The Best of the Month episode is now Patreon-only. Public subscribers get the first 25 minutes or so of the episode as a free preview. Members get to hear the whole episode on Patreon as part of a €5 a month subscription so come join us!
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Andrea is taking the summer off the podcast and listening parties, so this month's special guest is Eoin Murray, the music writer behind the Irish Substack monthly newsletter Anois Os Ard which digs up Irish music of the underground and experimental variety.
Eoin brings a variety of mostly-Irish releases to discuss with music from Throwing Shapes, Amanda Feery, the Efa O'Neill curated Place: Ireland compilation, Days Of Heaven the new album from Belfast band Junk Drawer and the new album from London band Caroline.
I pick my favourite albums from the month of June and discuss including Turnstile's Never Enough, Little Simz' Lotus, Loyle Carner's hopefully ! along with underground cloud rap from deathtoricky and the psych-folk style of Poor Creature.
We chat about recent gigs attended, Glasto, books we're reading and films and TV shows we are watching.
Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink
*Â Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and join our Discord community
Albums and tracks mentioned
Throwing Shapes - Chosen Talk
Loyle Carner - hopefully ! (album) - in my mind / about time
Junk Drawer - Days Of Heaven (album) - Nids Niteca
Little Simz - Lotus (album) - Flood / Enough
deathtoricky - motives
deathtoricky - praying for u
Ó-Pax - Bell Dent
Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH (album) - Never Enough / Sole
caroline; Caroline Polachek - Tell me I never knew that
Poor Creature - All Smiles Tonight
Cocteau Twins - Watchlar
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A deep dive into Yacht Rock
We’re not here for a long time, but we are here for a smooooooooooth time.
Grab your linen shirt and deck shoes as we will be taking to the gentle seas for some smooth sailing, daiquiri in hand, and with love on our mind, we are heading to the private island of Yacht Rock.
You can be a passenger on this ship.
Yacht Rock is the subgenre of music largely made by West Coast American artists The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross and their ilk with some of the best session players of the mid-70s to early-80s era.
Just why did music this smooth and melodic become so dominant? Why did they all love electric pianos so much? Did these progenitors all go sailing as their pastime?
Drippy keyboards, bright summery melodies, melancholic lyrics, impassioned sentiment, it’s the concerns of a heartbroken gentleman, it’s time to take a splash in the cool waters of Yacht Rock.
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1:08:18
The best music of May with Bekah Molony
The Best of the Month episode is now Patreon-only. Public subscribers get the first 20 minutes or so of the episode as a free preview. Members get to hear the whole episode on Patreon as part of a €5 a month subscription so come join us!
It's the return of our monthly Patreon episode, but this time with a special guest.
Andrea is taking the summer off the podcast and listening parties, so I asked Mo Cultivation's Bekah Molony to join me in enthusing about our favourite music of the past month.
Bekah joins us to talk about Tyler, The Creator's recent Dublin gig, Forbidden Fruit, Lovely Days at Guinness Storehouse and more.
Then we discuss our favourite music from PinkPantheress, Khamari, Baxter Dury, Evan Miles, Mhaol, Billy Woods, Sammy Virji and Skepta, For Those I Love, Katie Phelan, Loyle Carner and Erika De Casier.
Plus some song of the summer contenders and chats about Sinners the film and TV shows we're catching.
Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink
*Â Support Nialler9 on Patreon, get event discounts, playlists, ad-free episodes and join our Discord community
Albums and tracks mentioned
For Those I Love - Of The Sorrows
Sammy Virji; Skepta - Cops & Robbers
billy woods - Golliwog (album)
Khamari - Head in a Jar
Baxter Dury, JGrrey - Allbarone
katie phelan - nothing stays the same
Erika de Casier - Lifetime (album)
Evan Miles - It's On Me
Mhaol - Something Soft (album)
PinkPantheress - Stateside
PinkPantheress - Illegal
Sofia Kourtesis; Daphni - Unidos
Selena Gomez; benny blanco - Bluest Flame
Loyle Carner - all i need
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Palestine, Kneecap and why artists are boycotting music festivals
Today's episode is a discussion with writer and journalist Una Mullally about artist boycotts, solidarity, Palestine, Israel, protest, cancellation, capitalism and the music industry.
We talk about how Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flashpoint of awareness about how modern music festivals work, specifically how private equity which invests in Israel operates in the live music industry.
We chat about why Kneecap's recent actions have drawn so much ire and anger in the US and the UK, leading to the expedited terror charge of Mo Chara on June 18th, and calls (often successful) for cancellation of their shows.
Festivals owned by global events company Superstruct who own 80 festivals and brands like Sonar, Sziget, Boiler Room, Oya, Field Day and Mighty Hoopla have had artists cancel in boycott of Superstruct's owner KKR, the second largest private equity firm in the world, who have documented ties to both weapons manufacturers and Israeli companies developing data centres and advertising real estate on illegally occupied land.
It feels like an unprecedented time for the visibility of protest and boycott by artists in recent years. A generational shift is happening -Â Artists and DJs are showing moral opposition in this complicity in the face of political inaction. Lines are being drawn.
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1:08:57
Revisiting: Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
K.Dot's first masterpiece album is a coming-of-age story with Kendrick navigating life in Compton, resisting peer pressure, destructive behaviour and trying to stay righteous in a corrupted world.
Ahead of our listening party at the Big Romance, Andrea takes us on the Hero's Journey of Kendrick Lamar's breakthrough 2012 second album good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Subtitled A Short Film, this cinematic rap masterpiece was a huge mainstream success, and crowned Kendrick as the voice of modern hip-hop (Dr. Dre literally appears to do so on the coronation track 'Compton') and it's narrative storytelling tells the story of a 17-year-old Lamar on a quest for a girl before being sidetracked by homie peer pressure and the more dangerous elements of his surrounding landscape.
It features the songs 'Bitch Dont' Kill My Vibe', 'Money Trees', 'Backseat Freestyle', and the accidental frat anthem 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'.
We revisit this modern rap masterpiece, Kendrick's first of many.
Ireland