MUNDY
The Borderline, London
Standing centre stage before a throng comprised of an astonishing number of nubile young rock chicks and their “how-the-fuck-did-that-nerd-pull-her” boyfriends in the smoky bowels of Time Out magazine’s current live music venue of the year, Mundy radiates a hitherto unseen confidence.
As Dublin readies itself for the Holidays In The Sun festival, Stuart Clark talks to Menace mainman Noel Martin about the birth of punk, Shane MacGowan's Union Jack and why John Lydon wasn't the most popular boy in school!
Karl MacDermott used to be the next-big thing in comedy until his stand-up career didn’t pan out as expected. Now he’s back in the public eye with a semi-autobiographical first novel.
Jackie Hayden drops in on comedian Carol Tobin hoping to catch her doing some air comedy practice ahead of her forthcoming appearance in Kilkenny at the Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival. Instead he meets a woman who seems to be barred from half of Ranelagh and finds out why there are no goldfish around.
Blood, parties, testosterone, gonzoid lyrics – that nice ANDREW WK has a little something for just about everyone. "Hell, I don't even mind if your other favourite artist’s Enya," he tells STUART CK
Buffy creator Joss Whedon was devastated when his follow-up project, a Western-tinged space-opera, was cancelled without warning. Rather than sulking, Whedon brought the show back to life in movie forkm, as the sci-fi pulp extravaganza Serenity.
It’s Star Trek Jim, but not as we know It. Over tea and biscuits, Mr Spock and Captain Kirk – aka actors ZACHARY QUINTO and CHRIS PINE – talk about filling the most famous boots in science fiction – and explain why JJ Abrams’ sexy new Trek movie is anything but a nerd-fest. words Tara Brady
The Lovebox festival returns to Dublin with a stellar line-up including Maximo Park, N*E*R*D, Paolo Nutini and Gorillaz Soundsystem. We talk to organisers Groove Armada.
Nerd godhead Kevin Smith has gone back to the motherlode with his new movie, Clerks II. Middle age has done little to dent his infatuation with potty humour, he tells Tara Brady.
LCD Soundsystem's frontman James Murphy talks about working with Justin Timberlake, his Cork ancestors and recalls the time he almost hooked up with Arcade Fire
Comic book artist and file clerk turned movie star, Harvey Pekar must be one of the most unlikely and somewhat reluctant celebrities of our time. An ordinary man whose work has produced extraordinary art, the anti-hero of American Splendour here talks about his friend Toby, Robert Crumb, James Joyce, David Letterman, fame and misfortune, surviving and more.
She is one of the best known sex therapists in the world, with a bunch of million selling books to her credit. But Tracey Cox is still searching for Mr. Right. Well, sort of...
Is there a technique to picking up a member of the opposite sex – or does it just happen? Feeling that he could do with a little bit of help in that department, journalist Neil Strauss hooked up with a cult community of Pick Up Artists and set out to learn the secrets of the trade. With all those Christmas parties looming, his advice might just come in handy.
He wrote speeches for Bertie and then criticised him in the press using a pseudonym. He turned down an offer to party with Bono. And Richard Boyd Barrett once nicked one of his crass albums. All this plus the importance of economics, the threat posed by the Bush administration and the truth about power are on the agenda, as Paul Nolan meets David McWilliams.
It’s been a tumultuous few years for Josh Ritter. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Swiss Alps, he talks about his number one fan Stephen King, recalls the day he met Bob Dylan and explains why it’s never a good idea to drink before a show
He began working in music as a drummer, but Dave Pennefather's greatest success has been as MD of Universal Music. Hot Press looks back over the life and times of a man with a larger than life reputation.
He may have ranked among the biggest-selling artists in the world in 2002 – but the ambition that has driven Eminem to pop’s dizziest heights shows no sign of abating with the release of his own biopic, 8 Mile. On track to becoming Hollywood’s latest darling, with all the attendant pressures and provocations that entails, will his art survive?
For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.
In the same way that last year’s ‘Verse 2 The Chorus’ de- and reconstructed dub techno, ‘Nerd’ focuses on Detroit techno. On ‘Kochanie’, the rhythms are intricate, but the warm melody shines through Tierney’s stuttering groove and on ‘Revenge Of The Mad’, the wiry percussion can’t halt a soaring, epic bass.
Essentially a '90s remake of Porky's Revenge and its sequels, American Pie (provisionally entitled Virgin Territory) is as smutty, juvenile and lowbrow as anything you'll ever see. Its saving grace is that it is, for the most part, hilarious and curiously charming.
It’s a shame, really, given her overwhelming potential, that Milian has chosen to emulate Beyoncé so pointedly, not only in appearance, but in musical bent. Ultimately, It’s About Time suffers from uncreative, cheap-sounding production; a paradox, given its almost slavish dedication to the teachings of Pharrell Williams. A scantily-clad teen popstrel is a many splendoured thing; why they insist on putting out so many stunningly mediocre records remains a mystery.
His largely unadorned, drums-bass-and-Casio 1980s-synth’n’b sound was probably unintentional, a product of simply not knowing how to programme much else, but it works.
THOUGH directed by Robert Rodriguez - the maverick Texan semi-genius responsible for El Mariachi and Desperado - The Faculty is, in essence, a Scream 3 in all but name, with a bonus blitz of sci-fi special effects.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Directed by Courtney Solomon. Starring Justin Whalan, Marlon Wayans, Thora Birch
The inevitable cinematic spin-off of the phenomenally successful ‘role-playing’ fantasy/adventure game of the same name, the only real surprise about Dungeons & Dragons is how long it took to become a movie, the game having been around since the late Seventies.
To The 5 Boroughs resists academic exegesis or undue analysis. It is what it is, and what it is is a vibrant, inventive and engaged piece of work. In the words of Grandpa Burroughs, it ain’t no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones.
For what it’s worth, this writer was never convinced by Joss Stone. Folk eulogised about old soul in a young body, but I always thought she was playing dress-up, in R&B clothes that didn’t fit yet.
Oh, how I’ve prayed for this day. George Lucas’ increasingly unappealing franchise has spluttered its avaricious last and not before time. May the force be gone. True, Revenge Of The Sith, the final instalment of this tweenie space opera is infinitely preferable to the previous two films (in much the same way as an enema is nicer than a bullet in the head) but the same old problems are annoyingly in evidence.
There are those who believe that the future of music as an art form is seriously under threat from the rise of music piracy. Where will it all end? The truth is that no one truly knows.
