Hallowe’en came a week early to Temple Bar when Soap&Skin got this year’s DEAF bash off to a spooky, ghostly start on Thursday night. As those who’ve thrilled to the grand ambition of her “Lovetune for Vaccum” debut album will know, Austrian teen Anja Plaschg really does make music which gets under your skin. The live show was gothtastic in all the right doomy, gloomy, dramatic ways with moments which were both compelling and otherworldly, as well as occasionally over-egged and silly. Best bit was the thunder and lightning when Plaschg hammered that piano like she was preparing the fixings for a Tim Burton flick about an Austrian pig-farmer’s daughter who discovered alien bugs and bats in the attic.
Incoming (1): the Destructors’ Manifesto takes over Dublin’s Tivoli on Friday next, October 30. A music-and-film-and-art-and-photography-and-theatre-and-storytelling-and-stuff event, it will feature music from Robotnik, Global, Sleep Thieves, Seneca and Bangers and Mash; art from Maria Roche and Sarah Sheil, photos from Sinead Keane, a bunch of flicks and visual installations, a performance of The Boot’s on the Other Foot, a graffiti wall and a whole lot more. Kicks off at 7.30pm, admission is a tenner.
Tapas trumps haggis once again. In fairness, Sir Alex did admit that the best team won before spoiling the mood of such welcome magnanimity by shifting the limelight away from his array of donkeys to the referee. Dude has a great future ahead of him in politics.
More spin as U2 clear their throats and blame the public for not buying their “No Tunes on the Horizon” album. On the back of the poorest performing album from the U2s in more than a decade, Bono has said it’s all the public’s fault for not getting this “challenging” work. “We felt that the album was a kind of an almost extinct species, and we should approach it in totality and create a mood and a feeling, and a beginning, middle and an end. And I suppose we’ve made a work that is a bit challenging for people who have grown up on a diet of pop stars.” Poor Bono. When is the penny going to drop that their new album is about as “challenging” as opening a tin of beans and people passed on it because it was rubbish? No amount of YouTube stunts (a Web 1.85 version of playing a few aul’ songs on top of a building in London to launch the album) is going to change the fact that the current album is a turkey.
Incoming (2): another music-art-film-performance-and-cake extravaganza from the Young Hearts Run Free collective. We We Love Sinking Our Teeth In will feature such talents as Donal Dineen, Craig O’Halloran, You’re Only Massive, TR-One, Katie Kim, New Amusement, Feed the Bears, James Byrne, Eamon “Swench” Sweeney, Children Under Hoof and many more. It all happens at the “creepy basement space” in Clarendon House on Clarendon Street on Saturday next from 9pm and admission is €15 with all proceeds going to the Simon Community.
Smart takeaways from last week’s In The City gathering in Manchester with some talking heads scratching their noggins about the future of music online. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, thoughts on the state of the game 10 years after Napster from a panel on NPR’s On the Media show.
Good to see Exchange Dublin finally up and running with gigs over the weekend. Very surprised at the low-ish turnout for No Age, though. WTF? I thought it would be wall to wall with kids rocking their brainy heads to the sound and The Smell. Maybe the kids prefer Blastbeat instead?
More talking heads: podcasts of the industry panels at the recent Hard Working Class Heroes fest (which were chaired/moderated/refereed by OTR) are now available to download for free here.
Ann Powers muses on 25 years of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
Sasha Frere-Jones thinks it’s the end of hip-hop as we know it (again). Dude needs to dig out the Tanya Morgan album and haul ass to Brooklynati.
What’s the betting we’ll see Garth Brooks on these shores in 2010 now that the good ol’ boy has returned to the live music game? We’re thinking a run of shows in Dublin’s O2 next summer when his kids are on holidays. Expect a line-dancing revival too. Meanwhile, Bob Lefsetz fumes about Brooks like only Bob Lefsetz can. Someone should hook him up with Joe Duffy.
Speaking of the O2: the impressive venue in Dublin’s docklands also had impressive revenues of €2.5 million for the few short weeks it was open for business in ‘08.
Banterowe’en: the next Banter takes place on Saturday night from 8.30pm at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin). “90s vs 00s” will see Dublin techno kingpins Francois (repesenting the 1990s) taking on Sunil Sharpe (repping the 00s) about which decade produced the most thrilling sounds and nights out in the capital city. As always, admission is free but capacity in the room is limited so please fill out the form here to guarantee your place.
Tomorrow’s me-too music biz news today: Google are set to enter the music game. But sure, you knew that already.
Best music to kick leaves to: “Continent” is the forthcoming album from Canuck producer CFCF and it’s a lush, bittersweet beauty loaded with moody ‘lectronics for these moody autumnal days. Enjoy.
