Fodder from Weird Feelings has been a long time coming. These recordings were released just after Xmas 2020 but date back to 2019 and a rehearsal space that is likely …
WEIRD FEELINGS – Unmake Yourself (Little Plastic Tapes 2020) Read More
I’ve always been a bit of a trainspotter when it comes to Neue Deutsche Welle (German new wave). Lack of cynicism, new-romantic pretence and self-consciousness so rampant in English music …
SOFIA PORTANET – Freier Geist (2020 Duchess Box Records) Read More
There are few albums as ingrained in my head as GHOSTOWN, and while I thought it would be an easy one to rattle off a few words about, the act …
RADIATORS – GHOSTOWN 40th Anniversary Reissue – Double CD (Chiswick Records 2019) Read More
When UNDER THE BIG BLACK SUN was published in 2016, I mistakenly expected it to be a biographical piece on X as told by John Doe. There’s certainly a worthy …
MORE FUN IN THE NEW WORLD – THE UNMAKING OF LA PUNK – John Doe with Tom DeSavia and friends (Da Capo Press 2019) Read More
When ROAD TO RUIN was released in September 1978, it was the first of many watershed moments for the Ramones. Where the first 3 albums were a natural progression of …
RAMONES – Road to Ruin – 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Rhino 2018) Read More
It has been a long time since I purchased a cassette. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m repellant to the format… from black shelled and orange-labeled BASF LH SMs to ubiquitous …
EXTRAVISION – DEMO cassette (Art For Blind Records 2018) Read More
Sporadic comes in many forms and The Number Ones, amongst other things, have sporadic down to a fine art with a gap of 3 ½ years since the release of …
THE NUMBER ONES – ANOTHER SIDE OF THE NUMBER ONES 7” EP (Static Shock Records 2018) Read More
About 4 years ago, a certain rabid and dedicated blogger compiled 7 volumes of a very excellent bootleg series called Synthesizers Rules 1978-1983 ( cough! ) collating a diaspora of proto …
STRANGE PASSION – Explorations in Irish post punk, DIY and electronic music 1980-83 (CacheCache / Finders Keepers Records 2012) Read More
Public Image Limited is an entity that has been with me since that beautifully skewed performance of FLOWERS OF ROMANCE on Top Of The Pops several centuries ago. The unlikelihood …
PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED – One Drop EP (PiL Official Ltd label 2012) Read More
Scattered throughout the minefield of modern music, albums of covers have been recorded by musicians and non musicians for infinite reasons – influence (Ramones), homage (Bowie), lack of ideas (Metallica), …
The RADIATORS From Space – SOUND CITY BEAT ( Chiswick Records 2012 ) Read More
The prevailing habit of documenting Dublin’s youth has always been to roll out tales of stale bread, carbolic soap, ten to a bed and death by TB before the age …
WHERE WERE YOU? – DUBLIN YOUTH CULTURE & STREET STYLE 1950-2000 ( Garry O’Neill / Hi Tone Books 2011 ) Read More
There’s an instinctive symbiosis that comes with a rare few synth-based duos… something vaguely detectable in the quality that’s difficult to put in words… like a digital genetic compatibility… whatever …
XENO AND OAKLANDER – SET AND LIGHTS ( Wierd Records ) Read More
Crazy Glue – An exploding bauble of luck once cast its shrapnel about the ranks of a certain generation of loud west coast American bands… shards of it struck those …
FISHBONE – CRAZY GLUE ( DC-Jam Records ) Read More
Dublin is by no means exclusive in it’s ability to be a harsh environment to that which sticks around for longer than the ever decreasing attention span of it’s troglodyte …
ESTEL – A Massive, Glorious, Uphill, Shit-Fight ( Little Plastic Tapes/Headwrecker 2011) Read More
When I first saw the promo for Mother a couple of weeks back I was impressed at how Blondie had managed to pull something fresh and contemporary out of the …
BLONDIE – Panic of Girls ( ElevenSeven 2011 ) Read More