So I pretty much fell for that free gym trial hook, line and sinker. Within 5 minutes of entering the gym, I was in the office handing over my credit card making me possibly the only person in the world who goes in for a free trial and ends up not even getting the free trial but signing a year contract! At least I got a good deal anyway.

I’ve been out of the whole voluntary exercise spiel for quite some time and I knew that I’d take to it like a cat to a freezing pond. I brought my MP3 player with me to help get me through it but I soon learned that the type of music that I walk down the street with isn’t exactly ideal for a stint on the treadmill. I found myself just closing my eyes and running to the beats of the music… and almost being flung off the end of the treadmill. I now understood why gyms always play an endless bombardment of “UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ” over the stereo systems – insurance reasons. People would be flying off treadmills left, right and centre should they dare to play anything decent!

This poses a problem for me as I go to the gym to exercise and not to have blood slowly trickle from my ears thanks to being exposed to such drivel. So I’m on the look out for an alternative work out playlist which would ideally encompass some rock and electro and result in me not having to worry about being flung across the room. A quick Google revealed a few suggested playlists but they didn’t really appeal to me so I went trawling through my music collection to see if I could find anything that would be of interest.

A few months a go, I started to hear good things about an artist going by the name of “Girl Talk” whose made a name for himself for having a knack for fusing together the latest chart hits with timeless power ballads of yesteryear and topping them off with hip-hop beats. You can say what you want about people who “mashup” songs, but there’s no arguing that Girl Talk’s end product is extremely fun to listen to! It should see me through a few miles anyway.

Of course, once I figured that I was craving an eclectic mix of rock and electro, 2 Many DJ’s / Soulwax immediately sprung to mind. As well as consistently knocking out top-class remix after top-class remix of some of the best songs released on the alternative scene over the years, they’re also infamous for their “As Heard on Radio Soulwax” series which were sets of (usually) alternative songs that were transformed thanks to the magic Soulwax touch. With 2 Many DJ’s, you can expect great songs to somehow be made better and you’ll find yourself growing fond of songs that you weren’t too keen on to start with! Admittedly, some of their sets sound as if they don’t really have their shit together, but most of them sound as if they were hand-picked for me!

There is absolutely tonnes of material from both of those artists available free online (as in legally). I’d advise you to seek them out if you’re growing tired of the music typically found in gyms! Hopefully I won’t have any carpet burn to report!

As I’m sure anyone who’s ever accidentally stumbled online at 4am will know, I’m quite the nocturnal creature. I’m usually in bed by midnight, because to be honest I have nothing else better to be doing. I always find something to distract me though and the fact that I have my laptop beside me and more recently a Guitar Hero controller close to hand as well, only serves to ensure that I’m never asleep by anything that even resembles a civilised hour!

Over the weekend I found myself overcome with a brief bout of insomnia which saw me wander the streets of Waterford until 7am Sunday morning with nothing but the odd tumbleweed to keep me company. This was all after bringing a friend home who’d probably seen better days after leaving a club! You’d have thought that carrying dead weight for a mile would be enough to tire me out, but all it did was make me miss my beloved Apache Pizza and become so hungry that my stomach became a beatbox. Centra eventually opened at 7:15 and I fell into the trap of actually believing that they’d have the breakfast roll I was so desperately craving at the ready! Instead I settled on what was probably a three day old sandwich and set off on the trek home. If only I could sleep…

The walk home sure did make me tired. By time I got home, I felt as if my feet had not only worn through my socks but had also had a fair go at breaking down my shoes! I confess that at this stage, all I wanted to do was drop onto any surface that would support my weight and just hibernate until sometime around Christmas, it didn’t even have to be comfy – as long as I couldn’t roll off it or have it bite me, I was considering it! However, two things kept me from drifting off into slumber land. 1) I was due to work in a few hours and 2) I spent the last tenner I had in my wallet on that blasted gone off sandwich! So my choices were somewhat limited. I could either stop, drop and fall unconscious for about 14 hours and worry about having to live off the crumbs in between the cushions of my couch for the rest of the week when it came to it, or I could “play through the pain” and fire up the Xbox for a few hours before heading to work with a flask of coffee so strong that it would have the consistency and taste of tar! I chose the latter, albeit without the flask.

Now the first few hours weren’t actually that bad. In fact, I even text one of my friends who I knew was lumbered with an early shift, boasting that I had it easy, doing nothing but sitting down on MSN while every now and again signing someone up to Ladbrokes. I couldn’t help but laugh when they text back saying that they were running around with trays of drinks and food with the sweat pouring out of them! God almighty must have been watching though, because seconds later my boss came over and sent me in to deal on a table! Oh Christ! At this stage I could barely even remember my name, let alone how to deal cards! In fact, on the very first hand I sat in, I collected the antes from the table before dealing out a flop. “We’re all playing the board so?” I heard one player say, somewhat inquisitively as it dawned on me that I hadn’t even dealt cards to the players! Now usually these situations go from bad to worse but this was rock bottom and I figured that things could only get better. They just had to!

How I struggled through the next few hours is beyond me! I was just cruising through the night on autopilot, in desperate yet rapidly waining hope that someone would spot that I looked to be aging at a rate of 10 years for every hour I sat in that dealer chair robotically calling out the words “Pass”, “Fold” and “Raise” over and over again. What I had at one stage would have been at most a 5 hour shift was fast approaching 14 hours! It was at this stage that I really started to regret boasting about my “easy shift” earlier on. It was only then that I decided that I should ask to go home. 10 minutes later and I was home and taking off my clothes with my trusty bed just inches away, inviting me in. I’m sure you’re aware of the old cliche of falling asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow, well here’s a new one for you; My head didn’t even have to hit to pillow to fall asleep! I know it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but the very fact that I still had one sock on the next morning means I’m not making it up!

I managed to squeeze every bit of sleep out of this occasion as I possibly could and I finally woke up 15 hours later, which was probably the total combined amount of sleep I had got the week before! My only complaint (oh here he goes again) was that I had these really vivid dreams that were about Saturday night which in itself isn’t too bad, as long as I can remember that they were dreams, but roll on a few days and I completely forget which had led to a few “Did I?” moments complete with temporary paralysis that lasts a few seconds when I look back at the night! The trick is to not think about that night though and I’m near certain that the copious amounts of tequila that I intend to throw back (but hopefully not up) this Saturday will see to it that last weekend (and the vivid, freaky memories) becomes a thing of the past!

After waking up and looking at the time, I quickly realised that college that day was a non-runner, especially given that it was 6pm. I was still quite tired so I just took it easy for what was left of the day and I managed to fall asleep for midnight Surely a record for me! And then, something strange happened to me when I woke this morning after getting another good nights sleep. I felt oddly energetic, enthusiastic and dare I say it, happy! Perhaps 4 hours a night isn’t enough after all! Making college in time for my first lecture will probably go down as one of my milestones of the year. It wasn’t the rush in at the last minute type of punctual either as I even had time to get breakfast – another first!

This evening I played in my regular 5-a-side game and for the first time since the games inception, I wasn’t begging to go on goal after 5 minutes of play. It was as if I had a giant Duracell stuck to my back and I even jogged home because I fancied the work out. Can I really put all this down to getting sleep? Well, it’s either that or I’m drinking some funny water!

I’m going to conclude this post with something new to this blog – a song. A song that I fully believe will be both a chart topper AND an Indie floor filler this Summer. They’re a band called Phoenix, who seem to have a knack for releasing fantastically playable Summer soundtracks. This song is from their forthcoming album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” and it’s called 1901. Enjoy!

I got that giddy feeling again. I hadn’t felt it since I went to see Tool in the Point in 2006. God is an astronaut were coming to town! I’ll admit that I’ve only recently grown attached to the whole Post-rock genre but in the time I’ve been listening to it, God is An Astronaut are a band that constantly stuck out. Accessible, yet intricate.

Electric Avenue, Waterford was the venue – and it was packed!. However, to put things into perspective, God is an Astronaut have been selling out large venues all across Europe all Summer long,yet I describe Electric Avenue as being packed whenever there’s more than twenty people spread out around the place! It’s as intimate as it gets, and even though I only arrived to see the supporting act, Library Tapes, finish up, I was still able to get a table right at the front!

Even though I’ve been listening to them practically non-stop for the past month in anticipation of this gig, I can’t recall their set list! I can only say that it was absolutely mind-blowing! There was something old and something new with each and every one of their songs leading up to epic climaxes. This was the type of gig that you didn’t jump around to, or mosh to, but simply stood there in awe, desperately trying to take in not only the statutory rape of your ears, but the assault of your eyes through the form of a synchronised visual display!

In hindsight, that was my problem – I paid too much attention to the music instead of my drink! I made the “newbie” mistake of leaving my drink on the edge of the table I fought so hard to get. On the very first song, once the sound of the guitars and drums married each other for the infamous “wall of sound” effect of post-rock, my pint slid off the table! I heard the glass fall, but assumed it was one of the skangers behind us who must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in this place! Anyway, I turn around and go to take a drink – an invisible drink! Not to worry, I only have to buy another. If it was any other band I probably would have complained though!

The rest of the show was epic to say the very least. When it was over, I went up to the band to congratulate them on their show because it’s always nice to see bands put so much energy into a small show like this. I bought their intriguingly self-titled latest album and a t-shirt and asked the entire band to sign it. I also talked to Thorsten, their “frontman” so to speak, about how their gear was stolen earlier this year. I have a lot of respect for a group of people who can bounce back from a set back such as that and continue on. A lot of people would have had their souls destroyed there.

Afterwards, and I suppose this leads up to this present moment, I wonder if they felt weird signing an album. To most people, Torsten Kinsella, Niels Kinsella and Lloyd Hanney aren’t household names yet to me, I hold them in the same regard as I do my all-time favourite band; Tool! I wasn’t able to get the John Hancock of Maynard and co when they came to Dublin two years a go, but I’ll happily accept the signatures of God is An Astronaut on my newly bought album!

Despite being together for eight years or so, I don’t think the time has come and gone for God is an astronaut. Their new album is fantastic and they deserve to be playing all the biggest venues worldwide and to adoring fans of all ages. I admit I have a hidden agenda though. When they “make it”, I might just ask them to buy me that pint they owe me!