BSITWT #100

Caribou - 'Sun'

Taken from Caribou's splendid new album Swim and a fitting way to mark our 100th BSITWT. Caribou will appear on the EAT YOUR OWN EARS STAGE at Field Day, Victoria Park, London - 31 July 2010. We'll be there.

www.myspace.com/cariboumanitoba

Review - La Maroquinerie April 15th

Last night we had a treat in Paris' hipster mecca as Villagers supported Wild Beasts, both giving excellent performances. "Villagers" was in fact only main man Conor J O'Brien. In a "reverse Jape" move, Conor appeared on stage to say "Hi, I'm Villagers", which is just grammatically incorrect.... His performance allowed me to forgive the grammar though, as he offered a lovely solo guitar show, often going off-mic to give the room a genuine show of his superb voice. A passionate performer and story teller, he truly is one of today's Irish music stars, and I look forward to seeing a lot more of him.
Enjoy the video to Meaning of the Ritual below


Wild Beasts are clearly a flavour of the month at the moment, and with good reason on this showing. An extremely tight show, with two gifted vocalists among their foursome, and some seriously driving songs that drifted from Foals-esque turbo-charged drum/synth led belters to glorious electro-popscapes that nod back to the likes of New Order. If I had to complain, one could argue that there were times where it felt a bit repetitive, but all in all these guys put on a great show and seem to have the talent to be more than a summer buzz band. Check out We Still Got The Taste Dancin' on Our Tongues below, a true gem, more in the Foalsesque category from above.

BSITWT #99

Massive Attack - Babel

Three Tome Tunes

I am not going to put any of these tracks up as a BSITWT, although on another day they would all be worthy. They all come from a Mix that Donal Dineen has Soundclouded on the Fresh Air Festval Blog.
What Dineen has unearthed is really some of the finest electronica going. What really amazes is that upon listening to the MySpace or downloading an album from any of these artists, you realize that most of it is pretty average, but Dineen has uncovered this one idiosyncratic stormer that they managed to churn out in a moment of divine intervention.

1) Mikkel Metal - Peaks and Troughs
The "rest of the stuff is lame" comment above is less accurate in the case of Danish artist Mikkel Metal, who has had tracks remixed by the likes of Marcel Detmann. Peaks and Troughs evokes a train pulling out a station, chugging deliberately onwards, never quite reaching full pace. A bit like the Galway-Dublin train. Unlike said train, this is a truly beautiful piece of work.

2) Wave Machines - Turn the Lights On
Funky, fun, and bouncy, delightful vocals that border on Passion Pit novelty, but are infinitely more enjoyable*, this is track to dance and sing along to.


3) CFCF - You Hear Colours
Hints of Kate Bush's Running Up that Hill thrown in there at times, but that's OK! This is an uplifting track with wide rolling soundscapes; I am already looking forward to the first time I listen to this on a sunny day in the middle of nowhere.


*Sorry Passion Pit, your guy's voice is annoying

Snippets from the National's new album

The National have started to release new material from the album High Violet, which will be released officially in May.
Here you will find a link to Bloodbuzz Ohio, which has elements of the tenderer story telling side of Boxer, with lead vocal Matt Berninger's voice offering a reminder of why he enchanted us all on that soon-to-be-considered-classic album.





Below we see the more aggressive, upbeat side of the National's style, with a belting inaugural rendition of Terrible Love on the Jimmy Fallon Show recently



It even has elements of this storming post-rock anthem towards the end....

BSITWT #98

Local Natives - 'Warning Sign'

This Talking Heads cover is taken from the sublime Gorilla Manor. Any of the 12 tracks on Southern Californians' debut would have been a worthy recipient of today's prize.

www.myspace.com/localnatives

BSITWT #97

Funnest track by miles from Yeasayer's new Odd Blood record.

Yeasayer - One (mp3)

BSITWT #96

Once lazily described in these pages as 'the Danish Arcade Fire', Efterklang - Denmark's answer to Canadian superstars Arcade Fire - are back with an absolute stormer. Magic Chairs is the group's first LP on 4AD, and it could be the one that finally gives their sprawling orchestral wizardry some real bite - there are more than a handful of tracks on this that offer something tangible; something that imposes itself in your head rather than happlily fluttering through. Call it focus, maturity - whatever; it has resulted in a record that could make the summer theirs.

Efterklkang - Modern Drift (mp3)

BSITWT #95

Beach House - Silver Soul

They are such a big deal at the moment! Sublime gig at La Maroquinerie in Paris last night.

Buy the new album Teen Dream here

BSITWT #94

Samamidon - Sugar Baby (mp3)

Get Nico Muhly involved with the arrangments, drizzle some Sufjan-esque magic on it, and tie it together with the Vermont version of Ronan O'Snodaigh's voice. Booma- you have one of the most exciting folk artists to emerge in years.

This one's taken from his 2007 Bedroom Community release All is Well; though, in truth, you could have just as easily taken anything from his forthcoming follow-up, I See The Sign. Plays in Dublin's National Concert Hall on 21st April with the rest of the Bedroom Community ensemble: Mulhy, Ben Frost and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. Tickets €25. Info here.

Other Voices - Series 8

Temper Trap performing in O'Flaherty's pub

In its eighth year, Other Voices continues to deliver an outstanding array of musical delicacies. The concept started as a means to showcase established artists, alongside promising newcomers, in an original venue located in a treasured part of south west Ireland. St James Church in Dingle has hosted some impressive names since the 'Dingle Concerts' began in 2002. Those making the pilgrimage to date include Damien Dempsey, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Rice, Amy Winehouse, Snow Patrol, Bell x1 and Jape, amongst others. One of my own favourite acts (as you may have guessed by now!), Elbow, featured on the roster last year. The stated aim of the series is to bring together names of the calibre mentioned above to promote an atmosphere of creativity, form diverse collaborations and lasting friendships. Importantly, established artists are known to mentor the fledglings passing on ideas and advice, over a creamy pint in Foxy John's I bet. Filmed over a week or so every December, 80 people auction their Granny for a seat in the intimate surrounds of St James'.

The latest series began its weekly broadcast on 3 February and the first two episodes are available to watch on the RTE Player here. Last week's episode features The xx performing 'Crystalised' in a very small bedroom in a local family house, worth the watch alone.


Full dates and details of the 6 shows are as follows:

Programme 1 – Wednesday 3rd February

Snow Patrol
Speech Debelle
Adrian Crowley
IMRO Other Room – Low Mountain

Programme 2 – Wednesday 10th February

Imelda May
The Lost Brothers
The xx
IMRO Other Room – O Emperor

Programme 3 – Wednesday 17th February

Florence & the Machine
Brett Anderson
The Antlers
IMRO Other Room – Valerie Francis

Programme 4 – Wednesday 24th February

Bell X1
Megafaun
Jesca Hoop
IMRO Other Room – The Chakras

Programme 5 – Wednesday 3rd March

Temper Trap
Magic Numbers
Fionn Reagan
Lisa Hannigan
IMRO Other Room – 202s

Programme 6 – Wednesday 10th March

Richard Hawley
The Brothers Movement
Fionn Reagan
Villagers
IMRO Other Room – James Vincent McMorrow


Other Voices broadcasts at 11.20pm for the next 4 Wednesdays and will be available thereafter on the RTE Player. Worthwhile read on the series from The Ticket 'The Other MTV' dated Friday 29 January.

www.othervoices.ie

Size2shoes

Irish acoustic pop band, Size2shoes is made up of brothers Eoin and Mícheál ó Súilleabháin. Belonging to a family of esteemed musicians, the Limerick natives have received much acclaim for their musical ability and unique approach to their craft. They describe their tracks as "deftly mixing rap, vocal percussion and virtuoso guitars with sharp double vocals and a huge dollop of humour". Accounts of their appearance at Dublin's Sugar Club last November suggest that the duo are more than capable of holding their own in the live arena. Guests joining them on stage on the night included Julie Feeney, nice. Their self-titled debut album described by Hotpress as "a very impressive , musically sophisticated debut…so filled with cheeryliy optimistic good advice that i want to marry them off to relatives”, is available to buy/sample here. Word from their site is that the lads are working on a follow up album so watch this space.

www.size2shoes.com

BSITWT #93

Midlake - 'Acts of Man'

Midlake Site

I had to do it after the last post

Without the track, the interlude after two minutes for the Spaniards fighting is worth it alone

Resident Advisor Tunes of the Decade

RA have provided a list of their Top 100 tunes of the decade. Makes for a lot of fun looking up the ones you never heard of. I suppose we could rant about lists like this all day, so critiquing it is pointless. That Metro Area track is fantastic, but the best tune of the last 10 years??? I am delighted that Garnier got the recognition for The Man With The Red Face, which truly is one of those tracks that we should never ever forget.

Anyway enjoy the ranking here

Eoin has also alerted me to their Top 100 albums of the decade

Just for fun, here are a few tracks that did not make it onto the RA top 100 that have made my decade:















*This is not including any remix by Four Tet, or anything off Four Tet's new album. Neither does it include anything by Pantha du Prince. My real top ten would probably be half comprised solely of Four Tet oeuvres.