Bedecked with bicycles

I never really enjoyed a backlash before, but Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" is nearly the ONLY song on the radio here in Ireland at the moment thanks to the offense taken by his fans at the recent version of "Hallelujah" covered by a singing reality tv star, who then actually released her reality tv version. The backlash brought Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah back up the charts, even though his version wasn't re-released, a Facebook group was of course set up, and it must have helped because he went to number 2. Ah there is too much information to sift through it all, Buckley's version already went to number one several months ago when it was sung by a different contestant on a different reality tv singing show.

So if i'm too lazy to dig through it all, I guess I just want to say that it's nice the radio stations are supporting Buckley's beloved version. It's a relief to hear him singing it rather than some bird off the telly. And if the nearly 150,000 members of that Facebook group are anything to go by, I'm not the only one..

Online downloads are tricky little things, from the percentage of the selling cost the artist actually receives, and the quality or usability of the track you buy...

I may have exaggerated a little about the 3 song playlist rotating on the airwaves at the moment. Another artist getting a few spins is Lisa Hannigan. Anyone who was in Ireland a few years ago (or anyone who watched the OC, or anyone, ever) amid the Damien Rice mania (Damania?!) will know Lisa's soft and haunting vocals. It's amazing to see what she is doing by herself. It feels like you can get a real sense of who she is by checking out her myspace, Lisa updates her own blog (check out her christmas post with a recipe for Mrs. Moynihans flapjacks, i'm sooo trying that) and her photos are class. Lisa on a hillside with some cows / lisa performing live / and my favourite - lisa lepping about with an umbrella. (Just looking at the photos agin now it just struck me that she could be Cat Power's Irish cousin).

I'm really excited now to get my hands on her first album, when I do a bit of shopping in Dublin on my way back to Berlin. It just came out a few months ago, "Sea saw" is the name of it, and when the radio show starts back again in the new year (January 5th) I will definitely add some songs to our track list.

xo

FASCINATION

Time to dust of ye olde blog. I've been blessed with a two week holiday for the christmas time and I am very excited to go home to Ireland and revel in the recession.

Tomorrow i have an afternoon flight so I am just packing at the moment (3.22am), the only things i have to pack are DIRTY CLOTHES. One of my favourite things to do is laundry, but I guess I haven't been indulging myself lately. I almost turned the washing machine on just there, but it IS the middle of the night, so I guess i'll wait til tomorrow. I'm making some mix cds to give as prezzles and one song I'm so excited to sneak on there is the Friendly Fires cover of Lykke Li's "I'm Good I'm Gone". Good job Friendly Fires! Achtung! They are playing in Berlin on March 7th in Bang Bang Club (that's a link).

How exciting about this new venue "Live at Dot" that has popped up in Kreuzberg?! There is an excellent burger eaterie at Schlesisches tor where good looking boys cook amazing burgers and chili fries. I went to visit them today to procure a cure for my hangover of doom, and in the display thing for flyers there was a set of cute looking flyers made on COFFEE FILTERS! NEAT! The information was stamped on and a little star was punched out. I was well impressed. I'm pencilling in the Sebastien Grainger date on Febuary 16th 2009. OH they're having a DFA label night with YACHT!!!!! (that's a link) 27th December, I'm not here but if you are you should go! Holy Ghost will dj and Moon Unit will also play.

Back to Sebastien Grangier (see photo). Did you know that Sebastian is one half of DFA 1979? And writes a food blog, Sebastien is delicious as well as being blessed with a voice of a hot guy in a band? Oh i just looked over at it and he hasnt updated it since August. But his last post does have a rather large paragraph dedicated to burgers. Yo Sebastien lets eat burgers when you're in town!

Hey this was fun. x

What a ho, What a tramp, What a slut

Russell Crowe wrote a letter to the Australian government assuring them that Snoop Dogg doesn't pose a threat to the country, since Snoop wasn't going to get a visa to enter the country and get his tour on, due to his criminal record. Well, that is funny.

Tilly and the Wall are back and they are really fierce! Before, they were fierce in a tapping, hand clapping kind of way. But now they're fierce like..handclaps and tapping plus swearwords and dirty guitars and bitches and hoes.

Great

this week is pretty good. i tried to hook a few friends up with jobs, only took one day off work to recover from the zooommmbbbbiie flu and now i just saw this video:



:)

Scarytale

a scary thing happened the other day. i was talking to a friend about a gig i'd been to a few months ago in Dublin, and i couldn't remember who the band was. i could remember the venue because it was the first night they were having a live band to play there, and it had sounded amazing. and i remembered that i randomly bumped into a friend i hadn't seen in years. ok it just came to be as i wrote this paragraph - sorry M83, you are amazing but the point is, i wanna try and keep track of the gigs i go to. i used to always look forward to writing about the night once i got home, i could never wait til the next day. but maybe i got stuck, it is very hard to write about music, almost impossible. but i guess that's the charm of it and you have to push yourself when writing to find highlights about the evening apart from pointing out how much you loved or hated the music...

there are some VERY GOOD CONCERTS coming up VERY SOON. there are even days this month when THREE VERY GOOD CONCERTS are all ON THE SAME NIGHT, hello September 24th.

Pete & the Pirates at Bang Bang Club
Futureheads at Knaack
Crystal Castles at Maria

Also won't be at home to answer the phone on the 23rd when Casiotone for the Painfully Alone plays at Westgermany, with support from Crayonsmith. And if I was here i'd be in a dither, i'll be away and not dithering but a bit sad i'm missing out on this night: Bon Iver plays at Postbahnhof and I'm from Barcelona play the Volksbuhne on September 28th.

Also going to start sending myself daily reminders about Metronomy on Oct 18 - must not book any flights out of the country or arrange to be anywhere else than inside Roter Salon wondering how they're gonna do the creaking door sample for Heartbreaker. Will they have a real live creaky door? With Metronomy I would not be surprised...

(by the way M83 are actually playing here Oct 14 in Lido)

i heard she broke your heart again..

Metronomy have a song called Heartbreaker and it's breaking my heart.

Like on Friday night when I arrived at Tape to see Santogold without my ticket and c o u l d n ' t g e t i n. Yes i really did forget my ticket. Before that, I had also nearly got kicked off the line up at death by pop when i arrived late. The S Bahn tracks are all messed up, and if it hadn't been so upsetting in the end, it would have been sort of funny.

But who cares, let's not dwell on the heartbreak, except when Metronomy are singing about it. I found the mp3 at Have Fun Club, you should "find" it too...Is that really a squeaking door sample???

Also breaking my heart is church tax. Isn't that sexy. Now that i've been working freelance for a year and have just became an official employee, i'm all paying taxes and shit. i'm also definitely getting into heaven because the german church automatically help themselves to €50 every month. i can get out of it, but it means having to run around to several beaurocratic institutions to inform them, i probably also have to tell a priest that i'm quitting the church, that's going to be a sentence i never thought i'd learn in German.

Catch Me When I'm Falling

What is going on around here? Alot of stuff. Santogold is coming to Berlin to play her first ever / only ever / pee your pants show in Germany tomorrow night right here in Berlin town! We are so lucky we have tickets we are going to see her, and her dancers, and the golden room of shields at Tape.

Another nice thing is Sunday's Best - an event by Wedding Dress & Street Clash, which is part of Berlin Fashion Week and has been curated by the inimitable Daryl of said blog, and also the best italo blog Radio No.1 (will forever be indebted to Radio No.1 for introducing me to the Passion Boys...Sally Shapiro and Fun Fun songs that I didn't know about, among others.) and I am kicking myself now because I was invited to take part and be a model but I said no. Well I said yes and then I said no. It would be so cool, but the the thought of walking down a runway in front of people..yikes. Yes, it's a concept show, Daryl says,

"I've rounded up twenty of the best dressed kids in Berlin and put them on the runway, where they will wear clothes entirely from their own closets. Berliner style in its purest form."

Sunday's Best, 20th July at Brunnenstr.64, see you there, but not on the runway * )

MELT is already happening next FRIDAY omg. Ladyhawke is playing live, so are the Teenagers and Kate Nash...and that's only 3 out of like, lots. It's gonna be dreamy! I even have a hotel room YO!!!! Maybe even breakfast included.

I must remember to organise festival necessities. I don't want to end up getting by with a pair o' wellies, some bananes and a rain mac in a bag to get me through the weekend. Actually I don't even have wellington boots. Let's see what happens..

Who Will Love You? Who Will Fight?

OH crap. there are 3 very good music events on tonight (sunday). Bon Iver at Privatclub, Bishop Allen at Roter Salon and Sunset Rubdown at Tacheles. I would sincerely love to see each band. shite.

An Apparition of Twilight Visions

Ok i nearly just booked a 300 euro flight to dublin to see Late of the Pier in Dublin this weekend. Cos i just found out they're playing with Midnight Juggernauts! But then I didn't because they (MJ) are in fact coming to Berlin real soon - June 15th, venue TBA. I think minus Late of the Pier, but hey.

Seriously though, i feel a strongly worded letter coming on. Something like:

dear Australian bands,

Please stop makin music videos that just show you playing your guitars and drums and trying to "sing sexy into the microphone". Ok? You are pretty sexy anyway, just don't over do it. Especially if you have facial hair.

Midnight Juggernauts - Into the Galaxy (video date Nov 07)


And more especially if you sort of look a bit the same as some other popular Australian bands that alreay made this kind of video.

Van She - Kelly (video date Oct 07)


And if you already DID make a flippin video like that, don't do another one, except this time with a black background. You aint foolin us...

new video for "Strangers" from Van She


and why do you mention "saturated fat" in your new song, eh?

Oh well. Australian music pretty much rules every dancefloor and mixtape being made right now!

It's Ok To Stay With You..

The Teenagers are now accepting admissions for a music video for their new song "Feeling Better"..which is basically gonna be put together from footage submitted by their fans, i.e me and you and everyone we know.

"And if you need a band

Cause you wanna dance

Or missing a friend

Cause you don’t have any

Well we don’t care

Just buy our tshirts

And talk about us everywhere

If you wanna dance-dance-dance-dance-dance-dance-dance..."

Some of their previous music videos have been created by the amazing Kinga Burza and Caroline London. I am sure there is lots of inspiration in that video catalogue: making out, dancing, lollipops, rollerskates, hotpants...The amazing lyrics to "Feeling Better" are available on their myspace player, the brief for the video: you singing along to the song.

Hey I'm Real Upset

I met up with my friend Sibilla this evening and while some crap German band played inside Maria, we took ourselves out to the moonlit "terrace" while Sibilla smoked a fag and i sipped an apfel-schorle. it turned out to be a dark, rat infested bench by the stagnant river. Ooh loverly! We discussed the merits of wearing white jeans and how good the new Late of the Pier song, FOCKER s. (That is just a link to the Myspace, where you can hear it. It is really good, it's out on Monday.) Look how excited they are about playing Dublin!



is that hard to see? well, there is an exclamation mark beside Dublin!

I wonder what is this "electronic music festival" they are lined up to play there. hmm?

Do you like to shake in your white denim? Please visit this blog post and download "shake shake shake" by White Denim.

Burn It All Down

i'm pretending that i'm not gonna miss Surkin + Boys Noise, Soko and fucking SCANNERS this weekend. F U C K I N G H E L L ! Tonight I was offered the chance to dj at the Scanners gig. Oh shit. But taking some time out in London is worth it no matter what way I look at it. Celebrating birthdays and catchy uppies on Primrose hill, going plimsole shopping on Cheshire street, and hopefully a chelsea bun and cup of tea or two the morning after boozing and dancing til the wee hours of the smoggy London morning. If you have any London tips for this weekend (we're making the weekend last until Tuesday) you can let me know. Otherwise, you better be in Berlin because this weekend is a-mazing. I'm still gonna make Death by Pop on Friday night by the way.

You, go, go, go, go

I have been srsly thinking about getting a new puppy, but whatever - Ladyhawke has a new kitty cat!!!



LUCKY US, she came to Berlin to dj at our expect excellence party two Fridays ago. Look what she did !

When I was on my way to the airport to pick her up, there was some problem with the train and we all had to get off..(and stand around looking annoyed and confused...). I sent her a message to see if she was alright hanging on for a bit. She wrote back, "I'm outside sitting on a blue bench - where the taxi's are parked - playing a video game."

The party photos went up last night here ! thanxxx to our partee photographer drea, who has a smashing new blog, here !

After we got home from the airport, when she was going through her music deciding what to play in her set, one particular band that came up was Pnau. She never mentioned it, but they've done this (((amazing))) track together called "Embrace". Tonight Pnau are playing someplace in London, I hope the kids get the version of the song with live vocals : )

(Image artwork above by Sarah Larnach).

It's Alright to be Me

Fritz Radio does a nice thing where they play one song from a new album they like every hour over the weekend. This weekend it's Midnight Boom from the Kills. The band gives a little intro to the each song too, which makes it "special"...Actually I just found the soundbites here at Popnutten. Cool! It's a bit funny to hear explanations for the songs that range from being inspired by Dostoyovsky to plain and simple "Making up lyrics on top of a drum beat". "Cheap and Cheerful" was requested last night at Death by Pop but I didn't have it. I am waiting for the 7 inch to arrive in my letterbox, not only is it a great song but the cover is brill:



Cheap and Cheerful - click over to get the song at !Tashed
blog.

Hot Date!
the Kills - 3rd April at Maria, Berlin.

Dance Floor Jam Packed, Hot as a Tea Kettle

Alot of bloggy type stuff happened lately. If it wasn't bumping into bloggy friends, actually enjoying having a read back over my first music blog, friends and sisters starting up their first ever blogs or just doing things i would like to write about in my blog - >



haha..I've got that bloggy feeling. O-oh that bloggy feeling.

Series 21 of Never Mind the Buzzcocks not only still has Simon Amstell still in it, but I'm noticing a hot indie boy trend, including in the episodes I've seen so far (thanks youtelly) Yannis from Foals AND Ryan from the Cribs. Ryan shockingly revealed his girlfriend is Kate Nash, well it was a bit of a shock to me. I didn't know..Unfortunately when the Cribs were last in Berlin during the summer, I asked the one that looks like Ryan, indeed his brother, "Is that your van outside?" and then he ran away. Only after did I realise that even though I only asked because I couldn't really believe they were travelling around in a shitty little grey van with bedsheets for window curtains, maybe it sounded like something else.

Where was I going with this? I don't know, here's some nice gig/fun thing dates for Berlin:


Sunday 9th March - Hot Chip at Lido!
Thursday 13th March - Buck 65 at NBI (random, anyone?)
March 10th - i dj at Monster Ronsons, ahoy!
March 12th - 1 of Babyshambles djs at Death by Pop (me too!)
March 20th - Juno gets released here finally!!!


That teakettle lyric was a revelation the other night. One of the naughtiest songs EVER has one the nerdiest lines I've ever heard, ever.

Tooraloo!

I Geuss You're Just What I Needed

It's not every Monday night that you get to sing "Just what i needed" with Owen Pallett in a karaoke booth. I arrived at Monster Ronsons totally jittery after a taxi nearly ran me down, it was an inch away, my hand was on the bumper when i screamed out in fright. i didn't have headphones on or anything, it just crept around the corner really slowly, and even though it was the green man for me and i had on a bright white jacket and hoody (yeah the hoody was blocking my vision on the side so I couldnt see what was coming) he didnt see me or stop til he was millimetres away...fucking hell! I drank two strong whiskey and gingers really fast when i got to the bar, which is probably why i was jumping up and down on the seats in the karaoke booth all night rapping, and pretending to be Britney Spears - which was more fun than usual since the booth was also full of gorgeous gay men, one of whom I have a date with hopefully at the end of the month to stuff our faces at Bobo, that amazing burger place on Wexford Street in Doobalin.

Wow, I just got a flashback (much better than the one of me "singing" Whitney Houston last night...) of an amazing singer who sang the last song of the night..she said she was in a band called Fancy. Unfortunately there seem to be alot of Fancys out there. Hm..

On Saturday afternoon me and Ladyhawke went for hangover food (burgers at Kreuzburger) and afterwards we went plug shopping for her Australian mac at a random store on Oranien Str called YES ELECTRIC! I nearly got a flashing lcd star necklace, that store has everything...I did get a new wire for my internets. Riveting, I know. But, I keep tripping over the fucking thing and yanking it from the wall. Then i go for weeks without a phone or internet connection cos i never have time to go get a wire. Well i got one! And i just plugged it in. So now i can be on the internets all the time and tell you about burgers and karaoke. Yay!

Do You Love

Sometimes it's one of those weeks when Ladyhawke is staying over at my house, and Peaches introduces me to Joel Gibb and Owen Pallett is like "hey, i love your jumper!" and the singer of Deerhoof is doing the crab on the floor backstage after the Maximum Black Festival and Owen joins in and nearly breaks his back and Planningtorock tells me about her dream cottage in San Francisco and I find out from Shane about a bar in Friedrichshain that is a dedicated Big Lebowski establishment!

Ladyhawke showed me her brand new video for "Back of the Van", by the amazing Kinga Burza, who has directed some of the bestest music videos of late, "Foundations" and "Homecoming". "Back of the Van" will get a special release on vinyl with some fantastic cat artwork. I CAN'T WAIT!

We had the first fantastic Expect Excellence party of '08 last Friday, the djs were amazing, and the party pictures that tell all are coming soon : )

Saturday night at Scala we got to dance the last few hours of the night away to a set by OKAY & OKAY. The two girls with feathers in their hair played really stand out tracks, including this amazing Hercules featuring Antony Hegarty and some MSTRKRFT remix that I had never heard before on the All Saints.

I feel really lucky now that I've seen Dirty Projectors twice. Last night just cemented that for me, they played the most stunning set. I got their new record, "Rise Above" and one of their tote bags too : ) Dave Lonstreth, the front man made a nice comment about Berlin, he said something like, when travelling around Europe, he often finds that some cities are a reflection of places back home in the US, but Berlin doesn't really compare to anywhere, it's a "magical fantasyland".

He has been around you, and he knows you and you are stuck together

Rollin Hunt is an American musician who recently came to Berlin to play at Foerster. There was no mic stand in the house, so a little bit of improvisation later he performed his set singing into a microphone held by a mannequin positioned beside him on stage. There is an amazing new song for 2008 on his page. I think you should have a listen.

Tonight

There are alot of Tonight's to look forward to, I've been looking for this one for a long time. I went to visit Stockholm last September and while I was standing around at lovely Debaser waiting for the Shout Out Louds to throw maracas at my head, the dj played this song that was totally enchanting and even though I asked him for the name and he told me and showed me the 7 inch, i could never get it right whenever i tried to search it out once I got home. Maybe the funny Swedish pronunciation or maybe I was just meant to wait..It's no coincidence that her name sounds like "Luckily" because we are so lucky to have Lykke Li! (Sorrreeee). But you can get Tonight for free on her myspace page.

I am still recovering from seeing Jens Lekman play at Lido last night..oh dear. What is that instrument like a rectangular box that you can hold in your hands, and sort of thrum these metal wands (?), it sounds like a music box. Wow. Lido was so packed you couldnt move a centimetre any which way, and everyone stomped and clapped and shouted for FOUR ENCORES. he finally came out and said he just can't play any more, but thank you so much, he can never resist stomping and he would really like to go dancing after doing a silly interview backstage actually. It struck me for some reason when he didn't walk offstage, he stood there and received our applause.

This Friday at DeathbyPop is going to be EXTRA SPESHULL because my friends Erik & Robin from Jailhouse Fuck are gonna come and dj in the downstairs area! You will probably hear The Shangri Las, Fox N Wolf, Leila K, Madonna, the Slits, maybe Kriss Kross or perhaps Virgin Mega Whore.

Don't tell anyone but i got a really bad crush on the Kooks this week!!!!! Oh my god - what is wrong with me? Their new song though is so catchy and poppy and has a do-do-do-do-do-do-do chorus...and really, that Luke Pritchard is a bit of alright. Plus I think he seems to be a kind of a sweet person, but interviewers always seem to just take the piss out of him. Well the single isn't out til March, and I can only find a radio rip of it after searching all over the whole internet, Indie Dancefloor has it.) I even checked up if they have any tour dates coming up...JUNE 16TH IN COLUMBIAHALLE!!!

This video from Glastonbury is quite good! He even has rock n roll mumble.



Oh did i tell you?