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Caught Live
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As the tagline of Guy Maddin's 2007 'docu-fantasia' masterpiece, My Winnepeg, proclaims: "The truth is relative". This is... |
Sunday brings me (in no particular order) bowling, a roast, an emo-ta-tha-bone beach, basketball,... |
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Saturday at ATP tells me this: Minehead does not possess a single mobile phone shop, or anywhere that might repair your car after midday at weekends. It does, however, have a lot of charity shops... |
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Just over a year ago, Little Dragon performed at Dublin's Crawdaddy to an audience of not much more than a dozen punters. This evening, by contrast,... |
Well-read Northerners – and recent Lady Gaga remixers – ... |
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There has always been a sense of fragility attached to The Antlers, as if at any moment the band's material (and perhaps even the band members... |
The Siskiyou Mountains sit on California’s northern border with Oregon, enveloping the sleepy county seat and former mining town of Yreka. Just as so many shattered dreams ultimately sprang... |
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As Wilco brought their recent UK tour to North London for the first of two back-to-back dates in the capital,... |
Sunday kicks off with a 'secret' breakfast set at the bowling lanes from... |
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On Saturday afternoon Geoff Barrow’s 'other' band BEAK> are, frankly, tremendous back at The Convention Hall. The... |
So, ATP America scoots away from The Catskills to the infinitely more Rock'n'Roll (TM) surroundings of Asbury Park, New Jersey... |
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Reasons to be cheerful: it’s Saturday night, we’re in out of the rain at a seated show, and we're about to be served two prime... |
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There's something a bit illicit about attending a gig in a church; something slightly subversive about watching a bunch of guys with guitars play in front of a pulpit - especially when there's a... |
Opinion has been, as they say, 'divided' on Iron & Wine’s recent work. Not so much on the quality of Sam Beam’s still-earthy... |
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When I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose,... |
To date in her career Newcastle-born folkie Beth Jeans Houghton has managed to elude simple classification, with critics often preferring to focus on her... |
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Today is Elaine Mai's birthday. But if the slouched Sugar Club crowd aren't exactly leading a singsong in her honour, the Galwegian doesn't appear... |
It’s been a long wait for a second album from Miracle Fortress. The band, essentially a vehicle for... |
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Why do so many thousands flock each year to the so-called 'big' festivals? Bigger distances from tent to stage, bigger queues everywhere, bigger crowds, bigger ticket prices – these are all... |
Arriving at Ally Pally for tonight's triple-header of modern classic album performances, credit must go to promoters ATP, who have made every effort to... |
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Chance is not something that's altogether synonymous with live music. The band tends to lay down certain markers, perhaps the most obvious being the proximity of the tour to their most recent... |
Give the people what they want. Not a phrase you'd readily associate with a Ryan Adams live show based on past form, but one that... |
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On a night of mutual harmonic appreciation in the capital, opening act The Bees take to the Apollo stage with the unenviable task of... |
Avoiding the first person in review. It’s a good rule to stick to as much as possible unless you are gonna run off on a Hunter S Thompson tip. I’m not gonna do that (did you see that?... |
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“How does that old song go?...” As a document of a band falling apart, it’s hard to top Mercury... |
Arriving a little late to a Matmos gig is a bit like gatecrashing a college lecture: by the time Ragged Words arrives this evening, Drew Daniel, M.C.... |
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At a time when guitar-based instrumental music on this island is in such rude health, it's only natural that that genre's electronic cousin should start to pick up the pace and follow the fine... |
Asobi Seksu’s lengthy journey across The Atlantic from New York City makes their ludicrous 6:40pm stage time more of a slap in... |
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If you've heard Josh T. Pearson’s new album, Last of The Country Gentlemen, the last thing you might expect to hear at tonight's... |
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How much do we respect the choices of the artists we purport to respect, admire and, in some cases, love? Is the music fan only dedicated to the artist as long as the musician in question behaves... |
Despite the fact that a packed Vortex had long been sold out prior to his visit, Californian-born, Berlin-based pianist and composer Dustin O'Halloran... |
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If a textbook were to be written instructing buzz bands on how to stand out from the Hype Machine crowd,... |
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Last Friday night's... |
Tonight sees the first of two rescheduled Manic Street Preachers gigs in the capital... |
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With temperatures plummeting towards ten below-freezing and a blizzard engulfing the city centre, there are shades of ... |
Through frozen streets, over snowdrift-covered roads, braving the sub-zero temperatures of this London December, the ... |
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It’s about an hour into proceedings when it suddenly hits you: look, there’s those lads off of De La Soul! And there’s Mick Jones! Up there beside Paul Simonon!… And now... |
Pitched as "a brand new music and arts festival taking place against the backdrop of one of the UK’s most creative cities", the inaugural... |
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Sunday night in Dublin, and the tip of Hurricane Tomas has been winding its way across the country all day – so it’s perhaps... |
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“WHOA-OHHH, CHROMEOOO!” |
Texan psychedelic folksters Midlake are not simply critics’ darlings here in Europe; they have slowly grown into a... |
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A rather fitting lineup for the Hallowe’en weekend, this Skinny Wolves-curated affair forms part of the ... |
A decade has now passed since the permanently beanie-clad Damon Gough exploded onto the barren indie landscape with... |
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Chicago four-piece Maps & Atlases have amassed a fair following in Ireland over the last few years, and with good reason... |
When news broke a few months back of a Perfume Genius European tour, we wondered whether songs that are already... |
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The downgrading of this show from Dublin's Olympia to the more intimate surrounds of The Academy might suggest that Yeasayer have been... |
'The Sound of Seattle’ is one of those terms that grew to eventually cover a multitude of musical sins, but tonight we’ve a relatively rare chance to bear witness to its old-school... |
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Toronto duo Crystal Castles are despised and vilified by as many people as they’re loved by. Which is a lot of people either way, and... |
Usually whenever Ragged Words walks into Whelans of a Sunday afternoon, it’s to retrieve a jacket, an iPod or a large slice of dignity left there... |
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Witnessing of |
The 'Whale Watching II Tour' isn’t necessarily the easiest concept to sell, since the... |
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The very idea of seeing the legendary Vaselines duo of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee live was once a mythical, insubstantial kind of wish – much like hoping The Replacements might reform,... |
Sky Larkin have rolled into town with local boys Dutch Uncles in tow, meaning a good... |
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It’s hard to believe that the man sitting in front of us is now in his seventies. Armed with just an acoustic guitar and a voice that fills this wonderful venue with ease, Roy Harper tells... |
One of the best things about fan shows – apart from being able to boast about having been there to anyone who’ll listen the next day – is that the bothersome... |
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Bear In Heaven may be coming to town sporting a Stereo-Fork seal of approval, but tonight the New Yorkers are given a serious run for their money by Dublin-based support band Halves. The latter... |
Having released one of the finest albums of the year so far, great things are now expected from former Czars... |
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Ambling onstage with a bath towel wrapped around his head for no particular reason, Will Oldham looks every bit the anti-rock star. With his beard trimmed back to a handlebar moustache that wouldn... |
A bizarrely brief set from one of our favourite upbeat, antipodean electro acts left the crowd decidedly nonplussed in Dublin’s Tripod on Tuesday. While some welcomed the shorter set,... |
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When news broke that Arcade Fire were set to play a ‘secret’ London show as a warm-up for their sprint across this summer’s festival circuit, blogs and message boards duly lit up... |
November 30th, 2002: The Notting Hill Arts Club is filled with the usual music loving, workshy folk who seemingly always have the good fortune to attend such late afternoon musical showcases,... |
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"It's just me this year… It's the austerity tour!" Neil Hannon tells Ragged Words with a giggle a few hours before taking the stage at Dublin's Sugar Club. Tonight is one of a... |
While the book on Irish album of the year may have already virtually closed before hot favouite Villagers' release their highly anticipated debut Becoming A Jackel this week, many in the UK -... |
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The pre-show announcement goes something like this: “The artist has asked for you not to clap between songs, or until after he has left the stage. The exit is part of the show. The first... |
The last time Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were in Ireland, they left many an Electric Picnicker standing in the rain, peaking into a packed tent where early Sunday morning revelers were being whipped... |
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Maybe Ragged Words aren't getting out enough but frankly we're a bit surprised Wild Beasts have so thoroughly sold out The Academy. There's such little room among the 850 that have squeezed... |
Notwithstanding an impromptu solo stand at the end of Animal Collective’s Whelans show a few years back, tonight is Noah Lennox’s debut Irish performance as Panda Bear. That being said... |
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The rain seemingly hasn’t stopped for a moment as the Electric Ballroom spills out another bellyful of indie lovelies onto the ever-depressing streets of Camden Town. But the weather,... |
The Low Anthem are one of those types of bands that seem to just float around for a while, managing bit by bit to earn themselves a nice little following. They last played Dublin in September... |
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January isn’t typically a month that welcomes sunshine sounds and cheery vibes, yet somehow and somewhat out of nowhere, Surfer Blood managed to roll those summer months in way ahead of... |
Tonight’s support act Hulk consists of Dublin-based producer Thomas Haugh and guest Adrian Crowley; Crowley provides guitar atmospherics, while Haugh fiddles with all manner of... |
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Tonight’s performance is part of a tour in memory of Townes Van Zandt, a songwriter of preternatural insight under whom Earle served a lengthy and informal apprenticeship. Just old...
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Three years have passed since Ragged Words last caught Dawn Landes live. During this time she has released two exquisite albums of lilting country and blues... |
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The Lexington is so packed, Ragged Words has to apologise for breathing. We're so squashed in that to do so would feel like invading the space of the rather large guy we're stood next to. For a... |
Three hours! Americana super group Monsters of Folk are clearly not a band for those lacking in stamina. On a night that soared to astonishing dizzy heights - propelled primarily by Jim James... |
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There are a few things you never expect to happen to you in your life. Winning the lottery, that’s a pretty common one. Being struck by lightning, yep, that’d be pretty high up on the... |
Japandroids are very excited to be in Ireland. And so they should be: the Vancouver duo’s stock has been steadily on the rise since the release of début LP Post-Nothing, and tonight...
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Fuck Buttons new album Tarot Sport, their follow up to the triumphant debut Street Horrssing, took their music to a train tunnel in central London to thump their dark beats into the...
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The Lexington is slowly becoming one Ragged Words favourite small venues in London. On the one hand it’s got enough charm to entice the likes of (questionable or otherwise – ed)... |
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Tonight’s show is sold out, an impressive if not surprising feat for Barden’s Boudoir and Kristian Matsson, The Tallest Man on Earth. Dalston is no Scandinavian township, you’ll find no glassy... |
60 years ago Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen. 30 years later and no less revolutionary (albeit in a different setting - Leeds), Gang of Four... |
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How on earth does he do it? On the 41-year road from a New Jersey coffee house to the now near annually consecutive 40,000 sell outs here at the RDS, Bruce Sprinsteen has seen out eight American... |
It’s 1994 and I’m perched up in the wings at the Britxon Academy with my Dad watching The Cult melt the faces and burn the ear canals of all those in attendance. This was the last time... |
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Academy 2 has the lowest ceilings I’ve ever seen at a gig venue. It’s in the basement, beneath the (only slightly) more salubrious main venue in Dublin’s Academy. It... |
Every once in a while, something really special comes floating into your musical headspace. Once this happens, you pretty much have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re going to snap... |
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It’s been an auspicious start to 2009 for David Michael Stith. Following his transition from graphic designer to full-time musician, his début Curtain Speech EP dropped right... |
What a night. As far as debuts go, The Soul Jazz Orchestra's first foray onto Irish shores can only be described as a total success. Choice Cuts have brought some fantastic soul and hip-hop acts... |
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Dublin magazine-turned-promoter Foggy Notions specialise in bringing over newcomers to these shores, experimenters and oddballs, the kind of “so indie you... |
As was pointed out elsewhere, the last time Adrian Crowley launched an album, he was... |
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After recently falling in love with the new Papercut’s album, You Can Have What You Want, this writer delved a little deeper into frontman Jason Quever’s work and discovered that he... |
A recent Sunday Times Culture article heralded the return of shoegaze, a genre supposedly pioneered by My Bloody Valentine’s superlative album Loveless. According the article’s author... |
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Curse our shoddy timekeeping. POD has gathered an unusually strong triple bill for tonight’s show, and Ragged Words foolishly arrives too late to catch Lucky Dragons (for which we’ll... |
When Camden’s most famous engine shed was reopened two-and-a-half years ago, its carefully timbered roof was built for night’s just like this. Sure the sound isn’t perfect -... |
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When in (touch wood) years to come, someone asks, Padraic, when exactly did you start to lose your hearing? At least now I can give them a time, place, date and even the song that did it. I mean I... |
Hype is rarely a good thing, and this Ragged Words reviewer felt it badly. Animal Collective’s ninth studio album Merriweather Post Pavillion was new material to these ears, but the wonderful... |
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10pm on a Tuesday night is awfully late for the first of a three-band bill to be winding up their set but maybe that’s how they roll in the United States of Los Angeles, the place openers Anavan... |
Sections of the audience are sat on the concrete floor of Cargo’s auditorium as Jana Hunter plucks the opening chords of the night, but soon enough everyone is drawn to stand. Alex Scally – Beach... |
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Despite the title of his new album, North Carolina alt-pop pianist Ben Folds doesn't do normal. His live shows are characterised by a healthy disregard for the wellbeing of his battered keyboard,... |
It will be with no small degree of trepidation when this gig-hungry hippo ventures Foals' way again after seeing them straddle brilliance and farce in equal measure on Thursday night in Dublin's... |
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Fleet Foxes aren’t for belting along to no matter how badly tonight’s crowd - the second London sell out in a week - may want a Killers-esque sing song. ‘Drops in the River’ goes ok but then Robin... |
The Walkmen's new album, "You & Me", is already established in the minds of many listeners as one of the year's best. It not only showcases the band's trademark knack for combining classic 60s... |
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Tonight the Lexington’s door staff are turning customers away before the supports act’s even tuned up and last night things got a little crazy one Northern Line stop away at the Old Blue Last. It... |
A near capacity crowd turned up on a blustery Glasgow night at the city's new uber-cool, west end venue, The Captains Rest to see Springfield, Missouri four piece and Polyvinyl favourites, Someone... |
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Touring must be both an exhilarating and gruesome experience. Whilst the rapture of a crowd must enliven even the weariest and tired of souls, the repetition of the very songs which provoke the... |
Did someone call Beach House underwhelming last week? Not terrifically arresting live, was it? Who, me? Naah. Really? Well in that case Victoria Legrand and... |
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If leafing through the near-unanimous five star debut album reviews from all the heavyweights (and a few lightweights) hadn’t told Fleet Foxes they’d arrived, then tonight – the... |
An all-seated affair, hastily rearranged at the last minute from Crawdaddy to Tripod. An announcement before the main act arrives on stage, warning us not to make any undue noise during the show... |
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Thanks to the wonderful work of the Upset the Rhythm gang, London has been graced by some of North America’s best new bands. Recently we’ve had High Places, Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Women and... |
A vaudeville act of ostentatious theatre cannot fail to entertain any of those who are summoned to view this fantastical show. With the stage at times appearing like the deleted scenes from... |
_0.jpg "Caught Live: Wild Beasts + BRAIDS @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London")
