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Archive for August, 2011

European Sensoria Band

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This is the European Sensoria Band (sometimes known as e+S=B, formerly known as Electronic Sensoria Band) playing in Whelans a while ago. These days every band has a website, a facebook page, a twitter account, a bandcamp page, an electronic press kit, and Christ knows what else, constantly spewing out information about their every coming and going. Not e+S=B. Google any of the variations of their name and you’ll probably stumble across a sporadically updated blog, references to limited edition CD-R releases (but no apparent means of buying them), and occasional videos of them playing in various art galleries and performance spaces around Dublin. I don’t know if the concept of underground music has much meaning anymore but if it does, then e+S=B surely fit that bill. (more…)

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Rotund Iberian

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 25, 2011| 8 Comments »

This photograph is a little different from the usual fare. My band, Large Mound, are putting out an album this year by releasing one song on the 25th day of every month. The whole project is called Another Year Of Rock and this month’s song comes out today and is entitled Rotund Iberian. The photograph above is one that I took during a video shoot for the song a few weeks ago and we are using it for the cover art for the track as well. (more…)

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There Was A Man

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , on August 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

This is Retarded Cop playing in the Button Factory last week. Retarded Cop is the brainchild of the irrepressible Gaz Le Rock, who is also the singer in long-running Dublin punk band, Moutpiece. After years of living it large, Gaz recently cleaned up his act and threw himself into writing, recording and releasing songs, under the name Retarded Cop. Usually accompanied by hilarious home-made videos, these songs appeared with alarming frequency, a non-stop barrage of pop punk classics such as Tea’N’Fags, Copvan and Charlie Sheen. The great thing about Gaz’s songs is that he is clearly writing about his life, but it’s done in a humorous and self-deprecating way that leaves plenty of room for (mis)interpretation. I don’t know if he really had sex in the jacks at Popicalia, but who cares when it makes such a great line for the chorus of that song? (more…)

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Dan Deacon in The Button Factory

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Anyone who has been to a Dan Deacon gig will have a rough idea of what is going on in this photograph but anyone else might require some explanation. Dan Deacon is an electronic musician and composer from Baltimore who is well known for his unique live shows (that’s Baltimore in the US by the way, not the Baltimore on the south coast of Ireland that was sacked by Algerian pirates in 1631). Typically he sets up his equipment on the floor and then orchestrates various forms of audience participation throughout the gig. A common one is the human tunnel, which starts with a pair of punters holding hands above their heads and forming an arch. Two more audience members go under the arch and links hands on the other side. Two more go through, extending the tunnel further, and so on and so on. Sometimes the tunnel goes right out the door of the venue, down the street and then back in again. Does that make sense? No? Then look at the video below which shows it happening the last time he played Dublin. (more…)

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31 Minutes and 4 seconds of Cian Nugent

Posted in Bands, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on August 4, 2011| 2 Comments »

This is a long exposure photograph of Cian Nugent and his band playing in Whelans last Saturday night. Cian is a guitar player and composer from Dublin who has recently released his debut album, Doubles. His playing playing falls very much into the John Fahey tradition and he combines this with elaborate instrumentation and arrangements to produce long instrumental pieces that have a lot in common with some of Jim O’Rourke’s work. It’s great stuff and recently scored a rave review on the massively influential US website Pitchfork. Such things don’t necessarily translate into audience numbers though as Whelans was pretty quiet last Saturday – then again, it’s pretty hard to compete when Prince is playing across town. (more…)

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