The Wild, The Innocent & The DSG Street Shuffle

Vol IV: Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil

2008-05-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

New Loose album! The best Irish band around return with their third album. I picked it up yesterday and it's typically in turn hilarious, awesome and just plain weird! It's more like the second album than the first but with a slightly fuller sound. The main point is that it's fuckin' class. Mick Pyro's lyrics remain as brilliant as ever with this choice line from 'Poquito' my favourite so far:

"I've been on the wagon a year,
man I haven't even touched any beer,
I'm feelin' healthy
I'm feelin' wise,
man I feel like fuckin' Greg Kinnear"

Daecent! Also, there's loads of duets on the album for whatever reason. Isabel Reyes-Feeney is on two tracks. I really liked her singing on 'Break' from "AAAGH!" and the two tracks with her on them on the new album are pro too. The first single off the album is 'I like Music". There's two versions of it on the album, one which heavily features rapper Styles-P and one that...eh...doesn't. Both versions are class. I implore all to buy "Vol IV: Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil" so the Loose can stay in business and keep producing quality choohns. I usually wouldn't think twice about downloading music but in this case I'm happier to fork out the cash so the band can enjoy the benefits and don't go down the tubes.

LOOSE! LOOSE! LOOSE! LOOSE!

Earth to the Dandy Warhols

2008-05-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite bands, Portland, Oregon's the Dandy Warhols, have decided to bless the world with another album of recorded works. The album was teased out today with the opening track available as a free download with the full album to follow on the 19th. The Dandys are one of the few bands I like enough to buy the album pretty much as soon as it comes out and thus will do so. Conveniently my last exam is on the 19th so I can trek into town afterwards and pick up 'Earth to the Dandy Warhols'. I can't wait. I don't buy new music as it comes out very often but I did get the Raconteurs sophmore effort 'Consolers of the Lonely' recently. Top notch stuff. Hopefully the Dandys won't dissappoint either and will be back on form after the enjoyable but very unfocussed 'Odditorium or Warlords of Mars' album.

Here's a link to the opening track of the new album 'The World The people Together (Come On)'

http://bits-8.topspin.net/nin/TheWorldThePeopleTogether.mp3

Lessons learned from watching 'Troll 2'

2008-04-24T04:59:00.000-07:00

1) Bright green food is not harmful

2) being Kneed in the nuts can possibly turn you into a homo

3) Ghosts need time to learn the layout of houses

4) Holidays in your parents' RV with your feminine friends are boring

5) Always take a "group fund" on holiday

6) doing kinky stuff with corn is what chicks dig

7) people in nilbog dont have much to do so they feed kids ice cream

8) you can't piss on hospitality

9) don't expect to see any trolls in troll 2

10) Leaving meat in vinegar the whole night gets blood out of it

11) when your on fire, a pair of gloves will magically appear on your hands

12) doing bench-presses every night does not equip you to fight goblins

13) if someone throws a spear at you very slowly, its best just to watch it enter you

14) before e-mail and mobile phones, messages were conveyed on tennis balls

15) tightening your belt will make you less hungry

16) coffee's the devils drink

17) the stone henge magic stone is a magic stone from stone henge

18) some mothers fave songs include row row row your boat

19) "eating with a voracity that has no equal on earth" means "smearing liquidized vegetables gently over your un-moving lips

20) Nilbog milk, though gross, is free

21) you can ask you spouse "who are the goblins" and they wont laugh you out the room, then call your mutual friends and tell them what a tit you are

22) goblin queens are pretty hot

23) corn on the cob can make popcorn

24) old people can create confusion with fire extinguishers

25) if you turn into a plant chainswas only feel like a tickle

26) when nilbog farmers are supposed to sleep in the evening its actually mid day

27) no one actually farms in nilbog

28) A punch to the Nuts will turn you Homo.

29) The Waites have all the major appliances

30) Vegetable Cook Books work better than any sleeping pill

31) Vegetarians in Nilbog would prefer to go to the hassle of turning meat into vegetables, rather than just eat vegetables.

32) There is nothing wrong with doing a random dance that looks more like a seizure in front of a mirror at night.

33) Doing a bench press for a prolonged time is always a good exercise.

34) going outside to have a smoke is a good way of getting 'fresh air'

35) it's ok to drink a strange ladies potion that has mist coming off of it

36) nilbog residents throw really good parties

37) ghosts randomly carry fire extinguishers with them

38) people smirk, shake and blink when they are frozen in time

39) you can tell a goblin by the shamrock-shaped pimple on its face

40) put your hands on the magic stonehenge rock and the goblins will go away

41) or you can eat a bologna sandwich in front of them

42) in fact, just pack your own lunch when visiting Nilbog

43) if your sweat is green, game over

44) harry potter, jr. does not make an appearance

45) Grandpa seth is not in hell

46. Stock up on Double Decker Bologna Sandwiches if you're going to Nilbog.

Old School Seagal

2008-04-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Check out this Earth shatteringly awesome clip from 'Out For Justice', one of Steven Seagal's best efforts. This bar scene is one of the most famous scenes from Seagal's career in that he just walks in, acts like a total prick, kicks the shit out of everyone and then leaves! I especially like the bit where he hardcore punches the guy on top of the pool table in the balls - PRO. Apparently he's got a nasty habit of doing that to people on the sets of his movies just to assert how much of a badass he is. He's such a shithead, it's class!

I am not Canadian....

2008-04-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

...but I am going there this Summer. I'm starting to get well hyped up about my forthcoming trip to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and as a result I'm posting this rather excellent Molson Beer ad that promotes all things Canadian and great. I've also set the backround on my laptop to the red, white and Maple Leaf of the Canadian flag, just to get me even more in the mood not to mention give me the impetus to get cracking on some hardcore study.

Also, I'll TOTALLY be picking up an Edmonton Oilers jersey when I'm over there.

I absolutely love jerseys, especially ones from American sports like hockey and football. I just love the design and given that they're hard to find around here I may well go nuts and pick up a good few while I'm over there. Currently I only have two American football jerseys, a New York Giants jersey a friend brought me back from New Jersey and a classic Lawrence Taylor Giants jersey I got in this 'American themed' clothes shop in town. I had a Peyton Manning Indianapolis Colts jersey but it was too big so I gvae it to charity. I also have a Boston Celtics jersey that I wear in bed. If I was to create/be a character in a fighting game I'd make/be 'The Boston Brawler' a tubby red-headed Irish bastard in a Boston Celtics jersey who's as slow as an ox but packs a serious punch and has a very high pain threshold given the fact that he's/I'm had a couple of pre-fight bottles of Samuel Adams. Pro.

The Real Deal

2008-04-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

I picked up "Becoming Holyfield", Evander Holyfield's autobiography the other day and although it is almost as badly written as Hulk Hogan's 'autobiography'(hilariously,but accurately, described by PowerSlam as a work of science fiction!), I must admit to really enjoying it so far. I'm about a third of the way into it and am having a great time reading it. I'd hardly claim to be all that into boxing and do kind of see it as barbaric given the fact that it is essentially getting punched in the head for a living. Nonetheless, there is that idiotic macho kick out of watching two guys just go at it and punching the hell out of each other that comes with being a guy. Up 'til now any interest I had in boxing was largely restricted to the Rocky movies (and by proxy 'Rocky Legends' on the ps2 - awesome game, highly recommended) and rooting for Bernard Dunne when they showed his matches on tv. I suppose not having sky sports etc I just don't have access to many fights and might well check them out if I had the channels. Ditto a lot of things really I guess. Certainly not having Sky Sports to get my much needed dose of wrestling hurts; I haven't seen WWE in months now which is a total kick in the teeth. In any case "Becoming Holyfield" is an entertaining but ultimately poor literary experience but hey, what do you expect from someone who got punched in the head (and punched people in the head to be fair) for a living (and some living it was to be fair vol. II). I guess it goes into the simple thrill/easy kick category.

In other news my Sopranos addiction continues unabated. I'm up to Season six disc three at this stage. Damn it's just so good I'm actually not getting ANY work done on any of my dissertations or exams, I'm just watching The Sopranos and kicking it old school with friends all the live long days. Hopefully next week will be more productive.

Mike Gravel is a pro.

2008-04-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Mike Gravel has shifted from the Democratic party and is now seeking the Libertarian party nomination for President. He obviously hasn't a hope but I really like the look of the guy and agree with him on most issues.

Carry On My Wayward Son

2008-03-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

what a chooohn!

It's official...

2008-03-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

...I'm addicted to the Sopranos. I just can't get enough of dvds of arguably the greatest tv show of all time at the moment. My favourite character is Silvio, but that's only because he's played by Miami Steve Van Zandt, guitarist in the E Street Band.
Typically this is study month where I ought to be hard at work on my two dissertations and studying for my exams in May. Instead I'm watching endless episodes of the Sopranos and finalising details for my Summer excursion to Edmonton, Canada. Sweet. Hopefully rooftop brews shall be consumed in the near future, thus perfectly capping of a monumentally wasteful yet enjoyable week.

Neil Young

2008-03-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

Also, I got a ticket to see one of my all-time heroes, Neil Young, play at the Marquee right here in my home city. Not having to travel up to Dublin for a gig will be sweet but I do get free travel on bus and train and I am a major fan of our nation's capital so I guess it's a mixed bag all round. I'm more or less over live music, being the neo-fuddy duddy that I am at a a mere 21 I just can't be bothered standing for hours in a mess of sweaty assholes blocking my view of the musicians - live dvds are much more my thing (unless they have that horrible jumpy mtv editing which I loath.) In any case I've decided to break my no more standing gigs rule simply because it's Neil Young and he's a total legend.

Here's a video of ole Neil doing 'Old Man' from the great 'Harvest' album live in Massey Hall back in 1971, before said album was released. This solo acoustic version of the song really highlights Neil's simple yet intricate percussive and hammer-on based acoustic style. Enjoy.

It's Been a Good Week

2008-03-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

I've finally made some good progress on my history dissertation(currently up to 3300 quality words that I'm happy with and my overall argument is coming along nicely), bought 'Planet Terror' on dvd- it's totally awesome and blows the patchy but still great 'Death Proof' out of the water, discovered that Moosehead shall be my beer of choice whenever available and brought my Ball attendance for this year to 3 by going to the Clubs and Socs ball on Thursday and the IT ball on Saturday, both of which were great nights. Oh and I've playing retro arcade classics like space invaders and the glorious operation wolf on ye olde ps2, sweet.All of this combines to create an overall happy mood in the Dónal camp.

And to boot, an evening spent watching Traveller BareKnuckle Boxing videos was capped of with the discovery of this absolutely hilarious prank call: "the shit's gonna go down big ssshhtyle!"

Atari Porn

2008-03-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

Check out this incredible video from the angry video game nerd. The nerd is seemingly loved and loathed in equal measure among my friendbase. While I can appreciate he fact that he relies way too heavily on cursing as his primary vehicle for humour, I'm just too damn interested in all the weird and obscure games and consoles he reviews not to keep watching. Plus he appreciates Rolling Rock - I can dig that.

This video is all about porno games made for the Atari 2600 in the early 80s. Some of these games are just breathtakingly crazy and graphic - despite the primitive graphics there's still no doubt as to what's going on! The worst as far as I'm concerned is definitely the 'Custer's Revenge' game that the nerd starts things off with although all the games shown are highly weird and dirty.

The Waiting

2008-03-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

Predictably enough I did indeed cough up for the Tom Petty documentary mentioned in the last post and I'm glad I did despite the hefty price tag. It really is a great documentary even though it falls into the primary trap of the genre in an overly positive treatment of its subject matter. Nonetheless the music is great for the most part and that's what really matters since more than anything I like documentaries/films like this as a way into the music of bands I like the look of and want to maybe get into. I'm particularly enjoying 'The Waiting' from 'Hard Promises', the fourth long player from the band at the moment. It's ranking extremely highly on the choohn-o-meter. There's no doubt but that I'm over listening to it but who cares, I'm loving the hell out of it so I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Running Down A Dream

2008-02-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a trailer for 'Running Down A Dream', a documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers directed by director Peter Bogdonavich of 'The Last Picture Show' fame. It's about 40 bucks inside in Zavvi in town. The reason it's so expensive is because the documentary is a mammoth 4 hours long, spread across two discs and comes with another disc of the Heartbreakers' 30th anniversary concert and a cd of Petty rarities. All in all, a fairly savage package. Realistically, I don't see myself not picking this baby up sometime during the next week, despite its hefty price tag. Afterall, I do love music documentaries!

In other news, I bought 'The Nightfly' a solo album by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan today. It's essentially a concept album roughly exploring the themes that defined Fagen's experience growing up in the Northeastern U.S. in the late '50 and early '60s. So far my favourite track is 'New Frontier', which gets its title from one of JFK's electoral slogans from 1960 - class. The album's best achievement is that despite having a sound very much of its time (1982), it still manages to evoke a smoky black and white feel of the time period in question. In this regard the album cover certainly helps.

Fagen discusses his formative years:

"There was a great emphasis on technology at the time. The Cold War was going strong. Kids, through the media and what the government and their parents wanted them to know, grew up with a certain vision of the world. I think my discovery of black music and the hipster culture really broke all that apart. It made me see it a different way. And that's basically what the record is about."

I absolutely love the liner notes of the album too:

"The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build.
D.F."

Ah Steely Dan, you gotta love 'em.

Words of Wisdom from the 37th President

2008-02-27T04:02:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Tricky Dicky, even if carrying his gigantic memoirs in my bag around college (and town) was an ill-advised and painful endeavor, I just can't be mad at the man. Dick Nixon is always good for a laugh.
Check out this shocking piece of tape where Nixon discusses his opinions of some of the wealthier people in San Fransisco.

The absolute best part of it all, and I include Watergate etc in this, is that Nixon insisted on recording all conversations in the White House so that his place in history could not be obscured or twisted by 'liberal' historians. Heh.

The Bourgeois Blues

2008-02-24T03:57:00.000-08:00

Given that a considerable amount of this past week was spent agonisingly writing an unmercifully broad essay on Marxism, it seems fitting that I stumbled across this video of Taj Mahal doing 'The Bourgeois Blues' whilst looking for Ry Cooder stuff on youtube. As it happens, I really pussied out on this essay. Despite believing personally that the writings of Marx were more or less totally of their time and any transportation out of the mid to late 1800s virtually guarantees Pol Pot/Mao/Stalin style despotism, I nonetheless argued throughout my 'Why Read Marx?' essay that his writings are off the flamin' 'ook so to speak and are insanely relevant and pertinent in today's day and age. I got the bloody thing done which was grand and lovely but when it all comes down to it I wish I had just taken that extra time to argue what I actually believe. I would have gotten more into the essay and it would have been a whole lot better. Ah the easy way out, it is as easy as it is unrewarding. Dose.

Anyway, I really like the song, I've always been a fan of Mr. Mahal's singing and am impressed by his piano chops in this video. He's accompanied by Yank Rachelle on mandolin who's considered to be the father of blues style mandolin playing. I'm not so sure I like what he does, (I'd much rather Sam Bush in there rockin' it) it's very staccato and he doesn't hit too many clean notes but i you want to see his influence at work listen to Ry Cooder play the mandolin. he plays EXACTLY like Yank does.

Incidentally, according to some of the comments by other viewers of the video on youtube, Taj Mahal himself is far from a proletariat, living and playing in the nice as pie Berkeley California throughout the rough civil rights years of the 60s and then selling millions of alums of watered down calypso-blues later in his career. Sounds pretty bourgeois to me....

In any case I don't think you should have to 'live' what you sing. When it all comes down to it a good song is a good song and that's all that matters. *EXCEPT in the case of totally softcore skinny indie gimps pretending to be hardcore.* I'm going to have to crack down on that one.

Reelin' in the Years

2008-02-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings one and all and welcome to a deliciously pointless new addition to the blogosphere. I'd like to open my account on this blog with a video of one of my all time favourite tracks from a great band by the name of Steely Dan. This video is from the early 70s as the band promoted their debut album 'Can't Buy a Thrill', an effort I would argue is one of the most accomplished and incredibly coherent debut albums of all time. The eponymous debut from Roxy Music may be a more strikingly profound mission statement but Steely Dan's first long player is a more even and consistent work. 'Reelin' in the Years' is a quick paced rocker in 6/8 time with great conversationalist vocals from Donald Fagen in a style that Phil Lynnot would make his own a couple of years down the line as Thin Lizzy moved into their classic Gorham & Roberson twin guitar phase. In fact, the 6/8 timing and twin guitar harmonies featured in this track would also later become hallmarks of Lizzy's 'trademark' sound. Hmmmm....

In any case, 'Reelin' in the Years' is pure quality despite the bands ever so dodgy attire. Walter becker (the large bearded individual on rhythm guitar) looks like a total legend though.

Also, in case anyone was wondering what the deal was regarding the name of this blog, it's a pun on the title of Bruce Springsteen's totally class second album, 'The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle", with my initials filling in for the 'E'. Somewhat lame but hey, it's gotta be called somethin'.