Although its release in 1991 barely caused a ripple, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless has since become regarded as the great lost Irish treasure, a sort of shadowy twin sister to Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Exclusive: Kevin Shields, the missing presumed lost genius of Irish rock, re-emerges to tell the truth about sandbags and barbed wire, the making of Loveless, early Dublin days with Gavin Friday, Liam O Maonlai and U2, and his Bafta-winning work on Lost in Translation.
I wonder if My Bloody Valentine were aware of the avalanche they were about to trigger when they first took Belinda Butcher's airbrushed vocals and smothered them with layer upon layer of white noise guitar?
The indelible images of September 11th tragedy will be for many, the key memory of these past 12 months. Music may seem lightweight in comparison, yet its healing powers were probably more needed than ever
Rags frontman Danny Anderson’s gobby self-assurance may prove off-putting to some, yet to dismiss the Finglas five-piece outright is unjustified. Their recorded output is deserving of the hype that surrounds them and ‘Razors and Ropes’ is no exception. Easily digestible, yet utterly memorable, this compelling slice of Smiths-esque guitar-pop stands out as their finest recording to date. Its charm ultimately lies in Anderson’s deft lyrics and vocal delivery. Here, he channels his arrogance into an emotive anger rendered all the more persuasive by his tender, often fragile vocal style. It’s an approach which echoes Pete Doherty and The Libertines in particular. B-side ‘Owner Of A Loveless Life’ adds weight to such lofty comparisons. Dublin’s answer to The Libertines? Maybe. Certainly, The Rags are just as exciting.
Tim Booth is not a man who has ever been unduly troubled by contemporary notions of cool and un-cool. In the early nineties, when Nirvana were storming the barricades, Primal Scream had the nation under an acid-drenched groove and Kevin Shields was in the process of reinventing guitar music with Loveless, Booth and his cohorts in James were encouraging patrons at Student Union discos all around Britain to literally sit down to the strains of the anthemic stadium rawk number, er, ‘Sit Down’.
Not content to let other country stars record her songs and keep her in massive cheques for the rest of her life, gretchen peters has decided to do a little performing and touring of her own. Interview: colm o'hare.
Why they really should have been called Super Feathery Birds, the pleasant job of signing breasts, how Don Henley bought their tank and the worst welsh swear words ever. Hannah Hamilton pops the readers’ questions...
Why they really should have been called Super Feathery Birds, the pleasant job of signing breasts, how Don Henley bought their tank and the worst welsh swear words ever. Hannah Hamilton pops the readers’ questions...
A North Carolinian who speaks Irish and a country performer who only occasionally performs country,
jim lauderdale has a way that makes the seemingly contradictory work well. Interview: siobhan long.
Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes, from Death in Vegas, explain how they survived Big Beat, made one of the albums of the year and ended up working with their heroes.
Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
The violent life and death of the Florida prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 for a string of murders, is the subject matter of the debut film feature monster by Patty Jenkins. Craig Fitzsimons talks to the writer-director about the controversial, Oscar-winning movie
They may be one of the hottest bands of the year, but Las Vegas synth fiends The Killers are planning to cool off this Christmas with some well-earned down-time and a skiing holiday in Utah. But not before they’ve discussed texting Charlize Theron, hanging with Elton John and that David Bowie tribute with Stuart Clark.
KATHRYN BIGELOW is one of the few women directors to break through the glass ceiling in Hollywood. What’s more, she makes action movies of a kind not normally associated with ‘girls’. The release of her latest meisterwerk, The Hurt Locker, an extraordinary movie about the activities of a US Army bomb disposal unit in the war in Iraq, sees her being tipped as a contender come Oscar season next year.
the frank and walters are back addressing the nation. Our man on the inside, Peter Murphy, shares a day in the life of the Cork threesome as they record a radio session for RTE.
His novel "Atomised" was a controversial pornographic parable and its follow-up platforme led to him being denounced by Muslims and going into hiding, while his wife endured a nervous breakdown. Notoriously difficult, the County Cork-based French author here discusses – between pauses – monogamy, open marriages, drugs, politics, literature, the World Cup and his desire to be a wolf
From Oasis to The Ping Pong Bitches, ALAN McGEE is living proof that there s life after
success, excess, Labour, near-death and, oh yes, Creation Records. Even if you re a Rangers
supporter. Interview: STUART CLARK
They are one of the most interesting and enigmatic groups in rock. They are also one of the biggest, with a string of multi-million selling albums to their credit. But they don’t like interviews much, making themselves available for only a handful in Europe to coincide with the release of their new album Around The Sun. Once Peter Buck sits down opposite a microphone, however, a different face of REM reveals itself, as he talks eloquently about life, family, downloads, air rage, Iraq, Bush – and The Thrills.
After three years, 18 engineers and £250,000, Kevin Shields emerged from behind the sandbags with an alchemist’s elixir that went no wave, new wave, everywhere and nowhere.
The stakes are high, and BOC raise the benchmark further by opting for a final selection of 23 tracks sprawled across a lush electro-symphonic soundscape
To entertain the notion that you are ‘forward-thinking’ with the implication that the bands around you are mired in the past, when your songs, sound and attitude are so patently a decade old, is odd and maybe delusional. This is not an argument for classicism, more an observation that it is just as conservative to lift from Suicide as Slade.
"AURORA BOREALIS/The icy sky at night."
Neil Young's opening lines from Pocahontas could've been written to evoke the first international release by Icelandic quartet Sigur Ros.
For those past the first flush of youth, the sophomore offering from Amusement Parks On Fire can beg but one question - what’s wrong with youngsters today? Rock may be a young man or woman’s game, but Nottingham’s Michael Feerick is surely pushing the point to extremes.
The comeback trail has, in its time, thrown up some far-fetched candidates. The highly inconvenient fact of John Lennon’s death didn’t prevent him appearing on a new Beatles single; Thin Lizzy’s busy touring schedule suggests they have long overcome the speed-bump of Phil Lynott’s passing.
Few rebirths, though, have been as unlikely as that of The La’s, a Liverpool band undone by the tortured brilliance of its leader, Lee Mavers.
Gretchen Peters
Whelan’s, Dublin
To say that much great music goes unnoticed would be stating the obvious, but in the case of Gretchen Peters her creative muse is normally channelled through others.
The sub-title says it all. You really couldn't sum up Alan McGee's arrogant revisionism of British music in the last fifteen or so years in a better and more overblown phrase. Despite the illusions of grandeur, there is no denying Creation's mighty influence.
THIS SOUNDS like a good deal: two long-established and much revered artists both releasing albums on the equally respected Sugerhill label. Guy Clark’s album is going to be no surprise to his fans, and he’s too long in the tooth now to expect to attract a whole bunch of new converts to the cause.
If you can ignore the unnecessarily modern intrusions and a lead actress who, though capable, looks like she's just walked off a Maybelline commercial, then Becoming Jane is a real joy.
What happens when post-rock becomes merely post? This is a dilemma confronting Mogwai, once frontiersmen of sonic extremity, now your third favourite band from the ‘90s.
Even ordinary life is pretty complex stuff, or so says American Splendor. Morrissey, pop’s foremost oddball-in-exile, has put a lot of living into this, his rebirth after seven years, and such a stretch in such an extraordinary life should provide rich, plentiful pickings. It does, in part.
Los Angeles’ punkerati were out in force as the Roger Grossman-directed What We Do Is Secret premiered in one of Tinsel Town’s less salubrious cinematic establishments.
While Electric Picnic did not lack for non-musical highlights, the hottest action was to be found on stage, where the likes of the Sex Pistols and My Bloody Valentine whipped up a storm.
