Director Jim Jarmusch,Bradford Cox of Deerhunter & Atlas Sound and Randy Randall from No Age preforming the classic Neil Young tune Cortez the Killer

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Neil Young's new album Fork in the Road is streaming now over at his myspace stream the entire album for free before it hits stores on April 7. as the press release goes "For this album, Young was inspired by the changes and challenges happening all around him, with special focus paid to the global economic crisis and climate change."....... mmm ok

Stream here

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Hangover mixtape from Oxford-based experimenters,Youthmovies this weekend. check out the tracklist and other stuff in the read more.

01 Emeralds - 'Magic'.
02 Neil Young - 'On The Beach'.
03 Grouper - 'Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping'.
04 Adam Gnade - 'The Winter / Their Apartment'.
05 M Ward - 'Let's Dance'.
06 Fennesz - 'The Point Of It All'.
07 Red House Painters - 'Katy Song'.
08 Tall Firs - 'So Messed Up'.
09 Jason Molina - 'Everything Should Try Again'.
10 William Basinski - 'DP3'.

Download side A
Download side B

Youthmovies have just released Polyp EP (the follow up to album Good Nature)on new home, First Blast (Petite) records which features 4 new tracks and 2 remixes from Foals & Jonquill. the EP follows on from where they left off on Good Nature with further exploration of the band’s signature sound – one that combines elements of jazz, rock, pop and metal but refuses to be bound by the rhythms, scales and structures of any of them. buy it here

Youthmovies - The Naughtiest Girl Is A Monitor

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This weeks hangover mix comes from UK band Lords, Lords consists of Chris Summerlin (Reynolds, Wolves! (of Greece), Philip Welding (Wolves! (of Greece)) and Elvin Beetham Wallace. They play a sort of post-hardcore or beefheart-esque take on ROCK. Bassy but yet bassless.They are hot garbage.
check out the tracklisting in the read more

01 Tren Brothers - Gold Star Berlin
02 Tinariwen - Mano Dayak
03 Human Bell - A Change In Fortunes
04 Neil Young - Harvest
05 Jimi Hendrix - May This Be Love
06 Lungfish - Oppress Yourself
07 Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
08 Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas
09 Mulatu Astatke - Tezetaye Antchi Lidj
10 Nina Simone - Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter

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Lords have a new album out called EVERYONE IS PEOPLE out on Gringo and are also on a Uk tour at the end of October and they are also playing London with Sun Ra's Arkestra on November 9th at the Hobaken Festival

24 Oct 2008 NOTTINGHAM ARTS ORGANISATION Nottingham
25 Oct 2008 GLASGOW NICE & SLEAZY Glasgow
26 Oct 2008 NEWCASTLE CUMBERLAND ARMS Newcastle
27 Oct 2008 LEICESTER CRITERION Leicester
28 Oct 2008 LONDON LUMINAIRE London
29 Oct 2008 CAMBRIDGE PORTLAND ARMS Cambridge
30 Oct 2008 LONDON TBC London
31 Oct 2008 LONDON PURE GROOVE RECORDS INSTORE 1.30PM London
1 Nov 2008 BRIGHTON ENGINE ROOMS Brighton
2 Nov 2008 LEEDS CARDIGAN ARMS Leeds

buy new album here
Lords myspace

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Two covers first one is Radiohead covering Neil Young's "Tell Me Why"




The second is Bon Iver performing the fourth track "Blue Tulip" from the new Okkervil River album The Stand Ins.

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Another week another hangover mixtape and this week its none other then LIARS who are playing Andrews Lane tonight (now that synergy kids) all the track where picked by Angus from the band.
tracklisting and download link in the read more

Have used this hangover mixtape myself one morning when i wasn't feeling the best and you know what it worked so on with the picks.

1. Bauhaus - All We Ever Wanted
2. Neil Young - On the Beach
3. Grace Jones - Private Life
4. Dire Straights - Private Investigations
5. Blur - Strange News From Another Star
6. The Doors - Summer's Almost Gone
7. The Breeders - Off You
8. Syd Barrett - Terrapin
9. Michael Franks - Down in Brazil
10. The Knife - Behind The Bushes
11. Murder City Devils - Tell You Brother

click here to the download page

And as i said before Liars play Andrews lane see theres the poster.


And to get you in the mood for LIARS tonight some Videos
LIARS - Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack (in Whelans last December)


LIARS - Plaster Casts of Everything


LIARS - There's Always Room on the Broom

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Ever heard a song that you've been familiar with for years and years or at least knew it well enough to hum along to but then you find out, "Holy Shit, I always thought somebody else did it". Well I have on a few occasions in my life and so I introduce my Top 5 "Holy shit so thats who does the song".

You might look at these and wonder how I ever got these confused but with some of them there is definitely reasoning in my brain thoughts for why I would have made the mistake.

Click in the read more for the list




5. Stuck in the Middle With you - Stealer's Wheel

Scottish band Stealers Wheel were one hit wonders in the early 70's with this track before breaking up after three albums in 1975. This song, which gained more popularity from its use in Reservoir Dogs, was their one big hit in 1973. Former member Gerry Rafferty is also famous for his huge hit "Baker Street". "Stuck in the middle...has a folksy rock and roll, acoustic led riff with a husky whiny voice that spouts rambling but oddly poetic lyrics, all reminiscent of a certain singer-songwriter



Download here


I Always Thought It Was...Bob Dylan

Well I mean its obvious really. Not to mention that Steven Wright even describes it as a "Dylan-esque slice of Bubble-gum Pop" in Reservoir Dogs.









4. Love My Way - The Psychedelic Furs

Around the 80's there were quite a number of bands who sounded not unlike the The Psychedlic furs mainly due to the fact that the music is quite wishy-washy, distinctly 80's electro and with croaky vocals not unlike a certain great white duke.





Download here


I always thought it was...David Bowie

Some people can't hear what I'm hearing in this or why I thought it was Bowie for so long but there's just something there. It might be because tonally it sounds quite like Bowie's "China Girl (or vice versa actually as "Love My Way" was out first"). I dunno. It just seems to make sense to me.


3. Candy Girl - New Edition

Featuring a young Bobby Brown before he married Whitney and became a coked out mess (probably), New Edition were one of the proto-type boy-bands in so far as they sold shit-load of records, had hoards of screaming fans and are remembered by few. Because they were very young, were all boys, were all black and not to mention their sound was deliberately designed as such they were hailed/reviled as the next level to a certain other all boy, all young, all black band. And thats where the confusion lay.





Download here


I Always Thought It Was...The Jackson 5

Its probably because I only ever heard it in TV and Movie soundtracks I never picked up on the Electro intro or the little kind-of-rap at the beginning. It might also be because it sounds a lot like "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 but allegedly that was the point all along. Either way it caused me to go "Who the fuck are New Edition?" when I saw the video finally on some VH1 classics show.


2. Horse With No Name - America

Sounds so like the person I thought it was that America even addressed this fact in their anthology liner notes. There's no doubt whatsoever who it sounds like.





Download here


I Always Thought It Was...Neil Young

While the chorus is more Simon and Garfunkel than Neil Young the rest of the song from the rhythm to the vocals are reminiscent of Canada's finest export. While the song is quite catchy and is actually a classic in its own right (especially in comparison to the rest of the shite that "America" released), the lyrics are too banal for Young and are often ridiculed sometimes famously. Randy Newman said that "the song is about a kid who thinks he's taken acid" while the late comedian Richard Jeni said "You're in the desert. There's nothing to do. Why don't you name the freakin horse". The irony of this whole matter is that the song itself knocked Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" off the Number One spot in the US.




1. Layla - Derek and the Domino's

Waily guitars, screamy blues-rock vocals. People know either two versions of "Layla". The original recorded by this Super-group in 1971 and used to great effect by Martin Scorsese in Goodfellas or the slower, practically re-written version from the MTV Unplugged performance in the early 90's.



Download here


I Always Thought It Was...Eric Clapton

Well okay yeah this cheats a little bit because of course it was Eric Clapton but until a few years ago I had no idea about Derek and the Domino's and had no idea that Clapton had starred in yet another super-group. Still props to the man for the Unplugged performance practically doing a cover version of his own song.








*Incidentally if its unclear as to why Matt Damon's image is at the top of the post then I suggest you Watch The Talented Mr. Ripley and all should become clear.

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Not having announced an Irish date 3 months ago when he originally announced his UK tour I found myself over in London for the weekend to see the second of four Sold-out shows in the Hammersmith Apollo.

Nobody's ever said that Neil Young doesn't rock hard (and if they have...well...fuck 'em, they're wrong) so their was little fear that this gig wouldn't be great

Click below for setlist and more Neil lovin'.



I don't know whether this was typical of a Neil Young audience or whether every grumpy fucker in London was present that night but the audience treated with such awe and reverence that they seemed to forget that they were at a Rock N'Roll concert. For the first half of the concert Young, dressed in a white suit, played a solo acoustic set of new and classic (a lot from Harvest) numbers during which you could hear a pin drop and not a sing-along to be heard. God love you if you tried to get up and go to the toilet as well. He moved between piano, organ and a whole array of acoustic guitars as he rollicked through From Hank To Hendrix / Ambulance Blues / Kansas / A Man Needs A Maid / Try / Harvest / After The Gold Rush / Old King / Love Art Blues / Heart Of Gold / Out On The Weekend / Old Man.

Then a half hour break and out he came again dressed in black to grunge it up with The Loner / Dirty Old Man / Spirit Road / Down By The River / Hey Hey, My My / Roll Another Number / Oh, Lonesome Me / The Believer / Powderfinger / No Hidden Path before coming back to encore with Fuckin' Up.

To tell you the truth I could have done with seeing something like Rockin' in the Free World instead of the 15 minute long No Hidden path but rumour has it he's playing a certain Malahide Castle in June and one can only hope he'll crack it out then. In the meantime check out him doing Free World on what I believe is Saturday Night Live

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Wow, they just keep coming.

I'm just gonna put one on the front, if only just to give The Beacon an oppertunity to cream himself:

Neil Young
Malahide Castle, June 29th.
Tickets 81.25, on sale Monday.

More gigs after the jump..

Lou Reed
Performing Berlin in full, with a choir & orchestra.
The Marquee, Cork, June 23rd. Tickets ?? euro, on sale next Wednesday.

Crystal Castles
Andrews Lane Theatre, April 22nd.
Tickets 15 euro, on sale Friday.

God Is An Astronaut
The Academy (this is the last time I'm gonna call it 'formerly Spirit'), May 24th.
Tickets 22 euro, on sale Friday.

The Zutons, One Night Only, The Script
The Academy, May 6th.
Tickets 25.50, on sale Friday

CSS, The Futureheads, MGMT
The Academy, May 7th.
Tickets 25.50, on sale Friday

Gemma Hayes
Tripod, April 29th
Tickets 22.50-27.50, on sale Friday.



I reckon I will be going to at least... (hmm..) three of these shows.

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This one's for the Beacon:

Apparently Neil Young's 'Greendale is to be performed as a full on musical. That could be cool. I was lucky enough to see Greendale performed in its entirety by Mr Young on his trip to Vicar St a couple of years back, and it was pant-crappingly good. The album has already been made into a movie, but this latest incarnation may just be the perfect fit for it.

So anyone who knows The Beacon can expect him calling you in the wee hours offering tickets to it's world premiere in Dallas next March. I'll go if you're buying, dude.

Click for story.

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