The Hibernian Miscellany

Competence(n.):is the ability to perform some task. Incompetence is its opposite. Competency means a sufficiency of means for the useless necessities and conveniences in life.

Name:
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

It's Listmas Time!

"The votes have been counted, the smell of cigarette smoke and cheap aftershave hangs in the air. A junior editor drains the last dregs from the coffee machine. It's Listmas time again folks with your host...".

For those of you who are reading the last line in the voice of Ellen Barkin and if you can picture the interior of both Samsons Diner and The Abernathy Building, then your list may have many overlaps with mine, because top of the list for 2006 is XM radio's wonderful 'Theme Time radio Hour' weekly show hosted by none other than Bob Dylan.

For those of you, not yet familiar with the joys of 'Theme Time Radio Hour', fear not, BBC Radio 2 has syndicated the show to air over the festive season. you can catch the first six episodes from saturday 23rd December at 7pm.

The show has been THE highlight of the year. The obscure records from the thirties, forties and fifties mixed with contemporary classics from the likes of Uncle Tupelo and Ron Sexsmith thrown into a melting pot with the laconic humour of Old Uncle Bob is what radio was invented for. His between song patter and setup interviews with the likes Charlie Sheen and Jenny Lewis (A particular favourite of mine) is wonderfully funny and nostalgic at the same time. Theme Time Radio hour wins outright the Listmas award for entertainment highlight of 2006.

Musically speaking we had a lot of contenders for the big ten, in no particular order other than ascending, here comes the heavyweights.

10. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
Brendan and Jack? Well it's already been written about to death by this stage. But basically, two pretty decent songwriters take the formula from seventies rock with a capital R and re-invent themselves as the garage band they probably always wanted to be. It's a great fun record but does tend to be quite samey in parts. However, the live show is a much more accurate portrayal of the band.

9.Sparklehorse - Dreamt for light years in the belly of a mountain
It's been five long years since Sparklehorse's "It's A Wonderful Life," which is probably the most "ordinary" album Mark Linkous has ever produced. But the mysterious Linkous returns to his peak with "Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain," his fourth album full of unpredictable indie-rock. The trademark guitar sound of Sparklehorse is a welcome antidote for the current Kasabian-Arctic Monkeys-Razorlight reinvention of britrock that seems to be clowning around our airwaves at the moment.

8. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
The best work of Ms Lewis comes, surprisingly, sans Rilo Kiley. The Californian Indie-Americana Princess has jingle jangled old time melody lines that wouldn't be out of place on a T Bone Burnett compilation with the folk rock sound she helped create with the aforementioned Rilo Kiley. Her duet with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst on 'Handle With Care' is, in a word, brilliant.

7. M. Ward - Post-War
Another underrated american. Since 2005, he's toured with the White Stripes, coproduced the debut from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, (mentioned at number 8) and found the time to knock out a cracking portrait of America. Post-War is rootsy -- reaching back into the best of the Blues, early jazz, country, folk -- and yet also modern in the sense of being "lo-fi" yet not so self-conscious as other practitioners of this "genre" . It's thoughtful, provactive and well worth the work that may be required if you're not all that familiar with the lo-fi production.

6. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live at the Filmore East
Recorded at the Fillmore East in New York in 1970, this shows a rock combo at the heights of their creative peak. An essential document that features the original Crazy Horse line up with Danny Whitten. Hopefully this seascape of colliding guitars and Youngs definitive twang over such classics as ' Down by the River' will be the tip of the iceberg for archive releases. God knows his current output is bordering on criminal.

5. Johnny Cash - A Hundred Highways.
For purely sentimental reasons and for the last time you hear a voice like that! Rick and Johnny in a studio passing the last days of an American icon can produce sounds like these. I kid you not, death is all over this record, you can smell it creeping around the studio. The voice of doom!

4. Sufjan Stevens - Avalanche
The more I hear of this kid the more i like him. Avalanche is a collection of cast offs from 'Illinoise' and God they sound great. His spacial awareness, musically speaking, is what does it for me. he doesnt crowd his songs, he lets them breathe. Looking forward to his forthcoming Christmas album...that should be a doozy.

3. Jeff Tweedy - Sunken Treasure
A live DVD that allows you to download the album. Made all the more sweeter by the best gig Vicar Street has seen in 5 years. Jeff Tweedy gives singer songwriter lessons to Damien Rice, Paddy Casey, Declan O Rourke, Glen hansard and the rest of the buskers we like to call homegrown talent. Lads, take note..this is how it's done.

2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Just pipped out of top spot this year because of two very mediocre (by Dylan standards) tracks on an otherwise fascinating delve into the world and the world occupied by Bob Dylan. First of the minus points. 'The levee's gonna break' has THE most annoying guitar riff to grace a Dylan album, and I include 'wiggle wiggle'. Rollin' and Tumblin' just rolls and tumbles and goes nowhere, and keeps reminding me of 'Dirt Road Blues' which was the least played Dylan song at Number 8 until now. On the high points, and some of them are very high, we have 'Nettie Moore' which shakes you to your bones and haunts your every move. 'Workingmans Blues' which was nearly the next great Dylan song (we haven't added to that category since 'Not Dark Yet' in 1997). Throw in the best rock-blues number of the past year 'Someday baby', an itunes ad of the decade by the way, and the sweetness of slow ballads like 'When The Deal Goes Down' and close the whole thing off with the inevitable Ramble through Dylan's weirness @Aint talkin' and you can almost hear Greil Marcus let out a tiny excited whimper. As good as 'Love and Theft' but a smidgen short of his best.

1. Tom Waits - Orphans
A three, count them, three CD set from Tommy. It mixes new recordings with unreleased 'orphans' from older sessions. It has a magnifiscence about it that is nowhere to be seen in the new breed of artists today. After bouncing back from a somewhat disappointing ' Real Gone' by his standards, Tom returns to the landscape that only he can occupy. The wasteland of America, punctuated with characters like Scarface Ron and Blackjack Ruby that could have been culled from a Kerouac road trip or a.... Tom waits song! It's such a tribute to the man that he has become an adjective. Dylanesque and now Waitsean. I doubt there will ever be a (Neil) Young-ian or a Kasabianesque reference made in thirty years time.

Tom is a true original and along with Kathleen Brennan a master of music production. The rockabilly bluesy dirty driving sound is so suited to both his voice and his material. The stories are brilliant, the music fantastic and the listening experience over three discs unsurpassed this year.

So another year draws to a close, and s the gates shut on 2006, I just have a quick minute to run through the other highlights...

Film:
1. The Departed
2. The Squid and The Whale
3. Lucky Number Slevin
4. Friends With Money
5. Superman Returns

Gigs
1. Tweedy at Vicar street
2. Bob in Cork
3. Raconteurs at the Olympia
4. Leonard Tribute (except for Gavin) at the Point
5. Flaming Lips and Bob in Kilkenny

Sport
1. Ronaldo's Penalty against England in the World Cup
2. Argentina's wonder goal (23 passes I think)
3. Barcelona beating Arsenal in the Champions League Final
4. Roy Keane taking Micks old Job
5. Stans face after Ireland lose to Cyprus