Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
Every KT Tunstall single looks set to be greeted with unfavourable comparisons to her fabulous smash hit ‘Suddenly I See’ – an unkind state of affairs, perhaps, as almost any song would come out a loser in that particular battle. Here, she delivers a track that closely resembles her golden moment, yet exhibits only a fraction of its brilliance.
Are you, like me, just not digging Delaware’s The Spinto Band? Why such a fuss over five petrol pump attendant-types peddling Pavement/ Yo La Tengo indie-folk, only with all of the interesting loser conflict leached out. Also, singer Nick Krill’s whine achieves what we’d all considered impossible – it’s more irritating than the bloke from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Every loser wins on patrick kielty s new Channel 4 show, Last Chance Lottery , and for the 26-year-old comedian, presenter and former germ , things have never looked so good. Interview: barry glendenning.
Continuing our look back at the work produced for previous winners of the Hot Press/Tisch School video contest winners, here's a reminder of the Fall '06 semester videos.
YUP, IT'S Wild Will again, the adopted son of Bob at his most hellfire-spittin', sickly nephew of Neil at his most 'Safeway Cart' Beckett-esque, brother figure to Bill Smog, the Handsome Family and any Gram-my loser who ever chased a ghost in anger.
YUP, IT'S Wild Will again, the adopted son of Bob at his most hellfire-spittin', sickly nephew of Neil at his most 'Safeway Cart' Beckett-esque, brother figure to Bill Smog, the Handsome Family and any Gram-my loser who ever chased a ghost in anger.
Growing up alongside the nascent U2 in the ’70s, Neil McCormick dreamt that one day he too would rank among the rock’n’roll greats. having quit songwriting to focus on journalism, his musical ambitions were ironically realised when he found himself included among such heavyweight talents as leonard cohen, bob dylan and elvis presley on The Passion Of The Christ soundtrack.
The 12th annual Miss Alternative Ireland competition took place last week at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. A host of entrants – of all genders! – came to see who would follow in the shoestraps of last year’s winner Miss Heidi Konnt. The judging panel included Anna Nolan, Brendan Courtney and Mick Wilson and they gave the crown to Funtime Gustavo – who here tells how she came, saw and truly conquered. Photos by Cathal Dawson
Jason Biggs will, to his chagrin, go down in history as the guy who stuck his dick in an American Pie. But of late he’s expanded his range to include a darker strain of comedy.
For so many bands, touring is a drag: months on the road away from home; living in the back of a van or a bus; surviving on large amounts of fast food and alcohol. Andy, lead singer with Therapy? enjoys it a hell of a lot and gives his advice to young bands going on the road.
Thanks to internet fueled word-of-mouth, Brooklyn’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are indie-rock’s latest sensation. But they’d much rather you compared them to Hall & Oates.
Self-contained, intelligent, and far from the pouting princess of her stage persona, Natalie Imbruglia in person is a cool customer. The singer here discusses Kylie’s recent illness, her hit album Counting Down The Days, being the face of L’Oreal and forthcoming movie projects. “I couldn’t just do the one thing. I’d get bored,” she tells Ed Power.
If you’re going to follow up a hit like East Is East, best to do it in style – by turning to Blackpool, darts and morris dancing. Damien O’Donnell tells Craig Fitzsimons about his “uncool” new movie
Albert Hammond Jr isn't just a pretty face. As well as his solo career and dayjob with The Strokes, he's also co-written a screenplay adaptation of Charles Bukowski's Pulp
He didn t win the Perrier Award but he was the undisputed people s, critics and peers favourite at this year s Edinburgh Festival. barry glendenning meets johnny vegas.
He might not have been the first rock n roller but he came pretty damn close. And in the success-through-excess stakes no-one could rival Rimbaud. PETER MURPHY savours a revealing new biography of the wild child
Ang Lee mightn’t have been the most likely candidate to put the jolly green giant on the big screen, but he has rendered Stan Lee’s Incredible Hulk as a greek tragedy.
Poetry slam takes poetry out of the hands of academics and puts it on stage in front of an audience. But not everyone thinks this is a good idea, as a recent spat in Galway underlines.
BARRY GLENDENNING pays suitably dewy-eyed tribute to Seinfeld, the unfeasibly popular American sit-com which lasted nine years, despite the fact that nothing ever actually happened on it.
The siege of Derry was a pivotal moment in Irish history. But contrary to popular opinion, it was fundamentally about land and not religion, says Carlo Gebler. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
The star of what s set to be the summer s hottest movie, High Fidelity, on love, obsession, movies, rock n roll, his pal Bruce Springsteen and the records he turns to when he s had his heart broken. With support from co-star Lisa Bonet and director Stephen Frears. Text: CRAIG FITZSIMONS
With the next government looking increasingly like another Fianna Fáil/Labour coalition, BILL GRAHAM questions what role the Fine Gael Leader will play now that he has missed the boat yet again.
And why is young America going overboard about over-weight, over-30 jazzers? john walshe forgoes the pleasures of Dublin versus Kildare to pop across the Atlantic and investigate one of the most unlikely success stories of recent years.
Is Ireland really drowning in gargle? Is there no hope for the youth? and is ever more draconian legislation all we can do? Dermot Stokes sidesteps the hysteria to offer some sober reflection on the use and misuse of alcohol
Mark Eitzel and American Music Club have had all the critical plaudits and cult status that they ever could've wished for. What they really want now is fame and megabuck success! Patrick Brennan met the Wet Wet Wet wannabees.
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'
He’s made the Man U and Ireland right-back positions his own this season, and is playing what he admits is the best football of his career as a result. As the Republic gears up for a play-off crack at World Cup qualification, JOHN O’SHEA talks about life under Trapatonni, and reflects on another successful year at Old Trafford.
Cum On Feel The Noize of turning pages as Slade s NODDY HOLDER does a literary tour to promote his autobiography, telling tales of
Phil Lynott, Oasis, Gary Glitter, Glam-Rock Excess, MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY and Suicidal Groupies. ANDY DARLINGTON tags along.
From strange days coming second in a yoghurt-sponsored competition and playing awful gigs sandwiched between boy bands, Damien Dempsey, with a little help from Shane, Sinéad and Christy, has survived and thrived. Eamon Sweeney meets a rap balladeer with a hit album, a social conscience and more than a few stories to tell.
There are no saints in love. That’s a lesson The Frames’ mainman Glen Hansard learned the hard way – and which he articulates in the bittersweet love songs that make up much of the band’s new album The Cost. Hot Press hits the road with the band for an extended interview, conducted in radio studios, backstage areas, tour buses – and one very dedicated fan’s house.
Republic Of Loose are one of the most exciting bands to emerge from Ireland during the last decade with one of the most charismatic lead singers ever to bestride a stage in the country.
As the management force behind Boyzone, Westlife and Samantha Mumba, LOUIS WALSH is Ireland s Mr. Pop. In a candid interview with Joe Jackson he talks about his relationships with his acts, the ones that got away, the importance of the producer, the uselessness of critics and why he s unlikely to end up managing Van Morrison. Portraits: Cathal Dawson
In the second and final part of the ultimate interview, elvis talks about colonel Tom Parker, marriage to priscilla, his '68 comeback, his quest for enlightenment and the truth about his drug intake. but as he dreams of an exciting future, at 42 he doesn’t realise that the end is close at hand
*The quotes in this recreated interview are drawn from a wealth of reliable sources and involved extensive research into many rare articles and books
Critics have not been kind to the long-awaited second novel from Booker-winning novelist DBC Pierre. After a lifetime that has lurched between excess and poverty, privilege and despair, he’s not bothered though.
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
When Nirvana exploded out of Seattle with the classic grunge album Nevermind, they were hailed as modern primitives, punk upstarts whose hard musical edge and authentic street style were the antithesis of the dominant ethos of corporate rock. Two years on however, their reputation as Rock 'n' Roll rebels is somewhat less secure. Bill Graham sifts through two new biographies of the band, and talks to Victoria clarke, the co-author of a third which has been effectively surpressed by the Nirvana 'corporation'.
The drink, the drugs, the fights, the sex, the loves, the hates, the hits and the Taoiseach's daughter - here are Ireland's most successful boy band as you've never heard them before.
Hearing their confessions: Joe Jackson
Spurred on by his colleague Barry Glendenning’s trenchant and pithy critique of the pundits and commentators of France 98 elsewhere in this issue, Foul Play – the man who puts the “anal” into “analysis” – has decided to dole out his own small but perfectly formed golden statuettes to the men who mattered (and a few who didn’t) at the 16th World Cup.
This is straightforward rollicking comedy done to perfection. We don’t just laugh with these guys, we laugh at them, near them, beside them and occasionally, right through the nose.
If you hate middle-class French comedies or if you are not possessed with a boundless enthusiasm for dinner-party japes, then My Best Friend might drive you gibbering toward the nearest secure hospital.
The Cooler’s pace never relents throughout, which keeps it lively enough to mitigate the bombardment of gangster-flick clichés that disfigure the proceedings. There’s certainly no earthly reason to see it twice, but for unfussy devotees of the genre, this might do the trick.
Watch custom-made videos for the likes of Royseven, The Butterfly Explosion and more, courtesy of the students from the Tisch School of Arts in New York.
You probably wouldn't trust Therapy to babysit your little sisters and brothers. And you'd be right. They're that kind of band - psychotic dog-trashcore noise terrorists who rip ears and emotions right apart, usually in the one band-breath.
Fans of Alfie, a waifish Manchester four-piece, like to fete the band for their ‘dependability’. This is a polite way of saying you adore something because it isn’t completely dreadful.
Far too convoluted for its own good, this military whodunnit’s overheated plot consists of so many daft twists and turns, the film rapidly ceases to make any sense.
I know what you're thinking. How can Joe Pernice possibly follow up the lush, tear-stained masterpiece that was the Pernice Brother's Overcome By Happiness, an album that boasted one of the most ironic album titles in rock history.
Absolutely pathetic on any number of levels, there is still a playfully awful je ne sais quoi about the film, which somehow compels you to take it to your heart.
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.
For those who missed out first time round, Paths Of Freedom was a reasonably successful RTE series (from the team who also brought you Fergus’ Wedding).
Following a seemingly endless bout of movie soundtrack projects, Newman's first album proper in almost a decade has been hailed (most notably by Newman himself) as his best yet. Whether that's true or not is debatable, but Bad Love, produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Ron Sexsmith etc.) is certainly up there with past glories such as Good Old Boys, Sail Away and Little Criminals.
The last decent studio romantic comedy came, to the best of my recollection, from the pen of Nora Ephron at a time when the zoetrope reigned and moving pictures were thought the work of the devil. Weird then, that this unlovely genre proliferates while we wait entire decades for a western to trot along.
Sumptious strings herald the opening of Catatonia’s latest aural adventure, and you’re starting to think that maybe you’re being taken in a new direction, a pop towards high art. But then Cerys Matthews’ familiar tones enter the fray and you realise that no matter what Catatonia do music-wise, they are still going to sound like Catatonia.
Latest in the mindbogglingly endless line of feelgood northern-English 'heartwarmers', the curiously engaging Purely Belter derives fairly straightforwardly from a novel by Gateshead schoolteacher (and presumably Roddy Doyle-wannabe) Jonathan Tulloch.
THE WEIRDEST, most bizarrely-conceived movie in living memory – bar none – Being John Malkovich is practically impossible to get your head around on one viewing, and even harder to coherently explain.
From psychedelic anime to Japan's answer to Trainspotting, the Japanese Film Festival 2008 brings a delightful miscellany of movies to Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
He’s an odd fish is Todd Solondz, and Palindromes – his most politically charged and controversially comic horror to date – will surely and calculatedly polarize folks even more than the cruel soap-opera of Happiness and Storytelling. Some punters will undoubtedly find Palindromes’ brilliantly caustic treatment of abortion and paedophilia to be funny ha-ha, while more sensitive (and possibly humourless) others will deem Mr. Solondz’s efforts as funny-get-the-mace-spray-out-peculiar.
Bacardi Unplugged hasn t gone away, you know, it s just mutated into Bacardi Plugged to facilitate all those bands out there who want to be adored and drooled over in all their electric and electronic glory and add value to shares in the ESB. And who are we to deny them? And so recording studios and home recording units all over the country will be wearing out their red lights over the coming weeks. Tempers will boil, relationships will crack, egos will be bruised, nerves will fray and budgets will go bust under the pressure. But when that ace take s in the can you ll know all the tears weren t shed in vain.
Indecent XPosure are a four piece, hard core punk band. They formed in 1992 and have played around Dublin and London. Pissin’ in the Liffey is the title of this, their second tape.
‘Introduction’ opens the proceedings in a totally uncompromising way.
In the 80s, every second person you met was setting up a video production company. I was reminded me of the late Peter Cook s response when he met an out-of-work actor at a party and on being told he was writing a novel, Cook retorted, What a coincidence, neither am I!
Today, instead of writing novels or setting up video production companies, setting up websites is the buzz phrase, especially for those associated with young bands.
Tough new measures are being promised, to tackle the phenomenon of dangerous driving among young males. But the law is far more likely to work if it seen to be applied intelligently – and if there is a positive side to any new Government campaign.
The Critics Panel who voted for the Top 30 Albums and Singles of the Year are as follows: Bill Graham, Liam Fay, George Byrne, Stuart Clark, Lorraine Freeney, Tara McCarthy, Gerry McGovern, Neil McCormick, Dermot Stokes, Oliver P. Sweeney, Siobhan Long, Steve Averill, Andy Darlington, Colm O’Hare, Joe Jackson, Niall Crumlish, Olaf Tyaransen, Patrick Brennan, Nicholas G. Kelly, Jackie Hayden and Niall Stokes.
In light of some recent shock results, could Liverpool be set to overturn Manchester United’s title lead? It’s unlikely – but the way things have been going recently, nothing can be ruled out. Meanwhile, Ireland are improving steadily under Trap – and we’re well-positioned ahead of two crunch qualifiers
Heartiest congratulations are in order to the men from the United Kingdom who, for the second time in three years, have prised the Sam Maguire cup from the clutches of the Southern Ireland representatives.
Tony Blair may dream of a Downing Street full of women volleyball players, but do we really want Chas ’n’ Dave at the Olympics opening ceremony? Especially when the samba girls of Rio are waiting in the wings.
Darkness At The Edge Of Town was the album when Bruce Springsteen and his repertory of characters finally grew up. Which makes it a hard act to follow.
You will cheer, You will scowl, You will stare in disbelief - but don't blame us...
'cos it's all your fault! Yep, it's the Hot Press Reader's poll Results.
30,000 people, loads of A-list stars, four stages on Fairyhouse Racecourse. Yes, we're talking about WITNNESS. KIM PORCELLI reviews the biggest festival of the summer.
