Day 7. Soundtrack: Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi

Jo and I are on the 11-hour train journey from Montréal to New York. No idea where we are exactly because we’ve been drifting in and out of sleep and we have 12 stops before we reach NYC, but after a rude awakening and a brief Q&A with customs at the border we are now at a stand-still waiting on another train to cross us. Immigration weren’t that bad really, it was much worse when I was travelling solo a couple years back. The guy talking to us was Irish-American and loved the way Jo asked if we had to fill a “wee bit” on the bottom of a form. The Eastern European guy sitting opposite us got much more of a grilling, confusingly answering questions like what “colour his pants are”. They were light brown incidentally. Mine would be too if they talked to me like that..

We flew into Toronto last Sunday and spent a few days there. Downtown has lots of financial buildings but not a whole lot else. It’s not a bad city, but hardly inspiring. It meant we could see Niagara Falls though which is very humbling. Just look how fresh and delicious the greeny-blue water looks as it flows off the edge of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, which Louie, (our Italian-Canadian guide) tells us the Americans are jealous of. 

There are a lot of visitors based in Toronto, studying language business courses or doing their medical placements. The kind of people who soon grow weary of the hostel lifestyle, stop being backpackers and turn into that really anal housemate who huffs whenever they don’t get everything their way. A Dutch guy started working in our hostel recently and was sleeping in our dorm. He usually came in at 4am, made loads of noise getting into bed, proceeded to snore all night, giving us dirty looks and groaning in the morning when we got up to leave at 9am. Most people are respectful, but occasionally you run into a total moron, who really shouldn’t be hostelling.
On Wednesday we got the Greyhound to Montréal, saving us a few bucks on the train fare, which wasn’t much faster anyway. This dropped us at central station, where Joanna had to speak a few words of French to get us on the right subway line. Our hostel was really nice, had a café/bar in the basement and WIFI which kept me happy. The Old Town is very beautiful and we mostly spent the days just walking around, taking it all in. The city has such a relaxing vibe, at times it felt like we were in europe, not Canada which was a welcome change from the mechanical beast of Toronto. Breakfast in NYC, here we come…

On Wednesday I caught Andrew Maxwell at the last Queen’s Comedy Club of the year, promoting his free Conflict Revolution shows in The Rock Bar on the Falls Road and the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill on May 1st.

He was in Féile FM on Tuesday drivetime talking about underground sex bunkers and the like… Off-air he was chatting about just flying back from playing at Altitude, the alpine comedy/music festival in Meribel, France and he seems to be having a great time these days. He claims that these gigs are his chance to exorcise his political/sectarian jokes as Ireland moves on and there are other things to laugh about, like Belfast Telegraph road sellers.

A slight problem arose though in the date of the booking, as Rangers are playing in the UEFA Cup semi-final on May 1st. So to promote himself, Andrew drove up and down the Shankill on Wednesday in a De Lorean, asking Protestants to come to the gig, instead of watching their beloved Rangers…

Prod promo:

Taig promo:

I would love to hear what albums my fellow bloggers and readers would take with them on a long journey in USA/Canada. We’re talking two months, so if you could give 3 suggestions, that might get some conversation going?

Here’s my top albums for the boring parts of the trip…

1. The Chemical Brothers - Surrender
Summer vibe, goes from energetic to chilled in parts and then builds it up again. Hoooow doooes it FEEEEL LIKE…???

2. Boards Of Canada - Trans Canada Highway
Okay, this is more like an EP than an album, but it is VERY relaxing, will rid your journey of all noise and annoying people. Turn it up, bliss out!

3. Leftfield - Leftism
Seminal breakthrough album in crossover genres, never fails to impress me in that it can relax and uplift you in the same sitting.

What’s your choices and I’ll add a couple more on the ipod before leaving this weekend?

If you haven’t heard of The Jane Bradfords yet, what rock have you been hiding under? They were on BBC News for their chart topping in Qatar, they featured on NC podcast #3 and they’ve released their self-titled debut earlier this month on their own label.

With its lush tapestry of synth keyboard, beautiful shimmering rising guitar chords and well controlled electric drums featuring throughout, it would be easy to quickly judge The Jane Bradfords as just another indie-pop record without substance, the kind you read about in your local rag week-in-week-out; but no, unlike the cult drugsploitation flick that the band reference in their name and throughout the album, this is no simple one-sided composition; the lyrics and Declan’s warm vocals fill the LP with shades of sober thoughtfulness with the occasional melancholic moment: “Poor Jane Bradford…Where she’s going, you never can come back from, they said” -a reference to not being able to escape the addiction of cocaine, and “I’m gonna put these dreams aside for just a while, I’m gonna lock them away”.

Golden Ticket reveals the first turning point in The Jane Bradfords, brimming with hope “She won’t understand but I’ve got to go”. Other standouts include the cascading synth of Ninety-Nine, the catchy Hide From The Cold, swaying singalong of Little Miss Sunshine, the energy-fuelled Strategy #2 (Fight Them All) and the wonderfully subtle closer The Evening Angels Gather Here.

The Jane Bradfords should be enjoyed and celebrated as a great headphone album, with its harmonic blending of the tracks giving that ‘not necessary to skip’ quality and is best enjoyed with some top noche cans. Also noted is the production by Start Together Belfast and SaffMastering Chicago which is fuckin A. Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy: Light fades, stars appear, the evening angels gather here.

Independent tuneage this week comes courtesy of the very fine Crayonsmith, the understated Robyn G Shiels, Exmagician, much-touted to follow in Fighting With Wire’s footsteps Panama Kings, Ed Zealous, a fun remix from the usually very dark producer T-Polar and a recommendation of a download from Matt.

 Direct Download of No Clarity Episode #8

Full Tracklisting: 
Crayonsmith - Lost In The Forest (Buy on iTunes)
Robyn G Shiels - Wanderin Star
ExMagician - Lightning Struck A Deal
Panama Kings - Golden Recruit
Ed Zealous - Pretty Face
T-Polar - Mos Eisley
Muhr - A Lonely Gust Of Wind (Post) [Download from Monotonik]

Shaun and Rocky of Oppenheimer fame and fortune return with a second album next month and with it a video to blast us with some powerpop in a waterballoon massacre. Look Up / The Never Never 7″ single and download available on Fantastic Plastic Records on May 5th.

Watch them play it live on ATL TV and see the official video above. The best description of the band I think came surprisingly enough from the NME who said Oppenheimer were like a fizzing flying saucer scanning planet haribo. I say, E-number-licious.

Here’s the video for Derry’s electro DJing & production trio The Japanese Popstars new tune Delboys Revenge, out on 19th May on Limited 12″ (only 350 numbered copies then master lacquers will be destroyed). Taken from the forthcoming album We Just Are, due Summer 2008 on Gung-Ho! Recordings.

A message dropped into my inbox this week from Brian Philip Davis announcing a casting call:

“When Larry is officially named the Happiest Man in the World, he has no idea the effect that fame will have on his life. We’re holding auditions for ‘Happy as Larry’ a new short film written by Dave Kinghan and directed by Brian Philip Davis (The Poet and the Bear, Checkout).

The film is being produced under this years Deviate short film scheme which is funded through Northern Ireland Screen and the UK Film Council. You can download script pages for the characters we’re looking for here.

If you’d like to come along for an audition then please email immediately. Please include a headshot and CV. We will then contact you with a date and time which will be on the week of Monday 14th April. We look forward to hearing from you.”

April Fools Day sees the return of the NC podcast after our Easter hiatus, was it worth the wait? Tracks featured come from A Plastic Rose, Dry County, Driving By Night, (The!) LPX, Dr Lilt, The Vals, Sparks Fly and our first non-Irish featured band in the podcast series, Overview from California.

On the show I also mentioned Neils enjoyable weekly album blog, the Thundercrack Playlist and the musical Dallas of Ireland, LPX’s blog Easy Music For Difficult Ears.

 Direct download of No Clarity Episode #7

Full Tracklisting:

A Plastic Rose - All You Know And Love Will Die
Dry County - Another Idea [from the album Unexpected Falls]
Driving By Night - Fears Of Men [from the single Fears Of Men]
(The!) LPX - Seventeen [from the Seventeen EP]
Overview - Maybe Dead at 27 [via Penny Distribution]
Dr Lilt - Greasy Monk
The Vals - With You
Sparks Fly - Save Some For Me

Ever been at a gig where you wanted to shoot most of the crowd? Not with bullets of course, Northern Ireland has quite enough history of that thanks very much. And not in a malicious way either. In fact since the smoking ban has been introduced I have stopped leaving gigs scarred by drunken swaying idiots so have been coming away comparatively pleased. But this lot needed to be shot with a good kick up the backside. Or maybe the kids are just into pre-gig valium these days.

The Young Knives new album Superabundance was released, seemingly almost in secret, on 10th March. This was a whole two weeks before the gig and it showed in the void of participation. Most of the young crowd stood there staring at the band throughout the new material, unable to grasp that they even had a new album. Then when they played songs from the debut, it was as if by that stage getting into it would have spoiled the mood. This disconnected ambiance from the crowd clearly fed back to the band who seemed to be getting more and more irritated by the zombies in front of them. For a band known for their energetic live performances this was a positive insult.

They didn’t help themselves in many respects. The front men, (Henry and the extravagantly nicknamed House of Lords) constantly antagonising each other on stage began as humour but descended into cringe. Talking over themselves and Henry goading House to take his shirt off to show everyone how fat he was jarring the sensibilities of the crowd, merely contributing to the silence. “I know were not as good as Scouting for Girls or James T [sic]“, remarked Henry dryly and finally drew a reluctant chuckle from the crowd. They quite rightly rank themselves above the newest flash in the pan, if not in commercial success. None of the Young Knives singles or albums has broken the top 20 charts. It does seem geek-rock is off the musical agenda for today’s youth.

For their part the band played well, excusing some duff notes from House of Lords, and faltered only in their planning. The last song before they went offstage was too downbeat and left the crowd providing half-hearted cheers for more. They then kept two of their biggest hitters for the encore, Loughborough Suicide and Hot Summer. For these tracks the crowd stunningly remembered they were at a gig. Too little too late at the end though, maybe the valium had worn off.

A word on the support act: Bringing instrumental post punk to the stage, Norways ‘Ungdomskulen’ emerged apparently solely armed with a name everyone would have to go home and Google phonetically. Or at least they would if the music had any impact on the crowd. After 3 songs 60% of them went to get a drink. The band were fine showmen though. The singer threatened to have sex with the crowd if they didn’t like their favourite song as well as convincing the crowd to boo them before countering that they were going to prove everyone wrong, or they’d tell their dad. I’m sure they did.

 
Words by Jonny Milliken

The defunct Northern Irish supernatural filmmaking duo of Andrew Harrison and Darryl Sloan of Midnight Pictures have announced that not only will they be making films again, but that they have a 7-year marketing contract, (possibly due to a renewed interest in trashy low-budget horror films) specifically with their 2000 flick Dark Light about human-vampire hybrids in the military. So is this good news for the duo that have been working away for years up in Portadown on no-budget horror? Perhaps not…

Dark Light trailer:

Maxim Media Marketing, the company behind the deal have a notorious product for sale known as Traces Of Death, (successor to Faces Of Death) which is banned completely in the UK by the BBFC, due to it not having any “journalistic, educational or other justifying context for the images shown.” We’re talking real images of suicide, murder and animal torture- fun for all the family then!

Now, I don’t want to be all Mary Whitehouse about this, (I’ve watched a few clips, believe me… it’s enough) but there’s no doubt about it, this is the tip of the trash iceberg. Morally and artistically it’s total filth and genuine exploitation for nothing more than shock value while the owners of their DVDs oil up their rusty chainsaws in their living room before the next unlucky neighbour unwittingly rings the doorbell to ask them for Amnesty International sponsorship.

But wait… am I over-reacting? I have a huge horror DVD collection, some of it postively drenched in gore and I strongly disagreed with the censorship of films like Wes Craven’s seminal 1972 horror Last House On The Left, which only passed uncut in the UK a couple weeks ago. Pot….kettle? What about getting shopping from Tescos or Primark, isn’t that exploitation of cheap labour? Or DJs downloading mp3 albums, doesn’t that take away record industry jobs and ruin musicians’ livelihoods? Whatever you think, it’s certainly a moral can-o-worms and in a world were even Thom Yorke admits he’s a hypocrite, its a matter of your own judgement.

In other NI horror news, Belfast’s George Clarke has released a new trailer for his upcoming kung-fu zombie film Battle Of The Bone. Although it has a budget of £10,000, BOTB has a similiar look to Midnight Pictures films so I’m hoping the script is humorous enough to make it the next Omega Team Alpha Action Force Six Part II: The Return and with any luck Mr Murphy will have cause to put down that Diet Coke, pint of Harp, other product and/or leave whatever panel gameshow he happens to be on that week and get whitewashing his bedroom to bring back The Blizzard Of Odd, apart from the reason that it was superb Tuesday night telly.

Battle Of The Bone trailer:

There’s a piece on No Clarity published over at 4Talent Northern Ireland. The interview was carried out by Brendan Deeds at Sinnamon coffee shop Stranmillis, mid-February. All photos in the article taken by Matt Hazley except for one by Andy McMillen.

Hey guys, just to give a heads up; I’ll be leaving for Canada and the United States the last week of April. I’ll be back home in time for a stag in June, a couple weddings in July and August, a Scally Rally in early September (the ultimate banger rally!) and from then I’ll be continuing my travels a lot further afield. Where precisely? I’m still debating that, but I can safely say it may be some time before I come back to Ireland.The blog will continue with regular posting though and will no doubt evolve, (not matter what Ben Stein says) I’m not sure what into exactly yet… but I hope you’ll stick with me.

If you’ve been reading the blog up to this point, then you’re probably the kind of person who couldn’t give a damn about the latest hyped band and spit on your own cornflakes at the sight of yet another bandwagon jumped in your local rag. It ain’t the NC style and never will. I doubt that you’ll be bothered that I’m exposing you to artists from Belfast, Chicago, New Zealand or Hong-Kong so long as they are of quality.

In the meantime, if for some reason you meant to meet up with me for a coffee and a chat, now is pretty much is the time to do it. The podcast shall continue from next Tuesday after the Easter hiatus.

I’m being so lazy these days, but its because I’m on my holidays! Hopefully you’re having a nice Easter and you’re enjoying your own bodyweight in Caburys creme eggs. Thankfully, others are working their butts off for our entertainment, so here’s a couple sweet videos recently released from a couple Northern Irish bands.

First up is Undercover Martyn a track by Bangor/Donaghadee electro pop trio Two Door Cinema Club, filmed by the country’s finest music video maker Mr Brian P. Davis.

The second is an Ed Zealous video with a real behind-the-scenes feel, with lots of footage filmed by the band themselves and edited by Rich Davis from the up-and-coming Chewie Productions. The Belfast band look like they’re enjoying being on the road and painting the town red…

We all knew we were going to see an Eels gig. At least that’s what it said on the ticket anyway. If Kanye West had come out instead I would have been a little bit miffed. Though I’d like to think the crowd would have given it away. Nonetheless, scrapping the support act altogether to show an award winning documentary about a revolutionary physicist seemed a little far even for Mr Mark Everett, aka Mr E of Eels, to have veered. Even when the physicist happens to be Everett’s emotionally estranged father it still just tentatively resides in the realm of sense.

Fortunately any fans of Everett’s music know that most of it does not usually inhabit this realm anyway, so it seemed less confusing to a crowd who had indulged in the absurdity enough on CD to actually buy a ticket to the event in the first place. It emphatically said, “Welcome to Eels, you knew it would be an experience”. And indeed it was, from start to finish it was a catalogue of Eels hits from the years gone by. Only conspicuously absent was ‘Mr E’s Beautiful blues’ while It’s A Motherfucker, Souljacker, My Beloved Monster and even the idiosyncratic ‘I Like Birds’ were on full display. ‘It’s A Motherfucker’ especially held the crowd in its fist, fully penetrating the room after the support film had reminded everyone of its origins.

Many of the tracks were performed true to their originals while some were given live overhauls. At the end of a fine rendition of Flyswatter, the diminuating outro was thrown back into life as Everett exploded on the drums for another 2 minutes (Imagine the Gorilla from the Cadburys advert). This caused at least 3 people in my line of sight to nearly topple from their seats in surprise. Everett and his playing partner Chet followed this by, nearly seamlessly, swapping between drums and piano mid song. Twice. And these were not the parts which fulfilled the promise of Eels showmanship. It was coming.

Choosing to speak to the crowd infrequently, the Eels experience went on a rush of songs before tailing off to either a short acceptance or, back in the absurd, a pseudo-sermon. Everett, confessing that it would be far too pretentious to read from his own autobiography at his own gig, proceeded to make his partner Chet read out selections to the crowd atop a makeshift pulpit. Possibly the only way it could have been any more self-indulgent. But of course, that was the idea. Even when a typical Belfast heckler tried to impress his drunken mates with moronic asides Everett cut them down. None may interrupt when the gospel according to E is being read. On account of this performance, Amen indeed.

 
Words by Jonny Milliken

If you thought the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day would be a quiet affair in Belfast, you’d be wrong. Go see Cashier no9 on Friday night in the Black Box alongside Dry County. On Saturday, Malcolm Middleton is being supported by the sublime Tom McShane and insane-man-about-town Robyn G. Shiels. More info here.

How did you spend your St. Patrick’s Day? I went to see Anchorman @ the QFT. What a cracking event- We had someone in the front row who looked exactly like Ron Burgundy (Paul, who actually bought his suit in a vintage store in Milwaukee which “made the Rusty Zip look like TK Maxx”) and his lady friend was dressed as close to Veronica Corningstone as you’ll get…we also had a women dressed as the pregnant panda Ling Wong. Props to the girl dressed as a lamp and the person who carried a battery-pack with their lamp to be flashed at apt moments during the film.

The funky QFT DJ and strong ‘Sex Panther’ cocktails afterwards made for an interesting dance-off between Ron and Ling Wong for the coveted prize of scotch and decanter, and since the Panda couldn’t take off all her clothes, Ron deservedly won. Kudos to the organisors Cinephile Events and the QFT for hosting the event. Cinephile are debating whether to next screen Old School, Dodgeball, Zoolander, The Big Lewbowski or others. Let them know what you would like to see!

I screamed with fright the other night
When Christy jumped in beside me
He may be a legend in Ireland
But his body is hairy and sweaty
He drained the stout, he burped, he smiled
And then he told me a story
As his eyes were dancing in his head
They were doing the Waves of Tory

He said: “Things will get better Martin
From the moment you give up
There’ll be a permanent peace in Ireland
And to boot they’ll win the World Cup
From Finsbury Park to Beechmount
You’ve been drunk a million times
An addict and testament to
The Guinness family’s crimes.” 

As featured on last weeks NC podcast, you can download The Ballad Of Christy Moore for one more week after St. Patrick’s Day from The Popgun Plot myspace and check out the other tunes as well, especially the excellent Boy In A Biscuit Tin, Intellectual Supermodel and the insanely catchy Mr Debussy.

Well lads, as you can imagine I’m chuffed to bits to see Belfast’s Cashier no9 feature on page 4 (above) of the first issue of the delectable-smelling State magazine (do they lace the pages with crack or what?)

Not least because we featured Danny Todd’s folktronica back in January on NC podcast #1 and in NC’s ATL Glitch Mix but also because he is the only Northern Irish artist featured apart from an excellent four-page Stiff Little Fingers interview by editor Phil Udell, exploring the impact of their debut Inflammable Material, how it was recorded, their influences, how they in turn influenced so many and other less written about aspects of SLF such as their friction with Derry’s The Undertones. 

In other Cashier no9 news, I see globetrotting VJ Barry Cullen aka Dodgy Stereo has created a video for ‘I Kid You Not’, encompassing folk-pop, monophonic sound with subtitles and videos of a 1950’s supermarket with a weird Lynchian ackwardness to it. I love it!

Cashier no9 will play the several Belfast venues in late march and is supporting The Jane Bradfords at their album launch in April, check Danny’s myspace for up to date gig info and new songs.