alaimacerc

Last night on the radio, that Shamelessly Corkonian-Geezerish Bloke announced a Nora Jones track. I braced myself for (almost total lack of) impact; then, I found myself, in real shock, thinking "... actually, this is rather good!" I imagined having to repent of all those "Snora" wisecracks. Then I realized he'd played a Regina Spektor track by "mistake". Unfortunately, he then "rectified" it by playing NJ immediately afterwards.

This is from her "rock" album, too. It boggles the brain to imagine how consciousness-lapsing her "easy listening" is, in sustaine doses. (Dozes?)

DGB has undesignated for tonight's Frightened Rabbit gig. Not sure I'll have much chance of hawking the spare ticket at the venue, as it doesn't seem to have sold out, even given the minusule size of the venue. Maybe with some deep discountiung. Not to worry, wasn't a dear ticket anyway.

Have I mentioned the whole "Cork people, no musical taste" thing? Cork punches waaay below its weight for getting middling-sized acts since when they do come here, they don't sell out even moderate-sized venues. And bigger acts don't even have a suitable venue in the first place.

On the wild offchance that anyone that happens to be at a loose end this evening and is in striking distance, do let me know!

Anyone else ever felt that if they booted Tom Whatsisname out of Kasabian, and the remainder were led by Serge Thingummyjig, you'd have a reasonably serviceable -- if deeply unoriginal -- vaguely psychedelic/indie sort of outfit? Whereas with, they very much teeter over -- or perhaps more appropriately, barge -- into that whole unfortunate "lad rock" area? (Consider the Fratellis and the View thereby slagged off en passant.)

ETA: apparently "close friends" of Oasis. I think the prosecution rests. Mind you, source for this is an old clip of Noel G: clearly, these days, not even Oasis are close friends of Oasis. (Mood now tipping over to the "self-satisfied with own prejudices" dwaggin.)

In theory, that RTE Radio 2 is now explicitly targeting an agegroup (just about...) containing me, whereas it previously wasn't, should be good news from a purely self-interested POV, right? Except of course what they have in mind will be "playing more of the crap that were playing twenty years ago" that I didn't like first time around.

But more generally, does this mean that if you're under 25, the "national broadcaster" (as in, "give us yer 160 quid") is aiming none of its three radio channels at you? Citing a "crowded market"? Hrrrrm.

Of course, especially vexes here is the thought that Dave Fanning is one the "top experts" driving this change. Only somewhat less than that Gerry Ryan is being trotted out as the other. Way to further expend your alleged credibility, DF, both in making the claim itself, and in that it juxtaposes you with said GR.

Got my other Biffy ticket through the door today.  At last!  One whole day before the "oh crap, get in touch with the vendor" date.  That's a distinct relief.

( Jazz fest, etc )

... who I'd toyed with going to see at "The Pav" on Thursday (but instead went around to chez sammywol et mylescorcoran , for some very nice chili wraps and some especially degenerate-case attempts at roleplaying, that rapidly ended up just being a very enjoyable chit-chat).  Rather more excited by the arrival yesterday of a ticket for Ra Biff, next month in Glasgow, which further motivated me to pop into "Plugd" today to buy one for Gary Numan (also at the Pavillion, and also next month).  It turns out that they also sell Cyprus Avenue tickets, so I bought a pair for Frightened Rabbit, in early Dec. (I have some social cover for that one -- hi, DGB!)  That saved me trundling along to the Old Oak: welcome, given that Cork didn't so much seem to be being rained on, as actually in the middle of a rain cloud.

Now the small matter of that other Biffy ticket, that seems to be caught up in the UK postal strike(s), to say nothing of the upcoming Irish bank holiday.  Much as I applaud attempts to frustrate ticket touts -- who are almost as gratuitous an excrescence of capitalism as derivatives traders -- it seems absurd to have ordered this months ago, and now be fretting as to whether it'll turn up in the last three days before I have to go get on a plane, in the general direction of the venue.

The slow-moving Kings of Leon singles are now a well-known issue, but why on earth are they playing Kiss records, and why are Journey actually *in* the chart?  I know that "Don't Stop Believin'" was used (with excellent effect, I might add) in the Sopranos finale, but that's not exactly a hot topic at this stage.

Eventually made it to The End of The Road. ( Well... )

I was mainly listening out of "working from home" displacement inactivity, and to listen to Phil Clifton complain bitterly about the Rock Top Ten being excessively clogged up with multiple slow-moving Kasabian and Killers singles -- to say nothing of the permanently emplaced Kings of Leon records.  (Doubtless it needs more fibre in its diet.) But the current top three seems to me to be remarkably listenable:

3.  Bloc Party, "One More Chance"
2.  Temper Trap, "Sweet Disposition"
1.  Biffy Clyro, "That Golden Rule"

Though since even the Biffyboarders are telling me I'm listening to too much MTV2, maybe this is a sign I should back sloooowly away from the TV.

In other news, it seems I have a contract for September after all.  After that, who knows.  Might get a chance to bum around the UK during Bloctober after all.  (Grammatics supporting! *drool*)

Or in this case, dangerously overexcited.  Listening to Zane Lowe's BBC R*d** *n* show from Wednesday on iPlayer (time index 30m), which was apparently the first play of Biffy's new single...  and the second too, it seems.  Bit silly, given things like iPlayer, which mean we can replay it to death for ourselves, but it's fun to see he's that excited about it.  (Or maybe the show needed padded out that night, for all I know.)  To say nothing of how fissile things are getting at the Bifforum.  (I assume at BiffierThanThou they're still bemoaning they've-gone-too-commercial-by-half era, and working on that time machine back to2005.)

Not at all sure about El Si's claim it's the "heaviest thing they've ever written".  Bit more like one of the louder Puzzle tracks, with an extended borderline-cello-metal bridge/outro.  Not quite what I'd have expected from the various murky-sounding bootlegs I've heard -- they and the string quartet parted company for live shows at the SECC last December, sadly, for one thing, plus this seems to be a different edit for the single.  Definitely starting to get little quivers about seeing them again, later this year.

Partly inspired by some comments I happened across on andrewsherman's blog (offsite; I'll find the exact link if and when I get around to Opus 2!), about whether the "power trio" was the perfect format for a rock band, and partly just my own random thoughts...

I can't help notice that the vast majority of string quartet/sections playing live with rock bands are all-female.  One might even extend that to BSP (otherwise all-male band with female viola player, Abi Fry), and to the Grammatics (two female cellists in succession), and such instances where the stringists are actually permanent band members.

But...  Regina Spektor's backing band at Glastonbury was two blokes on violin and cello (and an equally male drummer, IIRC).  Florence and the Machine had a male harpist (of all creatures!).  So...  maybe it's more like an anima/animus thing?  (Or less poetically, somewhat symmetrical gender tokenism.)

BSP's violist is actually a former exception to all of the above, since she used to play in Bat for Lashes' touring band.  Oh well.

From a guy called Kele in a John Peel t-shirt, to a buncha chaps from Wilmslow in the John Peel Tent.  It must be the Glastonbury, and more particularly the BBC coverage thereof. Leeds/Reading might have the lineup I'd darkly consider illegal and immoral acts for this time around, but this seems to be the weekend of the year that tends to produce the most aimless wistfulness.  Shouldn't I be there.  Shouldn't Peely still be with us.  I'm sure all sorts of romantic Arthurianesque notions about the location are in there someplace too, and maybe something along the lines of Eavis being an anti-ticketmasterish figure of some sort.

OTOH, I'll happily take my comfy armchair over a cheap tent in a field of mud, right now.

Perilously close to "part 2" of previous post, but...

( More faffing around with gig-planning )

Token trundle en route to roleplaying (Judge Dee game dodged to Wednesday) up Summerhill North Road Silver Springs Lane.  Had thought to go on a longer cycle, earlier, but assorted digressions put paid to that.  More wheezing and gasping my way, though to be fair it's often a bit like that just going up Wellington Road, and that road is a couple of uphill turns from that, as I was reminded on the way down.

So, there was I plotting the best way to catch the Bloc Party (with Grammatics!) tour and the newly announced Biffy Clyro dates (yay!  but no Cork gig, again... boo...) on the one trip to the UK (still working on that one!), when I noticed that the Editors are playing Limerick.  Intriguing!

Incidentally, Placebo weren't the ones blowing the Biffy climax at Rockness, as I realized reading the War Stories online (of another Biffy fan I met very briefly at their SECC gig, as it happens.)  They were playing an overlapping set on the other stage;  it was the Prodigy that were playing after BC on the main stage.

Band beginning with "P", anyhoo.

I toyed with going to see a local band called Altruism this evening, who were doing an EP launch.  Ended up not going on the basis of a) large amounts of lethargy (partial excuse of being a little heavy-legged after yesterday's admittedly modest exertions, but mainly just natural-born laziness), and b) after listening to their myspace page, decided that while they sounded somewhat interesting instrumentally, they'd painted themselves into too much of a hardcore/death metal corner vocally for my tastes.  And even moreso for Designated Gig Buddy's (hi, DGB!), if I'm any judge.  Must be a sign of the alleged summer that I'm looking for any excuse for some live music.

Hrm, Indie-Pendence Festival in Mitchellstown.  There's an idea to conjure with...  Why does a two-day fest have three billed headliners, though?  (Rockness pulled a similar stunt, announcing The Mighty Biff as headliners, then it later transpiring they were going on before some bunch called Place-bo.)

'80s revivals continue apace -- Stiff Little Fingers at the Pavilion last night.  Though to be fair, they started in the late 70s, and have actually been on the go most of the time since then, it seems.  Though since they dropped off my radar after their first album or so, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't recognise the majority of what they played.

Pretty lively affair.  Upstairs at the Pav is split into three levels, though with only a short flight of stairs between each.  There's the floor just below the stage, a bar level, and a sort of balcony at the back with a row or so of seats.  I hovered back there for the first half with Designated Gig Buddy (who was behaving herself with no dancing, lest that lead to booze, lest that lead in turn to ciggies, which have recently been given up -- you go girl!).  The floor was loosely populated enough that the people in the middle pogoing/moshing were exhibiting fairly large horizontal displacements.  Bit rough on the tootsies, though I was more worried about getting a "hospital pass" at solar plexus/floating rib level, or given my recent glasses mishaps (which I've still failed to get replacements or backups for, disgracefully), ending up visionless.  I should get lenses or sports specs for this sort of contact sport!

Really great encore with <some track I didn't recognise> and <most obvious closer ever>.  Must listen to some other albums before they play Cork again.

Predictable amounts of midrange hearing loss, and I'm feeling my two pints of cider the day after (admittedly on very little in the way of prior "soakage").  Maybe just as well I'm not going to do Rock am Ring -- at this rate, I might not make it intact through Tentacles!

Amazon -- shortly before the eponymous "fail" -- generated a recommendation for that I get Bat for Lashes' second album, having bought Marmaduke Duke's first one...  On the TV, we have BfL's current single (followed by the Duke's upcoming download same, indeed)...  And in my (e)mailbox, there's a lineup announcement for Electric Picnic, including said Bat!  You'd think the world was trying to tell me something, though in that case, where the heck is the actual copy of Two Suns (in my (actual) mailbox) that I ordered from play.com over a week ago now?  Wah, me want!  Want now!

Acoustic session and interview on Dermot O'Leary's show, even done "in character", without mentioning the real names of either of the principals.  (Not exactly "anonymous", since J.P. Reid was plugging his "other" band, and Simon Neil was discussing his honeymoon and his tentative plans to trade his car in for a Mustang.)  How very strange.

(Acoustic version of their current electro-poppish single, "Kid Gloves", and a Crowded House cover version, "Fall at your Feet".  Both beautifully done, and we'll forgive a certain Biffy frontman for jumping one of his cues.)

I'm rather disappointed that Marmaduke Duke (Biffy Clyro even-more-wacky side-project) have decided to make their upcoming tour so soon, so short, and most annoyingly of all, so UK-only.  I'll be at K2 when they play Glasgow in early March, so it's not even readily feasible to combine it with a trip back to Dumbarton.  Or with going to Conpulsion.  Or an all-seated Ultravox concert.  Maybe I'll come up with another rationale before the tickets get sold out, or maybe they'll weaken, and do another set of gigs before they all go back to the "day" job.

Doesn't help that the album they're "touring" isn't actually out yet, and won't be until a couple of months after said tour.  (I've heard three tracks from it, which are variously superb ("Kid Gloves"), extremely silly ("Erotic Robotic"), and rather meh ("Music Show").)  On the other hand, I've been MP3ing their previous album to death (I think The Magnificent Duke and Takk... have been continuously clogging up my teeny 1GB player for longer than anything else).

And just to put the proverbial tin lid on it, I've just found out that Aer Arann are now the fourth airline to get rid of a Cork to Glasgow service (if we lump the Paisley and Prestwick airports together in counting same).  So my options seem to be to fly to either Edinburgh or Manchester for one of the gigs the weekend before, for something of a potential pig in a poke. Or, not bother this time around. Vexing.

I haven't heard the B-sides to the one actual single release, but other fans of bad puns with a few Real World albums might appreciate the track titles "Nusrup Fateh Ali Can't" and "Nusrup Fateh Ali Wouldn't".  ("Nusrup" must be the Ayrshire spelling of "Nusrat", I'm guessing.)

Lest anyone have been wondering, I can confirm that as a combination of bedtime reading/listening, Earthsea and Biffy Clyro is a little odd.  Certainly enjoyable, but the latter might be a little too "busy" to be optimal background music.  (Given that Earthsea is a YA series, and that I'm currently rereading the first one (which I thought at first I'd more or less skim on the music of having read it fairly recently, as against the others, which I haven't), this probably also says fairly alarming things about my current levels of attention span, mind you...)