Yesterday I had the pleasure to chatting to one Mr. Miles Kane, while I was sitting in a Park in Dublin and he was in Paris! He comes across as a nice guy with a hard work ethic and he loves gigging. He’s playing The Academy and ‘some little pub’ for Arthurs Day. You might know him as one half of The Last Shadow Puppets alongside Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys.
Would love to sit down with him for an hour and let the chat ramble.. He has a great scouse accent! Pop over to Goldenplec for the interview, here’s the video for Come Closer.
Just typing that date in, reminded me that today is an old school friends wedding anniversary she got married on 9/9/99.. Anyway I loved Lupercalia and will most likely burst with excitement in anticipation of Patrick Wolf’s gig in The Academy in Dublin in October.
Well it looks like ‘Time Of My Life’ is going to be given a lease of life and the track thoroughly deserves to be heard by anyone with ears. Here a live version recorded at The Pool Studios. Oh, Patrick is also running a competition to remix Time Of My Life on his website.
Directed by André Øvredal, Troll Hunter is a Norwegian film telling the story of some film students who investigate bear killings for a college assignment. But it turns out to be a bit worse than bears.. yes, the guy they follow is a Troll Hunter and the government are trying to cover it all up. The team led by Thomas try to get trolls on camera, something that has never been done before.
Here’s my dilemma, I really enjoyed this film and I thought it was really funny. I’m not sure it’s supposed to be funny though, I think it’s supposed to edge further to the horror genre than it actually does. The first problem is that most people have seen ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’ and we know these things are acted out, so it immediately makes the movie seem a little out of touch with reality.
If you look at Troll Hunter as a serious film, you’ll be disappointed. However, if you look at it from a lighter side of life, it’s 103 minutes of entertainment. (more…)
The Sugar Club played host to the first Irish gig for folk duo The Civil Wars. The two first came into my consciousness a few months ago when James Vincent McMorrow joined them on tour and it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had got to know them. Even before opening act Liz Lawrence had taken to the stage, floor space was at a premium so I found myself sitting on the step on the first row of seats.
This was the second time to see Liz Lawrence, she previously opened for Brooke Fraser in the same venue. Tonight, she was in flying form backed on harmonies, cajon and percussion by Harry. Liz Lawrence is a confident performer and again tonight gets the crowd clapping along. Highlight of her set had to be the instantly memorable ‘Monday Morning’ during which she dances with her guitar packing the energy in. Expect this song to take over your radio soon.
Reinforcements in the form of three extra rows of chairs were drafted into the venue before The Civil Wars came to the stage. From the opening notes of ‘Tip of My Tongue’, it’s easy to see why Joy Williams and John Paul White are converting audiences the world over. They exude a playful chemistry, which is really infectious. So much so, you never know quite what is going to happen next. Joy dances on stage and uses her hands and arms freely for expressing the lyrics and John Paul comes across as a cool Johnny Depp/Jack White character.
The duo have a definite deep south country feel and this is egged on through their harmonies. The playfulness is kept going throughout the night, with Joy knocking on John Paul’s guitar during ‘Forget Me Not’ and seemingly trying to have a ‘who can keep the note longest’ competition during ‘In The Valley’.
As the first notes of ’20 Years’ cascades through the auditorium someone behind shows their approval with an ‘Aw yeah’. I doubt they were disappointed. The tenderness of the song shines through and the two show great technique with subtle ‘ooh’ refrains off mic.
The Civil Wars are no fools, they know that no matter how people may be into your music, it’s always good to lighten the mood with cover. If lighten is the right word. The two explain how great pop songs have major keys and happy vibes, they couldn’t do that, Their version of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ goes down a treat. Later in the set we a treated to a sublime cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Disarm and Jackson 5′s I Want You Back. If only because of the popularity and quality of their covers, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear an album of them at some stage.
John Paul swaps his acoustic guitar for a resonator which gives a more country blues feel. If you could bottle up the essence of the deep south and put it in a song, the title track of their current album ‘Barton Hollow’ would seem to sum it up. Great melody and guitar lines, harmonies and lyrics that bounce of each other. This track is amazing on record but completely comes to life in The Sugar Club. ‘Falling’, ‘C’est La Mort’, and ‘Poison and Wine ‘are songs of such calibre that they ensure The Civil Wars will be around for a long time to come.
It is their stage performance that totally sets them apart though, the playfulness, the combination of harmonies backed by only guitar (and keys on one song) it seems like a simplistic set up but it’s the one that is totally right for The Civil Wars.
The two are about to leave but going by the rapturous response from the audience, have the sense not to leave but to do another couple of songs. As the shouts for ‘more’ are thrown in their direction Joy asks ‘What about your last train?, Oh I’ll leave you to worry about that.’ First time I’ve heard an artist wonder if the audience can get home.
The final tracks of the night are two cover versions, the first Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, with which Joy has fun with charades to parts of the song and John Paul decides to change the lyrics in the last line to ‘James Vincent McMorrow is not my lover’ to acknowledge the great man is in the venue. The duo finished with Leonard Cohen’s ‘Dance Me to The End of Love’.
The Civil Wars acknowledged the audience and thanked them for selling out their very first gig in Ireland, going by the crowds that were in The Sugar Club and going on the performance, next time round they will need a venue that has a lot bigger capacity.
Yesterday I had the pleasure to chatting to one Mr. Miles Kane, while I was sitting in a Park in Dublin and he was in Paris! He comes across as a nice guy with a hard work ethic and he loves gigging. He’s playing The Academy and ‘some little pub’ for Arthurs Day. You might know him as one half of The Last Shadow Puppets alongside Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys.
Just typing that date in, reminded me that today is an old school friends wedding anniversary she got married on 9/9/99.. Anyway I loved 
