Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest

Here's one for the Book & Movie Club. Can't wait to see it.



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Rough Trade documentary

Essential part of the history of modern music.

Rough from Django's Ghost on Vimeo.

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Lemmy: The Movie

Watched this this evening. Absolutely brilliant documentary. It proves that Lemmy is the most rock n' roll man alive, that he'll never change and that he doesn't give a flying fuck what anyone thinks.

The tagline is crude: 49% Motherfucker 51% Son of a bitch, but anything less does not do justice to this gambling, drinking, swearing, smoking, speed freak. Going on that it should be safe to assume that he's a stumbling, mumbling, delusional shell of a man, but not so. Lemmy is interesting, funny, candid and charming in a gruff and grumpy manner.

Dave Grohl sums Lemmy up best "...Fuck Keith Richards, fuck all those dudes who survived the sixties. Flying around in private jets, living up their gunslinger reputation as they fuck supermodels in the most expensive hotel in Paris. It's like: you know what Lemmy is doing? Lemmy is... probably drinking Jack n' cokes and writing another record.

Book & Movie club # Beardyman

Charming, funny and incredibly talented.

If you're looking for insight into the technicalities behind his setup you're in the wrong place. You will however want to go for a pint with him.

Beardyman! Let's do pints.

Also, Galway people aren't all morons. Just the ones in this video.



And here's the video to the new single. It's gonna be on I Done A Album which is out March 21st. For any more info have a look at his damn fine website



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The Amen Break . . . the story

This is excellent. How 6 seconds of drums from a song recorded in 1969 ate its way into all manners of hip-hop and electronic music.



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Book & Movie Club (Guest Post)

This is a guest post here for my good friend Josh as part of his book/movie feature which pops up here every few weeks or so.I stumbled across a DVD at the weekend named All Tomorrows Parties...and for around 20 euros, it was well worth the punt.

All Tomorrows Parties as many of you may and probably well know, is a music promotion started in 1999 by Barry Hogan, at a holiday resort in England. In it's 10 odd years it has spread across both Europe and the U.S. with gigs and festivals, gaining a massive fan base as well as huge respect within the 'alternative' music scene in general. The difference in this and ...well most festivals I can think of, is it's lack of sponsorship whatsoever, DIY attitude, and of course the line up each year being curated by bands and the fans themselves, leaving for a very unique batch of music over the 3 day festival.

This documentary shows a true glimpse into a weekend at ATP. This is achieved by the hard work put into squeezing down over 600 hours of footage sent in by fans, bands and film makers into a 90 minute film. Live performances, footage from the festival goers up to all sorts and interviews, it's all there and in multiple formats including mobile phone videos, camcorders, Super 8 and HD. This gives viewers the real spirit and essence of what the festivals all about, not to mention the music itself. Live performances ranging from Nick Cave & Iggy Pop to John Cooper Clarke & Saul Williams, to The Boredoms & The Octopus Project, to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Animal Collective... Too many to name to be honest, but all very good, more independent bands within a range of genres.

Special Features: an extra 50 minutes of live stuff, as well as the 40 page booklet included that documents all the festival introduction letters written by Hogan himself,and all of the festival posters and artwork over the years!

A great watch. When it comes to notions of 'a music festival FOR the fans' or 'indie-festival',these guys are not bullshitting! Its exactly that! G'wan,buy it!

Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan (Fuck Buttons Remix) alt

Slint - Breadcrumb Trail alt

The Octopus Project - The Way Things Go alt

- Brian Ruane (guest post)

Book And Movie Club no. 3: Hang The DJ

As I said yesterday, too much to do to crack into the Book and Movie Club. Yesterday was crazy, my girlfriends back windscreen smashed for no apparent reason so between trying to get it fixed and looking for accommodation in London I was up the walls!

So I've decided to write about a book I found in the wonderful Charlie Byrne's bookshop in Galway last week. Charlies is a Galway institution and a must for any tourists, and, of course Galway folk themselves. It's not unlike the bookshop Dylan Moran runs in Black Books, although the staff are friendlier and they do have books that people may be looking for.

The book is called Hang The DJ and deals with one of my favourite literary topics. A topic that insights laughter, pain, anguish, and all that: Top 10's! It's an Alternative Book Of Music Lists, and something that I need not delve too deeply into. If you like the sound of it you should buy it, if not, you should not buy it. It's as simple as that.

If you're a fan of toilet reads this is the book for you. Ten minutes of quality alone time, finding a new band to listen to or reading about a song you love in a way you'd never seen it before.

The basis is that the editor, Angus Cargill invited friends and critics to write a top ten about whatever they want and published an entertaining book.

From "How not to get laid: The ten saddest Tom Waits songs" to "This woman's work: Why female singer songwriters are better than their male equivalents", with top 10's on The Pixies, New Zealand Lo-Fi bands and amazing power ballads in between this book is a chance to appreciate songs you know and love in a new light, hear music you'd never have heard of otherwise and enjoy some truly funny writing about our favourite subject (...this is a music blog for the record).

Here's a link to buy it online,

And here are a few tunes that feature between Famous Number 2's, 80's films and anti-war songs:

Edwin Starr - War

Deee Lite - Groove Is In The Heart

Simple Minds - Don't Forget About Me

Book and Movie club no. 2: The Last Waltz

Every wednesday join me for the book and movie club, and of course I'd love suggestions. You folk seem to like your music, any documentaries, films with great soundtracks, books about music, biographies, whatever else you're watching/reading that might be interested, mail me, my e-mail is plastered up top of the page!

I'm not a big country or blues rock kinda guy but I have to admit when it's done right there are times it can be sublime. As the Dude says, "I hate the fucking Eagles, man", and I do, I can't stand Clapton, I don't listen to nearly as much Zeppelin as I used to and while I can appreciate most of it, 70's bearded long-hair rock is something I'll rarely listen to. But this is so much more I guess, country, blues, gospel, rock n' roll, soul, pop, Rn'B, the works!

So last night I finally got around to watching The Last Waltz, the Scorsese directed documentary and final concert of Canadian band ...The Band. After 16 years on the road, they've decided to call it a day, so on Thanksgiving Day, November 25th 1976, in the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, the venue of their first ever gig together, 5,000 Turkey dinners are served and the party to end all parties begins.

In between concert scenes The Band are interviewed about the final show, it's a nice break from the show but the live stuff is where the magic is. Muddy Waters, literally roaring for five minutes, this lunatic they played with early in their career called Ronnie Hawkins who looks like he wandered from the mountains, Neil Young singing Helpless, it's a rollercoaster of madness.

It gets a little shit when Neil Diamond comes on and sings an awful song, and Clapton has is guitar playing ass handed to him on a plate by Robbie Robertson but otherwise the guestlist is phenomenal. Waters and Young, as mentioned, as well as Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Wood, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and shitloads more.

I've read some fun facts about it. Apparently Neil Diamond came off stage, and whispered "Follow that", the Dylan, to which Bob replied, "What do I have to do, go on stage and fall asleep?". Bang on the money was our Bob cos, as I said, Diamond was shit. Also, a bit of post production doctoring needed to be done to remove a big blob of coke from Neil Young's well powdered nose.

I suppose that was it all over, over saturation of shit country rock bands, the desert dwelling long-haired, coke and peyote filled days were inevitably numbered. They'd had a good run, from their first gig as "The Band" in '69 to their plast in '76 it was a damn good time to call it a day. Of course The Ramones and The Stooges took over, Sex Pistols had a go at it, things needed to change. But don't they always? I wouldn't mind seeing the death of electro-pop and Topshop guitar bands, but I suppose all you can do is like what you like and wait and see what happens. And in saying that I bought a pair of jeans in Topshop today. Can't beat a nice fitting pair of jeans.

You'll pick it up for a few quid anywhere, and if you really like it a 30th anniversary box set came out a while back. I'll post the best known song from it, The Weight, but the version used in the film is not the one on the soundtrack, this one was filmed in a studio a few days later with the Staples Singers: