Enda Guinan

'You can't post your way out of fascism.' A personally uncomfortable read from @janus.bsky.social at @404media.co. www.404media.co/you-cant-pos...

#5CoverSongsTrick The Flying Lizards take Barrett Strong’s soulful, strutting paean to materialism and turn it into something absurd and humorous (and a UK #5 hit). Fun fact: I did some work for Deborah Evans-Strickland a while back. She now runs an arts charity in London.

This #5CoverSongsTrick suggestion is fantastic. Madonna gets a moody Americana makeover.

#5CoverSongsTrick Somehow Meshell Ndegeocello manages to make Private Dancer even *more* gutwrenching. From a previous album of surprising covers, Ventriloquism (2018).

Five stars for Macklemore's sold-out Free Palestine event in Dublin with Hozier, Kneecap and Beoga (part of Ed Sheeran's touring band!)

#5CoverSongsTrick Have to start with an almost unrecognisable cover of an almost unrecognisable cover of Otis Redding’s Respect. Aretha *transformed* it, but then Adeva put another wild, slinky, housey spin on it.

Some help from BlueSky hive mind please - a kind chap called Pearse at the excellent #MarkOlson gig at the #Sunflower in Belfast today. I’d left my wallet at home & hearing this he pressed €20 into my hand to buy a CD. I snapped bank details but it is illegible. If anyone knows him … get in touch!

Musicals generally bring me out in a rash, but when I learned that Neko Case had done one based on Thelma & Louise, I had to go. It was impressive. Lots of recognisably Neko moments throughout despite the more literal constraints of the genre. (Still not sold on musicals though 😆)

Playing Planxty’s #vinyl debut following news of Dónal Lunny's death. Possibly difficult to appreciate now how influential this album was at the time for Irish trad music. Basically, three centuries of music from 'these islands'™ made into something more future-facing. Tasty stuff.

My unpopular but persistent belief is that almost everything in our lives has gotten better and we’re weirdly incapable of seeing it.

Healthcare. We can treat or even cure SO much more than before. Because of investment in research. (And at a more superficial level: music. Being able to hear music abundantly and in high fidelity. What a joy!)

Love the album art.

Legendary Irish trad musician Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79. A central figure in folk and traditional music since the 1960s, he was a founding member of a number of bands, including Planxty, Moving Hearts, LAPD and Usher’s Island. jrnl.ie/7203307

“Glorified gimmick piece of crap” – the MacRumors forum responds to the launch of the iPod, 25 years ago. forums.macrumors.com/threads/appl...

Total folly to try to rank L. Cohen tracks, but enjoyable nonetheless. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/o...

Samples Joe Tex’s ‘Be Cool (Willie Is Dancing With a Sissy)’ which involves the protagonist’s being very worried that his pal Willie is dancing with a man in drag before having an epiphany and realising that perhaps Willie is fine with this and protagonist should mind his fucking business.

There really is something special about a live performance in particular places. Here's 'Knockaraha' from @gerrwalsh.bsky.social featuring Naimee Coleman and Suzanne Walsh in Dublin's Unitarian Church. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vua...

“This is what an award that has occasionally seemed surplus to requirements now exists in order to celebrate: the grand statement, the right for artists to indulge themselves at length in a climate that favours short and sharp releases.”

“My life feels smaller in some ways, but also much more like my own.”

As she releases Revelations of Divine Love, Susanne Sundfør reflects on the songs that have carried her through life, from medieval mysticism to the music that made her

Made the pilgrimage to Oslo to see the extraordinary Susanne Sundfør and Kit Downes perform their new album, Revelations of Divine Love, based of the writings of Julian of Norwich: the earliest surviving English-language works attributed to a woman. Utterly sublime stuff.

Buckle up. 🧵

Finally! A contemporary U2 song that delivers. I’m neither a fan nor a detractor, but I’ve kept willing them to break free of the glossy-but-empty competence of their work over the last couple of decades.

“…an accident with the tape machine caused Melle Mel’s intro to stutter ‘Chak-Chak-Chak-Chaka Khan…’ like a glitching computer reciting a Hugo Ball sound poem. ‘That’s interesting,’ the producer mused. ‘Let’s keep that.’” Let Me Rock You — Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You” at 40:

Day 15: I Love This Life * The Blue Nile Their 1981 debut single got some Radio 1 attention before the label folded. A copy later reached Glasgow hi-fi company Linn, who signed them and released A Walk Across the Rooftops three years later. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

Here’s the whole 15 #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles on Apple Music. Thanks to @geodrew.bsky.social and @olgalovesyuri.bsky.social for hosting - as usual. 🙏🏽 music.apple.com/gb/playlist/...

Day 15: I Love This Life * The Blue Nile Their 1981 debut single got some Radio 1 attention before the label folded. A copy later reached Glasgow hi-fi company Linn, who signed them and released A Walk Across the Rooftops three years later. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

Day 14: We All Stand Together * Paul McCartney & the Frog Chorus No. 3 in the UK, subsequently treated by generations of critics as evidence for the prosecution against solo McCartney. NME once put it among the 10 worst singles ever. The fools. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

Day 13: Good Luck, Babe! * Chappell Roan One of the standout pop hits of recent years. That chorus is just all sorts of immense. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

Day 12: It’s Amazing To Be Young * Fontaines D.C. Inspired by the birth of guitarist Carlos O’Connell’s child. It apparently started out sounding more like a lullaby, then became this unusually hopeful Fontaines song. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

50 years ago today, ABBA released ‘Arrival.’ Home to some of the band’s biggest hits, including “Dancing Queen” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” the album remains a cornerstone of pop music history. Which version of ‘Arrival’ is in your collection?

Day 11: Texas Sun * Khruangbin & Leon Bridges The collab started when Khruangbin sent Bridges an instrumental titled “Awesome Guitar Loop”. He sent it back the next day with vocals. They liked working together enough to return for a second EP, Texas Moon, in 2022. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

To fill the empty evenings when Celebrity Traitors isn’t on the BBC should screen reenactments of key scenes performed by amateur dramatics groups.

Day 11: Texas Sun * Khruangbin & Leon Bridges The collab started when Khruangbin sent Bridges an instrumental titled “Awesome Guitar Loop”. He sent it back the next day with vocals. They liked working together enough to return for a second EP, Texas Moon, in 2022. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles

“In September 2026 at the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony in Toronto, the year’s best Canadian album and best Canadian song were awarded to two 333-year-old aliens in polka-dot jumpsuits.” The Most Canadian Band of 2026 Is from Outer Space — Angine de Poitrine:

Please help my friend, Chicago DJ Legend Greg Haus and his recovery from Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (pronounced Ghee-yan Bah-ray) …a rare neurological disorder where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks part of the peripheral nervous system gofund.me/34dce8451

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Day 10: You’ve Got Nothing to Lose * Michael Kiwanuka Recorded in Nashville for Jack White’s Third Man Records Blue Series, with White producing. The B-side was a Townes Van Zandt cover. Wishing Michael a solid recovery. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles youtu.be/SsrymeSoeZ0?...

How Mort Garson's limited-run project for a Los Angeles plant shop became a cult electronic record. crackmagazine.net/article/long...

Watching High Fidelity in my 20s: It would be so cool to be a chain smoking loser with a record store. Watching High Fidelity in my 40s: This awful man should be killed.

Have enjoyed a thoroughly Dadrock morning with these two. I'd forgotten just how many absolute bangers Billy Joel is responsible for. Anyway, that's all out of my system now. Where's that new Troye Sivan? #Vinyl

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Day 9: If You Don’t Love Me * Prefab Sprout The Sprouts make a Pet Shop Boys record. Bizarrely, it became a huge US club record, reaching No. 3 on Billboard’s dance chart and later being covered by Kylie Minogue. #ArtistFaveNonAlbumSingles youtu.be/9FRQDOVSekE?...

#CelebrityTraitors

The photo choice here always gives me a giggle. A song of crushing existential emptiness, illustrated by the gang looking as if they’ve just chuckled their way through an episode of Blankety Blank. And the pink light!

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