2011 in Photos & Some Tunes

So, it’s been a year. I don’t owe you an apology. You’re not my mother! A considerable amount of time has passed since I last posted on my blog. A lot has happened since then, including an iffy year in music, tons of great gigs and the long overdue migration of this blog from wordpress.com to kDamo.com. Huzzah! There’s a zillion reasons why I wasn’t... Read More

Much More Van Etten

  Sharon Van Etten   I saw that The National are playing in Berlin when I’ll be there in a few weeks, but given that I caught them in the Olympia before Christmas, I wasn’t pushed about seeing them again. A good old-fashioned catch-up chat over a bottle of wine in an alleyway should suffice. But the other day I noticed that they have Sharon Van Etten supporting... Read More

Other Voices Series 9 – Broadcast Schedule

Jennifer Evans The 9th series of Other Voices kicks off on our screens in three weeks, which now feels like an eternity because the line-up just looks so, so good. In a particularly fine year for the long-standing favourite, a delicious bunch of bands were gathered down in Dingle while the rest of us were moaning about snow around the country in early December. The series has plenty... Read More

Tips: Whelan’s Ones Two Watch 2011

Ones Two Watch January is a bleak, harsh motherflipper of a month and heading into a year with a silly name like 2011 on the back of the constant barrage of bad news that was 2010 is even more miserable. Luckily, the good people at Whelan’s, State.ie, The Ticket and Tickets.ie have put their brains together in a blender and the juices that flowed out were the makings of a... Read More

Nominations for The Meteors 2011 Announced

Bono craves acceptance, idiots give it to him. Yesterday it was announced that there would be no Meteor Ireland Music Awards this year due to the people what normally do them not wanting to do them. The out-pouring of grief from dedicated music fans that followed this announcement brought a tear to my eye. What are the people of Ireland supposed to do without the highlight of their... Read More

My 25 Favourite Songs of 2010

My 20 Favourite Songs of 2010 Here I give to you my own personal selection of the 25 songs I enjoyed most in the last twelve months in no particular order other than the order I think they sound best in. I tried to keep it down to 20 songs, I tried really hard. Then I realised that I did 25 last year so there’s a legal precadent here. I’ve mostly steered clear of those... Read More

My 20 Favourite Albums of 2010

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy I love Kanye. I love his arrogance and unpredictability. I love his cartoon fun-fair hip-hop on his early albums. I love the sparse honesty of 808s & Heartbreaks. His habit of pissing people off is a testament to his insistence on telling it how he sees it. Whether... Read More

Local Natives – The Village – Photos

Local Natives - The Village I had felt bad about being unable to attend Local Natives‘ previous gigs in Ireland, sure I had missed out on something wonderful. It’s still entirely possible that I did, but during Monday’s gig in The Village, when the band thanked the fans for bringing them there “after that awful Academy 2 thing…” I began to think... Read More

The Cat Empire – Academy – Photos

The Cat Empire - Academy During the summer I caught up with The Cat Empire in Calgary and got the chance to interview keyboardist Ollie McGill. That interview went up on State last week ahead of their first ever gig in Ireland, which took place last Friday night. My review of the gig can also be found on State and there’s a selection of photos below with a few more over... Read More

Hard Working Class Heroes 2010 – Preview

Nouveaunoise It’s that time of year again. The Hard Working Class Heroes festival returns for another year with a whole host of new ideas and changes that should make this a great year. One of the big changes is that this year the 3-night jamboree kicks off on Thursday night rather than Friday, meaning that there’ll be no worrying about going into work hungover on Monday... Read More