Oxegen Day 1

It’s Saturday morning of Oxegen weekend, and we are about to leave for the second day of the festival in Punchestown. Last night was a ate one, due to some difficulties on our bus, and some rowdy shouting and fighting (masterfully handled by the COOLEST undercover guard in the world) so its late that I post my day one report.

Well, it stated well, little or no traffice ment our journey was a little under 80 mins to site, which is about what we had last year. Straight in and with the help of twitter got into the Dirty Epics. Alan, the drummer, has really tighened this dublin punk/pop outfit up a lot, and there was much more energy in the bigger Green Spheres room that the smaller tent of last eyar. SJ Wai was on form, chatting away between songs, but they might have prefered more vocal in the mix. The Cure, Weirdo and Pony all went down well.

From here we went out into the rain, to The Corona’s. Good set, with the big sons going down best, ome decent new stuff being tested out, and Hero’s or ghosts ending, first verse in Irish.

After Corona’s, Pam wanted to be up near the front for the evening, so we stuck around for James, who was a bit meh. Lily Allen was on next, and was n much better form that last years blue mermaid gig, seemed more relaxed, and got the ladies in the crowd going.

Home-comers The Script played a short set, and were it not for the constant crowd cheering may have struggled to fill a slot which already featured a few covers. The new album will be the test of this Dublin band, but the crowd at Oxegen loved the set they played, with cheering and chanting stopping the gig a number of times. The finale of Hero’s draped in a tricolour was a little much maybe, but you can’t fault enthusiasm.

Pam was more excited about Snow Patrol then ever, probarbly hasn’t been this excitable since the last Snow Patrol gig we went to. Lightbody et al started as they ent to go on, and toured through their catelogue, leaving out Chocolte dissappointed, but its good to see Hands Open a live staple now, and Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking was a great choice. The girls from the crowd for Set The Fire To the Third Bar was a nice idea, but probarbly cost the set a song, and added little after they had screamed their hello’s to Sarah Kate and Claire. Still, they won’t ever forget singing to the Oxegen crowd.

Blur started off alright, and prob will be well reviewed today, but to be honest, I missed out on them first time around, and didn’t feel compelled to see them this time. Girls and Boys was good though.

A combination of tiredness from the week in work, and being oldies now, as well as our theory that the best way to handle the three days is to take your leave when you can led us to the busses around 11.30. With our journey home being as eventful as it was, we got in close to two. Should have just stayed for Blur….

Song of the Day: Lily Allen – Fuck You

Quote of the day: The crowd is amazing – Various

General Impression – Good start to the weekend. Some people missed, Duke Special and FLC. Will do more wandering today, but made the right choices.

Hotpress Live Music Venue of The Year – Vote For Cyprus Avenue

Hey blog fans,

I ask little of you guys in return for your entertainment, and my hard work (ha) on noteswithnocommas, but now, I call in the favors. Hotpress and IMRO have released the shortlist for their Music Venue of The Year awards. As most of you know, I’ve spent the last few years in Cork, and found a second home in Cyprus Avenue. The venue is amazing, and gets some of the best bands in the country, if not the world, to come to the Lee-side to play.  The rest of the list isn’t great to be honest, and it’d be great to see the nod going to the peoples republic. SO, if you all have a minute to spare, can you pop over and tick a box.

So Steve, what do I do I hear you ask. Well….

1) Go to Hot Press and register an account, through the following link:
http://www.hotpress.com/registration/reg_details.php?product_name=Subscription+hotpress.com&rtype=vote

2) Log in to your newly created account.

3) hit the following link:
http://www.hotpress.com/vote/vote.php?id=4821512&action=view4) Vote for Cyprus Avenue from the list.

Thanks a million for aking the time, and hopefully we’ll get a result. Voting is closing soon, so speed is of the essence.For more details on Cyprus Avenue, see here.

Soundtrack To Your Life

Ok, so this was doing the rounds a while ago, just a fun little timewaster. Stick your mp3 player on shuffle, and let it create the soundtrack to the movie of your life. Some odd results may be thrown up. If you want to try it out, a blank list is below the click for more, stick it in the comments or on your own blog, but let me know. Here we go,

Opening Credits:
Lemon Tree – Fools Garden. (Forgot I even had this song, good credits though)

Waking Up:
Mr. Brightside – The Killers (Going well so far)

First Day At School:
Heaven’s Wall – The Devlins (Has that Irish school feeling about it alright)

Falling in Love:
I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You – Tom Waits (I am not joking here)

Breaking Up:
We Can Run Away Now They Are All Dead And Gone – Snow Patrol (Good thing Pam is a witness)

Prom:
Yr Manged Heart – Gossip(Guess I ain’t taking that break up too wel)

Life’s Okay:
Hey Mama – Kanye West (Haven’t ever heard this song before, but it fits-ish)

Mental Breakdown:
Lose You – Pete Yorn (Ha)

Driving:
Monster – The Automatic (Great song, apt name…)

Flashback:
Bridge Over Troubled Water – Johnny Cash (Great Song)

Getting Back Together:
Happiness – Jack L (I like this song, but its about breaking up. And I don’t know a Genevieve)

Wedding:
Boxing Champ – Kaiser Cheifs (A rather nice song, but for a wedding?)

Birth of a Child:
One Vision – Queen (Nice)

Final Battle:
Hello, Goodbye – The Beatles (iTunes is screwing me now)

Death Scene:
Fake Plastic Trees – Radiohead (Good save Jobs)

Funeral Song:
One Minute To Midnight – Justice (Tanfastic)

End Credits:
Limited Edition – Snow Patrol

All in all a decent list. But where did the wedding song, and my final battle come from. Still I got a good run with falling in love, breaking up and prom. And I really like my end credits song too. So it balances.

Songs Of The Week

Ok, some tunes which I have been listening to this week include:

Kings of Leon, Sex on Fire. I may have a copy of the album that has been floain on the internet. Its good. Very good. Can’t wait to buy it.

Flobots, Handlebars. Nice buildey rap song, in the vein of Messiah J who I have also been listening to lately. Check them out i Whelans this weekend, on Sunday, for 20 notes, tickets here

Glasvegas, Geraldine. See review a few posts lower.

And an oldie, but one that is stuck in my head:

Men At Work singer Colin Hay does Overkill. Might remember it from Scrubs, or the original Men At Work version. Yes, they did more than just I Come From A Land Down Underrrrr.

Thats it for now, might try to make this a regular feature though…

Glasvegas

Ok, so at the risk of this turning into a music blog, I recently got a copy of the Glasvegas album, released on September 8th. I had heard about them on the Guardian Music Weekly Podcast, and liked some of the snippets of songs like Geraldine that Paul played.

First impressions, I really like it. Its a difficult one to describe, the total sound. Its just huge. Its reverb, circling notes and guitars clanging in the nicest possible way, and sound like they are bing played a million miles away, but with some kind of ghostly clarity. This might be twee, but it almost sounds bagpipey, the melody melts and blends, so that it complements the more defined vocal and rythm sections. Pounding drums and crashing symbols make up the final sound, and to be honest, rather than sounding like a fire in a music shop, it really works, all the layers are more than a sum of their parts.

The opener Flowers and Football Tops, which is written from the point of view of a father reflecting on the murder of his son, is simply magnificent and, I can only imagine, it captures the inability to understand, and the distracted though process. (I dare anyone to listen all the way through without feeling moved). This is followed up by Geraldine, another beautiful song this time about a “social worker” who describes herself as a guardian angel. Other standouts for me at least are Daddy’s Gone, Go Square Go and S.A.D. Light.

Stabbed is one which will stick in the listeners head most though, using Beethoven as the backdrop to retell a story of confrontation with a gang, the Young Baltic Fleeto, and maybe a knife. Allen doesn’t sing, he bitterly recites the lyrics, “No cavalry could ever save me/I’m gonna get stabbed”, before deciding to run rather than fight. Its a raw song, and one that shows the fear of knife crime in a way that other songwriters just can’t seem to grasp.

I suppose that is the best way of describing Glasvegas, they are raw band. Allen sings every lyric in a broad Glasgow accent, which lends greater meaning to the emotion he is conveying. Emotion and fragility comes through what some have described as a wall of sound tracing its roots back to Phil Spector, Elvis, the Jesus and Mary Chain. These guys mean business too, an estimated 100,000 sales in the first three days of release, and already talking about their next record, a Christmas one no less.

Glasvegas are a definate must have for music fans this September. I fear the album might be marmite, some will love it, some will hate it, but for god sake, do yourself a favour and listen to it.

Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

Tracklisting released for A Hundred Million Suns:

If There’s a Rocket Tie Me To It
Crack The Shutters Open
Take Back The City
Lifeboats
The Golden Floor
Please Just Take These Photos From my Hands
Set Down Your Glass
The Planets Bend Between Us
Engines
Disaster Button
The Lightning Strike
(i)What if This Storm Ends?
(ii)Sunlight Through The Flags
(iii)Daybreak

Also, first single Take Back The City will be released in October, but you can hear it on Zane Lowe’s BBC show pod-thingy from tomorrow morning, and a little snippet is on the Snow Patrol website. Sounds very Hands Open-ey, with a dash of old school stuff I was hoping for. Very excited…..

Music Coming Soon…

There appears to be  flurry of activity coming up in the music world. Some of my favourite bands and acts will be releasing new albums over the next few weeks, and I want to give you a run down of those that I think will be worth a listen.

Bloc Party (Myspace) will be dropping “Intimacy” this week, with new tracks like Trojan Horse already leaking. I am guessing that this is a rush job for some reason, but I quite like this new sound, as seen on Flux in the past. Whether all Bloc Party fans agree is another thing.

Jack L (Myspace) is set to release his new album, “Burn On” in early October. I heard some songs from it at the Vicar Street show last March, and they sound great. There is a song on there called Great Wall of China, and maybe we’ll get an album release of Stardust… Just read this is an album of Randy Newman covers, with an original album coming later in the year. Theres a sample of new single, “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” on his website, at www.jacklukeman.com. He is also playing two gigs on the 9th and 10th of October to herald the new album.

Snow Patrol (Myspace) are set to release “A Hundred Million Suns” in the very near future, having been recording for the last number of months. How will it sound? Who knows. I am hoping for some return to roots tracks that would not have been out of place on When This Is All Over, or Songs For Polar Bears.

Dirty Epics (Myspace) are keeping us waiting for “Straight In, No Kissin”, and I am still looking forward to it, even after an Oxegen set that I didn’t find totally riveting, there seemed to be something missing. Hopefully the chunky punk sound of Pony and The One will feature heavily.

Kings Of Leon (Myspace) will be flogging “Only By The Night” on September 23rd. Pre-released track Crawl sounds good.

And also worth a look, and in your local record shop/itunes now are the following:

The Script (Myspace) I know it ain’t cool or clever to suggest the number one album, but these guys make good music, not just disposable pop crap. Songs like Before The Worst, and The End are well written and considered, and I find them so catchy. And I knew about them when there were just playing support gigs to Newton Faulkner

Codes (Myspace) My favourite “doom rock” band. WTF is doom rock? I think Metro Dublin has been sniffing the glue. Anyways, get out and buy This Is Goodbye. Now.

Viva La Vida i quite good, and I have enjoyed We Started Nothing and Oracular Spectacular, but I am really looking forward to some new decent music at long last. Roll on he next few weeks.

Gig photography is fun

Was at the amazing Codes gig on Saturday night, and got to take some photos. My mate Eoin even put me on the guest list as Steven Nolan (Photographer). Take a look on flickr, clcik the widget on the right, but here are my favourite three pics of the night:

Late Night Music….

Ok, so it’s Monday, I’m in Dublin, Pam is in RTE, and I am hanging out on the net waiting for her to get home. When BANG, into my ears comes a rare delight, via both Pam and Kilko:

These guys, CODES, are absolutley amazing. I have blogged about them below, but this song is so good, it deserves a second outing. Catch them this Saturday, the 5th of July at The Academy, Dublin. This single, out now, is on iTunes, and I am sure in other more mainstream sources.

The State of the Music Nation

So, what have I been listening to lately. Well apart from the usual suspects, Foo Fighters, Newton Faulkner, Bell X1, Bloc Party and Jack L (where’s this new album eh?) I have been listening to some new finds.
Codes
This is the band I keep almost seeing live, having walked in just as the gig ended both in the Sugar Club in November, and last week in Cork, but despite that songs like Cities and Edith are quite good. I’m pretty bad at the describing genres of styles of music, but these guys are like a more assured Killers, with more interesting vocals.

Dirty Epics
Ok, so the only reason this band has come to my attention is a late night cruise of Channel 6, but they have this infectious rock/pop sound, best seen in songs like The Cure. Still getting to know them, but they are a really promising band, despite seeming to exclusively play fashion party gigs. Hope to get to Galway, back to Cuba, for a gig next week, but if not may have to iTunes the album.

Explosions in the Sky
Texas guitar based post rock. Sounds odd, but in reality is nice melodic and tuneful rock music (not rock, not rawkkk, nothing too hard here). Their music forms the backbone to the soudtrack of the film Friday Night Lights, and the TV series that kind of follows on, but kind of doesn’t. Both FNL and EitS are well worth a look.

Zoey Van Goey
West Cork meets Canada in Glasgow? Michael John McCarthy, the most famous brother from Ballydehob has formed a post Elephant band, and they are turning out really nice music. Songs like Foxtrot Vandals, Cotton Covering, and Songs to the Embers are all solid. Ep has been released, but is tough to come by here. Try to get a Scottish friend to get it for you, or rely on apple.

Pamela is also recommending some new music:
Amy McDonald, Ham Sandwich, The Ting Ting’s