Ireland (Nealo, Van Morrison, Fontaines D.C.)

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude. Top of the morning. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to say top of the morning to you. That's probably quite annoying to the folks that we're paying homage to today in Ireland. Homage. This is the Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. I got Andy and Don with me. Andy, how are you doing today? Feeling lucky? Punk, do ya? Do you feel lucky? No. Yeah. I'm feeling great.

I am Scottish, so I don't really have any Irish accents in my bag. So I'm just going to pass on that whole thing. Good idea. Don, how are you doing, man? Just enjoying a bowl of Lucky Charms. Yeah, I have to take the marshmallows out, though, because I'm a vegetarian. Because they're animals. Yeah, there's gelatin in them. The horseshoes. Oh. You can't eat the horseshoes. Just the clovers. They're okay. All right, so this is the Album Nerds podcast.

We love albums, the album format, and discussing them, embracing them, and just dousing ourselves. Rolling around. We just love them. That's all. We love them. All right, we've got a great show for you today. We're going to, of course, be digging into three albums each of us picked of artists and bands from Ireland. Don's going to ask us a deep question.

We're going to talk about some other music that we're digging, and then we're going to spin the wheel of musical discovery to find out what we're going to talk about next time. But now it's time to go to Ireland. That's what I'm talking about. The indigenous music of Ireland has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, and has influenced music throughout the world. But popular music from the rest of Europe and the United States has also invaded the island.

The 1960s saw the emergence of rock music, including artists such as them, Thin Lizzy and Gary Moore. Irish artists have continued to find success domestically and globally since then. The bestselling Irish acts of all time are U2, Enya, Westlife, and the Cranberries. Today each of us will present albums by artists from Ireland.

It's interesting because of all the American bands, Dropkick Murphys and things like that, that you think of as Irish, but then really digging into just artists from Ireland was a kind of a different experience than I expected. How did you guys do? Yeah, I had a great time with this one. Lots of good ideas. You could say I went on a little bit of a bender here with these bands. It seems like it. Yeah, you were throwing all sorts of stuff at us.

I'll give a shout out to irisetimes.com, which had a couple of really helpful articles on some up and coming and recent Irish groups. I'll throw out a couple names here. The Undertones, a band I was not familiar with, really cool. Lots of punk rock and some ska and just rock in the early 80s, I believe. Pretty enjoyable, a good I'd never heard of. 90s alternative rock group called Whipping Boy. They had a really decent album called Heartworm in 1995. Almost went with that one.

Rosen Murphy, the electronic music artist from the last couple of decades. Enjoyed a few of her records. She is from Ireland. He had a girl band slash gilla band who had been popular last decade or so with some experimental kind of like post-punk sound. A couple of interesting hip hop artists, one by the name of Denise Chilia, I believe is how you say her name. Her record is called Go Bravely from back in 2020. Yeah, so I had a lot of options there, but I'm pretty happy with the one I went with.

I think you covered it for all of us. Don, how about you? Well, I went back and listened to some records that I've spent time with in the past. The Pogues are kind of a punk, post-punk band that always threw in elements of traditional Irish sound. So their album, If I Should Fall From the Grace of God from 1988 is really good. Actually features a holiday song that I hear quite a bit at holiday time now, the fairy tale of New York. Sinead O'Connor's debut, The Lion and the Cobra. We did.

I want what I haven't got maybe a year or two ago, but her debut is really strong. Also I remembered a band called Black 47. They're actually from New York, but the main guy actually immigrated when he was a teenager. So technically from Ireland. Album called Fire of Freedom from 1983. Another kind of, again, taking that traditional Irish sound and applying it to alternative rock. Yeah, I found some stuff that did that, that applied Irishness to it.

I also found stuff that didn't, to me, sound Irish at all. It may have in the lyrics, but the band called Gamma Bomb, thrash metal band from the early 2000s. I was thinking about the album Untouchable Glory from 2015. Sounds very like peak anthrax. It's playful and fast. They also had an album come out in 2023 called Bats. I listened to the Cranberries for the first time on purpose all the way through their first two albums.

No Need to Argue was in consideration just because they're a seminal Irish band, but very long and I had a hard time getting into it, into it. And I realized that's where Alanis Morissette may have gotten her. Enough of that. U2, of course, was on the list, but we've talked about them a lot of times, but I would have gone with The Unforgettable Fire or Zeropa if I had gone that direction.

And then another metal band, Black Metal, Doom and Celtic called Primordial, and they'd been around quite a while. Their tenth studio album, How It Ends from 2023 might have been their last, but it was a very interesting listening as well. I listened to them too. Yeah, did you? Yeah. Ultimately, I went with something a little more now, a little more today. So why don't we get to our choices? You choo-choo-choose me?

Which is the biggest city in Ireland? Dublin, because it keeps on doubling and doubling. All right, that was a little bit of a L-E-G, if you guys ever watched this show a couple decades ago. We existed and it was the Boret, the other mustache dude. Yeah, I say Leonard Cohen, but it's Sasha Barracota. All right, for my Irish selection here, we were talking about hip hop artist, Nilo, and his second studio album for Neil Ketting.

The album was entitled November Medicine, deals with the dissolve of a 10-year relationship and some mental health issues that may have come from that. We are going to play what I believe is a lead single. This is called Forest. All right, so the vocals there from Morgana, artists I was not familiar with. Nilo was not an artist I was familiar with. Actually, any of the artists featured on this record I was not familiar with. Same. It's a pretty small project. Nilo is an independent artist.

Actually, he first himself is a fully independent artist, which I've not heard that term before. Basically, that means someone who manages his own marketing and promotion, his own tours, he does the – he writes his own music, he's involved with the production, very hands-on sort of DIY. The album Nerds Podcast is also fully independent. That's right. That's right. So I give a little love to someone doing it themselves. Yeah, I found this record to be really enjoyable.

In terms of the sound that he's going for here, there's a lot of like kind of like lush soul and jazz samples being interwoven here with some nice vocals as well, kind of accompanying him.

But he has a – I mean, he's a rapper, but he also has kind of like a singing song quality to his voice where it's maybe not as hard-hitting as like West Cope's rap in the US, but it's more about introspection and he's not afraid of using some melodies from time to time too, which I think makes this a little bit different from US rap, but also interesting. There were moments flow-wise where it felt like he was Emineming or trying to, you know, 8-moiled kind of style.

That's just what sometimes it felt like in those, especially when he got very frantic and loud, that's when it was like, okay, go back to the chill vibe, dude. Yeah, I definitely preferred the chiller approach. Yeah, the record starts out a little bit more intense in the Eminem space, but I think as it goes on, it chills out and gets him more into like a ethereal kind of space. Well, did he have a background – like I thought I saw that he kind of did like rock or punk or something beforehand.

Yeah, I read he was in a punk rock group before this. I couldn't find any information on that group or any recordings or anything. But yeah, he's got a little aggression in him, but I think, you know, he's a father. He's went through a long divorce and marriage. He sounds like he's gotten to a place where maybe he's matured a little bit.

All right, my click pay headline for this record is this just in, Irish rapper name generator tool discovered simply just add an O. His name is Neil, his rapper name is Neelo, come on. It's a little weird. Yeah, I mean, for the Irish tradition, it should be O'Neil. That's right. Right, exactly. Yeah, I like adding O. Andy O, Dono. Dudo. Dudo. Dudo. Dudo. Mega Dudos. Why don't we play one of the more ethereal cuts that appears right at the end of this record. This is Only Human.

I was born in a town with songs and speakers building, maybe a lesser man. A heart like this might leave him ruined, but I was born from stars and spores, more alien. Is that a harp? Sounds like it. Sounds like it. I don't think I've heard harp in hip hop before. Underutilized in the genre, for sure. Yeah, so I found a quote from Mr. Neelo about this song. It's about the overwhelming feeling of meeting someone and knowing that your whole lives are now intertwined forever.

It's about meeting your soulmate in a messed up world where things seem to be falling apart. You attach yourself to this feeling because it is so beautiful and it makes you feel safe and connected. Yeah, so sort of a gentle end to the record. My clickbait headline for this album is Hip Hop Ditches the Bronx for Dublin. So I had trouble kind of just getting past the idea of hip hop being from somewhere else, somewhere other than urban United States.

But there's no reason why it can't exist in inner city Dublin or wherever. Because you still have the working class vibe and poverty and racism and just all the same issues exist everywhere. I think it's so Irish in terms of like his accent isn't hidden. He's not trying to sound like rappers of America. And I think that's key here. If he was trying to sound like something else that might be a little off putting and not give it its own stamp.

And he's so forthright and so straightforward in those little tracks where he's just talking like his little journal entries or whatever. Yeah, it sounds like they're actually like voice memos on his phone or something. Yeah, kind of like a voicemail sort of. Yeah, to himself. Yeah, experiences like feeling hopeless and having a moment in the woods where all these birds are flying around and it gives him hope and that things can turn around and if you see a beautiful thing, it inspires you.

Just an interesting experience with this guy. There was a good balance there between that inspirational stuff and then there's the one clip where he's talking about doing acid for the first time and he's like, oh, we're seeing the air of life or something around his hands and you think he's going to talk about how it was some big epiphany, but it turns out it was just cat hair. Yeah, it was floating in the sunbeams. So I like his sense of humor and sort of self-deprecating vibe there.

Yeah, the record gets pretty heavy at times, but he does have these little touches of humor that kind of keep things on the ground and it's nice. It seems like a very personal and vulnerable record and it works. I had very low expectations for it and it definitely exceeded them. Would you say they were knee-low? All right, why don't we play another cut from the record? This is one of the more overly produced tracks I would say. This is called Tears You Cry.

This one definitely has a very R&B, dreamy sort of vibe to it. Soulful, jazz-infused, it's featuring Jenova and Civ. Yeah. Again, these guys are huge. I think they add something to it. It definitely has a different sound to it from some of the other tracks. Themes of friendship, shared struggles, optimism for the future, which there's a lot of optimism here even through the pain throughout the album. Optimism. The narrative style in the song is kind of a mix of that reflection and hope.

The saxophone line that adds in there, very shoddy to me. For some reason it evoked that feel to me, but very dreamy. By clickbait headline for this album, knee-low keeps it re-low and gets all up in his felos. Irish rapper holds nothing back. So bad. Come on. Yeah, I mean, he's very, like we discussed before, it seems like he's being very genuine, very forthright, not necessarily using examples from other people's life, but just himself.

This is very journal-esque and he really does lay it all out there and I appreciated that quite a bit. The first couple of listens were a bit of a struggle, but the more I listened to it, the more I kind of got to know him and understand what he was doing and it got better and better with every spin. So good on you, knee-low. He makes enough money to buy his dad a new bike. His dad's bike got stolen. I don't know how this gets, unfortunately.

Yeah, he seems like just a chill dude you could just hang out and have a pint with and totally relate to. Have a pint. Wow. So international. Yeah, yeah. There you go. All right, well, I was fairly impressed with this record too after giving it some time, so I think you guys might be as well. So check it out. Knee-low, the record isn't called November Medicine. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.

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and my trousers and my legs are on my feet. I'm walking down the street and my legs are in my trousers. I look at you with my eyes and my eyes are on my feet. Well, my pick for an Irish artist is Van Morrison with the second studio album called Astral Weeks. Van Morrison is an Irish singer-songwriter, actually from Northern Ireland, but he's still Irish, born in Belfast in 1945, formerly of the rock group Them, which had that song Gloria

that is pretty well known. So Astral Weeks comes after a couple of years where he's got record company battles. He kind of retreated to Boston where he kind of got like a folk trio going, and basically the material on this album comes from that. So let's hear the title cut, an opening cut, Astral Weeks. We say kiss of my ass. Is that the combination like Boston and Irish?

I don't know. He is such an interesting vocalist. So Morrison described Astral Weeks, the song is being like transforming energy or going from one source to another with it being born again like a rebirth. He said, I remember reading about you having to die to be born. It's one of those songs where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that's basically what the song says. So my clickbait headline for this album is Morrison Proves Hooks Are Not

Necessary. So I mean, it's noticeable that after having this huge hit record, Brown Eyed Girl, just like one of the catchiest songs ever made probably. I mean, this album doesn't really have any pop hooks. I mean, it's catchy in parts, but it really doesn't feel like pop music at all. Yeah. It's like spherical, but quite pointy in parts. Nice. So I would say, I guess it's a folk rock record, but it really feels kind of

more informed by jazz. There's a free form vibe to it. Well, let's hear more of it. Here's a song called Madam George. Yeah, caught up playing dominoes and drag. The one and only Madam George. Very long song, many of these tracks are, which I think actually works. Usually a lot of times that doesn't, but the feel and the vocal style really lends itself to long songs. And I think that's part of why this album is interesting. It's explorations rather than pop stuff. Madam

George details nightlife on Sapris Avenue in Belfast. And it kind of revolves around this character, Madam George who gambles parties. And many people interpret Madam George as a drag queen. Morrison at some point claimed it's a mix of people he has known, but lyrics suggest otherwise, at least in that little bit we played there. So my clickbait headline is Astral Weeks, more like Astral Days, Van Morrison's stream of consciousness outshines moon dances and brown eyes. Brown eyed girl. That is.

Not too hard to outshine a brown eyed. This album was recorded in just three sessions. That's where the Astral Weeks to Astral Days comes in. It's unbelievable just the creative force here, the musicians that worked on it, and Van Morrison's vocals and lyrics. It's just very interesting how quickly this came together

and how different it is from a lot of his other output. And I like the songs like Madam George and Sapris Avenue that have that sense of place and time and have vivid portraits of characters. This sound really leans itself toward storytelling and really seeing what's happening. I don't dislike Van Morrison. I'm just bored of brown eyed girl and moon dance and stuff. I'd never listened to this album before and it was refreshing. It was a different side of him,

a more creative side and I really dug it. Well, let's hear another cut. This is Ballerina. Yeah, could use a vibraphone. Is there ever a bad use of vibraphone? That's the question. I'm sure there is. That song was written when Morrison was part of Them back in 1966, supposedly after meeting his wife in Los Angeles. Them guitarist Jim Armstrong recalls working on the song originally with Morrison saying, Morrison had all these words. We sort

of formalize it because there was no structure to it. I thought that was kind of funny because I feel like this record really has hardly any structure to it, which I think is the strongest quality of it. And I think it makes it just stand out in his discography, very much so, but also just in folk music or folk rock in general. I really can't think of any record I've heard that really fits this mold. And I think just for that alone, it makes it really

important and interesting. My clickbait headline is Morrison blows minds with extended freestyle moon dance. Yeah, I think this is a pretty stunning record in my opinion. It feels like a burst of creativity and just the musicianship throughout it is stellar. I don't know a lot about the artists involved, but I think the results is just very impressive. Like you said, it seems to rely more heavily on jazz than it does on folk, but the mixture I think is what makes it so interesting.

It's up and down, it's over and left. There's parts repeating seemingly and then just stopping. It feels very unbreakable from song to song what's going to happen, which I think is great. And for me, that's what I love about music, just that kind of unexpectedness to it. Someone like Morrison, you kind of expect it to be more formalized, I guess, because he's such a good songwriter, I guess, is why I think of Brown Eyed Girl and its other hits are so just sort of

pop-oriented, but this is not that at all. I think just for that alone, I think it should be kind of held up and appreciated. Yeah. So speaking of holding things up and appreciating them, I am going to nominate Van Morrison's Astral Weeks to the Album Nerds Hall of Fame. So, I mean, this album came out in 1967 really at the peak of like folk rock, but I mean, at least from what I know of that genre at the time and everything else that was going on at

the time, I just don't think there was anything else that really sounded like this. I am actually surprised by how much I love this album. So I vote yes, of course. Dude. Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things I look for in nominees here, even if it's stuff I'm not super familiar with, is did it elevate or move forward with its sound or something? And I feel like this did take what was going on at the time and elevated it, made

sounds that weren't associated with folk rock and then jazz undercurrent. I thought it was an interesting blend of things. And I'm going to say yes. Yeah. I mean, for me, I just gushed about it for a couple nights, so I will just say yes. I think it's a great record. All right. Congratulations. He's not sir Van Morrison, is he? I don't know. He is now. It's on Album Nerds Hall of Fame. I think that's the equivalent.

Congratulations, Van Morrison. Your album Astral Weeks is now in the Album Nerds Hall of Fame. Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions.

Now it's time for Deep Questions by Don. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day and how so? So this is a deep one, Don. Yeah. Yeah. Very deep. Wow. You really. I'm moving into a subconscious here. Yeah. Yeah. You really, you really outdone yourself this time. All right. St. Patrick's Day. Let's see. Yeah. I mean, I used to drink a lot of beer. My mom used to put food coloring in her oatmeal. Green food coloring, which is kind of, that's how it was fun. It's like eating a bowl of mold. Yeah.

It's pretty spot on for English cooking, I would say. Yeah. My wife and I, we usually watched the Leprechaun, the terrible horror movie with Jennifer Aniston and a terrible muppet. Rubber. Yeah. But yeah, I think probably the biggest change for me would be just, I had some beers this last weekend and I don't think I can do it again for St. Patrick's Day, man. I'm still recovering. It's been like three days. So I'm going to have a straight edge St. Patrick's Day, I think this year.

How about you guys? Yeah. I don't anymore specifically try to drink or get drunk. That's kind of the problem with St. Patrick's Day, at least, I don't know if it's worldwide, but in America it's just like, let's get drunk and then pretend like St. Patrick. There's religious overtones and stuff there. It's sanctioned drinking day. Yeah. It's just turned into an excuse to get drunk. I don't really do that part anymore.

Yeah. I mean, I usually wear green stuff from that whole, I don't know if people still pinch each other. That's probably a salt now, but back when I was a kid, that was a thing. Oh yeah. I totally forgot about that tradition. Pinch me, I'm Irish. Yeah. Or kiss me, I'm Irish. Or I guess, either one.

But yeah, you'd get pinched if you weren't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. But yeah, after this experience, I might try and lean into listening to some Irish music, maybe even traditional Irish folk stuff on St. Patrick's Day, just to do something that's a tip of the hat to my Irish brethren. Your folk dancing. Yeah, a little river dance. But yeah, I mean, I am of Irish heritage, so I should do something. How about you, Dunn?

Well, I am not of Irish heritage, but I do like to adopt customs that involve drinking and food. But I mean, it's been years since I've been out on St. Patrick's Day and that's not really something that appeals to me anymore. But in recent years, I've said it before, I'm a vegetarian. And back when I was a meat eater, I used to love corned beef. And so I actually found this vegetarian corned beef. Corned tofu. I don't know what it's made of. I don't really care what it's made of.

What if it was made of humans? Is that okay? Charlie Frieden's people. Sort of a gray area. But yeah, so I think the last couple of years on St. Patrick's Day, I've actually made myself a Reuben sandwich. Although I don't think a Reuben is really Irish, I feel like that's more like something out of Jewish delis. But I do love cabbage. I love corned beef. Yeah, corned beef and cabbage is awesome.

Well, what do you do on St. Patrick's Day? Let us know on Instagram and Facebook or leave a comment on our website, albumnerds.com. So I just wanted to get to a point where I could say in my own accent. I knew that I was on to

something because of how insecure I was about it. And you should follow those insecurities. If we're to achieve one thing, it would be to influence people to be themselves. So I went with Fontaines DC, an Irish post-punk band formed in Dublin in 2014. Grian Chattin on vocals. Carlos O'Connell on guitar. Connor Deegan III on bass. Connor Curley on guitar. And Tom Cole on drums. Their music is often characterized, with Chattin's spoken word, vocal delivery, raw energetic sound.

We're going to be talking about Skinty Fia, which is their third full length album. So why don't we jump in with a little bit of the title track, Skinty Fia. Well, I really don't care what you think of me, but someone gives me to the grovel. Every opportunity I've got, I'm jealous. I'll probably end up sorry. It's got more hip hop beat than we do. That sound actually reminds me a little bit of some of what you two was doing on Zuroppa,

playing around with new sounds. And I like that there's some experimentation on this album, including a song that's just accordion and Grian's voice. So the song Skinty Fia is a phrase that drummer Tom Cole's great aunt used to use. And it translates roughly to the damnation of the deer. There was apparently a particular species of deer that went extinct in Ireland and it was huge. That was Scottish sounding dude.

Grian explained that the phrase embodies mutation, doom and inevitability. And he kind of thought of it reflecting on his idea of Irishness abroad, such as the expression of Irishness in places like Boston, how that's a new pure form of Irishness, but it is different. It's a mutation of being Irish from Ireland. It's a different way of expressing it. So this song also gets into some about a relationship. So it's a multi-layered, hard to explain song, but it's a fun listen.

The clickbait headline I chose for this album, Fontaine's DC, Serve Up Irish Angst, accordion included, the Irish invasion London never saw coming. It's moody, unapologetically Irish, poetic and dark, yet not depressing somehow. It's raw and it's just fascinating somehow. CB Yeah, they've created an interesting soundscape here. I think all these things combined, it really has a pretty unique quality to it that I've heard before. RL That's hard to do these days.

AC Alright, so why don't we jump into another track, a little bit of Jackie Down the Line. RL Yeah, I like the do, do, do, la, la, la, which just sounds like a dismissive form of doing music tropes, which I thought was funny. AC Right. Yeah, this whole record almost feels like it's kind of fun, a little irreverent, definitely sort of vibe to it. Maybe it's just the Irish quality to it, I'm not sure. RL Taking the piss. There you go. AC Exactly. My clickbait headline is,

Deer House Pet Craze Sweeps Through Dublin City. The album cover has a frightened deer in the middle of someone's entryway in their home. RL Probably representative of Skinty Fia. AC Skinty Fia. Yeah, maybe that is a Skinty Fia. Anyway, yeah, I mean, this is a very moody, sort of distressed sounding record, but very thoughtful. It means poetic for sure. And there's so much metaphor being used here. It's hard to really chip into, to really tell what

they're talking about. But the few times I did, I found it very interesting. Seems like it's a lot dealing with social, political issues, racism seems to be a big part of the story here again, as we touched on earlier. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I found it kind of like in some ways like Van Morrison, so very unpredictable. I didn't really know what to expect from track to track and it kind of kept me on my toes, which I appreciate. AC Even the songs with very few lyrics

and repetition somehow isn't boring. And the band has a lot to do with that. They make great sounds underneath the vocals. I mean, there's a lot going on in all the songs and it's easy to kind of get washed over by the vocals, but there's a lot going on that are lifting those vocals up and making them what they are. So yeah, I just think it's a great band effort and that's not always the case. All right, so why don't we get to the next track we're going to talk about. And Don,

I hate you. It's the opening track in our Chris good deal. Sorry. There it is. Just sorry. Yeah, so I never really found the proper Gaelic pronunciation of that title. It was in our growth good day. Oh, but there's so close. Yeah, that's closer than me. The little course underneath there they're saying. But so apparently it translates to

in our hearts forever. And so I guess the band chose this title and the song, because there was an Irish woman living in England and she put that or she wanted that those words inscribed on her gravestone, but the Church of England ruled that she couldn't use it because it could be political or provocative. Yeah, this is recently too, right? Yeah. 2020. So yeah, it's crazy that that stuff is still.

What? Yeah. But I guess because of the outcry, the Church of England, I guess gave in. So she did get that on her tombstone. Cool. Yeah, I mean, the album engaged me right away. I mean, the song is just so intense. This is your stuff right here. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I love this post-punk sound. That track is so hypnotic. And I guess when you have a vocalist that doesn't really sing much, right? There's not a lot of melody in the vocal lines usually. I think where they can be effective

is in the rhythm of it. And he does a really good job with that. So I loved that song right away. My clickbait headline is post-punk outfit pay homage to extinct Irish deer. So blah, blah, blah with the deer again. But yeah, I think overall, I mean, the album is more about just like intensity and rhythm than it is melody, which maybe separates it from some of the other post-punk out there. I mean, at times they reminded me of Interpol, who's another kind of

post-punk band from the 2000s. But this is less melodic, perhaps more raw. This feels less contrived, I think. His vocal delivery actually reminds me of Lee Mavers from The Laws, who's not Irish, but kind of has that, I don't even know what that style of singing is. The guy from Blur kind of does it too. And Gorilla, what's his name? Damon Albarn or whatever. I know what you're talking about, but I don't know. Is there a name for that?

I don't know. But sort of like an over, like there's a syllable that they hold on to longer or something. Yeah. It's kind of like Last Morse Up, but not as annoying. But yeah, I mean, throughout the record, there's little surprises and a few accordion licks mixed in. Yeah, definitely interesting. And as Dude said, it's Irish, although they're not really, they're not throwing in traditional Irish sounds or anything like that,

but it just, it feels like how I pictured Dublin. Yeah. So good, good call. Thanks. The closing track Nabokov, I think is a really nice closer. The album just feels like an album, right? The songs, although it's not a story, they do fit together the back and forth between the different sounds and the musical flirtations with other sounds. It all fits together really nice. And that's a good closer. And of course makes a reference to the writings of Nabokov and it's very- Like literary sort of-

Yes. Intellectual kind of sound. Right. Yes, very much. But yeah, it was a lot of fun to listen to and get to know and get to know this band. And I had heard the name Fontaine's DC, which from what we've read, it came from, originally from Johnny Fontaine, a character in The Godfather. There's another band called Fontaine's, so they added the DC for Dublin City and here we are. But they're definitely a known on the

rise band, especially over in Europe and I'll be paying attention. I really like what they're doing and I hope to see them continue to grow. So that was Skinty Fia by Fontaine's DC. Check it out. Can you dig it?

Can you dig it? Can you dig it? So on your journeys back from Ireland, have you guys been discovering anything new? What are you digging? I thought you were going to try and do it Irish. Digging, digging, digging. I don't know. It just gets worse and worse. Is anything magically delicious? I got a couple of things in my pot of gold here I would consider valuable. Actually, there's been a plethora of new releases the last couple of weeks there, so I mentioned a few.

Plethora is a word which here means too many to list, but I will try. Got you. We'll start out with Ali X. It's a new artist to me. Her album Girl With No Face. This is sort of like gothic electro pop, I would describe it. Kind of like an emo quality to it. Really can do. Can do. I'd appreciate this after a couple of listens. It's Ali G's sister. Sounds like something from 1986. Yeah. Yeah, definitely some shades of Madonna in there. Next record up, Latidia Sadier.

I think that's how you would say it. The album is called Rooting for Love. She's a vocalist from Stereolab. I remember that. Yeah. Okay. So it's a very kind of ethereal, electronic, sunny record. It has a very organic quality to it I would say. Don's eyebrows just went up. And I got one up for you here, dude. Bruce Dickinson has a new solo product out called The Mandrake Project. Oh yes. Of course Bruce from Iron Maiden fame. I guess he has a couple solo records out in your lines.

Sounds pretty good to be honest. I was going to write it off, but I'm enjoying it. Against my better judgment. Yeah, I've heard some talk that this is more maiden-y than some of the recent Iron Maiden albums. I haven't yet listened to the whole thing. But interestingly enough, Blaze Bailey also just came out with a solo album and he was the replacement for Bruce Dickinson in the early to mid 90s. And so just figured he should get a shout out here too.

It's a cool thing to do when you're Iron Maiden singer. Apparently. All right, last one here. I got a new hip hop record from LA rapper Schoolboy Q. Records called Blue Lips. I was getting down pretty hard to this this weekend when I was drinking. I guess I'm ahead of that. See, now if I go do listen to this record, I'm just going to picture you mime rapping while you're drunk. I really don't want that image. No one does. Sorry Schoolboy.

I picture somebody like drinking a slush puppy or something. You get like the blue lips. What you been listening to down? Well, I'm still waiting for the elusive Cure album to finally come out. We're fingers crossed that it happens in 2024. But it is the 30th anniversary of the live albums that they did

from the Wish tour. So the Paris, which was kind of like a companion piece to the live album show, which featured basically songs from like the main set of the tour with songs from Wish and singles. Paris featured a lot of deep cuts from like pornography and 17 seconds. One of my favorite live albums ever. So they're re releasing it in various formats, including vinyl. And there's a couple of songs added to it, including Shake Dog Shake, which is always

one of my favorite live cuts. Even just a couple of seconds and I see Don doing the bobble head move. Don is there in Paris right now. Oh my God, Don smearing lipstick on right now. Yeah, I don't think I've listened to any of the live stuff. Maybe I'll check some of that out. Yeah, they are a good, I would say they're a good live act. Okay, so for me, I've been, you know, listen to a lot of Irish stuff, but I dug around for

other things as well and ran into Shane Smith and the Saints. The album is Norther. It's their fourth album. They're kind of a red dirt country from Austin, Texas. They appeared on Yellowstone a couple of times and it's like Americana alt country folk, lots of strings, lots of sounds, but interesting listen so far. Vocally, sometimes he reminds me of culture wall, but with all the spice behind it, it is not as desolate. A little more spicy country. Yeah, a little spicy.

That Yellowstone has really cultivated a lot of, yes. He brought a few artists to the table from Yellowstone in the last couple of years. Now I will mention briefly that I did pick up Skinty Fia on vinyl accidentally. I was looking through the S's at my record store and it was there instead of under F for Fontaines. I yelled it the proprietor, but I happened upon it so I thought it was fate so I picked it up. But more

fun. The luck of the Irish. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Just the luck of the Irish. I did find Barry White, Can't Get Enough. We talked about that on episode 194 of the Album Nerds podcast and it's just, I didn't have any Barry White in my collection, so it was fun to pick that one up and listen to it on vinyl and try to experience it in the way that those did when it was new. That's always fun. I know what's going to be happening in your place. Yes, I'm going to dance seductively for my wife.

Well, what are you digging? Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, and threads. Also on our website, albumnerds.com. It will be a discovery of extraordinary value. Well, that's about that time on the show, boys and girls, and I'm reminded of the great Irish poet W.B. Yeats who said, the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. With that in mind, let's bring out my friend and yours, Wadbot, and see what we'll be

talking about on next week's show. Popular music has taken many forms, starting with rudimentary handcrafted instruments all the way to synth and electronic music composed on a laptop. Next week, you will be exploring electronic albums released in the early 2000s. You may have to put away your air guitars, but you never know. Okay, so a little direction change here. We're going with 2000s electronic music. Hopefully find some things that are rock and roll with

electronica mixing so that I don't drive myself insane. That should be very interesting to see what you guys bring to the table here. You got to plug in a guitar. It's electronic. There you go. Andy's the expert. He was spinning those turntables with goggles on his head, and doing some glow sticks. Yeah, this is my time period. Yeah, you guys are in for a real treat here. Put on your giant pants for the next show.

Yes, yes. All right, well, don't forget, we do have an ongoing Elb Nerds Hall of Fame. Vote up for your consideration, the listening audience. You can go to elbnerds.com and vote for Meat Loafs. That out of hell. Do you think that album is worthy to be in the Elb Nerds Hall of Fame? Go to our website, elbnerds.com or hit us up on the socials at Elbnerds. What's your favorite electronic album from the 2000s? Does Bad Out of Hell belong in the

Elbnerds Hall of Fame? Let us know. Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast.elbnerds.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and threads at Elbnerds. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite podcast app. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so via paypal at elbnerds.com slash support. Thank you for joining us on the Elbnerds Podcast. We will catch you next time with that electronic noise from the 2000s. Turn down that noise. Excellent. We're

about to catch you next week. Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling. I think that's all I know. From Glenn to Glenn. Oh, sorry. You're the Irish boy. You're going to jump in there? I've never even heard the second verse before. I have no idea. I think that works. Hi.