
It's finally here. The Day of 200 Songs held in honour of my 200th post, which happened way back in April of last year. A brief recap for those who don't know the whole story: to celebrate my 200th post, I decided to try a little community-building project. I wanted to get 200 people who read this blog (or perhaps those who even only read that 200th post) or friends they know to submit their favourite songs so that I could then compile them into 10 mixes for everyone to share. While I received several submissions, I didn't receive many, [...]

I popped into the city library in Limerick yesterday and was quite saddened to see the above notice prominently displayed on the counter of the library's music section. Now, it wasn't the content of the notice that got to me as I am fully aware that the music contained on the CDs that I borrow does not belong to me and that I only have the use of it for a certain period of time. No, there were two things about the sign that upset me. Firstly, it is also illegal for members of the library to photocopy substantial portions [...]

****************************** ******please find english version below Bongout Gallery presentiert MIRON ZOWNIR FOTOGRAFIEN vom 23. April – 30. Mai 2009 Vernissage am 22. April um 19.00 Uhr. Mit radikalem Blick erschafft Miron Zownir Bilder von Menschen, die sich am Rand gesellschaftlicher Normen und Konventionen bewegen. Er sucht nach dem Ungewöhnlichen und extremen Situationen. Hat Zownir einen solchen Winkel entdeckt, lässt er nicht mehr von ihm ab. Er skizziert und dokumentiert diesen Ort und seine Menschen. Er holt ihn aus dem Schattendasein hervor und macht ihn auch für all jene sichtbar, [...]
The Rebel - The Idiot ( rapidshare ) (stolen from 7 year glitch . thnx ...) Werner Herzog - Stroszek (1977) The Idiot is availabe ( in a different form ) on The Country Teasers Live Album available [...]

I first fell in love with The Clash, which led to a passion for political, intelligent lyrics, and eventually to bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Gang of Four and McCarthy. Then I fell for Joy Division, which led to an intense admiration for lyrics and music that documented a fraught inner life and the turmoil and starkness of reality in a minimalist monochrome never heard before. The Clash tore down what music was the first time with punk. And Joy Division did it again with post-punk. Now the Glasgow-based band Stroszek, having fused the power of both bands into [...]

I've been meaning to write something about my general feeling of malaise with new music, and now that I've read two very eloquent posts about this same feeling at To Die By Your Side and The Vinyl Villain , I very likely don't need to now because I don't know if I have that much more to add, to be honest. But since I must write something to keep this blog alive, I'll do it anyway. It's my blog and I'll rant if I want to. I'm twenty-five, so why I feel so jaded about [...]

I recently read an editorial column on a music Web site that expressed surprise at the fact that few political and protest songs were being made right now. It was a sentiment that I was wondering about myself. Considering the present circumstances of the world, one would think that artists would have more than enough to write about and against. And I'm not talking about the shallow "politics" of American Idiot . While the '60's saw numerous protests and demonstrations for civil rights and anti-war statements, there just doesn't seem to be enough protest coming from anywhere these days. [...]

Scotland has often been the site of a rich music culture. Many of the bands I love hail from north of the English border - Cocteau Twins, Orange Juice, The Associates, Josef K, The Skids, Simple Minds, Camera Obscura, The Jesus and Mary Chain, etc. And when you glance over the list, there's a fair amount from the post-punk period (especially when you think of the Postcard label), arguably the richest musical era ever. MySpace helped me discover the next chapter in this incredible history: the Glasgow-based band, Stroszek. Named after the Werner Herzog film (often [...]

Whenver electronic/pop music writer Simon Reynolds weighs in on metal, it's always interesting. I've been chewing on a recent post of his: "metal has just swallowed whole goth (especially 4AD goth-lite), industrial, post-rock, shoegaze, techno, isolationism, folk....to the point where what defines metal as metal these days is nothing sonic but really just the bombastic and verbose band names/song titles (and also contextual/institutional stuff like where you're likely to read about it) (and perhaps the clothes the bands wear)." The House Told Me The Night Porter Such [...]