Here are all the winners from the Grammys 2022
The Guide: John Mayer, DJ Shadow, Emma Doran And Other Events To See, Shows To Book And Ones To Catch Before They End
Event of the week John Mayer Friday March 29th, 3Arena, Dublin, 7pm, €75.50 (sold out), ticketmaster.IeJohn Mayer is one of those all-rounder musicians and songwriters who refuse to get stuck in a rut. Since he was 17, inspired by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the New Englander has played blues, country, folk, Americana and soft rock. This show, the final date on a brief European tour, sees him jump back to his solo acoustic roots, so keep it quiet at the front if you don't mind. As befits a nothing-fancy T-shirt-and-jeans concert, you can expect a calm, confident and good-humoured delivery of back-catalogue songs interspersed with personal recollections that might surprise even long-term fans. Keeping it acoustic, the special guest is Madison Cunningham, whose 2022 album, Revealer, won the Grammy for best folk album.
Gigs The Jesus and Mary Chain Monday March 25th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €47.70; Tuesday March 26th, Limelight, Belfast, 7pm, £38; ticketmaster.Ie:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.Images.Arcpublishing.Com/irishtimes/Q3OIHBZR5ZFZPE667CTC6TSYTM.Jpeg)
Who would have thought that the Scottish "Beach Boys with a Brillo pad" brothers would still be hanging in there more than 40 years after they first emerged? East Kilbride siblings William and Jim Reid have this week released a new album, Glasgow Eyes ("a staggering, swaggering achievement more vital than anything they've done in the past 35 years," according to Record Collector) and seem set on continuing on a perhaps less-raucous but no-less-exciting path. May their guitars crunch and scratch forever.
David Kitt Friday March 29th, Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, 8pm, €20/€15, celtronicfestival.ComAs part of Celtronic 2024 (which is mostly based in Derry), Letterkenny gets a look-in with a packed evening of "live music and late-night electronic experiments". The music acts include Porphyry, The Fully Automatic Model, Anna Mullarkey, Gareth Quinn Redmond and David Kitt – who, under the guise of New Jackson, might just preview tracks from the forthcoming album Oops! ... Pop, which is released next month.
Club DJ Shadow Thursday March 28th, Academy, Dublin, 7pm, €30 (sold out), ticketmaster.IeJoshua Paul Davis concludes his latest low-key tour with a sold-out show in Dublin. If you think fans are going to let him drift off into the night without slipping vinyl out of the sleeve and on to the decks, then think again. Of course, DJ Shadow is a master of manipulating samples (his 1996 debut, Endtroducing…, is in the Guinness World Records books as the first completely sampled album), so who knows what might be created here? Which, of course, is the hook.
Classical Riam Young Artists Concert Saturday March 23rd, Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park, Dublin, 7.30pm, €17, eventbrite.Ie:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.Images.Arcpublishing.Com/irishtimes/5H4W2QWZDZCDZOO4W7PXMXWA5Y.Jpeg)
This showcase of budding classical musicians (selected from the Royal Irish Academy of Music's Young Artist programme) is now an annual event that gives audiences the opportunity to hear exceptionally talented musicians at the start of their careers. Performers include Ava Duffy (piano), Adam Joyce (cello), Sarah Brazil (violin), Ruadhri O'Dea (piano), Elizabeth Troup (cello), Simon Carey (clarinet), Juliette Carroll-Breen (piano) and Emily Brazil (soprano).
Comedy Emma Doran's Dilemma Saturday March 23rd, Mermaid Arts Theatre, Bray, Co Wicklow, 8pm, €25 (sold out), mermaidartscentre.Ie; Friday March 29th, Spirit Store, Dundalk, Co Louth, 8pm, €25 (sold out), spiritstore.Ie:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.Images.Arcpublishing.Com/irishtimes/W7IM5MPZAJC3JIV2JCFS7VVRNM.Jpeg)
The self-styled "comedian, mother, chancer" has been working hard to raise a smile for some time, initially via open-mic nights and then on television shows such as RTÉ's Republic of Telly and No Worries If Not! And, more recently, on the Prime Video show LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland. Whatever apprenticeship Doran may have had, however, is now over as she embarks on a comprehensive nationwide tour that continues throughout April and May, culminating with two shows at Vicar Street, in Dublin (Friday May 24th and Friday May 31st). Visit emmadorancomedy.Com for full tour details.
Visual art CA Collective Exhibition Until Sunday April 28th, RHA, Dublin, free, rhagallery.IeOrganised by Connections Arts Centre, and featuring the work of 14 artists with intellectual disabilities, the inaugural CA Collective Exhibition celebrates varied artistic representations that question public opinions. Alongside the exhibition, which includes art by Amy Begley, Thomas Higgins and Matthew Sexton, there are (on select Wednesdays, hosted by Connections artists) gallery tours, artist demonstrations and conversations. The latter feature artists talking about their work as well as their life experiences as artists.
In conversation Paul Lynch Tuesday March 26th, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 8pm, €20, paviliontheatre.Ie:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.Images.Arcpublishing.Com/irishtimes/WNNQDDDV35HWFOZSXNJDT2M6DY.Jpeg)
Since his journalism days ended, about 10 years ago (he wrote, most insightfully, on film for the Sunday Tribune and the Sunday Times), Paul Lynch has regularly appeared on literary awards lists. Last year, of course, he won the Booker Prize for his startling Prophet Song, a "masterly novel" (Literary Review) and "prophetic masterpiece" (Washington Post). This interview, hosted by the journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark, is the first of many public interviews that Lynch will take part in over the coming months – before settling down, one hopes, to write the next prize winner. No pressure, right?
Still running The President Until Sunday March 24th, Gate Theatre, Dublin, 2pm/7.30pm (Saturday), 2pm (Sunday), €57.50/€42.50/€37.50, gatetheatre.Ie:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.Images.Arcpublishing.Com/irishtimes/A7INZS3O6JHNZOLKTDINGF5VUU.Jpeg)
"Two heroic performances in a classy production" is how The Irish Times summarised Hugo Weaving and Olwen Fouéré's roles in Thomas Bernhard's play set in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on a dictator. Go see.
Book it this weekWest Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Co Cork, July 12th-19th, westcorkmusic.Ie
Luke Kidgell, Vicar Street, Dublin, August 17th, ticketmaster.Ie
Killer Mike, National Stadium, Dublin, August 22nd, ticketmaster.Ie
Girl in Red, 3Arena, August 27th, ticketmaster.Ie
SiR Is Going Through Some Prickly Growing Pains On 'Heavy'
SiR's stately croon exudes grown-and-sexy. The Inglewood, California, R&B singer-songwriter's style is careful and studied, influenced by the timelessness of Stevie Wonder and John Mayer's sensitive edge. His 2019 release, Chasing Summer, was a gauzy yarn that still holds up in the field of modern R&B. With its bounce and levity, the LP balanced odes to good weed, chasing skirts, and the city he loves with fleeting explorations of discomfort. He had a jazzy attitude in a landscape that skewed pop, establishing himself as an artist with a texture all his own. He stood as a man in control.
Nearly five years later, his latest album, Heavy, comes with a bevy of admissions that SiR, in fact, has had a lot of growing to do. Even as he's honed what's become a hallmark sound, his inner turmoil spills into the world around him, and he spends the album trying to trace its paths. When talking about Heavy in 2022, he suggested that it comes from becoming a better husband, a father, and a mentally healthier person. You can hear these obligations pulling him toward the light. "You make me wanna be a better man," he sings on the smitten single "Nothing Even Matters," which he's said is the best song he's ever made about his wife.
"Nothing Even Matters" is nestled toward the end of the track list, which sees SiR go from carefree ne'er-do-well to hopeless fuck-up to man-in-progress. That he can't quite figure out how to quit bad habits like benders and breaking hearts makes the album both uneasy, and — as he asserts in one of the album's best songs — "Only Human."
Trump Says He'll Become 'Modern Day Nelson Mandela' Over Right to Attack Judge's Daughter
The Far Right Is Crawling With Eclipse Conspiracy Theories
Taylor Swift Soundtracks the Five Stages of Grief With New Apple Music Playlists
'SNL' Monologue: Kristen Wiig Gets Her 'Five-Timers' Jacket from Ryan Gosling
SiR is at his best on Heavy when he can complement his arsenal of classic production — funky bass lines, regal horns, boom-bap drums, his own heavenly harmony stacks, and his signature smoky guitars — with empathetic songwriting that builds out the lives of people who matter to one another. However, the songs' strong moods can often be more communicative than their lyrics; he can conjure an internal battle, but the forces he's up against are less well-drawn, leaving you to wonder why he's struggling so much to be faithful and accountable. "No Evil" oozes discontent, with vocal contortions from SiR that are new and haunting, but it's also tough to parse, an incoherent swirl of mythological and celebrity tropes.
This lack of clarity can be a common obstacle between artist and audience when musicians class a project as being particularly vulnerable, as SiR has with this one. Yet, while Heavy lacks the depth of storytelling that might've crystallized his stakes to strangers, it's a solid showing of his undeniable style.
Azealia Banks Tells Beyoncé To Retire After Falling Asleep Listening To "Cowboy Carter"
Azealia Banks was predictably unimpressed with Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter album. Banks said the country album made her fall asleep in a review posted on Instagram Stories.
"Themes r redundant," Banks wrote. "The lyrics are really forced. Album is too long… Plus who is this imaginary adversary sis think still wants to hump on [Jay-Z] in 2024? She's gotta find new content. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY think he's even remotely attractive." She added, "Def should have had Taylor Swift & Kacey Musgraves on there … It's what the ppl wanted…. I personally would have jumped out of my seat for a KT Tunstall appearance… a strong dr. Luke power ballad was missing … like 'Low' …. Skip skip … I really don't like rapyonce…. Dozed off again and now I'm going to sleep." Bank didn't stop with the write-up as she continued to discuss Beyoncé's latest album in audio clips. Banks criticized Post Malone's appearance on Cowboy Carter, saying it should've been a John Mayer collaboration. "And sidebar Bianca, why the f### would you put Post Malone on the g###### record?" Banks asked. "Girl, that was supposed to be a John Mayer moment! Ugh. Beyoncé and John Mayer! Girl, I've been waiting for that since my f###### Starbucks days!" Banks thought Beyoncé was simply going through the motions on Cowboy Carter. The polarizing rapper suggested retirement for the music superstar. "Beyoncé, if you want to retire, just retire," Banks said. "Just f###### retire 'cause you supposed to be getting better and you're just like—I don't know. You submitting to some other s###. I fell asleep on the s### last night." Banks previously criticized Beyoncé's pivot to country music in a lengthy rant on social media. Banks also accused Beyoncé and Roc Nation of participating in payola for radio play on country music stations.
Comments
Post a Comment