In a development that is unprecedented in recent years, two different versions of the one song may end up at No.1 and No.2 in charts in Christmas week.
When Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River, Tennessee, five years ago, the world lost a fledgling musical visionary, his lone album Grace becoming a sacred text of loss and unfinished beauty. In his short 29 years on earth, his power and grace touched many, especially his mother Mary Guibert and his former bandmate Gary Lucas.
At the end of Febraury the first show in a series of nights dedicated to individual artists will take place in the Sugar Club. The inaugral show will be dedicated to Jeff Buckley.
The recent release of the compilation album So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley was a potent reminder of the extraordinary impact Jeff Buckley made during his short life. In an exclusive interview, on the 10th anniversary of his death, his mother Mary Guibert reflects on the singer’s legacy.
With heady guitars and gentle vibratos contrasting with up-tempo rhythms, syncopated cymbal work and powerful vocals, comparisons can be made to a rough-around-the-edges Jeff Buckley
For a world still mourning Jeff Buckley, the prospect of Coldplay, in theory, is one that ought to provoke, at least, sniffily cynical disinterest and, at most, rioting in the streets.
Jeff Buckley, fresh from his recent triumphant gig in Whelan’s, and with his debut album Grace just released, tells Patrick Brennan why he doesn’t want to live or die in L.A., how Cooney and Begley are getting on in New York and about why he needed therapy after meeting Bob Dylan!
Coinciding with the news that Declan’s bagged a US deal comes the release of his new single, a poignant yet haunting affair that’s one of very few pieces of music worthy of its Jeff Buckley comparison. When he dances with the words, “When all the things you’ve ever dreamed of/Start to bleed and fall apart” (with his eyes squeezed tight shut with emotion no doubt), you know you’re on to something special. With any luck, America won’t know what hit it.
Elbow
‘Red’ [V2]
More dreary overhyped pseudo-sensitive ‘I
love Jeff Buckley’ rubbish from the worst
named Manchester band since The New Fast Automatic Daffodils.
Former frontman of Clann Zú, ‘Blackbird Song’ is the first single to be lifted from de Barra’s forthcoming debut, Song of a Thousand Birds. The first thing that hits you about de Barra is his voice: it’s full of that quivering emotion found in the vocals of Antony and The Johnsons, and even Johnny Cash. There’s an intensity and darkness which stems from the way he wraps his voice around the lyrics. Not since Jeff Buckley has hope ever sounded so desperate and wanting. On the flipside, ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ is equally mesmerising. Desolate and bare, it affords de Barra’s voice the opportunity to soar. His phrasing, enriched by his country accent, only serves to highlight the vulnerability he sings about. A passionate, intense and stunning record.
He emigrated in '95, sang with jeff at sin-e, acted with denis leary, consoled nyc's firefighters and tripped around the planet with emmylou harris – but for mark geary, the adventure is only beginning
A fresh generation of bands is tearing up the rule book and redefining what it means to be Irish. To celebrate this new wave of talent, we catch up with the best of them.
Magnet are right up there with Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, not least because of Johansen’s ethereal, heart-swelling vocals and its perfect coupling with orchestral strings and digitised heartbeats.
I’m never quite sure about posthumous releases. On one hand, they are often eagerly anticipated by fans of the deceased and can be worthy additions to an artist’s repertoire, like Jeff Buckley’s (Sketches For) My Sweetheart The Drunk. However, they can also be corporate cash cows for a record company eager to make the most out of a star’s legacy – the biennial release of another Jimi Hendrix compilation, for example.
From “Outspan” to Glen Hansard, from Grafton Street to Hollywood – and onwards to Lisdoonvarna 2003. A portrait of The Frames as a most unusual band. Part one of a two-part special feature by Peter Murphy. [Main Photos: Mick Quinn]
The Dublin venue – which has hosted acts like Arctic Monkeys, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and Bloc Party over the years – will celebrate 20 years in business this month with a special series of gigs.
Leya are blessed with bags of ambition. Sparse for the most part, ‘All On The Black’ is powered almost solely by Ciaran Gribbin’s soaring vocals and lyrics of departing love. Of course the crash of drums and guitar half way through comes, as expected, but nonetheless there’s a scope to the track that sets the Belfast rockers apart from most of their peers.
Buckley was the original crazy mixed-up kid, a brilliant dilettante who could flit from jazz fusion to classic hard rock to vocal stylists like Nusrat and Nina to lo-fi garage rock to French chansons/chanteuse
Seneca's sorrowfully spirited anthems don't exactly fit in with today's high-energy trends, but that hasn't stopped them from creating a major buzz in the US.
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.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘Girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘Girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
Citing “irresolvable conflict”, grunge legend Chris Cornell has packed in his day job with Audioslave to pursue a solo career. Here, he explains why he’s decided to go it alone.
isabel monteiro, lead vocalist with arch miserabilists drugstore tells stuart bailie exactly why she's writing songs about dead Chilean heads of state.
Oh, how we love our singer songwriters! They're the new flavour of the month, with artists you'd normally have playing in some poky toilet headlining festivals.
They come from Los Angeles, support Rotherham United and have a lead singer who loves Andrew Lloyd-Webber as much as he does Arcade Fire. Stuart Clark meets Orson's rather peculiar Jason Pebworth.
Postcards From Downtown [is] rife with badly used third-hand ideas, depressingly parochial and strung together with dead words still box-fresh from the cliché factory.
For student and Hot Press contributor HANNAH HAMILTON the moment of truth finally came two weeks ago. Writing from the eye of the Leaving Cert storm she reveals that not even a blast of crass can relieve the stress
Having survived classical and punk obsessions, not to mention an Adam Ant gig when she was 14, Joan Wasser may have finally found her true self in the role of Joan As Policewoman.
When Patti Smith came up with Rock N Roll Nigger in the 70s, she marked herself out as one of the most articulate and confrontational performers of her generation. On the eve of her visit to Ireland, the High Priestess of American Punk Poetry talks to Peter Murphy about art, music, the people she s lost and why she ll never give in to political correctness
Niall Stanage pays tribute to a remarkable young woman whose passion for music made her one of the most widely respected and genuinely loved people in the history of Irish music
Harder, faster, louder... Motorhead have been rocking the planet for the past 26 years. As they prepare to do battle again at the Xtreme festival, Lemmy answers your questions. Warts and all
Their languorous, minor key songs and stripped-to-the-bones arrangements have seen them dubbed the torchbearers of "slo-fi" across the water. But London duo Olly Knight and Gale Paradganian have also won praise for their uncompromising adherence to the dark soul of their material.
Haven're not completely hideous or anything. In fact, they're pretty good at what they do; the hindrance being that everybody else in indie-land is already doing it better
In a world infatuated by the loud, the obvious and the immediate, it would have been easy for this tender collection - intimate, lo-fi and humble as it is - to have been lost in the ether of the too-ethereal. But then, seminal London Irish independent Setanta have a long and distinguished history of listening closely.
Going on the road with Chris Rea was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Derry blues virtuoso Paul Casey. Here he opens his tour diary to Hot Press readers.
There are flashes of genuine inspiration when singer/guitarist Kryz Reid, his brother Carroll on drums and Belgian-born Corentin Simoniz on bass really click, but with a little more direction, it could’ve been brilliant.
The big time came knocking but Jack L said, "No thanks, I’d rather do my own thing." In a revealing interview, he explains why he’d rather be an underground star and tells of how melancholy gets him out of bed every morning.
JJ72 are being cast as the great new hopes of Irish music. Intense, passionate and melodic, their music has captured an increasing number of fans. With a single in the UK Top Thirty and a debut album about to hit the shelves, they tell NIALL STANAGE how good they are and how good they want to be. Portrait of the Artists As A Young Band: MICK QUINN
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
When massive attack decided that they'd meet the press in Dublin, stuart clark got just thirty minutes to prepare for the
interview. But he still manages to talk to 3d about music, football, the band's new album Mezzanine - and the difficulties of making sweet leurve to the sound of your own records.
We re surrounded by American culture from the breakfasts we eat through the beer we drink to the music and movies we define our lives by. And with Independence Day coming on July 4th, you might as well go ahead and enjoy it to the full. Here EAMON SWEENEY suggests how to become an American for a day.
Like other, er, distinctive bands such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., the vocal style dictates that Cold War Kids are best taken in bite-size doses.
Three years since his Mercury-winning second album swept the world, ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS’ Antony Hegarty is going back to nature. His new record is both a requiem for a dying planet and a statement of hope for the future – one that draws deeply on his Irish-Catholic upbringing. Prepare to have your spine tingled all over again.
He may not be your average indie kids dream ticket, but Brian Kennedy has lived in very interesting times. An initially promising career was scuppered by record company machinations, but, under the stewardship of Van Morrison, he matured into a remarkably successful solo artist, as well as a respected novelist. Then there were the small matters of performing at George Best's funeral, the recent Eurovision controversy - and his current run at the helm of RTE's flagship summer Saturday night entertainment show.
While extremely impressive and effective in bringing extra dynamics to the singer songwriter format, the novelty wears off after a while and occasionally takes away from the songs, which certainly struck a chord with the entranced audience
Well when you've conquered the world, what else can the biggest band on the planet do except go into space? BONO and LARRY discuss matters cosmic and personal with Olaf Tyaransen
In an exclusive interview, Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova talk about the love affair that sneaked up on them, recall their Oscar-winning adventures, give us the inside track on the movie's remarkable success and explain what it's like to hang out with the Coen brothers for an evening.
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
From stardom with Westlife to the breakup of his marriage, and a subsequent attempt to kickstart his solo career, Brian McFadden had an extraordinarily eventful year. With his private life routinely splashed all over the tabloids and controversy currently raging over everything from his latest video to his admiration for Nirvana, he remains in the eye of the storm. In a candid interview with hotpress, he discusses living his life in the media spotlight, his decision to leave Westlife, drink, drugs, sex and the continuing fallout from his break-up with his wife Kerry.
Her father is a Norwegian shipping magnate who was once married to Diana Ross and Leona Naess has by all accounts, led a charmed life, flitting between New York, London and Norway.
From Blonde Bob to Big Star to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billie, the smartest of avant standard-bearers always knew the value of going south. Cat Power (Chan Marshall to the IRS) is the latest: for this record she’s decamped to Memphis’ Ardent studios, an erstwhile Stax second base, and hired a bunch of Al Green alumni in order to salt her fairest airs with old-timers’ licks.
The Frames were the envy of the class of 1990, jammy dodgers who had a deal before they were a band, forced to evolve in public at an unmerciful rate. By the time most acts get ready to demo their first batch of songs, Glen Hansard and co. were on their second album and record deal.
This melting pot of sound is like Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fronting a band made up of members of Arcade Fire and Elbow, with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke handling production duties.
Bloodied but unbowed, The Prayer Boat return to the fray with Polichinelle, their second album. It's been eight years since Oceanic Feeling hit the shelves and the four-piece have been through more than their fair share of trials and tribulations since. However, they have grown all the stronger for it, as evidenced by this superb collection of songs to fall in love with and to.
The Frames were the envy of the class of 1990, jammy dodgers who had a deal before they were a band, forced to evolve in public at an unmerciful rate. By the time most acts get ready to demo their first batch of songs, Glen Hansard and co. were on their second album and record deal.
Rumours of Bono and Len himself turning up proved to be unfounded, but that didn’t stop this Dublin Theatre Festival shindig being the stuff legend is made of.
Thus far reviewers have been foaming at the mouth trying to describe what an ungainly and unprecedented enterprise is The Raven, but Reed has always been at his best when there’s a thread to his threnodies, from New York to Berlin.
Colin Reid is so far out of the frame that it takes a while to understand the concept. He s a virtuoso guitarist, from Belfast, who doesn t care for guitar music.
When we last left U2, at the conclusion of 1997’s Pop, they were marooned on a spaghetti Golgotha, shouting, “Wake up dead man!” at a god who had apparently reneged on his promise to live forever. Well pilgrims, here’s the resurrection shuffle.
