Deerhoof gig

Well, the Word of Mouth Deerhoof gig went really well at the Pav in Cork - they were excellent, very fun and energetic and had a pretty cool attitude. Frontwoman Satomi is a pint-sized legend, throwing all sorts of shapes on stage. From what I could see, the folks on the dancefloor were having a ball- although one dude got his hat stolen by Satomi towards the end of the set! I was having a hard time getting into their latest album 'Offend Maggie', but as I had hoped, it all started to make sense - and felt a lot warmer and less clinical - when they performed the tracks live.

The support bands were also excellent - first up were Waterford band Percolator, who are really channelling a fuzzy, shoegaze-esque sound: a bit My Bloody Valentine, a bit downbeat Rollerskate Skinny, with some Sonic Youth thrown in there too. Lots of potential for this band and I particularly liked the fact they had a male and female vocalists.

Kerry's Ten Past Seven are pretty much stalwarts in the Cork music scene and it was refreshing to see that they continue to evolve as a band. This time they had a saxophonist (called Billy I believe, thought I didn't catch his surname) playing with them on a lot of the tracks which added a totally new dimension to things. It can be far too easy for bands to keep at the one level all the time when they're doing well in their local scene - but it looks like Ten Past Seven have their eye on evolving and trying different things, which is a great thing to see. They really keep the audience on their toes, and I definitely am looking forward to hearing any of their future releases after seeing that gig.

Cork artist Claire Guerin was on hand providing visuals for the night, which was a great touch - fantastic to see local artists involved in a gig in such a way.

Before/between/after the bands I got to play a few records - the most fun bit was definitely after the bands finished as the sound was clearer and I got to play nu-disco stuff like Glass Candy and Chromatics and a bit of classic hip-hop ('Rappers Delight' and 'The Message'). Thanks to everyone who gave the thumbs up or danced to the tracks, it's always great to get a positive reaction! I met lots of the usual Cork crew and also met Tony Higgins aka Junior 85 who I interviewed for the blog a few months back. Tony was on his third Deerhoof gig of the weekend - now that's dedication!

Thanks a million to Word of Mouth for inviting me to DJ :)

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One track that I played while DJing for the first time in absolutely ages was The Posies' 'Solar Sister. Now, I'm absolute sucker for power pop - if it's got harmonies, I'm weak for it; jangly guitars (or better yet, handclaps) and I'm a goner. There's just nothing like a proper, pure pop melody to get me hooked on a song - and The Posies' album 'Frosting on The Beater', on which 'Solar Sister' is the second track, is just jammed packed with amazing pop songs.

A few years ago, (in 2005 I think), The Posies played a gig in the Cruiscin Lán in Cork around the time of the release of the album 'Every Kind of Light'. That afternoon I got a call from a foreign number that I didn't recognise. "Can I speak to ay-o-fee?" the person on the other end asked. "This is Ken Stringfellow..." Yep, turns out someone (to this day I'm not sure who!) gave Ken my number and told him I would interview the band. So by a complete stroke of luck I got to interview Ken and John Auer after the gig - they were very sound out guys, although I was a bit in awe after the interview and probably came across as someone with very little conversational ability, which anyone who knows me knows certainly ain't the case...! Maybe there's a bit a of truth to the old 'don't meet your heroes' adage - because in my case you may end up mute! A nice anecdote from the night was that nearly everyone who asked the band to sign something had a copy of 'Frosting on the Beater' with them, which the band were really surprised about.

Anyway, here's the video to 'Solar Sister' - expect to hear it playing in your head for the rest of the evening...The vocals in the intro are to die for.
(Posies image above from www.kevchino.com)