Soundtrack of the Year

Not to be outdone by my 'single of the year' post, straight in at no. 1 comes the soundtrack to the intriguing 'Perfume - the Story of a Murderer'
The music perfectly matches the mood throughout, at times uplifting and inspirational, other times filled with menace and foreboding
Have a listen here

Jurassic 5 split

Sorry to hear this news but truth be told I'm not that surprised
Back in the late 90s, they were one of the freshest and most innovative hip hops acts around but in recent years and by the time I saw them in Vicar St. in '06, they looked like a band on the way out
If you buy just one thing from their back catalogue, make it the 'Jayou' EP
http://www.amazon.ca/Ep-8-Tracks-Jurassic-5/dp/B00000J7QY
I've yet to hear a better combination of rhyming, scratching and sampling, it's also hilarious in parts with some very clever dialogue and references thrown into the mix, just shows you what these guys were capable of in their prime

Single of the year

This has been doing the rounds for a few months now but still sounds as good as ever:

'Thou shalt always kill'
http://www.myspace.com/lesacvspip

Maximo Park's infectious 'Our Velocity' is another contender:
http://www.myspace.com/maximopark

New Ireland

It's not often I watch 'The Late Late Show' these days for varying reasons but the odd time I do catch it, it can make for compulsive viewing
This weekend just gone, they had a panel of journos, politicians and various other media commentators: Ian 'O Doherty (Irish Indo), David Norris, George Lee, Karen Coleman, Ronan Mullen and a few other people I didn't recognise
The discussion was about New Ireland and how we've changed as a nation for better and for worse
Unfortunately I missed the first half of the discussion but the second half was engrossing, the debate becoming increasingly heated with both Norris and 'O Doherty getting quite agitated (more about this later)

Things were fairly peaceful early on with some valid points made by a woman who seemed to be some sort of religious correspondent, and she was to some extent backed up by Ronan Mullan - following this, Karen Coleman raised the temperature somewhat harping on about her almost 10 years with the Beeb and the malign influence of the Catholic Church in the 80s and how great it is to be free of that today - I normally like Karen Coleman but I think she lost the run of herself somewhat on the show

But that was nothing compared to what came next!
David Norris began to talk about the lack of respect for authority in today's Ireland only to be shouted down by Ian 'O Doherty who clearly disagreed with him
'O Doherty then proceeded to spend the next 10 or 15 minutes making snide comments about Norris, lawyers (he may have had a point there on that one!), the Catholic Church and whaever else came into view
I don't have a problem with his views - everyone is entitled to an opinion
But 'O Doherty comes across as the worst type of journalist - jumped-up, smug, arrogant, ignorant and disrespectful to the others on the panel in particular David Norris
In short, everything that is wrong with modern Ireland encapsulated in one individual - quite an achievement!

Not surprisingly, a slightly shaken Pat Kenny called a halt to proceedings shortly afterwards
Fascinating TV while it lasted though

Incidentally, whilst looking for some other comments about this debate on the Late Late, I typed in 'david norris' + 'late late' into google
The first hit it came back with was a hate fuelled anti immigrant discussion on the forum of the infamous 'stormfront' website with most of the comments coming from the more redneck end of Irish society - pretty sad that there are Irish people online spewing out this filth

Newstalk

Definitely a welcome addition to Irish radio
Their casual informed style mostly works well and it's good to have an alternative to RTE Radio 1 in the morning which can sometimes be a little dry and austere

It's interesting to see the presenters airing their personal opinions on issues, they don't hold back either!
Indeed I've heard Eamon Keen and Carol Coleman in particular really let rip on issues they obviously feel strongly about and many an unfortunate goverment minister has recieved a tongue lashing live on air

I've also noticed many 'turtys', 'tings' and 'trees' on NewsTalk, especially in the mornings, something you wouldn't hear so often on RTE Radio 1

That said, there have been elements of smugness and tabloidism creeping into certain programmes in recent times and the news bulletins seem to be getting more and more salacious all the time - sometimes you just have to switch over to RTE Radio 1 to get a proper unsensational account of the news voiced by newsreaders who don't sound like they went to the 'Dort' school of English!

So long as they don't believe their own hype and keep their feet on the ground, I can only see good times ahead for NewsTalk

NIN playing Marley Park this August!

but supporting the Foo Fighters....?!

I should be elated but...
a) NIN supporting the Foo Fighters? surely it should be the other way around
b) Not a fan of Marley Park as a venue at all
c) Am not too fussed on the Foos in recent years, they've become somewhat generic and stodgy
d) NIN with Ladyton (despite the venue) could've been a pretty cool show whilst NIN supporting the Foo Fighters on the other hand just guarantees the presence of hordes of drunken annoying kids - not good