A Trip to Cork, Part 3: Booty

How about quick reviews of two records I acquired in Cork? These two corkers were acquired in the Plugd record shop, now located in Triskel Arts Centre.

Oneida Absolute II

This is a recent album… by Oneida. It is the third of their Thank Your Parents triptych of releases. It is an unusual record, in that it features none of the rock freak out action that people have come to expect from the O. Instead, the tracks are pretty minimal, often featuring a bit of noodly electronica and odd soundscapey stuff. And it is only four tracks long. The opener, 'Pre Human' sounds the most Oneida-esque, like the kind of quiet song they might do before launching into something that would then roll over you like a train. The rest feature what sound like tone generators and odd random bursts of noise. Oddly, I think that what this at times sounds the most like is some of that Trio Scordatura-Ergodos stuff, though I am guessing this is more an example of parallel evolution rather than direct influence. Still, it conjures up the fascinating prospect of Bob Gilmore appearing with Oneida next time they play live.

Black Mountain Transmitter Black Goat of the Woods

On the cover we have a distorted picture of the sun shining through trees and a spectral figure of a person with the head of a goat. A sticker gives the name of the record and the title and then tells us this: "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods". How could I not buy this? And it turns out to basically do what it says on the tin, being a collection of ominous synthesiser sounds combined with strange creeping sound effects to give a feeling of terrible and inescapable doom.
That said, one thing makes this record different from the horror movie soundtracks it is trying to evoke. They would be divided up into lots of relatively short pieces, to be used at different stages of the film, but Black Goat of the Woods is one long track – a journey into the night from which there can be no turning back. "Searchers after horror haunt strange far places…"

the goat with a thousand young

An inuit panda production

more my other blog action

in an astonishing series of developments, I have posted for the second time in a couple of days on my other blog. If you want to read what I have to say on the Palestinian's bid for UN membership, click here

A Trip to Cork, Part 2: Kaleidoscope

After the show we drifted off to Callanans, a nice pub on the quays that has become one or our haunts in that city. One thing Cork is famous for is having two different mass produced local stouts, Beamish and Murphy's*. I started off with a pint of Beamish, the inferior of the two. While quaffing away I noticed an older gentleman in a baseball cap leaving, and realised that he was none other than Steve Reich. Now, why was Mr Reich down in Cork? For the simple reason that the Reich Effect, a festival devoted to music by, inspired by, or vaguely related to him, was taking place in that proud city. And indeed, even though he had taken his leave, the pub still had various members of the Crash Ensemble and the Dublin avant-garde classical music scene knocking around in it. I overheard a bit of barman chitchat about the composer, which went something like this:

Barman A: So that fella's well known?

Barman B: Oh yeah, he's a famous composer.

Barman A: Jaysus. And did he drink his Murphy's?

Barman B: He gave it a go.

The Reich Effect taking place while we were on our brief visit to Cork was convenient, and we arranged to attend the Kaleidoscope Caravan club night on the following evening. I may have mentioned this before – it is a Dublin club night run by Cliodhna Ryan and Kate Ellis (both of the Crash Ensemble and other things) where chamber music old and new is played in the intimate setting of the upstairs club space of the Odessa restaurant, where people can drink cocktails or more normal drinks in a relaxed fashion while listening to delightful music.

This kind of thing is self-evidently a good idea and so much the kind of thing I like that it is amazing that my attending their visit to Cork represented the first time I have ever made it to a Kaleidoscope event. My failure to make it to their Dublin events tends to stem from a combination of my own disorganisation, their nights clashing with nights I have to work late, and the small venue always being full of the Kaleidoscope performers' friends and relations by the time I try to get a ticket. But in Cork I had my beloved on the case, and she picked up tickets for us online.

Five pieces were played. First of all, we had a Bach sonata in G minor. This was introduced as being one of Bach's less performed pieces, which was odd as it sounded very Bach-like to me. But it did make me think that I really must further explore Bach's music, as there is an astonishing beauty to it and he does seem to deserve his reputation as one of the three greatest composers of all time.

After that we had a famous piece of Javan Gamelan arranged for western instruments by Ergodos superstar Garret Sholdice, which made for an intellectually interesting juxtaposition of styles. That was followed by a beautiful performance of Igor Stravinsky scored Russian peasant songs, sung unaccompanied by Michelle O'Rourke and other singers whose faces I recognise from this kind of event. A John Zorn piece saw cellist Jeffrey Ziegler of the Kronos Quartet joining the Irish performers, which led to excitable screaming from the young ladies in the crowd. My notes on this piece, however, contain the cryptic phrase "Fiddler on the roof?". The concert finished with White Man Sleeps, a Kevin Volans piece for sting quartet, for which my notes say "Pan-Pipes?".

After that we could have stayed for music DJed by Donal Dineen, but it had been a long evening and I was feeling a bit *tired*, so we slunk off back to bad. And that, pretty much, was that. It was an enjoyable evening, though there was the slight sense that all the other performers and audience members were on the most intimate terms.

*Dublin only has one.

Panda Caravan

An inuit panda production

A Trip to Cork, Part 1b: Morrissey

And then Morrissey himself. He was looking well; I mean, obviously, he has filled out a bit, but he has developed an appealingly stocky look, vaguely reminiscent of some aging yet classy gangster. The rest of the band were decked out in t-shirts with pictures of James Dean and the text "James" followed by their surname.

Songs from across the great man's solo career were played. The likes of 'He teh frist of teh gang to die', 'Speedway' and 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board' all went down very well. He also played several songs by the Smiths. I suppose at one level he is as entitled to play them as anyone else, and it's not like Johnny Marr is doing anything with them. But I really wish he would leave them alone. It is not that his band cannot do them justice – the version of 'Meat Is Murder' that closed off the main set was storming – but playing Smiths tunes suggests a certain lack of confidence in his solo material. From across the long years since his old band broke up, Morrissey has any number of complete classics to play with. Even if it would have to be accepted that the Smiths songs are better than his solo ones (as part of the general rule that the music of the Smiths is better than all other music) it is a bit defeatist to be favouring them over his own tracks. It seems particularly unfortunate that he is no longer saving the divine 'Speedway' as an encore track.

Still, it was interesting that he played 'Meat Is Murder'. Vegetarianism has long been close to Morrissey's heart, but I think this Smiths classic is his only tune that deals with it as a subject. From media reporting of his public comments, it seems like he has become more hard-line in his views on the subject. As most people do not really care about the suffering of animals, rhetorical attempts by Morrissey to equate animal and human suffering have met with considerable hostility, even from people who are admirers of his music. I was struck by how one line of 'Meat Is Murder' was changed to "Do you care how animals die?". I suspect that from most people present the answer would have been "No".

That makes it sound like maybe this concert was somewhat combative, vegetarian Morrissey clashing with a meat-scoffing crowd of Corkonians. But no, it was all good fun, with Morrissey on flying form as he interacted with the crowd and putting some great comedy inflections into the lyrics of the songs. I particularly enjoyed watching him shaking hands with people in the front row and then recoiling with an aghast air as though a hand-shaker had been a bit over familiar.

And he played one cover version that I remember, Lou Reed's wonderful 'Satellite of Love'. The audience were not that excited by this, but I was thrilled. He changed the line 'I love to watch things on TV' to 'I hate to watch things on TV', which was nice.

Mmmm, maybe as I get older I am becoming more and more Morrissey-like in my views.

Late Night, Panda Street

An inuit panda production

My other blog

you have probably forgotten about my other blog - I know I have. But amazingly, I have made a new post to it: Bahrain's Throne of Blood

A Trip to Cork, Part 1a: Before Morrissey

Cork City is the southern capital of Ireland and was recently visited by the Queen of England… and by me! I was not there with the Queen but with my beloved, which is probably the next best thing. And unlike the Queen, we stayed overnight in the city, availing of a tempting mid-week accommodation-dinner offer in Café Paradiso, Ireland's premier restaurant*. We had come down to Cork not just to stuff our faces but also to see some music. In particular we were there for a concert by Morrissey, whose Dublin concerts had sold out before we had been able to buy tickets for them.

The Mancunian sensation was playing in the Savoy, which appeared to be a converted theatre venue on Patrick's Street that also seemed to double up as a shopping centre. On the way in we were frisked and had our bags searched – with rumours abounding that the security staff were not looking for knives, drøgs, or firearms, but for meat, as there was a fear that some wag would think it hilarious to throw a string of sausages at the vegetarian star. We had no such offending items and were granted admission.

The venue was appealing – big but not too big and with a nice wide stage. And not long after our arrival came the support act, Doll & the Kicks. They were an interesting enough outfit, with an impressive lady frontperson. By "impressive" I am not just referring to her leopard print cat suit and somewhat gothic make-up, but to her general air of theatricality and ability to inject meaning into the delivery of her vocals (without descending into "We mean it, maaaaan" territory). The rest of the band were entertainingly rough looking, like they had all been working as stevedores before being press ganged into the band with unconvincing promises of rock and roll stardom. The sound was I suppose a somewhat rocky gothy mixture. I am somewhat sorry that I did not pick up a copy of their album after the show (which I could have acquired from Cat Suit Lady herself), but I am trying to get out of the habit of buying a record every time I see a band live.

After the support act we decided that a little drink was in order, so I popped off to the bar to get in two pints of the local ale. There was, sadly, some kind of bar staff problem, which meant that getting served took forever. However, I was still able to hear and see (in a mirror) the film footage that was being projected onto a screen behind the stage. This was mostly TV footage of bands and artists that Morrissey would be expected to like, either playing live or being interviewed. They seemed to have gone a bit beyond what I think of as the usual suspects for this kind of thing, and so had an amazing performance on German TV (complete with intro from local announcer guy) by Morrissey-favourites The New York Dolls. The raw power the band were exhibiting, coupled with the Shangri-Las countdown of "When I say I'm in love you'd best believe I'm in love L-U-V", made me appreciate this band in a way I never have before. Only thirty-five years too late. They also had some great footage from Johnny Thunders, Sparks and a hilarious piece in which an uncooperative and clearly somewhat *tired* Lou Reed struggles with an Australian TV interview. And also Edith Sitwell. And did John Betjeman make an appearance?

* a controversial comment. Café Paradiso is probably not the premier restaurant in Ireland for people who like stuffing their face with bits of dead animal, though it is the vegetarian restaurant that even meat people like.

Hatful of Panda

An inuit panda production

A PFW Speaks

"I'm thinking of getting new glasses. I've had this pair for three years – and you wouldn't wear the same coat for three years, now would you?"

"Upside Down"

This is the story of Creation Records and Alan McGee. It takes its name from a song by the Jesus And Mary Chain. There is not really anything here that you would not get from David Cavanagh's exhaustive book, but you can get through the film more quickly. It is also nice to see at least some of the people who are just names in the book. However, Upside Down suffers from not having Momus coming on to make bewildered comments about the whole enterprise.

I saw this in the Dublin film festival, where they had Alan McGee and the film's director introducing it. Amusingly the latter seemed like he was more, eh, getting into the rock and roll spirit of the people the film covers.

Jesus and Panda Chain

An inuit panda production

"The King's Speech"

Nice but dim royal with a speech impediment unexpectedly becomes king after his equally dim, charismatic but not-so-nice elder brother falls for sinister American adventuress. It is a well-made and enjoyable film, featuring some further insights into the life of one of the world's great dysfunctional families, but there is always a something a bit reactionary about this kind of drama.

And this is another short review for Frank's APA. I would like at some stage to develop this a bit more, as suggesting that a film about the royal family has reactionary overtones does make me sound like I am about to grow a beard, change my name to Daithí and join Ógra Sinn Féin Phoblachtach.

King's Panda

An inuit panda production

"Treme"

This is not actually a film, but one of those TV programmes that the young people watch. Imanaged to catch episode one on a recent flight to Boston that my jet set life saw me take. Treme is set in New Orleans at some point after Hurricane Katrina and features a variety of people going about their exciting lives. It has an endearingly formless quality that evoked well the languid nature of that great city, though I thought it could have done without the developing plot about evil cops running some kind of death-squad operation during the hurricane – it seemed like something that had sneaked in from another TV series or film entirely.

Hurricane Panda

An inuit panda production