Andrew WK
From the NME. Beard! regards this as good news.

"Andrew WK has holed up in a confidential NEW YORK location to begin work on his second LP.

The rocker says he wants some privacy the follow-up to his critically lauded 2001 debut 'I Get Wet', according to Rolling Stone.

He said: "If we were in a studio there'd be people coming in and out and we don't want that. We want to spend as much time on the detail stuff as possible. There could be as many as a hundred tracks on each song, all kinds of keyboards, but we can just do it in a hotel room."

Talking about how the record will sound, he added: "You know when you get one of those weird things underneath your armpit?" That's what this album is - a growth. It's branching off, it's growing off, but it's not abandoning or turning its head to what it is. "There are a lot of people who have discovered my music and it's changed their lives. We strive to create the best song you ever heard . . . over and over again.""

Off to see Low tonight, hopefully Decal after and Idlewild tomorrow.
eamonn posted on 31.01.03 @ 03:19 PM GMT [link]

More fucking BPB shite
9/10 review in NME (plus good review for Zwan featuring Dave Pajo and Matt Sweeney who was a gent we got to talk to him last year in Tramore). Album of the week in the Independent. Bad review by the Wire but who cares....Great crack on the Drag City site they are collecting votes for a Best Of Palace/Palace Bros/Palace Songs/WIll Oldham compilation. This would be most stuff up until about 1998, about 110 songs, no Bonnie Price Billy stuff.

And now a mad thing. Watching the Late Late Show on Fri with me mother. It is absolutely shit but it's what she watches. And Coldplay were on it playing In My Place. But they were on only in November as well. Why would they be on an Irish chat show twice in a couple of months? I think maybe they had a show in the Point to plug last time but surely on a Friday evening they're are more killer PR spots than the Late Late? Anyway they were fairly ok, I couldn't tell if they were miming or not, it sounded like there were harmonies which were not being sung. But your heart would go out to them, trekking around, sellign this album to death - do they ever get the weekend off? I think it's gone over the million mark in the US (or maybe that is 'Parachutes') which is a huge achievment given how delighted people are when they sell 100000 there. Just to give you an idea of how shit the Late Late is, they had Michael Barrymoore on in his carefully orchestrated campaign to get back into the mainstream media (it kicks off in Ireland like oh so many other tours).

Listening to Badly Drawn Boy, must get the last album.....
eamonn posted on 27.01.03 @ 03:48 PM GMT [link]

Music industry stuff
Two things

If you haven't read the "Bitch Slap" diaries before take the day off and read them. Hilarious, annoymous account of recording an album in LA.

There was an article on Slashdot about recording expenses. Most of it was ridiculous (a lot of Slashdotters think Pink Flyod's a sutiabel refernce point for quality recordings etc.) but there was a reference to an interesting Steve Albini article.

Saw Neko Case and Settler last night, it was pretty good. Didn't realise N. Case was so alt country, her pedal steel player was brilliant.

And now most importantly second song in on Master And Everyone from BPB.
eamonn posted on 24.01.03 @ 03:14 PM GMT [link]

You can group Royksopp, Lemon Jelly and Zero 7 together and shove 'em up your arse.
I want one of those iPods, though I suspect it would be too harsh on some of the stuff I listen to. Aimee Mann springs to mind.

Currently listening to Dog Man Star for the second time ever. Though I've heard bits of it before, particularly New Generation, which was the subject of a question I texted William with a month ago (all I could remember was the lines "like all the boys in all the cities / they take the poison, take the pity"). But more about Suede later.

Had a good weekend
andrew posted on Wed, 22.01.03 @ 04:56 PM GMT [more..]

The Spire/Spike is up.


Looks very high and quite nice so far. Mad to think that it is only a third/a half (??) of the Eiffel tower....
eamonn posted on 22.01.03 @ 11:12 AM GMT [link]

I had a dream
That Andrew had an iPod or other mp3 device and that it would give you a sort of personality test based on the music you choose to listen to - you picked 3 albums for 3 different occassions. So I or someone else in the dream chose some electronica album for when walking/exercising (not that I've done much of that recently) - something like Royksopp/Lemon Jelly/Zero 7 (can they all be grouped together?) and the device said that these choices were very middle of the road. Then the choice for music to listen to while doing something in the evening was a Stevie Wonder album - the only thing I remember about the cover was that it had the word 'irony' on it somewhere. Again the iPod like device was very disparaging about this choice. It made you feel bad about what you listen to!

Haven't listened to much music lately. Have a few albums to get thru all right. Tried to buy a Neko Case album last night but couldn't find one in this city (no doubt her evening in Whelans on Thurs will be poorly attended) so I got a second hand This Mortal Coil album 'Filigree & Shadow' which was quite nice over a bowl of Aplen this morning.

What else - Domino Records have revamped their site and have put up videos for their roster of artists including 4 made in the early days of Palace which are well worth looking at. Taking me back to the shock of seeing Ohio River Boat Song on No Disco. The Domino site has gone away for the moment (they're applying the new changes or something) but I'll add the link when it's back.

Fake Jazz is another ok review site. They had some Deerhoof in their end of year poll and the clips on Aquarius Records for their latest album Reveille are really good. Not so good was their favourite album form last year by Yume Bitsu.
eamonn posted on 22.01.03 @ 11:01 AM GMT [link]

Another review making Master and Everyone album of the week
World domination to follow surely
BBC make it album of the week.
eamonn posted on 17.01.03 @ 10:51 AM GMT [link]

Just some links really
Found a good online music review magazine called Dusted. Pitchfork is too annoying for me nowadays. Anyway they have a very insightful review of BPB Master And Everyone, a good interview with Andrew WK, references to tape and CD-R labels, and a whole list of music from last year that I haven't heard much about.....
eamonn posted on 17.01.03 @ 10:12 AM GMT [link]

reading our own dog food
That, incidentally, is a quality beard shot there, Eamonn. Is that a glass eye?

Marc Carroll played here a while back, I asked about him on ie-indie, and everyone called him a tosser, so I didn't go. I also didn't go because there was something else on, I think.
andrew posted on 14.01.03 @ 01:21 PM GMT [link]

I'm here! I'm here!
Sorry about the delay.

I've almost been listening to cassettes more than CDs. I have a 45 minute walk into work (longer if the shops are open along the way, hem hem), and I've been (meaning to) taping LPs that I've been meaning to listen to, and rolling them around my head a bit. Now PH43R my leet HTML skills:

The Breeders - Title TK

This is a much sadder album than Last Splash, but then 9 years is a long time. The initial impression is that it's slower, but I think that's just due to an absence of surf-froth like SOS or Divine Hammer. It's really worked it's way into my head, and I'm glad I bought it, but I'm not sure that I'll play it that much, and it's never really in danger of replacing Last Splash. I've even found myself humming a few of the riffs, which came as a bit of a surprise.

Mouse On Mars - Iaora Tahiti

I'm not that big a fan of this. I saw them live at a festival, and loved it - it sounded like dance music with guitars should be. But this just sounds like a bunch of stuff that you could make great dance records from. Maybe I should get something more recent (this is from 1995). Niun Niggung is the record, from what I understand.

Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

I must go back and listen to more of this, as it went on a C60 and runs over. It's great stuff, including a great "rush sample" on the second track, Blazing Arrow. It's got a few tracks produced by Cut Chemist, who they last worked with on that great Alphabet Aerobics. They do sound a bit like that track, is the problem. But basically they're great.

andrew posted on 13.01.03 @ 06:58 PM GMT [link]

Neko Case for Whelans on Jan 23
Thu Jan 23: Neko Case [ Followed by PHANTASM club ‘til 3am ] €15

So the calender looks like this
Fri Jan 17 The Chalets
Fri Jan 17 JESSE MALIN + JEFF KLEIN (Uncut recommended dude)
Thurs Jan 23 Neko Case
Fri Jan 24 NME Tour (but are Interpol playing
Weds Jan 29 Teenage Fan Club possibly
Fri Jan 31 Low
Sat Feb 1 Idlewild

Jimmy Cake are playing as well sometime. So bascially an expensive month.

eamonn posted on 13.01.03 @ 11:30 AM GMT [link]

Let's get down to brass tacks
Music. From. Today.

First cd of the year - the Uncut magazine cover cd. These are pretty good compilations covering new and old straying not too far from Uncut's idea of serious, worthy music. I keep forgetting which songs I like on them though and have never been compelled to go out and but something because of a song from the Uncut cd. It's good to finally hear James (Jamie?) Yorkston though, pleasant enough all right. The main reason I got it is because there is a Bonnie 'Prince' Billie song "Three Questions" from his new album (end of the month) Master And Everyone. It's quite a good song, stripped back a good bit, nice accordian and female accompaniment. Bodes well for the album (which is on Soulseek due to Domino releasing promo copies in the UK before Xmas. Why do they do that?). They made Master & Everyone album of the month (yeaaaa!......but gulp! my tastes are therefore in line with Uncut - even though I have heard only a couple of songs from the album, I am nearly certain it will be a classic (bias etc I know)) and there is a short email interview with the bearded one.

Master and Everyone cover

Mid West tour plea

eamonn posted on Fri, 10.01.03 @ 12:09 PM GMT [more..]

The Manifesto - let's put it to the testo
Welcome to Beard! Andrew and Eamonn's mostly musical diary. Here's the deal

• We get to rabbit on about music we're listening to, have listened to, will listen, would like to listen, would like not to listen to, music we like the sound of but don't listen to, people who make music, what music makes us feel like doing etc. This will include albums/singles/gigs/tv/radio/humming/description/ etc.


eamonn posted on Fri, 10.01.03 @ 06:44 AM GMT [more..]

Well you have to have a...

eamonn posted on 09.01.03 @ 01:14 PM GMT [link]

Share with a friend
I am telling Andrew now. God! the excitement.
eamonn posted on 09.01.03 @ 01:06 PM GMT [link]

Do you remember the first time?
"It is estimated that over 500,000 have been created over the past 18 months and are now starting up at the rate of about 5,000 daily."

ah well one more won't hurt. Hello.
eamonn posted on 09.01.03 @ 01:04 PM GMT [link]