XO's Middle Eight (Free subscription) | yesterday
Earlier this year, I feel into passionate love with a track by Roots Union called Rough Diamonds ( read post ). Beautiful, rustic English folk that has just enough melodicism to verge into pop. Their album comes out in 2010, but before that we have Mumford & Sons and their own debut Sigh No More. I think this London quartet will appeal to folks who like Idlewild/Roddy Woomble, The Pogues, Passenger,...
Song, by Toad (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
The Excast is so named because I am playing a lot of people’s former bands. There’s Shane MacGowan’s Nipple Erectors, Phil Chevron’s Radiators, Shilpa Ray’s Beat the Devil and Billy Bragg’s Riff Raff. I concentrate so much on new music these days that I often decide whether or not I like a band on the [...]
The Daily Swarm - Headlines (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Steve Lillywhite is the man responsible for producing the debut albums by U2 and Dave Matthews Band as well as many of their subsequent million-selling releases. While Bono and Dave have both consistently trusted Steve to fit their visions between the speakers, so have artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Thunders, Ultravox, Guster, She & Him, XTC , Jason Mraz, The Pogues,...
Gheorghe: The Blog (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
S eems like a higher and higher percentage of the concerts I see these days fall under the "Reunion Tour" heading. Over the last decade or so, I've witnessed the reformations of quite a few acts, highlighted by the E Streeters' impressive return in '99. That one was so brilliant that they've stayed mostly together (RIP Danny Federici) ever since. Others . . . well, not quite so brilliant,...
Rock Sellout (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
Lately, I’ve been going back through my music collection and listening to music from a certain period. I’ve been going back to music that was created in the Thatcher/Regan era 80s. Back then, they were in a social and economic climate that is increasingly similar to what we face everyday into the recession we’re dealing with now. Recession, strikes, decline, high inflation and high...
Gypsy Scholar (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Terry 'K' Kelly (Image from Times Online ) Nicola Smith, writing for The Sunday Times (November 15, 2009), tells us that some fanatical " Irishman wants to kill " British soldiers: "I've already picked up a gun and done target practice to make myself familiar with weapons. The other day I learnt how to use an M-16 [rifle] in five hours," he said. "Next week, . . . I could be...
Aversion Music (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Hey, look, a Pogues video set in a bar. Wonder who got paid to come up with that idea.
Monkeyfister (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
And the Republicans continue their senseless, heartless and brutal stranglehold on VA Care legislation, while care is stretched, and waiting times lengthen, and Veterans needing CARE die at the hands of GOP politics. I guess that along with the Bushies, they have gotten their Iraq and Afghanistan business deals rolling, so they don't need to Support The Troops any longer. A peaceful Veteran's Day to...
Herald.ie - Around Town RSS Feed (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Good to see Liam McCormack has been keeping himself busy and out of mischief after quitting RTE's TTV a few months ago. Not one to rest on his laurels, he has thrown himself into his music after his popular programme was unceremoniously replaced by Dara Quilty's Two Tube.
MTV Newsroom (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Even though we're just on the other side of Halloween, the public has already shifted its focus to Christmas. Store displays have shifted, Starbucks has drinks that are eggnog flavored and a handful of lunatics are already considering their Christmas trees. Today marks the first big film release of the holiday season in "A Christmas [...]
IckMusic (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
We’ve spent all this time building up our digital music libraries, so why not tinker around with them a bit and have some fun? Last week I explored tunes that clocked in at 2:28. This week, I take it to the streets. The exercise this week is to locate your street songs. I’m not talkin’ [...]
Ripped In Glasgow (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
A musical history journey through London with Andrew Weatherall, as featured on the Red Bull Music Academy Radio website. I couldn't get this to stream properly at all - it kept stopping and starting, but official "friend of Ripped In Glasgow", Jim (we've got him to thank for the Weatherall Horse & Hounds mix), came to the rescue. Even though, as he says, "it's a nasty fucking vile...
Ryan, the Hawiian Lion's blog (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Hurrah! Christmas is quickly approaching us! It doesn’t seem long ago that it was well over 100 days. I’ve already started downloading some Christmas songs…Right now just ‘The Pogues-Fairytale in New York’ , a surprising choice for a Christmas song, when both the people singing seem to slag each other off half the time. “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy...
Marathon Pundit (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Last week I posted a video of 1970s Celtic rock pioneers Horslips performing the "The Man Who Built America," and I described them as a combination of Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy, and The Pogues. Although it's a great song, there wasn't anything Pogues-like with that tune. "High Reel" moves the needle a bit in that direction, although the feel of it is more in line with British folk...
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
The Voodoo Music Experience just wrapped its 11th year, and volume-wise it goes to 11 (to borrow a phrase from Spinal Tap). Voodoo had an...
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