Flour Power

Pearl Jam are releasing a remastered version of their debut album – Ten – on March 24th, and in the meanwhile it’s possible to listen to 6 tracks from “Ten Re-Issue” in their website. There are two remixed tracks (Brother and Once), two live songs from Unplugged (Black and Porch) and two from the Drop In The Park concert (Alive and State of Love and Trust).

This reissue will come in the form of 4 special edition packages, with loads of extras:

• Remaster of original Ten album + remix by producer Brendan O’Brien
• DVD of previously unreleased 1992 Pearl Jam MTV Unplugged performance with 5.1 surround sound audio remix
• LP of the band’s 1992 “Drop in the Park” concert
• Replica of Pearl Jam three-song demo cassette with Eddie Vedder’s original vocal dubs
• Recreation of Eddie Vedder composition notebook
• Never before seen memorabilia
• Bonus tracks and more.

Yes, it’s quite cold here. Yes, they’re really on the middle of the street. Yes, that’s a drum set that they carry around. And I don’t know if the dog is part of the band.

I’ve been here for almost one month and I only have a couple of posts about pubs… That’s not right! People might think I spend every day and night at home at the computer, and that’s very far from the truth

There are a few pubs around here that have live music almost every day, and last Friday I went to one of them – the Róisín Dubh (pronouced as “russian dove”, such is the weirdness of the Irish language). For starters, I was amazed at the quality of the pub’s website. For such a small place, I was surprised to know that I could book tickets online (and with a small discount for doing it online). So I bought a ticket for €11.50 (the bloodsuckers from the bank took a €1.50 fee) and Friday at 9pm I had a Guinness in my hand and was ready for a dose of alternative rock.

The first band was called The Butterfly Explosion. I had never heard of them, and in fact the small concert area was about halfway to its capacity, which demonstrated the “unknown-ness” of this band. I managed to record one of their songs, and surprisingly the movie turned out decent, even though it was quite dark. Enjoy “Closer”, by The Butterfly Explosion:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laNknaKyouo

All in all, the concert was pretty good, and a nice warm-up for the main attraction.

After a few minute’s break to prepare the stage, in came God is an Astronaut, and now the room was almost completely full. I had heard some of their songs after I saw a comment in some blog (to which I lost the link) saying that their concert was better than watching Radiohead (a HUGE overstatement). Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the concert and will keep an eye on any new music they release. Here are some pictures (also did some movies but they turned out too dark):

Basically, we (2 of my housemates joined me in the meantime) had a great time. Of course, with some more drinks after the concert, and going to bed at 5 or 6 am.

Ever wondered how a Portuguese song sounds if you replace the Portuguese guitar with a Pan Flute? Of course not, what a stupid question! But you’re about to find out

I was walking down Shop Street (FYI, the “main” street, for pedestrians only, filled with shops, pubs and street musicians) and after passing some guy playing a pan pipe, he got to the end of one music and started another one. That made me stop immediately! Why? Because I recognized it for being a Portuguese song. And I just went back and filmed it:

Sounds familiar? This is the original:

I couldn’t believe it at first, but it really is the same song! They must be one of those groups that are always traveling from one place to the other, and probably spent some time in Portugal and that’s where they got it from.

By the way, the song is about being an expatriate and missing everything you left back in Portugal (“verde vinho” literally means green wine).

A guy from Peru or somewhere like that (I should have asked) playing a Portuguese song with a panpipe in Ireland. Weird (and pretty cool) mix!

Last Saturday Paulo (a portuguese lad), Pat (his housemate) and I went to the other side of the river, to Salthill, a suburb of Galway city. The destination? O’Connor’s Famous Pub, a typical Irish pub which bills itself as the first singing pub in Ireland. The decoration is exquisite, to say the least, and includes old gaslights, farm implements, crockery, photos, weighing scales and a near life size statue of John Wayne. There was live music (as is customary there) and even a singalong comprising most of the pub took place. One thing I’ve noticed was the wide amplitude of ages inside the pub: there were people from my age (24) up until people in their 60s. That was kind of cool, seeing the oldsters downing pints, but I would have prefered more young people.

Lots of lamps and all possible kinds of crap hanging from the ceiling and walls.

Curious tidbit: the bar is cleaned only once or twice per year, and it takes a couple of days to clean it all (source: Pat).

After O’Connor’s we headed to The Warwick Nightclub, just a few meters down the road, despite signs of disapproval from Paulo. We went anyway both because it was nearby and also because Pat’s friends who were at O’Connor’s (including the band members) would go there as well.

Anyway, the nightclub is not bad per se. Quite the opposite, actually. The space is very pleasant, with a big dance floor, and an area with tables that manages to be both big and cozy, due to the fireplace. The real problem is that it was, to put it simply, almost empty. For a nightclub that size, there had to be at least 10 times more people there to be any fun. Oh well, the not-so-bad thing is that the drinks were not more expensive than in the pub (which seems to be standard here in Galway), so we just hanged around the fireplace drinking Guinness.

There was a funny episode though, just after we arrived. Apparently there was a hen party going on and we were invited to bite some sweets from a girl’s belly. Even though the girl was a bit huge, we didn’t want to be rude and did it anyway.