A Complete Explanation Of Everything

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

You're living in the past. Stop living in the past. - Part 1

There's hasn't been nearly enough angsty struggling musician updates on this blog.

I shall seek to remedy this right now.

Where did it all begin?

My brother is a virtuoso musician. Started learning the guitar at three (playing the neck of the guitar and ignoring the bit he couldn't yet fit around) and is classically trained to grade 8 standard and beyond. He can pretty much play any stringed instrument, is a really good piano player and is a passable drummer.

When we were growing up, a kind of unspoken agreement, an armistice / sudden peace broke out whereby certain activities / interests where split between us. This included music. I played football, he played guitar, that kind of thing. And lego. Lego was all mine.

But music was always in the background, my Dad used to play some acoustic about the house and that's probably still wrapped in the back of my mind somewhere, we used to have sing songs the odd evening and I enjoyed that growing up. Sloop John B was a personal favourite.

I guess, the first record, I actually got. Not counting Bosco. Was the Monkees. Sky 1 decided, probably on a tight budget, to re-run the original series at about 4pm everyday after school and myself and my bro asked our Dad to get us the tape. Hell, those songs still stand up today, if you're asking me. Well, not all of them, Daydream Believer is a tragic piece of crap but Last Train to Clarksville is a good tune and there were many others. The revelation that they couldn't play their instruments and didn't write the songs (barring one or two Nesmith compositions) didn't hit particularly hard.

Enter secondary school (that's high school for the North American audience) and peer pressure and all that. I still wasn't into music per se, Nirvana was happening, grunge and Oasis, it being 1991-1996. I remember we went on a field trip down to Waterford and it was all about what tapes you had, I was listening to Van Morrison which evoked incredulity but then again some others were listening to Meatloaf so I didn't take too much flak.

I didn't really pay any attention to the Nirvana phenomenon back then.

I can pinpoint the moment music started to mean something to me.

It was in my best mate's house, we were playing either Sensible Soccer or Championship Manager, one or the other. Nearly every Friday and quite a few days after school, it was football either indoor, outdoor or virtual. Anyway, he was largely into Pearl Jam at that stage and a tune was on off of Ten. I asked him to play it again.

It was Why Go Home? by Pearl Jam, written by Jeff Ament.

And that track stuck with me. Pretty soon, I had a CD player and CDs, the first record I got was Dookie by Green Day. Longview and Basketcase had just been released and were tearing things up in the Emerald Isle as it were.

Then, a declaration of nuclear war on the homefront.

I asked for a bass guitar for Christmas.

This was unheard of, a clear breach of the non-aggression pact that was signed between myself and my brother.

The cold war had just turned decidedly hot.
posted by Christophe at 31.1.07 2 comments

Saturday, January 27, 2007

I could start again, you can depend on it...

Review: Farewell to the World - Crowded House Live in Sydney (1996)

So yeah. The news must be out by now.

Monsieur Finn et Monsieur Seymour have decided to reform and put Crowded House on the road once more. This either makes the release of "Farewell to the World", the supposedly final concert of Crowded House, incredibly timely or a gigantic waste of time.

I'm putting it in the incredibly timely category for a number of reasons.

I'll always remember Mark Hart's solo on "Distant Sun" in this gig for some reason, I've no compelling reason why, ok, I absolutely love the song. But that's not enough and it's not even the best rendition, in fact the entire concert smacks of a deep discomfort for the band, trying to come to terms with what Crowded House was coming to represent.

Perhaps, and I won't say this ever again probably, Dave Fanning (see?!) got it right (egads!!!) when he said to Neil Finn, in the wake of the split of the band, that Crowded House had in essence blown it. Potential wise, they were unlimited versus other bands, in the idea that they hadn't mortgaged their credibility for commercial success and yet had achieved reasonable returns in the mainstream...

Actually Dave put it this way... On the beatbox of all things!

"Neil. You had the world at your feet. You could have been bigger than the Beatles! But you blew it! Discuss!"

Something like that, anyway.

It was the one time, I was actually proud of Dave Fanning.

If only for the gobsmacked expression on Neil Finn's face.

But there is freedom without.

And there is freedom within.

And they're going to try and catch that deluge in a paper cup once more.

Rest in peace, Paul Hester.
posted by Christophe at 27.1.07 3 comments

Friday, January 19, 2007

Wielka Orkiestra Swiatecznej Pomocy

Indeed.

Last Sunday, I spent the afternoon with a couple of hundred Polish ex-pats, at the "Great Annual Polish Christmas Charity Event" (or something very like that), in the heart of Dublin, at the Temple Bar Music Centre (TBMC).

It was an enjoyable occasion, we were there to check out Brian's band - Audogenic - but more of that later.

First off, we had to negotiate the charitable donation as opposed to strict ticket entry portion of our visit to the TBMC. I didn't go the Homer Simpson route but instead swelled the coffers of this rather bizarre organisation to the tune of €10, for which I received a host of material about various immigrant services (money transfer, cheap phone calls, etc.) and a fetching little heart sticker which I pinned to myself in an effort to fit in.

We were in and then the weirdness happened, all the acts seemed intent on using classical spanish guitars eschewing the traditional steel string option probably on the basis of cost and ease on the fingers. Didgeridoos were inflicted on the audience, the connection with Poland was lost on me I must admit, and then further weirdness.

The Great Christmas Polish Charity Auctions!

Which went on all day... The highlight being (and I'm only going on guesswork here) the huge bid that got the signed volleyball from the Polish female volleyball team. A prized possession in any man's wardrobe! Certainly, the chap who bought it seemed chuffed.

And therein, lies my real gripe with the day, ok, it was a Polish event but it was supposed to be lauding multiculturalism and our MC, didn't feel it necessary to provide even a cursory English update to the audience. And there was a few of us non-Poles in it! It was nice to see immigrants out and having a good time though, generally it's like a caste society of socialising around Dublin, in the pubs and bars, young Irish boozin' it up goodo, an African doorman, a Polish barman and a harem of Chinese glass collectors. The only Poles, I've ever seen kicking back prior to this were huddled around flaming oil barrel fires in the outback of North County Dublin necking vodka in the freezing cold at an impressive rate. Of course, to them, it's probably a balmy evening. We have Polish language showings in the cinema now, Polish supplements in the evening papers, Lithuania food shops and check out the off licenses, the Vodka section is nearly 2 foot deep with all that variants from back East.

I'm getting worried to a degree that instead of being out and about and changing the Irish for the better, our immigrant friends are battening down the hatches and following the bad example of our own historical migrant communities. Eventually, an insular approach where the vast majority stick to their own communities during their expat existence seems to generally end in tears. Hopefully, that won't be the way it eventually plays out here...

Back to the gig and away from my ruminations, Audogenic rocked the house, in a sort of understated industrial electropop kind of way. I really enjoyed the material I got to hear and I'm looking forward to hearing more from this side of Brian's musical stable.

Considering that the rest of his stable is comprised of some very scary shit indeed.

Have a listen to Audogenic, you don't even need earplugs!
posted by Christophe at 19.1.07 0 comments

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Hard Travellin'






posted by Christophe at 7.1.07 0 comments

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

2007 in review...

A bit early I know.

But let's take stock of the fall out of New Year's Eve / after midnight.

Predictably, the party raged on. That carpet took some serious punishment, with copious coke and beer stains. In fact, by mid-day on the 1st, it had changed from off-white to a sort of charcoal grey. It was like a permanent reminder to never have a party ever again. Still, it wasn't mine and it did look kinda hard wearing.

We took the party to the pub next, where I welcomed 2007 with a couple of pints of the black stuff, then moved back to Castleknock and watched Newcastle peg United back with a late and unexpected equaliser.

Then, back to Rob's where I passed out before leaving at 5am this morning.

A couple of hour's kip back in the familial homestead before coming into work for 10am on the dot.

Thankfully, nothing much is happening here today.

And it's not my fault if my superiors don't take their jobs seriously either is it???

2007 in prospect?

Well, I've never been one for New Year goals and there was decidedly little talk of that with friends during the New Year's Party that just wouldn't die.

But, on a personal level.

2007 could be the year when I purchase my own little pied a terre, finally record some songs in a professional manner and in short, it could be the year when I finally grow up.

On another level, it'll probably be just another anti-climatic train wreck from start to finish, which I'll end up drowning in alcohol come the next December 31st.

Distractions on the horizon?

Leon getting married and the general election in May.

Alright. I'm going to dive back into life right now.

But remember, be careful out there folks!

And stay safe.
posted by Christophe at 2.1.07 0 comments