There’s good news for all shorts-wearing air guitarists with the mighty AC/DC confirming an April visit to Dublin as part of their gargantuan Black Ice World Tour.
What’s most striking about the show isn’t the huge Angus-style skull caps which are perched on top of the roof of the stage that come complete with wiggling devil horns – it’s the crowd.
Another Antipodeon rock band attempting to simultaneously reference the soul of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and the blues-era musicians those artists were cribbing from in the first place. It rocks, of course, but torn between the impulse to descend into post-prog psychedelia and straightforward meathead metal, Wolfmother are the sound of compromise, albeit compromise writ in large capitals with a string of exclamation points at the end.
Break out the denim flares, lock up the soap and water and prepare to get dirrty. From New Zealand they come, these bastard offspring of AC/DC and just about every ragged-arsed garage combo you care to mention.
Though they are on his label, Marah don’t sound a whole lot like Steve Earle. He has described them as “a literate AC/DC” but that only partly touches on the truth.
Though they are on his label, Marah don’t sound a whole lot like Steve Earle. He has described them as “a literate AC/DC” but that only partly touches on the truth.
The Answer have played to almost a million people on the current AC/DC tour. Not bad for an indie hard rock band from Norn Iron. Singer Cormac Neeson gives us the skinny on Angus Young’s love of Rory Gallagher, meeting Alice Cooper, and why Hunger is required tour bus viewing.
In all, YES! is an unexpected joy, a heady, discombobulating cocktail of rock opera, obstinate punk and feel-good dance vibes. Ignore, if you will, the fact that Do Me Bad Things were ‘discovered’ by the same people that ‘discovered’ The Darkness. For all its calorific riffing and Rocky Horror-esque psychedelia, the true beauty of this record is its newness (as opposed to the novelty) factor. ‘Liv Ullman On Drums’ (featuring, bizarrely, Tom Shotton on drums) is an incredible ragout of ‘70s cop show theme music with hair metal, while ‘Time For Deliverance’ is a spine-tingling AC/DC inspired-Broadway musical number.
“We’re not Beethoven”, clarifies Young Heart Attack screamer Jennifer Stephens, who surprisingly is a bit more at home with Mötorhead, The Darkness and even The White Stripes.
The Donnas, if you don’t know, are a hard rock (and yes, that antiquated term very much applies here) quartet armed with a serious index of AC/DC riffs and a smattering of gauche girl-gone-wrong charm
Where hip and hype go together, that's where you'll find The Hives who are buzzing to tell Stuart Clark all about Kylie, curling, punk rock, nice forests and bad Norwegian jokes
Gigs with Mick ’n’ Keef and Angus ’n’ Malcolm, and a potential ding-dong with The Strokes – it’s only rock’n’roll but Jet like it as does Stuart Clark.
With those other candidates for the job, AC/DC, confirming an O2 Arena show today, it looks an odds-on certainty that Oasis will be unveiled tomorrow as the headliners of Slane ’09.
As U2 gear up for the release of No Line On The Horizon, they meet HP to talk about the creation of their latest masterwork, meeting world leaders, the way they’re perceived in Ireland, the current state of the music business and their future plans.
Blatant plagiarism aside, The Datsuns prove themselves to be more than competent, delivering a steady stream of toe tappers and, by the end, have me convinced that their live show would be utterly unmissable
The finger lickin’ Southern fried rock band du jour, Black Stone Cherry, pay a pre-Christmas visit to the Dublin Academy on December 16. Tickets are €22.
Jesse Malin - most recently famed for Ryan Adams collaboration We Are Fuck You/Punk's Dead Let's Fuck - joins the bill when the Cranberries and Counting Crows head to Killarney
It'll take more than a clapped-out tour bus to stop The Answer emulating their heroes. Ed Power hears how the Downpatrick rockers' burgeoning fan club already includes Jimmy Page and Philomena Lynott.
The new series of Dave Fanning's The Last Broadcast will include appearances from The White Stripes, Bruce Springsteen, Beck, The National and lots lots more...
Fresh from his criticisms of RTÉ radio’s music policy in the current issue of Hot Press, Pierce Turner has announced details of his new single ‘Julie London’.
Ireland's The Answer have pulled off a major coup by bagging the support slot on the American leg of AC/DC's Black Ice tour. Cormac Neeson talks us through their first fortnight on the road.
Hey! Ho! Let's go (girls)! And so the band who named their debut album Teenage American Rock 'n' Roll Machine reach the ripe old age of twenty one, celebrating with a fourth record and a new, more mature sound.
Oh how we chuckled at Casey Fischer and Warren Spooner when they first appeared as seemingly the only members of the short lived (blinked and you missed it) electroclash scene. The combination of deeply pretentious art posturing and fairly poor electronic music was not an appealing one and, after an initial burst of interest, we rapidly moved onto something else.
You can see it in their eyes. In their minds, Five are a hard rocking, hard rapping, street gang. In reality, though, they’re more likely to be interviewed by some stuffed animal than hang with the lads in the hood.
The music of Bodyrockers, a DJ/producer collaboration that wants to see your panty line, is creepy and shudder-inducing. One is put in mind of sweaty, sleazy nightclubs where the air is taut with soured lust and simmering aggression.
Music Review | Live
29% | 5 Jul 2004
Tanya Sweeney
The Datsuns have been riding high in the band-it’s-cool-to-love stakes.
Despite the overblown hype that has propelled the band to tabloid rock greatness, the Datsuns appear ungoverned by fad. Quite the opposite: their decidedly non-trendy brand of taut 70’s primordial rock wins tonight’s audience over.
Mission: Impossible 2 opens with a bit of a damp squib - Limp Bizkit's 'Take A Look Around', in which Fred Durst ruins Lalo Schifrin's original Mission Impossible theme with the addition of a lacklustre rap and the occasional burst of noise.
AC/DC's new album has debuted at number one in 29 countries including Ireland where it's trailed by Kings Of Leon's Only By The Night and Boyzone's Back Again… No Matter What.
Singer Dmitri Coats – aside from having one of the best names for a frontman in existence – is a self-professed wannabe rock star and something of a publicist’s dream, while poster girl and female bassist Melanie Campbell is apparently not averse to vomiting during gigs.
Former Hollywood A-lister Juliette Lewis and her backing band The Licks rock without mercy throughout their third album Four On The Floor, a laboriously endurance-defying excavation of every 70s rawk-monster riff you’ve ever heard, with Juliette’s angry vocal caterwauling thrown in by way of a bonus
Despite her stressing that all is well with the Cranberries, an Irish tabloid has managed to turn Dolores O'Riordan talking to Hot Press about her solo album into a "band splitting" story.
The current wave of '80s revivalism has spawned a rich tapestry of young acts sonically nursed at the teet of Talking Heads, Gang of Four and their ilk. The result has seen a batch of catchy, well-structured tunes, that hark back to the glory days of Byrne, King and performers of a similar vintage. Another genre that dominated that decade, but definitely does not merit revisiting, is the aural abomination that is stadium rock. Unfortunately, here it is, courtesy of the heirs to Busted’s throne… Rooster... rehashed, repackaged, as revolting as ever.
To mark AC/DC's sell-out return to Ireland, Hot Press celebrates one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time – tracing their drama-packed early years and talking to some of the musicians they helped influence.
This Brooklyn-based, Minneapolis-reared quartet, currently the most raved about band in America, are no spring chickens and my goodness, doesn’t it show.
Metallica have emerged as the most popular metal band in Ireland to judge by their showing in the chart of the one hundred best metal tracks of all time as chosen by the readers of Hot Press and the listeners to 2FM’s increasingly popular Metal Show.
The Vines live up to several of their reputations.
Music Review | Live
27% | 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.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: It seems preposterous in hindsight, but at the time, Mary Robinson‘s interview was dubbed ‘the longest suicide note in history.’
Being a fiendishly appropriate headline for a column in which our hero reveals how easy it is to win an Oscar and offers his suggestion for the ultimate musical instrument of torture. (And no, it’s not the accordion).
"I used to always take clothes off people as well, like little kids after gigs who would go 'You were brilliant' and I’d go, 'Can I have your jacket?'”
Is the time right for Welsh rock n rollers STEREOPHONICS to cash in on their Brits Best Newcomer award of 1998? It is, explains a frustrated KELLY JONES to BARRY GLENDENNING, but only if they can get out of this fucking airport.
An office in downtown Dublin. A band. A journalist. And a tape recorder. Yes, it s another extraordinary Hot Press interview. Starring: The Frames. Directed by: Mick O Hara. With: A cast of 200,000 readers.
An office in downtown Dublin. A band. A journalist. And a tape recorder. Yes, it s another extraordinary Hot Press interview. Starring: The Frames. Directed by: Mick O Hara. With: A cast of 200,000 readers.
They may profess disdain for the CD:UK world of glamour and hype, but with a recent appearance on the show and a support slot with The Darkness to their credit, it looks like nine-piece rock sensation Do Me Bad Things are going to have to get used to being in the limelight.
Born to a teenage mother, brought up in a succession of trailer parks and working in bars age 14, Nashville-based country-rocker Gretchen Wilson has had to earn her fame and success the hard way. And with even the great Tony Bennett high-tailing it from his own shows to catch her performances, it looks like the singer’s popularity is set to grow and grow.
Irony-deficient Nordic rockers Turbonegro are one of the world’s most credible hardcore acts, with a fanlist that includes Queens Of The Stone Age and Therapy?
As the country’s largest music festival, Oxegen is a crucial shop window for Irish acts. From main-stage headliners Snow Patrol through new kids on the block The Script. Here are some of our favourite Irish picks.
The year just gone was one of the most successful yet for Northern musicians. With Snow Patrol, David Holmes and Duke Special riding high, we take a look at 2009’s crop of contenders.
For a city so often celebrated in song, it was inevitable that the horrific events in new york would be felt as keenly in the music world as in any other section of society. STUART CLARK reports on the industry response and compiles a broad selection of individual reactions to the attack
Genital warts, cherry popping, male pattern baldness, archery and kate moss… it's access and, indeed, excess all areas as hotpress readers subject darkness mainman Justin Hawkins to a thorough probing.
The warped indie-rock of PlaytOh has put them at the forefront of the Cork music scene. Now they're poised to take on the world. Interview by Tanya Sweeney.
How does a teen four-piece go from school talent show to rubbing shoulders with The Script at Oxegen? RTE 2FM School Of Rock winners THE TRUFFLE SHUFFLES confess all to Hot Press about mitching off school, debuting in Punchestown and batting giddy schoolgirls off with a stick.
Forget Rod, Emu and gottles of geer david strassman s ventriloquism is the missing link between rock n roll and Bill Hicks. barry glendenning meets the
puppet master. Pix: cathal dawson.
Amanda Byram was today unveiled as the host of this year’s Meteors Awards and nominees for 2009 were revealed - as well as the fact that Sharon Shannon would receive a lifetime achievement award.
In recent years, Oxegen has made it easier than ever for fans to enjoy an ecologically responsible festival. This year organisers are raising the ante yet further with a host of green initiatives – as well as oodles of on-site entertainment for campers .
Colm O’Hare talks to Kerry King, guitarist with thrash-metal outfit Slayer, and discovers that under that murderous, violent exterior lies a great big pussy cat . . . almost.
They were one of the superstars of grunge, a band that did more than perhaps any other – even Nirvana – to bring underground rock and roll to the mainstream. But they lost their way with fan-alienating experimental records and a long-running feud with Ticketmaster. Now Pearl Jam have shrugged off the cobwebs and are back rocking like legends. Ahead of the release of their best album in years they talk about the long-road to rejuvenation, lessons gleaned from Neil Young and their place in the greater scheme of things.
Forget The Sunset Grill or Whisky A Go Go, it was Osborne Mushet Tools that gave birth to the only hard rock band capable of giving Madge and Wacko a run for their money. The man who put the steel into Sheffield tells the story
Hard rock has taken on many forms, but if it's loud enough to annoy the neighbours, it should be categorised as good old-fashioned metal. Peter Murphy guides you through our choice of the Top 30 metal albums of all time.
The US army graverobs Hendrix… the death of the man who exposed the Turin Shroud… the international court hamstrung at birth… the lonely death of Annie Kelly
Dublin's Hyland Brothers are aiming to punch their way into the Guinness Book Of Records. How? They are all launching individual bids for European boxing titles.
From piano-plonking crooners to nihilistic electro-pop duos, the UK and US are bursting at the seams with fresh talent in 2007. Could there be a new Arctic Monkeys out there somewhere?
The Black Crowes! Blowjobs! Journey! Drink! Bob Seger! Vick’s inhaler! and why Keith Duffy is more fun than the Manic Street Preachers! Stereophonics let their hair down in the company of Stuart Clark
Veteran 2FM DJ Larry Gogan was honoured by IRMA earlier this month, in recognition of the forty years he has spent at the top of his profession. To mark the occasion, Hot Press catches up with the presenter to discuss the beginnings of his career during the showband era, how Irish music has changed down through the years – and the time he earned Larry Mullen's thanks for playing U2 records despite the protestations of station chiefs.
RELISH
Another Downpatrick act with the chance to make good. Now signed to EMI Ireland, a single is due presently. Previous demos found them mixing a gleaming American rock sound with soulful vocals, not unlike Roachford or Terence Trent d Arby. A challenge to anyone s marketing department, but still preferrable to the average indie toss.
To some it is the great white hope in the battle against illegal file-sharing, and the idea that music on the internet comes for free. But to others, it is another nail in the coffin for artists who earn a paltry sum for the streaming of their music.
To coincide with the release of the Today FM DJ’s double-CD compilation tracking the history of alternative rock in Ireland, Tom Dunne talks to Jackie Hayden about the state of Irish music, singer-songwriters versus guitar bands and the role of Irish radio.
co.uk, with their spiky sound and their hearts set on superstardom, are the new great white hopes of the northern rock scene. STUART CLARK met them.
PiX: MICHAEL TAYLOR
DOLORES O'RIORDAN may have the highest profile but the others are also here to remind you that THE CRANBERRIES are a group. and with the release of their new album wake up and smell the coffee, a happier, wiser, less embattled group than ever before. “all you need is love,” they assure JOE JACKSON
“It’s the toughest thing we’ve ever had to do, it’s broken our fucking hearts.” While the recent sacking of founder member Mark McClelland has taken its toll on Gary Lightbody, the Snow Patrol mainman remains upbeat about their not-at-all-difficult fourth album, supporting U2 and their own stadium headliner in Killarney. Interview by Colin Carberry. Photography by Bradley Quinn
A new decade kicks off Sinéad O'Connor's revolution of the heart, followed by covers with A House, Stone Roses, The Pixies, AC/DC, Paul Simon and more...
STEREOPHONICS are on the up-and-up, their popularity growing without the band making concessions to the London-based music media. GEORGE BYRNE met them to talk about drink, drugs, writer s block and their upcoming Slane support slot.
Mini Pics: MICK QUINN.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
BECK is one of the most eclectically talented musicians of his generation. STUART CLARK sees the man play a stormer at Witnness and hears him talk about fame, musical obsession, heroes like Bowie and Black Sabbath and 'Britney fascism'
Ah yes, the glamorous life of the rock n rolling travel writer. Getting to see u2 live in Austria was a delectable piece of cake for liam fay. But getting back again that was when the dream turned into a nightmare.
Our annual HP-7 summit brings together some of the pre-eminent movers and shakers in irish music to reflect on everything from backstage catering to the end of war, pestilence and famine. Your host: Stuart Clark.
When Richard O' Brien put Dr. Frank' N' Furter into fishnets just over 20 years ago, few could have predicted the cult that would grow up around the Rocky Horror Show. Fay Wolftree genderbenders her way through a history of Transylvanian transvestism.
EDDIE IRVINE is Ireland s leading sporting playboy. The Grand Prix driver is a multi-millionaire whose taste for the extravagant runs to owning a private jet, a yacht and around ten cars. Here, the ladies man of Formula One talks to NIALL STANAGE about sex, drink, drugs, rock n roll oh, and driving.
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed * along the way
The Manson Family at work, rest and play, in sickness and in health. Peter Murphy travels to britain and the US to bring back the full, intimate story of a band on the run
Prince may be content just to party but in a four-page special the Hot Press journalistic elite takes a look at everything 1999 has to offer. And then some.
RTE2 have plenty of live music action to keep us placated for the next few weeks - here's the line up of bands and when to catch them. For more about the Other Voices series, click on the link at the very bottom.
All Write Now, we said. And boy did you follow instructions! The entries poured in from all over Ireland, and further afield, in their thousands. We were snowed under – but, as the song says: That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, we like it…
