Simply beautiful..

I was lucky enough last night to be feeling a bit “wakey” so when I switched off my Mac at 11.30 I went back into the living room instead of making the left turn to the bedroom, despite that fact that I knew my missus was going to wake me up when she got up at 5am to take her horse to the RDS.

I flicked on the tv and was grateful to find the Culture Show starting on BBC 2, I assume it was a repeat at that stage - there was certainly a lot more swearing in the post-watershed screening.

It was a bumper episode with a great piece on Metallica and the amazing Vasari Corridor of self-portraits in Florence but what really blew me away was Goldfrapp’s opening performance of their track “Eat Yourself”. Obviously I’m biased given my love of finger picked guitar - so the use of the harp for the hook is right up my street; the orchestration of the whole tune is perfect - fantastic vocals and really really mature and restrained use of instruments.

Goldfrapp Eat Yourself on the Culture Show from Mike Owen on Vimeo
.

Can anyone else hear the Glen Campbell version of Wichita Lineman in the sound they’ve used on the bass guitar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU

Here’s something completely unrelated but rather lovely; Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billy Joe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc

Another mini-post anyway, I’m off work to study today and I slept in ’til 10am (did you stay up late?.. ahem) so I should get down to it.

Death Cab for Cutie

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks and despite a downloads folder full of tunes ready to be explored from Mike, Simon and Kev (P), it has also be a musically blinkered couple of weeks.

I’ve been listening to Death Cab for Cutie pretty much on repeat. The albums of choice being Plans, Narrow Stairs and Transatlanticism.

The reason is down to being overwhelmed by life. Deadlines for my first two submissions for my two current modules of my MSc.; trying to get the recording of The Credits new demo sorted so that we can get ourselves out there gigging; my other half preparing for competition down at the AIRC festival in Stradbally last weekend and let’s not even think about how busy work is or the fact that any time I’m sitting down trying to study, ideas for the novel keep interrupting me and the need to play guitar and write songs gets more intense than ever!

The upshot is that I’m knackered, sunburnt, hayfever ridden, scared of everything, song weary and desperate for some raw relaxation. Wheel in Death Cab for Cutie please.

These guys write some of the most chilled, melancholic pop I’ve ever heard. Plans is a simply beautiful album; Soul Meets Body is bouncing and hopeful when the hard-panned “ba ba ba ba ba ba” (left) and acoustic guitar (right) kick in while Summer Skin is downbeat and mournful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0hTJF7xqV0

I listened to What Sarah Said on the bus tonight as it trundled along Clonkeen Road in Deansgrange and was thankfully taken far far away from the smelly fucker sitting in front of me with his rapidly escaping and body odour infused selfosphere to an introspective, story driven tunescape - that this song then goes straight into another equally as strong (Brothers on a hotel bed) was further welcome relief in the lashing rain in the walk home from the bus stop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1SZvhCNIY0

I’m not going to go into any detail on Transatlanticism or Narrow Stairs - suffice to say they both pick up the progression nicely. You can really feel this band grow over time - the music matures and gets a little more edgy and more consumable simultaneously. All I’ll say is that The New Year is a fantastic tune to open an album with - ridiculously huge stereo spread on the guitars and for a split second it feels like it’s going to be Doves - Lost Souls. “I Will Possess your Heart” shows that maturity I was talking about, musicians comfortable with each other.

Lastly, what the hell does the little guitar lick in Transatlanticism itself remind me of?? - it’s straight out of another track.. can’t remember what the hell it is though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84TmrJpBCw

If you aren’t familiar with Death Cab for Cutie, I highly recommend checking these guys out. The slightly mournful tunes have a surprising way of raising spirits. Even if you are in Santa Carla, I urge you to listen to these guys on a grey, rainy day in Dublin (Ireland, that is).

They’ll be touring the UK in July - no Ireland on the schedule I notice. That’s a real shame.

My Asus wEee PC - PC900

I’ve had my Asus Eee PC900 for over a week now, it’s currently perched on my lap and I’m tapping away in Google docs rather than Blogger (for a change). A very mixed set of first impressions - dampened slightly by my own bad eyesight which was always going to be a gamble when considering a “laptop” with an 8.9″ screen.

The size of this machine really comes as a surprise, even after seeing the various videos on YouTube - it’s friggin tiny!!! .. unlike most of the competitors though, the keyboard is big enough to touch type on once you get used to the scaled down positions. Asus have obviously cut many corners in getting the price as low as it is for a machine with the capabilities of the PC900 (no point in going into detail on those, just check the Asus website). As a result there are already noted hardware flaws being discussed and analysed among the user community - these included serious RAM upgrade issues with inconsistency between behaviour of individual machines and various memory modules. The power jack on mine feels very fragile and you have to get it at just the right angle for the system to register that it’s charging.

On the music front, it’s got a re-badged version of Amarok as the main player, which is great - but its handling of podcasts leaves much to be desired. I loaded up the XML feed for Featureplan.com’s Product Management View webinar archive and Amarok couldn’t distinguish the image downloads from the audio leaving me with zillions of links to sift through in order to get at the precious MP3s hiding away. Very frustrating, I don’t know yet if this issue is common to all versions of Amarok or just the mod’d version on the Eee PC900.

Freemind, I got up and running in no time at all and it’s going to be as useful as ever, PDFs all look great at full screen, including rotated and read like a book. One minor grievance, again for someone with bad eyesight is that the “Read Out Loud” function is not available in Adobe Reader, again I don’t know if this is an Asus Eee specific thing (perhaps due to the limited hardware) or common to the Linux release - perhaps a passing expert can help me with these techie questions?

An additional slight concern is the level of the audio output which seems quite low even at full volume, I’ve ordered a new set of noise excluding headphones, so we’ll so how I get on listening to a spoken podcast on a noisy bus in rush hour with those. The current volume level from my clip on Philips headphones can’t cope with a bunch of noisy schoolkids nearby!

My next challenge is testing multitrack recording - this would be utterly fantastic, if I could pop the Eee in my bag and bring it to rehearsal sessions - hopefully jacking a couple of output busses from the mixing desk into a wee external USB audio controller like the Alesis IO|2. I’m out of my depth though, my use of Linux to date has been working knowledge; enough for any enterprise Java software developer, a bit of Vi here and there, Tomcat, Apache and permissions twiddling etc. so figuring out how to get the necessaries to install one of the available multitrackers for Linux and get it working is scary ground.

Lastly I should mention that video playback seems pretty good - I haven’t watched a full movie yet, but I’ve loaded up an 800mb DivX AVI and both sound and picture seemed perfectly satisfactory - I see easing of long flights ahead! As a curiosity, below is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7WB_Bd52s) that I recorded on the built in webcam, the mic is pretty crap, the resolution is 320x and there are clear synchronisation issues - it does record at 640x but unfortunately it freaks out and fails- big shame.

I’d stress the little issues like these just can’t take away from what Asus have achieved with this machine - a truly mobile and fantastically high spec micro laptop at a sensationally low price; SDD storage, Wifi, Ethernet, 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA out and SDHC. As a sidekick to my Macbook Pro; whether reading PDFs on the bus, watching ETL video podcasts in the evening or mindmapping my study notes in Freemind; this little machine is simply excellent.

Perhaps a Firewire 800 port on the next version and better behaved multi-touch for the touch pad. Sorting out of the intentionally crippled RAM and underclocked CPU would be great but shedding heat is always a problem on the smaller machines so again, we can’t take too much away from Asus. So what’s next?

• Well I’ve got a 16GB SDHC card on the way to act as my main file storage so that I can keep the little 20GB SSD drive as empty as possible. I also need to get a decent case for it.
• The little neoprene case that comes with it is great and nicely padded but not sufficient as the sole protection.
• An external USB audio controller - I actually have a Tascam US-428 but it’s huge and defeats the purpose.. well and I’ve already long term lent it to Darren for tracking his songs ready for the band. Obviously I’ll only do this if I can sort out the multitrack software conundrum

I’ll come back to this blog entry later as I get more used to this funky, tactile and quirky little machine and we’ll see how the new headphones go..

Thanks Jools

I’m tired - like really really bloody tired and I’m not sure if it’s being made worse by Spiritualized who are currently across the way on Jools Holland’s Later playing Sweet Talk. It’s a good song but they’ve always been just a little too downbeat for me; I have some friends who rate them very highly but I like a little more red mist with my guitar noise.

It’s been a long week; I’ve been working with the two Kens. One at work, where we’ve been hammering away on various new features for OpSource™ Billing and one in the studio, where it’s been a sweaty struggle getting to grips with our new Roland V-Drums setup. Realising the potential of this new way of recording is going to take some time but I think, hope, that it’s going to yield great results. As it happens it’s the method of recording that The Feeling have used for both of their albums so far. I can only hope that we have some of the songs ready to share soon, Darren is settling in on the bass, getting up to speed on the set. Feverishly writing basslines from pretty much scratch, for some thirty songs isn’t a trivial task. Hats are off dude.

The lethargy arrived just minutes after being utterly energised by an acetic and aggressive performance by Santogold of her current single Les Artistes - what a strong track and with a kickass video n’all. I can’t wait to buy the album.

Also, a simply beautiful rendition of Killing the Blues by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant from their album Raising Sands. It’s an album which hasn’t (thus far) sat well in my collection; despite being a massive Zep and AKUS fan - so I should be the ideal demographic!

Christ this is a pretty good episode of Later, Chris Difford (former band mate of Jools Holland in Squeeze) just sang a brilliant tune called “Battersea Boys”, Emmylou Harris is singing now (stunning as ever) and we’ve also had The Fratellis; an act I’m not quite ready for yet - they’re so hot right now.

That’s it for now - I might go on a geek-fest next week as I’ll be getting my hands on an Asus Eee Pc 900 - first one in Ireland perhaps?

Summer here, kids!

to celebrate the appearance this week of our rarely-seen friend, the Sun, here is a themed mixtape for you. Hopefully I’ve avoided too many of the usual suspects (well, the Sinatra song is a bit obvious, but it was used in that great Simpsons scene).

I’m sure it’ll be chucking down tomorrow, but never mind for today we tan!

CLICK CLICK CLICK –> http://farmertan.muxtape.com

Driving in the Shade

A grey Saturday morning accompanied by passionate music by Shade, a band from Pittsburgh in the US. The tunes remind me a lot of modern UK acts like The Longcut and dark, introspective stuff from Joy Division. Metal Drums also has a lot of Sonic Youth and Breeders about it. I challenge you not to hear Interpol in Wide Eyed.

Good tunes all, that have me moving from MySpace to iTunes in a move of instantly gratified consumerism. Of course the feeling was then scuppered by having to jump through several hoops as iTunes tells me (after searching for the album and clicking “add to cart”, that I can’t buy it from “this store” and I must use the iTunes Ireland store.

A) There’s no way of explicitly selecting a store
B) It doesn’t tell me what “this store” is.

Surely Apple’s developers can do better than this.. you know who I am and where I am from my iTunes login, iTunes machine authorization and IP address - just take my search criteria and throw them down the right pipe, stop wasting my time.

Back on track, the album “Arms Raised On Rooftops” is dowloaded, my Mac humms softly and the CD is promptly burned for listening in the car on the way over to my parents place for some free food. Carpet bagging as my Dad refers to it. It isn’t my fault they buy tasty stuff and then leave it lying around.

Driving is a pleasure these days - I’ve just collected my little plastic car from England where it was having some modifications done and as a confirmed petrol head I’m really enjoying the increased performance that the new engine has brought and the upgrades to the brakes and suspension have improved the handling massively. I can now avoid the bank manager and the nice people from VISA with greater and safer haste. Getting a stereo fitted was a religious choice, extreme car fans will tell me I’m betraying the cause and pragmatists will buy Arms Raised On Rooftops and enjoy listening to it while they drive to the shops.

The drive back on the A roads through Wales was spectacular and fun as always. It’s a part of the world I really love, towns like Llangollen and Betws y Coed - the A5 winds its way through breathtaking mountainscapes, it’s a driver’s dream. There was still plenty of snow on the peaks which is pretty amazing really for the last week in April. The photo was taken on the bank of Llyn Ogwen by the way.

That’s all for now - listen to Arms Raised On Rooftops by Shade, it’s good stuff.

Sunday morning back ache

Seeing as Mike mentioned the Ting Tings, I feel obliged to do a little follow up post.

It’s about 7.45 in the morning, it’s Sunday - I was woken up at 5am by my other half getting up to go to a show jumping competition and for some reason my back is fucked. That happened yesterday and I don’t know what the hell caused it - I wasn’t even doing anything, just walked from the bedroom to the living room. One second I’m fine - the next I’m in pain and can’t bend over.

So here I am, about to watch the start of the London marathon and with 4Music on in the background. A two song sequence really catching my attention.

First up - Goldfrapp - A&E

Stunning video, really original, with the beautiful Alison in the middle of a forest while around her, patches of leaves and the surrounding foliage come to life and dance to this chilled pop song (which has a distractingly edgy and breaky, arpeggio’d middle section). Every time I hear her voice I fall in love with how she can dip down to lower ranges and still sound perfectly smooth, they’ve really focused on that in this mix.

Immediately following A&E came the Ting Tings - Great DJ
Liam has already mentioned this track in a previous entry and it’s great. I love this tune, it’s simple, nicely produced and very, very catchy. Admittedly, there’s something about the video that irks me and it may just be the more than striking, body language similarity between herself and Debbie Harry - is it an affectation? - I don’t know, I’ve never met her (or Debbie Harry). Since I don’t know, I can only assume innocence and with a track this good and a video that’s otherwise this good, I think guilt could should be forgiven as a nod to the great anyway. I could listen to it all day. I have to echo Liam’s frustration at not being allowed to embed this video directly from YouTube - so I’ve embedded it from MySpace TV; the cynic in me is crying at the exclusivity arrangement that’s clearly in place there, at the cost of the availability of the media to the fans - i.e. those who consume it and ultimately pay ALL the wages.

The Ting Tings -Great DJ
My back is starting to hurt again from sitting here slumped over my Mac, so I’m off. I suspect I’ll be going to the doctor rather than to work tomorrow morning .. and considering I’m meant to be driving across the UK next week, I’m more than a little worried.

Enjoy the Moto GP - go Rossi, it’s time for the come back!!

Spring Winter Spring Summer

Argh! This weather would drive you potty! It has me thinking though, I’m
pretty sure that somebody (Most likely Liam) could write a thesis that
reflects how the change in weather somehow manages to reflect the change in
mood of the listener.

In Ireland we have schizophrenic weather. Luckily the musical calendar will
accommodate this. In the last month or so my music collection has been
bolstered by new material from different genres. I attribute this varied mix
to the dramatic changes in weather.

Foals
Does it offend you yeah
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Elbow
Seether
Supergrass
Bright Eyes
Bobby McFerrin
Black Keys
Utah Saints
Portishead

Ok the Bright Eyes album,

Cassadaga

This from about 2 years ago but I’m only getting around to listening to it now so this makes it new to me

With new material from Tindersticks, The Ting Tings and the excellent Sigur Rós there should be a good summer ahead both musically and meteorologically.

Anyway back to my point, Yes there is one. I woke up this morning (late as usual) jammed on my iPod to shuffle my tracks. Jumped on my bike and off I go.

First up was Bright Eyes with a song called “No one would riot for less”. This is a song that I shouldn’t like but for some reason today I do. It’s sunny out but its also bloody freezing cold. I’m running late so I don’t have time to go rooting through my pockets to hit next. It’s a political song, not my usual cup of tea but damn you it’s a grower. As a result I’m going to be giving a bit more time to this album later on.

Track and video can be viewed at the usual location.

“No one would riot for less”

I’ve hit a hill. The sun is in my face. It’s warm and the track has changed. Next up is Does it offend you yeah with a track called “With a Heavy Heart”. I don’t think Stephen Roche pedaled this fast to win the Tour De France.

I would encourage you to introduce this to your gym workout or as a power song while jogging. This song does come with a Warning! If you use this track while practicing Martial Arts you will be wanted for murder! What a tune.

“With a Heavy Heart…”

Downhill all the way to work now. Freewheeling in, Its still sunny. Foals with “Balloons” is on. Its a cracking pop song and this is a band that I can’t wait to see at this summers Electric Picnic. The track takes me right to the front door at work and sets me off in a good mood. Its very
rare I turn up to work in good mood unless I have had my coco pops.

“Balloons”

It’s almost Five. Day is almost over. It looks kinda dreary out. I have cheated already to see what track is up next. Its Portishead, “Machine Gun” Something tells me I’m going to be soaked by the time I make it home.

“Machine Gun”

Article by,
Mike Moloney

Modeselektor - Hello Mom

Every now and then you listen to an album that just blows your head off.

I listened to Hello Mom from Modeselektor this morning on the bus on my way to work, it’s utterly bloody brilliant. From 2005 and on the German “Bpitch Control” label it’s a collection of electronic tunes with tons of variation and buckets of noise.

The tracks vary from industrial scary stuff to mellow break driven analogue buzz that wouldn’t be out of place on early Aphex Twin albums all the way through to synth jangle that would fit in with an old school trance set.

Particular tracks of note are “Kill Bill Vol. 4″ and “Vote or Die”. The former starts off with a conversation in a nightclub before kicking into an urgent, intense buzz saw of a track that had me holding on to the bus seat for dear life, knowing I should turn down the volume but refusing to.. you know those nightclub moments when it gets a little too much and you *really should* leave? - a bit like that.

When “Vote or Die” came round a few minutes later I was speechless; five minutes of totally consuming ethereal light break that has my head moving from side to side as I write these lines. One of those tunes that becomes an immediate sound track to whatever you are looking at. In my case a load of tired blokes working on a construction site on the Rock Road became an fitting early morning music video. Strange but it worked and it was really quite appropriate that I was just a few metres from the German embassy.

I shouldn’t go any further without talking about the first track on the album (Dancingbox featuring TTC), it’s a slickly produced hip-hop track (could they squeeze any more genres in there?) that gradually eases from rap into a four to the floor club stomper and back again; I challenge you not to dance each time the stuttering chorus line kicks in.

I don’t often say this but don’t think about it - just buy it; it’s 9.99 euro on iTunes.. basically free for music this good.

*nod to Kev P as ever*

Driving…

Music and driving are intrinsically linked these days, every media image that we see of a vehicle is coupled with music intended to convey a lifestyle that we *need* to be a part of and every tune that we hear while driving makes us tackle the road ahead in a different way based on tempo, style and our personal emotional response.

It’s been a couple of years since I last commuted by car, in my humble but loved, Honda Integra, that had yet to be sullied by the modifying hordes. I’m sure that it has long since passed over that particular bridge being one of the vehicles of choice for the pimp brigade.

Back then I had a two hour commute from Donnybrook in east Dublin over to that furthest reaches of the city at the edge of Rathcoole in west Dublin.

In that time I consumed a lot of music. I found that certain favourites dropped off the list when it came to driving and unexpected albums and individual tracks became firm “behind the wheel” regulars and this I put down to the chemical effect of the driving experience itself and I guess you have to bind in the age group, gender, personality and vehicular preference of the driver himself. Ahem.

An early favourite for driving was Oasis‘ debut Definitely Maybe; Columbia in particular would result in a slight weight increase in my right foot and a genetic regression in terms of attitude..

Another two that I always came back to on a regular basis in the car were the Orbital brown album (sometimes referred to as Orbital 2) and Diversions. You probably know already that I’m going to mention Halcyon and Lush 3 (1-2) - the combination of these tunes and driving from Glencullen to Rathcoole across the high speed back roads of the Dublin mountains is exhilarating, addictive and bloody dangerous. At 6.30am on a foggy February morning, you simply focus on the rear lights of the car ahead and try to keep up so that the car behind doesn’t crash into you.

The last two that I’ll select from this period are an entire albums from Editors, The Back Room and Goldfrapp’s Supernature.

boomp3.com

When I had driven out to City West from the other direction (Foster’s Avenue - Dundrum - M50 - Firhouse), I would spend a lot of time stationary and songs like Munich and Sparks kept me sane during those periods. When it was particularly grim and I was watching the kids in Jobstown racing their lathered horses against other kids with no crash helmets on motor scooters with the ignition smashed off, Blood seemed more appropriate (by name). It’s laughable that the council turns such a blind eye to the animal abuse that goes on out there on a daily basis. It’s not like it’s difficult to see.

boomp3.com

Supernature was a going home album only, a gold foil, disco infused lift to elevate my spirits for the much longer slog back across the city, particularly for the most demoralising part - bumper to bumper from the M50 exit at Ballinteer into Dundrum, across to Goatstown and down Foster’s Avenue all the way to the N11. A sigh of relief on the slip road at Belfield and a crunch of gravel; back home at Cranford.

Other albums listened to regularly on those commutes included:

• Placebo - Without You I’m Nothing
• Led Zeppelin 1
• Turn - Forward (much underrated album from this little known and now disbanded Irish group)

Then something weird happened. Firstly I changed job (joining LeCayla) and my commute by car evaporated to be replaced by the humble and wonderful bicycle - music was quickly replaced by podcasts such as the Stanford ETL, after my lack of concentration resulted in sliding over the bonnet of a taxi who hadn’t use his F*****G mirror.

I no longer needed a truly practical car so I was able to consider my options and indulge in another passion that had been hiding since I’d sold my motorcycle as a teenager… I sold the Integra and bought a car with no stereo, a stripped down and very basis version of the GTM Libra.

I have always loved sports cars and I spend a lot of time ogling creative examples of the human desire to get injured at speed. Everything from the sublime, near perfect, Mazda Mx-5 to the ridiculous beauty that is the Lamborghini Murcielago and the spectacular results of optimistic, small manufacturers like Phantom, Javan, Ginetta (G20 pictured left) and Fisher that survive through focusing on the self-assembly market.

The last four I’ve mentioned are unknown to most (and yet again I call upon you all to read The Long Tail), there is a wealth of wonderful, practical and exciting vehicles that are not necessarily expensive out there, ready to be discovered by those wanting something a little special.

The Libra (pictured right) by GTM, who were recently acquired by Westfield owners, Potenza, is a nimble, rear engined, 2 seater coupé running various engine offerings from the humblest 1.1 Rover K-Series to Honda Type-Rs and the insanity of a dual turbo Audi V8!

My little Libra is currently in UK having some serious upgrades put in. A couple of 4am rises separated by a drive across Wales and England and I felt a little strange walking away from the car at Talon Sportscars’ workshop to have a new engine (double the BHP), new dashboard and instruments, suspension and braking system upgrades and at last, the return of music while I drive - a stereo fitted!

I had tried using an MP3 player with portable speakers sticking out of the glovebox but as both Ed and Steve can confirm, this was pretty much useless on the trips to and from Westport for Ed’s Stag weekend; the musical discussion on each leg of the trip was more about trying to figure out *which* Beatles track was playing.

… all that’s left now is for me to select a number of CDs to bring over for the drive home!