So Long, Marianne
This week marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life. With my 25th birthday fast approaching, you might think I’m talking about some fruity goddamn quarter life crisis, but I’m not. This is fucking serious. Here is how it went down.
After unsuccessfully trying my hand at actual journalism with my last piece, Will demanded I make a return to the regular TINAR format. The real problem was that I had him tweet @rickygervais on my behalf, in the hope that Ricky would like the article enough to retweet the link, and I might get some more readers. Well, he didn’t. He did tweet links to every other fucking blog post he found about Derek, but obviously mine wasn’t up to scratch. I, much more used to personal rejection, just got drunk and muttered ‘fuck Ricky Gervais then’ a few hundred times and forgot all about it. Will is much more accustomed to glowing feedback though, and took the lack of retweeting as a personal affront. He told me I was getting too big for my boots and I need to stick to what I’m good at. So he hooked me up. A movie date with a ‘real classy lady’.
IN STORES NOW#63: Bruce Joseph
What we’re about here at IN STORES NOW is bringing you new and undiscovered music. This week, we present a very special session with the magical Bruce Joseph.
Bruce first came to our attention with his rather impressive homemade session videos, and it wasn’t long before we got working together. And we’re glad we did. His latest album “Look Out” is a knockout – here he plays two tracks from it, filmed in the stunning Wallace House in Lisburn.
Insensitivity Training
The only news source I ever pay any attention to is The Guardian Online. Admittedly I only ever give it a cursory glance over my morning coffee, because world news tends to depress me, but occasionally a story catches my eye and I postpone my morning dump long enough to read the whole thing. On Tuesday I shat with an alarming velocity, which could be attributed to Monday night’s indulgence on Guinness and mixed pickles, or to my bowel’s venomous response to this article by Tanya Gold, about Ricky Gervais’s new comedy-drama Derek, which aired last night on Channel 4. It seems every time Ricky blows his nose The Guardian has some fucking hack freelancer on the case, spouting off an opinion piece which never amounts to anything more than a load of bitching about what a horrible person he is, this time under the guise of intelligent discourse on the treatment of disability in modern television. Well I, too, am a hack freelancer, and I won’t stand idly around having my chosen profession besmirched by these goddamn humourless dickheads.
Jesus, maybe I should slow down on the whiskey until I finish this thing…
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IN STORES NOW#62: The Man Whom
It was a few months ago when we met Wexford-based Ian Doyle, who plays under the name The Man Whom. He was in Belfast supporting Chris Campbell‘s EP launch at McHughs bar.
Then, because of the way the music scene is here, he ended up crashing on my sofa. All in all, it was along night of music drinking and smoking – and the next morning much chat was had about the state of music today, vintage guitar amps and politics. After which, we also found time to record a session in my garage, with my cat busting some cool dance moves.
Iain is currently on a mini tour of the island – he played Kilkenny and hits Dingle tomorrow night. Catch him if you can at one of these fine venues.
The Staves
Back in February, Bandwidth had the great pleasure to meet up the rather wonderful Emily, Camilla and Jess Stavely-Taylor, three singing sisters collectively known as The Staves. All of them remembered the first time the band played Belfast, for the Open House Festival 2011 – now they were back in town with Michael Kiwanuka, playing the Communion Belfast night.
The exciting news is that they’ll be back in Belfast a third time, on 23rd April – the day after the release of the new EP ‘The Motherlode’. In the meantime, here are 2 magical session tracks.
They’ll be back in Belfast on 24th April where they’ll play McHughs, then on 25th April they’ll be in Dublin, then Cork the 26th. That’s three chances to see them – do not – repeat, do not – miss them. After that, they’re off to support Bon Iver on his North American tour, and off into stardom forever.
Monsieur Le Pew
I haven’t been around the Bandwidth offices recently. I hear Will was mistakenly informed that I had been killed in a boating incident and had a small fountain erected in the lobby, depicting me scrabbling for life in the wreckage of a boat, an arch of water gushing from my anguished mouth. The truth is I could only hope for such a noble demise. Though I am still technically alive, I am not sure my existence could accurately be described as ‘life’. For the past few weeks I have been locked in my room listening to George Jones records, drinking port wine and ritually flogging myself with my belt, like Agent Van Alden from Boardwalk Empire. I should have chosen my activities more wisely because I only have one George Jones CD and port wine gets old really fucking fast, but I was in such a funk I wasn’t thinking clearly, and then so tortured I was by self-loathing I decided I didn’t even deserve to upgrade to whiskey and Hank Williams. Finally I was jolted out of my stupor by a goddamn wasp which managed to invade my room despite my having the place sealed so tightly shut I had been breathing mostly fart and dead skin cells for about four days. After trying to attack the bugger with an empty port bottle I decided to just open the window and let him go the easy way. And then folks, I saw the light. Beautiful gleaming sunlight. And anyone who knows me knows I can’t resist a sunny day at Botanic Gardens with a hip flask of whiskey and my perv-friendly shades. There is nothing in this world that will restore one’s faith in the overall goodness of the world than watching two girls play frisbee barefoot on the grass, laughing and cavorting and pausing between throws to hike up their jeans, which keep falling down around their asses. So when I came back home I decided it was time to tell my story, purge my demons, and get on with my life. What happened was…
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Bandwidth + Go Wolf!
Presenting the first ever Bandwidth gig – with the amazing Go Wolf! at the Belfast Barge Galley Café.
It’s open to the public and the entire event will be covered by our dutiful Bandwidth cameras. Best of all.. it’s absolutely FREE.
It’s an early show, with doors at 5.30 – Go Wolf take to the stage at 6.30, and there’ll be bar facilities so you can stay on and drink or go out afterwards.
So come along on FRIDAY 23RD MARCH, 5.30pm.
RSVP here on Facebook.
This will be the first of a few Bandwidth early shows we have planned over the summer – so keep checking the site, and our facebook and twitter for more.
IN STORES NOW#63: Bruce Joseph 
IN STORES NOW#62: The Man Whom 
The Staves 
Rae Morris 
An All Time Lowe 
