Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Tag: music

LIRA-8

An emulator for the Lyra-8 synthesiser. Which doesn’t currently support M1 chips so it won’t work on my Mac. But I’m saving this here for later. #link

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#NowPlaying Meat Puppets - Monsters (the 1990 repress on blue marble vinyl, which I just got for a steal) #aside

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Just got an email saying the reissue of NoMeansNo’s Wrong has been pushed back by yet another month (it’s early May now, apparently). I know it’s bad for indie labels pressing vinyl these days, but most seem to handle it better than what Alternative Tentacles have been doing #aside

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The Quietus: The Strange World Of… U.S. Maple

No one else sounds like U.S. Maple (except maybe Singer, the short-lived act with the guts of the band plus Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and guitarist Todd Rittman’s subsequent band Dead Rider). This is an easy introduction to their music and story and what makes them so enthralling to me. #link

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RIP Killing Joke guitarist Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker, whose style and tone may be imitated but never duplicated. Everyone will have different recommendations but mine is the mid-’80s run: the incendiary Fire Dances, the epic Night Time, even the divisive Brighter Than a Thousand Suns #music #aside

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Heavy #music alert: Cloud Rat are one of the best grindcore bands going, and their digital discography is free this weekend on Bandcamp > cloudrat.bandcamp.com #aside

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I remember when Sunbather came out, I looked for the CD at Rough Trade East in London but they hadn’t got it in yet (big omission on their part, missing the blackgaze zeitgeist like that). I never did get around to buying that CD, but now I have the 10th anniversary vinyl #music #aside

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LP reissue of Up on the Sun arrived today and it sounds great to these ears. Easily one of my top 10, maybe top five favourite albums (this is my fourth physical copy of it, too) #music #aside

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Only one purchase for me this #BandcampFriday: Palm’s (RIP) Rock Island on milky clear vinyl #music #aside

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Finally getting a listen to the Let It Bleed edition of The Replacements’ Tim and my immediate impression is, “It’s a seventies rock record.” Ed Stasium do Candy Apple Grey next #music #aside

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Late to the news of the death last month of Ed Barger, best known to me as producer on the Meat Puppets’ earliest stuff as well as with the LA art-punk collective Monitor. But he was also producer and benefactor of the embryonic DEVO in their shared hometown of Akron, Ohio. His former partner Laurie O’Connell, one of the brains behind Monitor, posted a touching tribute here #music > Facebook.com/WorldImitation #aside

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#NowPlaying Palm - Nicks and Grazes (on fancy limited ‘Away Kit’ vinyl). I completely missed that they’re breaking up and just played their last show two nights ago. What a loss! #aside

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Tomb Mold trying to out-fusion VoidCeremony on their new album, I hear #aside

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The Canadian experimental metal band BIG|BRAVE performing live in a small venue: vocalist/guitarist Robin Wattie in the foreground on the right singing into a mic, Mathieu Ball on the left bent over his guitar and Tasy Hudson in the background behind the drum kit

I might not get home till 1am but BIG|BRAVE were worth it #music #image

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Just got a promo link for the new #Sprain album (while the vinyl I ordered is on the way). Please note it has not one but two tracks that run over 24 minutes. (This might be a way-off-the-mark reference, but I’m hearing a Mark Eitzel influence on the vocals here) #aside

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In other news, I really like the new track from black midi; more melodic without sacrificing their knack for jagged rhythms #video

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Book review — Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punk by Sam McPheeters

Mutations is right, as Sam McPheeters’ collected essays shapeshift between wry criticism, wistful but not rose-tinted reminiscences, self-excoriations and determined opinions on any number of topics: consumer culture, scene politics, the worth of art. It concludes on a rueful note, with a vignette from the early Noughties on the closing of a longstanding record pressing plant that’s by happenstance a treasure trove of US independent punk history, one read some 17-odd years later with the keen understanding of a contemporary vinyl revival that has made little room for the small labels that kept the format breathing when there’s some bullshit classic rock reissue to put out or whatever. More…

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The National Concert Hall Gamelan Orchestra (I didn’t even know we had one, but there we are!) in a special performance for the socially distanced Hotter than July festival. (I’d prefer if it were strictly instrumental but that’s just me.) #video

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Book review — Sing Backwards And Weep, by Mark Lanegan

When I first learned what this story of Mark Lanegan’s early years in music would entail, I couldn’t help but think of Bob Mould’s own autobiography, See A Little Light, and all of its recriminations and petty swipes at his ex-bandmates in Hüsker Dü. But at least I can understand Mould’s bitterness, if not accept or agree with it, because it comes from a place of passion — a band that he and his former musical compadres wanted to be in, music they wanted to make, and then life and its complication sours the milk. More…

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Weaknotes for f/e 2 November 2019

This sudden change of seasons hasn’t been great for my health the last couple of weeks. And it is most definitely a new season: winter in Ireland starts in November and don’t let anyone ever tell you different. More…

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