Day two, and Franz Ferdinand provide pure entertainment, That Petrol Emotion win the attention of a new generation and the Body And Soul area hosts the mother of all night parties.
The Sex Pistols are back! In what has the look of a major coup for the event, punk’s great trailblazers are among this year’s headliners at Electric Picnic 2008, which takes place in Stradbally over the final weekend in August.
Having covered two of his songs on her Throw Down Your Arms album, Sinéad O’Connor duets with Lee “Scratch” Perry on the American version of his Panic In Babylon set.
If you’re gonna be a one hit wonder, you might as well invent the dominant form of music for the ensuing decades. Released in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the first hip-hop single to go gold, putting the group on American Bandstand and Soul Train long before Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC.
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
That’s ICE T, mind, and make sure you use capitals. The rapper turned TV star is coming to a stage near you, and still has plenty to say about hip hop/rock, Michael Moore, George Bush, acting, porno and, of course, ho’s.
Well it’s one for the money Two for the show
US3 GET READY . . .
. . . Now go cats go! When a critic talks about awarding his favourite gig, album and band of the year accolades to the same outfit then we gotta be talking about something special. In this case it’s transatlantic Jazz Rappers US3. And the, er, critic in question: MR. STUART CLARK
With Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous putting rock hackery on the silver screen, no less, Peter Murphy wonders if Seventies rock journalism is the new rock n roll. Helping him with his enquiries: PAUL MORLEY and GREIL MARCUS
The Red Hot Chili Peppers visited Lansdowne Road, Dublin on July 8 but we caught up with the band in Paris recently and heard why the west coast warriors of funk-rock have never been hotter
Bobby Gillespie's still staying up all night but now it's because there's a baby in the house. Otherwise, it's all systems go for Primal Scream at their bunker hq - Witnness cometh, Mani's back and Kate Moss, Kevin Shields, Robert Plant and AndrewWeatherall all feature on the groundbreaking evil high
Sci-fi revolutionary and reluctant cyberpunk, William Gibson marks the publication of his new novel pattern recognition by offering Peter Murphy a peek into the present and a brief history of the future.
Blow me down, it’s that chirpy Counting Crow adam duritz again, flapping his vocal chords on everything from bunking off the MTV awards, why the Rolling Stones are still “fucking great” and why he won’t be emigrating to Utah just yet. Witness for the defence: Niall Crumlish.
phish
are a bone-fide American underground phenomenon who have gone overground in a very big way. Word of mouth rather than record company hype, initially made their reputation Stateside and now they can boast of chart success,
mega-audience attendance and their very own devoted following of Phisheads. But is Europe ready for the 90s equivalent of The Grateful Dead extended jams, waccy baccy, patented ice-cream flavours and all?
peter murphy
investigates.
Republic Of Loose are that rarest of beasts – an Irish rock band who can get their groove on. Ahead of the release of their new album, they talk about standing out from the crowd.
He was a midwife to grunge and has worked with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Hole and Ozzy Osbourne. Far from being a studio boffin, though, Michael Beinhorn believes modern music is too often reliant on technology.
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
Establishment rules O.K.! That’s the message to be drawn from ’85s long playing output!
In a year which has been yawn-inducing rather than epoch-making, it speaks volumes about the state of the art that the year’s best buys were reissues of one sort or another by Echo And The Bunnymen, Velvet Underground and The Doors.
Respected as one of the stalwarts of P-funk in his Parliament and Funkadelic days, Bootsy’s still keen to come up with fresh sounds and this collaborative effort sees him teaming up with a host of guests with fairly mixed results
The Earlies have corralled an army of musicians, almost 15 in total, to create an unquestionably ambitious, unbearably ominous album, one that stalks the listener from start to finish.
Afro Strut sees this Detroit native work from a clean slate, building up a fresh batch of multi-layered, 21st century wah-wah workouts and nu-soul smoochers from skeletal piano demos.
The six-piece outfit are undeniably exciting, with Holmes’ trademark infectious breakneck apocalyptic voodoo grooves, fleshed out with pulsating bass, pounding drums, stabbed jagged shards of guitar and equal-parts-scary-and-beautiful vocals from rapper Sean Reveron and chanteuse Petra Jean Phillipson.
HAVING DECIDED that smooth career paths are for wimps, Primal Scream have embarked on a flight of musical fancy that's wildly oscillated between brilliance (Screamadelica) and sub-Black Crowes retro cack (Give Out, But Don't Give Up).
Look, like most blokes - and not a few women - of my acquaintance, I have absolutely no problem with Jennifer Lopez taking her clothes off in her videos. To invoke John B. Keane, there's no greater vista in all creation than that of a woman's posterior, and forsooth, the last year has been a decidedly ripe time for connoisseurs of derriere dicolletage.
No expense has been spared here. Stages lift and fall, lasers cut through plumes of dry ice, diaphanous movie screens give the impression of 20ft tall gospel singers towering over the crowd.
Under the X-Press 2, Ballistic Brothers, Black Jazz Chronicles and Black Science Orchestra guises, Ashley Beedle has been responsible for all manner of funky, soulful dance music. Now he s gone and put together Influences, an album that documents his twenty-year-long obsession with music. Words: Richard Brophy.
The Mix-Up is billed as the Beastie Boys’ “first ever album of all-new instrumental material,” although the NYC trio have been playing around with wordless funk and jazz pieces throughout their career.
“And now we havf ze results of ze ‘elseekni jooury” … burble, squeal, zeekzrrzzsngtum … oops, we’re sorry, we’ll write that again … the result of the Hot Press jury, who wish to profusely thank David Byrne for all those pints he bought us in the International Bar last week – even if he did rather endanger his chances with all those neo-structuralist musings about The Bogmen.
There's no middle ground with Prince - you either love him or you loathe him. And so it is with his music; he either touches the skies or plummets the depths.
