So Treehouses and I (Treehouses and I coincidentally being also the name of the Broadway musical I'm currently working on) DJ'd at Spy last Thursday... which was the night after supporting the wonderful worldwideweb of Wavves. Bumper week. Here be the sounds spun by I (in alphabetical order, cos it's the only order I know):

1910 Fruitgum Company: Pop Goes The Weasel
Andy's Airport of Love: Old Wooden Rollercoaster
Art Brut: Formed a Band
The Barbaras: Heaven Hangs
Best Fwends: Skate or Live
Brainiac: Indian Poker (Part 3)
The Clean: Tally Ho
Danielson Famile: We Don't Say Shut Up
Del Shannon: Runaway
Further: California Bummer
Grandaddy: A.M. 180
Hemstad: Patrik Sjöberg
Jan and Dean: Surf City
La Casa Azul: El Sol No Brillara Nunco Mas
Les Savy Fav: The Year Before The Year 2000
The Lovely Feathers: Frantic
Neutral Milk Hotel: Holland, 1945
No Age: Teen Creeps
Pavement: Best Friend's Arm
Pixies: Manta Ray
Plastic Bertrand: Ça plane pour moi
The Polyphonic Spree: Lithium
Times New Viking: (My Head)
Titus Andronicus: Titus Andronicus
Tornados: Popeye Twist
Tripping Daisy: Mechanical Breakdown
Unicorns: Jellybones

Started with the Tornados, ended with der Spree... I know that much. Time slipped off far too quickly for my liking.

I'M TAKING CREDIT FOR: 'A.M. 180'. Karl played it before I got to play 'Nature Anthem'. I don't care, it's mine now.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: I like forcing music that I like into the ear canals of a barful of people.

JACKPOT OF THE DAY: So Cow also DJ'd. We swapped CDs afterwards.

LESSON OF THE DAY: There is none.

DUBLIN DUCK DISPENSARY IS THE NEW: Basement Jaxx.

BASEMENT JAXX: Come in. Yr time is up.

BASEMENT JAXX: A terrible scapegoat for this particular scenario. Shows how much I know.

DDDDJ: Okay in my book.

ALAS, MY BOOK: Non-existent.

Briefing:
- I made a new E.P.
- It's called 'Yykes Basket'.
- Say "Yykes" like "eeks".
- And "Basket" like "Basket".
- If you ever say it.
- There are 8 songs on it.
- That makes it a little over 20 minutes long.
- It's the first DDD physical release.
- It's available on midget 3 inch CDs, with a handmade cover.
- The cover art is by Hollie Leddy-Flood.
- It was released on Wednesday the 11th of February. We supported Wavves that night.
- The original numbered run (in blue slips) is sold out!
- It now comes in a red cover.
- You can buy it over the "internet".
- It's also available in Road Records, Fade Street, Dublin.
- It'll cost you €5.
- Plus postage and packaging.

Songs:
1. The What
2. Be Happy
3. Shoot the Curl
4. DNA
5. Whistling/Cartoons
6. Hot Air Balloon
7. Little World Outside
8. Toy Factory

http://www.state.ie/blog/live-we-have-band-dublin-duck-dispensary-crawdaddy-dublin/

The last couple of weeks have seen, it has to be said, something of aJanuary drought when it comes to interesting gigs, as we gear up theanticipation of oncoming new-year releases. Support act Dublin Duck Dispensarydo little to funnel away that feeling of gloom with a disappointing, ifthankfully short, opening set that’s not really the rallying cry fornew music we were hoping for. Bobby Aherne crashes through a few dozensongs in rapid-fire – two-minute episodes of scuzz-pop debris – with aplucky swagger, and a tin-can microphone effect that does little towarrant some Times New Viking lo-fi curiosity, if that’s what the bandwere after. Closer ‘Manners’ was encouraging, but on Aherne’s ownadmission, these were songs about “nothing, and no-one” lazily pitchedto the crowd.



'Manners' is a pretty good song alright, truth be told.

It says in the October issue of Connected that I hate god. I've decided to take this opportunity to explicitly state that I have never met the man and can thus proffer no balanced assessment of his virtues, or lack thereof. I mean no harm or offence to the gentleman himself nor his extended family, which allegedly includes me.

Muhammad, on the other hand...

Here's some shit that some cool dudes said about the debut DDD show at The Academy. If you were there, thanks for being there. I hope you didn't injure yourself, because it was the darkest place I've been since the womb and I'd imagine that tripping-up or falling-over was a distinct possibilty.

But first, we played a song for MUZU TV with an acoustic guitar and clean vocals. What am I, Damien Rice? This is it:



Then - in lycra suits with hardhats on head, toolbelt on belt, giro slips in pocket and capes on our backs - us hard working, working class heroes went to town...

State
Some bands are worth checking out for the name alone and this year has it's fair share. DDD are as off the wall as their moniker suggests, although without ever venturing down the avenue marked 'Unlistenable Rubbish'.

Asleep on the Compost Heap
They are Ireland's only dedicated duck dispensary. Dispensing ducks is not a round-the-clock business, because in between shifts of dispatching their feathered friends to a perplexed city, they make lovely lo-fi punkish ditties that are this fuzzy...


Cluas
Also able to overcome the lack of soundcheck were ultra lo-fi three-piece The Dublin Duck Dispensary who, as 'they' up till now had been a home recording solo project, were making their live debut at the festival. And for a first gig they managed to be remarkably self assured, all scratchy guitars and synths and Islands influenced vocals with songs ranging in duration from 25 seconds to a couple of minutes. Provided that this wasn't just a once off gig for them and they develop into a more regular going concern as a band due to their unique for Dublin sound I do think this is a bunch that people could take notice of.

Analogue
They make a wonderful racket do the 'Duck Dispensary. Bobby dressed up as Santa. Guitarist/keyboardist Karl dressed up as an employee from a 1960s biscuit factory in Manchester. They have a bubble machine stage right. Sadly, they only play for what seems like 30 seconds and at an earlier time than billed, meaning that a good few interested punters land down just as their slightly shambolic, energetic and good-humoured set rocks out to a close. Dublin Duck Dispensary are a band to watch. Think early Pavement crossed with Guided by Voices. Guided by Ducks perhaps?


Setlist:
Brain Damage
The Last Bottle in the World
Shangri-La!
Rabbit in a Hat
London, 1864
The Adventure
Electric Picnic
Cannon Vs. Horsey

Aye.

So that's pronounced 'loo-ann-chee-ba-zow'. Apparently. Correct me if you speak the most popular language in the universe at a higher level than I do. (hint: that's the only Chinese word I know, or at least the only one I can claim to know without coming across as racist). It's a concept album based on the... concept... of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama having a paraplegic child together on election day, who (due to a legal loophole related to the counting of the vote) is inaugurated as President of the USA. It transpires that the kid is a republican, and this (bundled with the fact that he's a child with zero legs) means he gets up to all sorts of silly shit and ruffles the fuck out of everybody's feathers.

Anyway, thanks China. For the title.

Here's what's on it:

1.   Bible Stories
2.   Break a Leg
3.   Little Brown Dog
4.   Prestidigitation
5.   I Smell The Blood
6.   Happy Holidays
7.   What Happens in the Junkyard Stays in the Junkyard
8.   Brain Damage
9.   Irish Rebel Song
10. Roald Dahl
11. Beach Philosophy
12. The Death Threat
13. Luanqibazao


It goes on (and on) for 33 minutes or something like that. Most of that stuff was done in the first 2 weeks of my summer holidays in June, but there's been a lot of binning and tinkering and other things that aren't Dublin Duck Dispensary since then.

September 27th
rackandruinrecords.com

Describing themselves as 'Christian rap', the Dublin Duck Dispensary project is nothing of the sort. More Irish lo-fi indie than neo-con hip-hop, the DDD is possibly as cool as Let's Wrestle. That's pretty cool, we have to tell you.

Neither insipid C86 spine-free alterna-tit, nor yet another Pavement-a-like bunch, the DDD fit nowhere and could, in theory, appeal to all (except those with irrational fears of a perceived 'lack of competence' or 'bereftitude of slickness'). Artrocker are happy to be dispensed to.

- Richard Davis

The headline is: "IF IT SOUNDS LIKE A DUCK..."

A google search for that proverb-type thing gives plenty of results, but I've no idea what it means in that context. Bad, I assume.

Then the review:

There's more self-serving tosh from Dublin Duck Dispensary who is a blogger claiming to be "an Irish dude who hates U2 (ooh, now there's rebellion for you!), making pop music that may hurt your ears". When compared to Atomic Kitten maybe this is truly frightening stuff, otherwise it's just self-conscious smartarse indie pop-rock from somebody trying hard to come on like a really mad bastard. Think Frank Zappa meets Pat Shortt with added distortion. That said, at a mere 31 seconds, it's hard to fault track 1; there could be a decent la-la pop tune buried under track 2; while the chiming track 3 raised a smile around the house, it's doom-laden vocal and visceral guitars hitting the spot. But ultimately it's all pretty self-consciously no-fi, and there's more to making provocative music than just being wilfully bad. I admire the boy for having a go, but it still has to work as a listening experience.

For anybody curious, the majority of my songs have titles... "track 1" is 'Cannon Vs. Horsey', "track 2" is 'The Last Bottle in the World' and "track 3" is 'Rabbit in a Hat'. There were another 7 songs on the CD, but there are only so many things that one can say about music.

So not only did I raise Jackie Hayden's "smile", but I also hit his "spot". Fantastic stuff.

Sort of.

Planet Sound on Teletext (the perfect accompaniment to any breakfast treat) has put the Dispensary as their demo of the week...



That says:


DUBLIN DUCK DISPENSARY
Electric Picnic
8/10

Whacked-out, fuzzy pop brilliance here from "an Irish dude who hates U2".

This is as Lo-fi as it gets; sounding not unlike a more psychedelic, interference-ridden version of Jay Reatard. Very weird, very wonderful.

The combination of trippy fairground organs, guitars and distorted vocals is joyous, if a little unsettling...are we listening to the new Simple Kid?

Link.




-

Apparently Hope of the States "were discovered after sending a demo to the Planet Sound teletext page, and were signed to Sony BMG."

If anyone from Sony is reading this, don't even bother.

hahaha