2009#02

Album with highest ratio of good music : bad album art

Asuna – Flowers

Maybe I just don’t get it. Am I not getting something here? Is it supposed to be ironic? Well, album art aside, this is a very good release. Repetitive sample based ambient drone work, with a hint of daedelus-esque hip hop thrown in here and there. I would recommend you look into it!

2 more categories after the jump!

2009#01; Greatest sleeve of 2009 goes to…

So yeah. I’ve decided to give some “Greatest x of 2009″ awards, in order to shield myself from boredom (and of course to amuse and enlighten you, kind reader). You can expect some unique categories such as “Greatest release of 2009 which it would be lame for me to admit liking” and “Greatest album of 2009 that I didn’t listen to”, but I will also be going through some of the norms, such as “Greatest EP” and “Greatest Irish album of 2009″ (still uncertain on whether I’ll do a definitive “greatest album”). I’ll hopefully be able to point you in the direction of something you haven’t heard before, or at least write interestingly about ones you have heard before. I’ll get onto the first category after this small jump; I know you can make it!

Introducing; Kindness – Gee Up

I found this band on a nice little blog that goes by the name of Keyboards is Drunk. It’s a shame I have to introduce this band without knowing alot about then. Maybe you’ll get to know them better than me, run off with them and start a romance with them before the party is over. And there is indeed a party here. I literally had this song on repeat for an hour straight earlier today, and for about 64% of that time, I was dancing around this small room like a crazy ghetto fool from an early 80′s dance special, but my lord, it felt lovely. This is a new take on funk; funk filtered through a skinny nerd version of Zach Condon with undertones of brilliance and a love affair with harmony. Download links available here. I’m going to be safe and inb4 pitchfork this one, just incase (I was right about Girls, but that was a given).

Just did a guest post…

over at the lovely those geese were stupefied blog. Not sure why I’m saying this, considering any traffic this blog gets will be from that post. oh well; link.

click

[PS, I'll probably start putting more things on this blog when I have more time/things to write about.]

Pavement to go on European Tour

weeeeeeeeeeee

4th May Dublin, Ireland – Tripod

Wowee Zowee really doesn’t get enough lovin’.

This may mean I’ll be seeing Pavement 3 times next year! Yikes, lets hope for drastic set changes.

Patrick Kelleher – Live at the 10th Box Social, June 27th 2009

I’m lazy. I procrastinate. That’s who I am. I say this in my defence, because it has seemingly taken me about 5 months to finally slice up and tag this bootleg. This lovely little doo-wop set by Paddy was recorded at the 10th Box Social (durrr), which was a great event if you didn’t already know. More bootlegs to follow, specifically a nice Crayonsmith solo set and a great set by Squarehead (as per usual).

Photo credit goes to Laura Gilsenan.

Patrick Kelleher – Live at the 10th Box Social, June 27th 2009

P.S. I appear as a special guest on track 4…. as a finger clicking audience member.

Book Cover Sunday #2

My scanner is up and working! And with its resurrection comes a lovely cover for my (now regular) Book Cover Sunday post. I have seen some similar versions of this cover around on the net, but I’ve never seen this exact one. Finished the book this morning after a long while of on offing; really enjoyed it, going to have to check out some more Günter Grass in a while.

Author: Günter Grass
Title: Cat & Mouse
Publisher: Penguin Books
Year: First published 1961, I believe this is the 1971 reprint cover.

“This album must be treated with great respect, because it is the first that has been sent back in time to us.”

(This is a repost from my super fun download blog).

I downloaded this album off /mu/ a while ago, intrigued by the cover and the replies the thread was getting. I’m only listening to it now, but jesus, it’s insane. The last.fm bio (written by a 17 year old Swiss citizen) claims that Mahmoud is “from the future,” and that “there are no current records of his life, where he lives, or anything about him.” It also claims that his album Sheikh to the Future is the first album to ever be sent back in time. It’s clearly a joke by a /mu/tant with some spare time on his hands, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t funny and I’ll even say it; catchy. Even listening to the music, it’s believable that this could be a real Arabic musician, based on the lyrics (which I can’t decipher/understand) and on the lovely Arabic beats interspersed. You have to download this, I’ll give you two reasons. Firstly, the tracklist contains such gems as “المزيد من النساء ، وأكثر المشاكل (More Women, More Problems!!)” and “لا يمكنك أن تأخذ أموالي (You Can’t Take My Money)”. And secondly, the album art…Mahmoud Awad – Sheik to the Future

released in the future at an unstated time
released via time machine by unknown record label
[trance, house, newest age, wtf]

Goodtime John releases free EP

(This is a repost from my super fun [possibly illegal] download blog).

This is a Phil Elverum (for those follow Phil’s philosophy and have been living under a rock in Norway for the past 10 winters or so, Phil is the mastermind behind The Microphones and Mount Eerie) produced EP by Dublin musician Goodtime John. Phil Elverum also collaborates musically on a few tracks, offering drums and vocals. What also might interest some is that Adrian Orange (Thanksgiving) plays drums and does a bit of singing on this, aswell as Karl Blau and Woelv. Certainly check this out if you like Thanksgiving or Phil Elverum. You can read about it and download it (untagged gaah) and its artwork from here.

Goodtime John – Dark Slipped its Cloak
2009
Free web release
[folk]

Book Cover Sunday #1

I’ve decided I’m going to start a regular post dedicated to old book covers that are either from my back catalogue, or recently acquired. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my scanner working soon enough, for a more authentic feel, but until then I’ll rely on google image search. So without further adieu;

Cover design by Martin Bassett