30th September: Better late than never.

The Eclectic in DSFMs studios with Jimmy Murphy

We were on Dublin South FMs 'Local Beats' two Saturdays ago, 17th, and with me being the lazy bastard that I am, Ste with no internet access and Liam, Keith and Mick farting around Brussels for the last week, we're only getting around to updating this thing now. The show, hosted by Jimmy Murphy, was a good bit o'craic. The five of us crammed into one of their studios and talked shite about ourselves for about an hour. We played four of our songs, My Methamphetamine, The Road To Nowhere, Lucky Landing and Blank Canvas. We should have at least one of these, recorded from the show, up on this site soon. We're headlining Radiator in Dorans tomorrow night and we can't wait for it. We haven't played a gig with the full electric band in ages and we haven't practiced in about two weeks so it should be interesting. And Howie, if you're reading this, we'll be playing Summer Rain for ya so maybe you'll stop pestering us to play it for the rest of eternity. Anyway, that's it for this month, Keep her country, Kev.

15th September: Gigsmart acoustic gig, UCD. (www.gigsmartacoustic.tk).

The Eclectic and Friends (and family - spot the resemblance) in the UCD Forum bar.

Another gig, another batch of technical difficulties for us, though to be fair, this time it was to do with finding out where the hell we were playing. UCD is a big place and all the students seem to have different directions to the local watering hole, otherwise known as the forum bar. bloody students, smoking all my taxes.(jealous, me...?) With the venue eventually discovered and souncheck, eh, checked, we could relax for a while. Very easy to do with a cheap student bar at your disposal. We settled in to watch the other acts on before us. First up was Colin Scallon(www.colinscallan.com), in from amsterdam that day(youd never tell, I swear..). first time seeing him and am now lookin forward to the next time, 'nuff said. Then it was seprico(CPU Microsite), played with these before and was well impressed, with the addition of a drummer to the acoustic set I was even more so, great songs, a really great sound. Then we were up, despite the regular problem(string breakage, evey time!) it was a great gig, really enjoyed it and got a fantastic reaction from the crowd. I'm really lovin plaing our 2 new songs in the set, "road to nowhere"(keiths first, good man murphy!) and "my methamphetamine". they're quickly becoming favourites. With the gig finished and the fantastically brilliant and not boring at all job of dismantling the gear done(we need roadies...please!) it was time to get the party going big style....in other words.... home to bed....rock on. Full set:- 1. Blank Canvas 2. Shatterproof 3. Potholes 4. Road To Nowhere 5. Buckling innocent 6. Lucky landing 7. My Methamphetamine Goodnight, Mick.

13th September: Back to the aul' shed.

The Eclectic practicing - Allegedly

We had a proper practice for the first time in about 2 months last Saturday. Thankfully enough, we didn't show too many signs of rust, although we did have to wait on Stes lazy ass to struggle out of his bed, as usual. Keith introduced us to his new Guitar, it's a Schlecteramajig or something but it's damn fine. Of course, nobody else could play the feckin thing cause Keith's one of them qware lefties. We have an acoustic gig this Thursday in UCD so most of the practice was preparing for that. We got a couple of new songs closer to completion - My Methamphetamine and The Philosophers Debate (The Road to Nowhere) - (Jaysus, we're getting a bit pretentious with our names). We'll probably give them a bash at the gig on Thursday. We also started work on a new song from Ste - A Slowly Written Prayer - should be a good one. I bought myself a copy of Sigur Ros' new album, Takk, last Friday and have been listening to it constantly over the last few days. They've gone back to their conventional singing (in Icelandic) but there are still a few excellent Ya Sy Ya Lo La Fi, gibberish songs there too and also some surprisingly short songs. Ya can listen to the whole album from their myspace page, check it out - it's damn good. Right, that's enough crap from me, Till next time, Kev.

6th September: Life, music etc...

Various pictures from "The Showcase" on Irish Music Radio.

Ok so weve decided to jump on the band diary bandwagon, perhaps to lend some meaning to the mindless things we do in the name of 'the music' or perhaps because I think people really need to know what I had for breakfast (dont they?) Things have been pretty slow lately, Ste is just back from holiday so no real practicing going on except a last minute one just before we left for our radio appearance on Sunday, our first one. Seemed to go well enough... I even remembered my own lyrics (quite an achievement) ... although Kev forgot his to even it out! We'll be getting back practicing and hopefully have our laptop to play with pretty soon with our interface thingy in for repairs. Unexpected news from outside my tiny little world, I just heard Jon Brion had co-produced the new Kanye West album , looking forward to hearing what happened there.... and if he'll come produce us next. Also he's not involved with the new Fiona Apple album belatedly getting released in October after sitting completed for about 2 years due to the label not knowing how to 'market' it. It is a beautiful industry is it not! Heard a few bits off it and I cant wait for its release. (I wonder if putting a link to MTV will get us instant overplay on MTV2?) Keith