Happy fuckin new year

so 2010 is upon us, as I enter my second decade I have a few things on my mind

1. Drunk people are really fucking annoying when I'm not drunk... I was doing a 21st birthday last night and around 25 mins after some midnight I was spinning some dubstep when some gobsheen spilled a drink on my laptop, my midi controller and one of the clubs CDJs... needless to say I was less than pleased... but it made me think a little bit about drunk people, had I been drunk at the time I deffinatly would have cared less than I did but thats life I guess, I have tried to make a conscious effort to hang back on the gat a little bit, I think thats what my new years resolution will be. my liver and my wallet are crying out for some resbite... I was talking to a friend of mine about a similar topic recently - Cocaine - certainly not some thing that would interest me in any way but I think my pet hate in life is people fucked off theirs heads on cha.... never have I seen such nice people turn into arrogent self involved shits as people on the bolivian marching powder... say no to coke kids!
   
2. DJing is the greatest job in the world... I say this after being so pissed off about my gear last nite... I went to a mates house for a new years party, as I had been working til 1 I was very much sober when I arrived but every one else was pretty blotto, said friend and I began to have a mix off in his house and it completly re-afirmed my love for DJing... it truly is the cure and the cause!
   

ok so I touched on the whole new years resolution thing... so aside from trying to spend less money and drink less I really don't have any... usuail shite really, actually go to college, try work as much as possible and maybe try and organise this trip stateside!

So I might aswell explain todays picture of the day

I really want to go to a rave... the idea of being in a field somewhere with tunes flowing through you surrounded by people that are there for the music, not governed by what time the bar has to close or how sweaty you are... sounds like bliss to me. I was chatting to a few mates about going to a couple of music festivals this year if I am in the country for the summer... I really want to go to one of the dance festivals in the UK - Glade or Global Gathering maybe... I would idealy like to catch some dubstep for obvious reasons...

but ya what are some of your new years resolutions people?

happy new year

BDC

Big Daddy sippin on a Big Daddy

as the title suggest I am currently sipping on the delactable "Big Daddy Indian Pale Ale" all the way from sanfransisco! and I am happy to report it is a lovely brew, I must say I am a fan of the IPAs any way but this is extra special as it is called "Big Daddy" and it came from the beer hamper...

ok so we have just ticked into the last day of the noughties, I very much feel like an old man, have some Howlin' Mad Wolf playin on the itunes, coold brew in my hand and I have the fire burning and the storage heater on... oh ya I'm wrapped in my slanket! the cold hasn't got me yet...

I started work on an article today about the Cork music scene from 2009, most of what I have written so far has been pretty attrocious but its not due until monday so I'll prob start from scratch again on friday, tomorow being the last day of the year, I will probably spend most of the day in bed but I have a gig tomorow night so I gotta sort some stuff out... I have been thinking more and more about music that i have discoved this year, but were not produced this year if you get me? in my itunes I have a playlist folder full of playlists of music added every month since august of 2008 (kind of helps me map my musical progression! not a bad idea if I don't say so myself) but I have just flicked on the January playlist and it seems full to the gills with aphex twin, no if you haven't heard of aphex twin before check him out on youtube but I will warn you, this dude is FUCKED UP! now I have most of his work and I must admit I only really enjoy about 15% of it.... so shoot me... moving along to the february playlist I am greeted by something that was actually released in 2009 and in my opinion is one of the best releases of the year, the "Toolroom Knights" mix courtesy of Italian producer/DJ Benny Benassi - very good check it out!

OK so bit of a topic
well I was on one of the forums today that I frequent and there was a thread about worst parts of 2009 and while I was reading it I started to realise what a huge bunch of whingers the Irish really are, now I am by no means saying that I whinge my ass off most of the time and have my moments of pesimism but for the most part I am an optimist, in 2009 for example, when I realised I had failed at college and was going to have to repeat I saw it as an oppertunity, got involved in things like radio, DJ Society (more so than any thing else) and I have really learnt so much in that field and I have started to teach back! but ya my tip for 2010 - cheer the fuck up people!!!



now I have a topic that does spring to mind and this will explain the picture above
Female DJs - I was thinking about this recently, there are realistically so little female DJs in the world of professional DJs! some notable ones would be lisa lashes, annie mac, Dj miss behavin, Dj Diva (she spins topless!!!!!) so ya I wonder is this a predomanatly male activity? well it shouldn't be should it? so my advice is ladys, get on those decks! the truth of the matter is good female DJs will find it easier to find work in clubs and that compared to good male Djs... but I wont name any clubs in particular......

so ya there is a bit of big daddy advice, keep the chin up and the hands on the decks!

this MAY be my last post of 2009 but ya never know if im bored tomorow I'll hop on and say hello!

Happy new year folks!

BDC

fuckin' shtateside

To update you on the heating crisis, it has reached critical! I'm pretty sure I lost a toe not so long ago.......


but any, the point of this discussion,
I have been talking to my friends of late about doing a J1 this summer, for those of you who are uncultured, a J1 is a working summer visa to the US for college students.

so ya, a friend of mine is actually from Chicago so she mentioned about going over for the summer, as my summer last year was living in a slum (real one not a made up one) and selling a stupid shitty product door to door in the rain most of the time and burning away all my savings on the banks of our own lovely lee in the wetest summer on records (Can's records) so basically I want to head away for the summer, when Chicago was suggested I thought it might be an interesting idea! it's the home of house music (although I have been warned that that seems to have been forgotten in the windy city), weather aint half bad during the summer, its on a big ass lake so I can catch up on my water related activities & maybe precure a job in this field...

the summers preceeding last summer were spend teaching people how to sail, yes I tried to drown a few kids but they had dirty mouths on em! (I didn't actually try and kill children...)
so ya that would be a foot in the door, also the fore mentioned friend has lots of family in Chicago so we would precure accomdation and maybe some employment easily enough, oh ya an added bonus that her cousin owns a DJ business in Chi town! I do know a few DJs living in the area any way so I might be able to tag along on a few gigs when I'm over, get a feel of how they work.

but I'm a little unsure as to what I should do, one thing I have in my mind is I cannot stay in Cork for another summer, I need to get away, be it the semi-planned trip to the states or interailing maybe... who knows... I just hope that in 6 months time I'm not tapping away on my keyboard on this very couch...

OK time for a topic

OK so continuing with the topics I have mentioned about music & gigs the last couple of posts, I want to talk a little bit about music talent from around the globe and how it has grown in the past decade. Like fashion, music moves in trends, but one trend usually sticks - pop music is (for the most part) manufactured drivel... If you look back at the manufactured pop groups/solo "artists" from the noughties you will see some of the shite that has been thrown at us... but with the sour comes the sweet. From the point of electronic music there have been so many improvements in the music scene and also with the advances in technology people are starting to look a little deeper, get more creative, make better music! now I'm not saying that older electronic music is bad by any notion, contrary to that, I think blue monday is one of my favourite electronic tracks of all time! I'm pointing out the fact that as times move forward, new genres emerge and taste evolves. From a personal stand point, if you will humour me on this one, I want to talk a minute about the deep underground music, drum n bass & dubstep.... I was way too young around the days of the emerge of drum n bass but I am fairly proud of the fact that I am in some small part exposing people around Cork to dubstep a little bit, often when I play a bit of a dubstep set people come up and ask me what that crazy sound is, I love it! which (if I was rambling) would lead me onto a topic I think I shall save for another late night blog session!

before I leave you I will give you a bit of a groovey house track I have been digging on a lot lately



later playas,

BDC

"frozen to my balls i was"

Ok so my parents have left me to my own devices, headed out wesht while im stuck here at home..... couple of problems with my home currently - my heating is fully gone - basically the heating oil tank burst a while back, spilling oil into my house so my house also reeks of oil and of course there being no oil in the tank, I have no heating... no matter, I have the fire lighting and am contemplating food in the near future....

any way, to explain the title and the picture, a couple of years back when I was "studying" for my junior cert (pffft!) some one introduced me to Pat Shortt's version of the eminem song stan - I honestly to this day laugh the whole way through it! its quality... but one line in the song he makes the famous quote - "Frozen to my balls I was"



ok so what else is going on in the world of Can? not much being honest... I have been stuck to the couch since I crawled out of bed, I have decided as it has been a very long year I'm gonna take the last few days of the year for myself, aside from the cold every where else in the house and the impending need to fetch some coal, I must say I am a happy man! good tunes coming from my speakers, room is nice and cosey, I am extra cosey in my all new slanket that I got for christmas....

ok so a bit of a topic....
I have been blabing on about events around Cork in the last few posts saying how lucky we are and all that, but I'm starting to realise, if one wants to see some top notch big names, one must travel. 6th of March 2010 (i think, correct me on the date if im wrong), techno legend Dave Clark is gonna be up in the trinity rooms in Limerick spinning the tunes, safe to say I'm gonna try organise a DJ Soc trip to Limerick to co-incide with this event...

but ya about the whole traveling to see big names, I was on boards.ie last night to check out what was going on around the country, some many big names coming up in dublin its unreal! if it wasn't such a hike I'd make the trip but alas I try and spend as much time out of leinster as I can

I did a bit of investigating bringing some big name DJs over to Cork in february but it was in NO way feasable... unless you have a large venue like savoy I don't know how you would make any money on it, one of the venues I had in mind was Cyprus Avenue, I was recently in there for the first time for the Hardy Bucks gig and I must say I am impressed with the set up, MASSIVE turbo sound system, very nice light set up and a nice stage but with such a small capacity its hard to cover the act, let alone make any money, another option would originally have been the Maradyke Entertainment Complex, we have run many events there with the DJ society and for the most part they have been succesful, the advantage you have in the maradyke is the place is fucking HUGE 4 areas, good sound all round and a nice atmosphere in there! the main problems facing small time promoters is things like having to cover the cost of a lisence for these places to stay open until 2am (€500 I believe), though some places like Cyprus Avenue & the Pavillion etc have these but some places struggle to get these lisences!

I was watching a programe recently about clubbing in the UK, it featured Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules, he arrived at a gig at 2 am and did a 3 hour set, at 2 am in Cork every one is booted outed of the drinkerys and sent to the modern day colleseum that is daunt square. its a joke, all the clubs in Cork close too early, thousands of drunk people are then all released at once onto the streets. if we had later opening times in Cork people wouldn't stay in the club until closing time, they would leave at different times and we wouldn't have such anti-social drink problems that we have in our city!

I thought about getting into this promoting malarky alot recently, bringing in some big(ish) names but with the way things are its hard to do so, alot of venues are so scared of loosing money on big events they don't want to take the chance! yes I may be contraticting somewhat of what I said yesterday about all the good club nights in Cork but if one looks at the steady residencys around the city they are our local tallent that are keeping these nights alive, what does that mean? we have some serious tallent in Cork! if you look at all the really good DJs in Cork, it's no wonder there is such a rivival, I wont go naming names as I don't want to leave any one out but I must say the amount of "next big thing" DJs in Cork at the moment is staggering.

leaving aside the normal "chart clubs" if you go to one of the venues where good music is being played, you are garanteed to see a talanted DJ on the decks doing what they love, this of course is not a stab at DJs working in these so called "chart clubs" as many can do amazing things with some attrocious music but the thing I have always felt is most of the time these people don't put as much effort in as they might if they were playing songs they wanted to hear, I heard a horror story before from a friend of mine of how he was working in a club and was basically given a track list of songs to play that night, in order....... I often ask clients for tracklists for mobile gigs as in a mobile situation there might be some quirky ones the client would be looking for but this person said the list was basically the top 40 songs that week, yes in these clubs this is what people want to hear but to put that much of a leash on a DJ, you might as well plug an Ipod into the system....

but ya thats enough shite talking for the moment, time for some dinner methinks!

later playas

BDC

tunes tunes & more tunes

Ok so its the night after the night before


as planned I went to lovefectus last nite in silversprings.... it was epic... aside from the amount of blood in the jacks and the sheer amount of hooligans, tunes were good, vibe was good & every one (for the most part) had a good night.

basically the set up was 3 "areas", the foyer with simply Cork DJs - Steve O C, Anto, Mucca, Dashka - all very good! one major problem - the sound system they were using was shocking....

then the downstairs room was the "hard room" alex kidd being the headliner... hard is right, alex kidd was playing CRAZY shit.... myself and my mate hoggy started running around the gaff! mad craic

upstairs then was the trance room with marcel woods head lining, he was good but some of his mixes were somewhat out of time shall we say?

good night tho!

ok so bito a topic....

Global 91.1 radio - Cork's latest & greatest.
as most people will know pirate radio in Cork over the last 5-6 years has been for the most part absolute ear rape but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel

as I have been proficising (if thats how you spell it?) I reckon creativity increases masivly during recessionary times, be this because people have more time on their hands or because the average punter wants more for their money???

any way, if one looks at the amount of really good music nights that have been run in Cork in the past year that the proof in the pudding.... I was talking yesterday about the go deep nights in the pavilion, for ages this was the only option if you wanted to hear something that wasn't on the red fm charts that evening, recently there have been so many more options! more promoters are bringing in big names, if one watches the forums, one will see the amount of gigs being promoted every week & I for one think its great! between things like cans with hans in the liquid lounge every thursday, myself & hoggy spinnin house in the brú every thursday, the monotonik nights bringing minimal techno to the masses, the inferno nights in an cruscín lán and the various other nights running in places like the vinyard, barcode & savoy, our city is humming to the sound of the underground once again! (and not the girls aloud song...)

ok so as I mentioned yesterday I will be slowly but surly running through my highlights of the music year (maybe even a few other highlights aswell!)

but for me this year the 2 artists/groups that stand out have to be la roux & florence and the machine, not my usuail style but I have listened to both debut albums backwards and I love them! I think female singers are starting to make a comeback, despite the likes of lad gaga (no i didn't forget the y) and beyoncé (who has frankly gotten shitter with time) there is some good music out there if you look for it!



so ya that was a bito a rant about music!

maybe tomorow I will get back to talking absolute shite!

regards readers

BDC

so christmas is over for another year

ok so its stephens day/night what ever you want to say and I just got home from a 4 hour car journey, oh the joys of family life eh?

so ya I have an almighty beer stomach on me after 3 days of solid drinking.... i got a slab of heiniken the other day aswell and i think its a bit shite...... on the plus side my sister got me the most epic present of all time! a hamper of beer! so i might tuck into that this evening...

going to Planet love tonight in the silversprings hotel, load of good djs spinning at it so should be a bito craic!

problems facing me

• no busses running
  
• having to pay for taxis is horrible
• im pretty sick after the last few days

but ya aside from all that i should hopefully have a good nite....

ok so a topic

in the midst of a drunken haze i was thinking to myself last night about a thing i like to call "middle child syndrome" - basically the way I see it is there is always a black sheep in the familly ya? obviously I'm the black sheep in mine :P but ya I have begun to notice over the last few years, familys with 3 children, it seems to be the middle child can be problematic... I base this on nothing but my own observations but I was thinking about it last night... I tend to become very philosophical when I have a few tins & was thinking to myself, I must post this now on the blog! so ya...

as I mentioned I'm not feeling the best so my elequence isnt as it should be but fuck it its only the internet!

so its coming to the end of the year, end of the decade infact, alot of people that I watch on a regular basis on youtube were talking about best songs/albums and that of the decade so I reckon when I come around from my coma in the next few days I will post what I think has been good, for any one that knows me I have a very meandering musical taste, I am currently listening to a charles webster deep house mix, its pretty nice!

but ya I do talk alota shite dont i?

ok so I will post up my views on best artist/song/album all that in the next few days... Ive also been reseaching an article about the best venue/club/dj/song from Cork this year and as it stands people seem to be going with the pavilion! now I want to be unbiased but then when you think about it, Cork is a small city and different experiances effect ones views on places, problem facing me is for the sake of the article, I personally think the pavillion is the best club in town & go deep on a saturday night is the best club night in Cork! where I face the problem is they sponser my radio show and every week I give away 2 passes to go deep... fuck it!

ok so my battery is about to go and for some reason my screen is looking fucked up some i'll get my coat

talk soon bloggers!

BDC

Welcome to my world

ok so first blog post... here goes...

ok so it is exactly 05:51 on christmas eve and i cannot sleep, stumbled on a friends blog and said hey - why don't I start one? i talk enough shite in real life why not annoy the internet with it :)

so ya whats up in cans world... im in the process of watching that new morgan freeman movie about mandela and that rugby malarky only the web player its on is shite.... so i have to wait for it to load...

so far the movie is pretty good!

so i went christmas shopping today & my wallet came home very empty! I had this debate recently with my old man about how futile an excersice christmas is these days, it seems since I discovered "santa" wasnt real, christmases got steadily shitter... ah well just another excuse to go on the cans for free :D

on the whole note of this santa thing, I heard recently on some radio program about some girl who when she found out that it was all a lie she completly lost any faith in her parents and really struggled to trust them again! when you think about it we learn everything from our parents, as children we accept every thing we are told as gospel ya? I can completly empathise with this girl loosing any faith in her parents. if you think of someone finding out their parents aren't their real parents that persons world comes crashing down, every thing they have known has been a lie, am I overreacting comparing santa to adoption? probably... lol.

but i am not a total grinch! I do get somewhat into the chirstmas spirit, only this year it feels like christmas has been put on hold... recession and all that... it was only today i had any hint of christmas, i have been avoiding town for obvious reasons until the last minute and as i expected, when i went in today it was BLACK with people... but i must admit i was soaking up the atmosphere a little bit. Cork has a certain magic to it during chirstmas time doesn't it?

i was supposed to go meet a few of the boys for pints tonight but with that cold biting i said fuck it and came home, had a few evening pints with the rents & friends, got a free spin home with them so from an economic point of view it was probably for the best, but I was reading there on the PROC that apparently alot of cabbies are refusing to drive (as I predicted) due to the icey conditions, so rather spend the night in the simon community I came home early and endured the ice box that is my house...

so ya rant over...

merry christmas to all!

BDC