shade
    Pivot
    The Presets
    Digitalism
    The Herbaliser
    Nitin Sawhney
    Gomez
    CSS
    Duffy
    Kila
    Rachel Unthank & The Winter Set
    Josh Ritter
    Autamata
    Vivienne Long


    *updated July 21

    Fair enough it is too dear this year but I really can’t knock the line-up.

    Oxegen

    As Oxegen looms I’m wishing I had the stomach to take all those puking, mud throwing, food dropping teenagers that it attracts. And for the same strange, music nerd urge that motivates all these posts, I feel the urge to deconstruct the Oxegen and Electric Picnic line ups!

    This year’s Oxegen line-up is definitely the best one I can remember.

    MCD obviously have a huge amount of money and the Oxegen approach says ‘forget about the scummy environment and feel the line up.’ The line up excels in bringing together some of the best mainstream rock bands in the world - REM, the Verve, the Raconteurs, Kings of Leon, Band of Horses, the National, Interpol, Manic Street Preachers.

    Two of the best new bands out there in the fantastic Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer and a few other next big/current big things with White Denim, Black Kids, MGMT. Plus Battles and Cat Power adding a bit of extra ‘alternative music scene’ quality.

    Its got a decent representation of dancey stuff - Justice, Hot Chip, Aphex Twin and Chemical Brothers, Go Team!

    Some of the best of Irish talent in there with Glen Hansard’s Swell Season and Bell XI

    All in all you’ve got about 30 quality acts in there with...

    Vampire Weekend
    The National
    My Morning Jacket
    Kings of Leon
    The Raconteurs
    REM
    Yeasayer
    Band of Horses
    Cat Power
    Editors
    Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
    The Verve
    Interpol
    Bell XI
    The Go! Team
    White Denim
    Black Kids
    Aphex Twin
    Hot Chip
    Delays
    Battles
    Justice
    The Zutons
    Manic Street Preachers
    The Charlatans
    The Ting Tings
    Richard Hawley
    Chemical Brothers
    Roisin Murphy
    MGMT
    Deus
    Holy Fuck
    Rage Against the Machine

    BUT the Electric Picnic lineup is much, much better than pretty much everyone I’ve talked seems to think it is. More on that in he next post.