Life, these days, seems to be entirely about music. Sure, there’s the odd bit of travel writing and teaching (okay, a lot of teaching) in there, too, but music seems to dominate in a large way: album reviews, gigs (I managed to see 16 live bands in a single weekend last week – a combination of Record Store Day and a couple of gigs) and interviews seem to have taken over (Kele from Bloc Party the other day – he’s really difficult to talk to, awkward and with a bit of a dislike for the media – seem counterproductive but hey, he was okay as long as I didn’t ask anything at all personal).
Of course, originally this was meant to be all about travel, but – well, apart from my trip to Munich the weekend after next – I’m doing precious little of that at the moment, so you’ll have to indulge my efforts to summarize life right now in a way I can read back on. The best parts of the last few weeks have been almost entirely gig based. I had the odd experience of judging an indie competition (the prize was a trip to headline a Canadian festival) last week, and spent the next day drinking with Screech from Saved By The Bell (before later finding out that his last career move was to star in a particularly repulsive porn film and throw a wobbly over his fading fame – I’ll keep schtum on where that information came from!). The indie fest was good, I stumbled upon a Dublin band called Amoric, who I think are absolutely superb, though they did somehow fail to win behind a group called ‘The Whatmans’, who were… well, okay, though their managements trying to talk me into bigging them up. I’m not sure they’re worth bigging up, but we shall see, I’ll need to see a bit more of them.
I have an interview lined up with Faithless, too, though those things are always a bit up in the air. Hopefully it’ll come through and I’ll have the chance to ask them various questions about Dido as well as the intricacies of a group that I like more every time they go on the stereo. Which is often.
Away from the music, villa got thrashed 7-1 the other week, but they’ve won nearly every game since. Including the derby against Birmingham on Sunday, which was perhaps a touch lucky, but I’m not complaining. Champions League’s still a long shot, but you never know. I’ll be heading off to some away games if they make it, especially if they’re anywhere interesting. I watched the game through seriously bleary eyes after a going away party for my German students, who spent the night before trying to persuade me to drink as much of their 56% alcohol local spirit as they could force down my throat. I stumbled back from South Dublin on the last train and went to bed with the ceiling spinning… need to stop partying with Germans, they see it as a competition.
This week: Idlewild and Florence and The Machine. I’ve started keeping a list of the bands I’m getting in this year, as it’s really become a bit of a beast. Is there anything glamorous about the Dublin indie rock scene? Not really, but I still love every second of it. Bring me more music…
James