No longer content to be an indie under-achiever, Joe Chester has produced a solo album that owes as much to Fleetwood Mac as it does My Bloody Valentine. Interview by Maurice O'Brien.
They may claim that they’re not interested in world domination, but US underground infatuated Dublin rockers Angels Of Mons are nonetheless brewing up a storm on the Irish indie scene.
Helmet are considered by many to be one of the seminal underground rock bands of the ‘90s, with albums such as Meantime offering up fierce reductionist rock and enjoying plenty of critical, if not commercial, success. However, on the evidence of this, their first album in seven years, they would have been better off leaving their legacy alone.
Though first emerging in the same wave of Brit garage bands as The Libertines, The Beat Up (formerly known as The Beatings) have only now gotten around to releasing their debut.
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has drawn up proposals for electronic tagging, which he plans to discuss at cabinet level before Easter. But with critics of the scheme insisting that it would only punish those unlikely to re-offend, does the planned legislation amount to a further erosion of our civil liberties?
For excitement and edginess you’ve come to the wrong place, but when a lot of that these days means having the correct haircut or right brand of eyeliner, perhaps there is something to be admired in the way Athlete are resolutely unfashionable.
Coldplay, White Stripes, Strokes, Queens, Garbage, Oasis, JJ72, Franz... With a whole slew of major albums in the pipeline, it looks like ‘05 will be the wrong year to kick that addiction to noise.
You know, it would be easy to consider Planxty a little naff. They play a mix of folk and trad, sing songs about the ‘West Coast Of Clare’ with lyrics that mention shillelaighs and were entertaining your parents before many of you were even born.
But Planxty are much more than just a sentimental relic of the past...
The stage is well set for the entrance of Kanye West, who seems to have made the transition from producer to star performer with few growing pains. Having crafted beats for the likes of Jay Z and Alicia Keys, the Chicago native’s debut album College Dropout has lead to his new role behind the mic becoming a very successful one indeed.
Shatner’s more or less monotone drawl does mean that Has Been tends to grate after a while, but it will make you smile and there’s something refreshing about a camp acting icon who’s willing to be so vulnerable while also poking fun at himself.
Boom, Crash, Pow, Kaboom!
The Hives are back, and here’s what it boils down to: following the success of Franz Ferdinand, etc.,does The Hives’ rickety garage racket seem like artless posing in comparison?
The Heat marks an impressive progression for Jesse Malin, as this time it sees him stepping out from the shadow of best mate, collaborator and alt-country poster boy Ryan Adams to firmly establish himself as a formidable force in his own right.
This eight album from the former Grammy winner is a revelation, a beautifully formed record that on songs like ‘Open The World’ manages to sound both seductive and disturbing as it puts you under its spell.
The ’50s-loving Danish duo re-release one of the almost anthems of last year with an extra five remixes, presumably so you can relive the Lifestyle Sports ad in which it featured over and over again in your head.
The official Euro 2004 anthem is suitably full of positive energy and life affirming – if you just so happened to be dancing around a fountain in sunny Lisbon after Keano putting the ball in the back of the English net, that is.
Tom Baxter is blessed with a talent to melt even those who feel inevitably bored around singer-snoozing-songwriters. For a debut release the maturity of his voice and the arrangements are gobsmacking.
Their fifth single sees them still coming up trumps with their choice of producers, and with some sex-sized synth hooks and lyrics about hanging around the kitchen in their underwear is bound to be another huge hit.
When news broke that the sensitive Scottish romantics had hooked up with Trevor Horn to record their last album it prompted feelings of both horror and excitement – would everybody’s favourite fey indie cult band end up sounding like ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’? And would that necessarily be a bad thing?
Anglo-Swedish indie rock’n’rollers Razorlight are on the verge of releasing their debut album. A catchy attack on mediocrity with vocals that linger in the head.
‘They are Yakuza, You are Belfast’ – or something like that anyway. One Nation Under Awed marks the somewhat delayed recording debut from one of the more interesting rock bands to emerge from alternative Ulster in a while, and what they lack in ‘awe’ they certainly make up for in furious intensity.
They might hail from the bright lights of Las Vegas but the debut album from latest buzz band The Killers displays some serious Anglophile tendencies.
Music Review | Live
22 Apr 2004
Maurice O'Brien
Billed as a night of spoken word, rare footage and a live Ramones set with their former sticksman himself sitting on the drum stool, it soon becomes apparent that this is merely going to be another example of an ex-punk flogging a dead horse.
This might be his first album but the songs on this debut from Donegal man Sean Needham give the impression that they’ve been collected slowly over the years, as he honed his craft.
Juliet Turner cuts a striking figure as she scrapes her auburn hair to one side and looks down from the Vicar St stage. Toweringly tall, at times she seems almost awkward, her movements exaggerated even when swaying ever so gently to the sound of her backing band.
This compilation brings together a tenuously-linked group of artists who got tired of waiting for record companies to open their ears and decided to release their own music.
There is enough merit in the energetic power-chord rock of these ‘Nordic rock crusaders’ (their description) to make you refrain from putting them down as just another piece of spam in the already crowded inbox of retro-rock clichés.
There’s a buzz going around the Village tonight. New York’s latest great white hopes The Rapture are in town to play their first Irish show, and the sell-out crowd is a mix of those already well acquainted with the house of echoes that is their debut and those curious to see if there’s more to them than the ‘disco-Strokes’ tag they’ve been lumped with in some quarters.
The first solo album from ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton produced one great single in the shape of ‘What Took You So Long’ but the overall consensus was that it sounded, like Emma, very sweet but that, like Emma also, it didn’t have any balls.
Metallica’s last album, St. Anger‚ marked a return to the brutal essence of their pre-Black album days, harking back to a time when the gurning men in black simply played it louder, faster and heavier than anyone else.
This bluesman might hail from Enniscorthy but he sounds like he would be more at home sitting on the porch of some ramshackle shack in the Mississpi blues delta, trading moonshine and tales of heartache.
Now with a ‘Best Of’ compilation under their belts and following the slightly experimental slant of their 1998 comeback Born, this fifth studio album sees the Flowers return with what they claim is their most raw and soulful collection to date.
If this album really does mark the fading to black of one of hip-hop’s true heavyweights then at least we can take some consolation in the fact that the self-styled ‘Michael Jordan of rap’ has gone out at the top of his game.
Now on her third album, Tasty serves up yet more evidence that Kelis Rogers is someone who the likes of poor misguided Britney should be taking grinds in sassiness from.
“Here’s something soothing, something groovy, something new, something old, something for everyone”, declares the oh so modest introduction to Wyclef’s latest offering. And while it certainly ain’t all that, this is an entertaining enough effort from the former Fugee.
A series of compilations handpicked by artists such as Kid Loco and Groove Armada, the Late Night Tales collections share the same essential idea as the Back To Mine series, giving artists the opportunity to put together a collection of their favourite tunes “worth staying up for”.
That Dave Matthews is still relatively unknown round these parts is not something you feel he’s particularly worried about, given the fact that his band have sold in the region of 25m albums stateside, where they enjoy a revered status amongst more sensitive college rock types.
Suited and booted á la The Hives? Or socks on cocks á la Chilli Peppers? No, tonight’s headliners North Horizon take a somewhat more laidback sartorial approach: they all wear woolly hats.
But of course the clothes don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got the tunes, more of which later. Because first band up on an interestingly varied bill tonight is youthful three-piece The Hollow. Despite being together for only two months their front man’s haughty vocals and the slightly dark, understated rock with echoes of the likes of JJ72 and Interpol suggest there might be better to come once they gain experience.
Definitely one of the best dance albums of the year.
Music Review | Live
20 Oct 2003
Maurice O'Brien
Any suggestion that the leather pants wearing, push up bra wearing Ruyter is onstage for mere eye candy value is dispelled after about five seconds. Fuck cock rock, this woman plays the guitar like it’s a clitoris extension.
