P.J. HARVEY's latest album, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea will surprise listeners with its positive spirit and sheer lust for life. Hell, she even manages to get Thom Yorke to sound like Tom Jones! KIM PORCELLI meets an artist who has come in from the cold
2004 was a year of infotainment overload when popular culture became increasingly co-opted to the business of selling. But there were those precious few, who remained faithful to the idea of art for its own sake.
Freeland shows his eclectic side on this enjoyable compilation with assured (and very subtly tweaked selections) from Jape, M83, Interpol, TV On The Radio, PJ Harvey, Funkadelic and Boards Of Canada. And scarcely a breakbeat in sight.
At this moment, there’s probably a million musical acts out there, overlapping generously with each other.
But you can guarantee that not one of them will sound anything like Lieselle. It’s the quirky move that PJ Harvey never made, or Karen O when she’s not digging to be as underground as possible. It’s damn exciting.
On top of scoring a Top 5 hit with Elbow's latest album, singer Guy Garvey recently absconded to Nashville to record with Richard Hawley and Frank Black.
Taken from her forthcoming album We’re Smiling, this slightly skewed break-up song finds Scott sharing the studio with Katell Keineg, David Kitt and former Frames Karl Odlum and Dave Hingerty. Suggesting nothing so much as a heavily sedated PJ Harvey, Scott delivers a haunting vocal backed by a deep, dark bass and sparse electronic noodlings. There are shades of Bjork here too, yet Scott ultimately carves out a territory all of her own.
Katell Keineg confesses that she's lazy, eccentric and mis-understood yet she's back with a live appearance in dublin in February and a new EP due in the spring. Interview: Fiona Reid
There are artists who operate as holistics and healers, lifting the spirit, rousing the body. Then there are the pathologists and post-mortemizers that map the anatomy of cancers.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from quirky popsters Alphastates but that’s not because they’ve had a massive falling out. Rather, their lead singer lost her voice and then they suffered a sudden lack of confidence. But now they’re back, with perhaps their finest record yet.
The debut single release form The Mighty Roars is a rollicking statement of intent. It comes at you on the back of a breakneck riff, all thunderous hand-clap rhythms and pounding drums. Swedish singer Lara Granqvist exploits the middle ground between Karen O and PJ Harvey: the result is an abrasive yet instantly catchy, shout-along single. There are sure to be lots of Yeah Yeah Yehas comparisons but in truth The Mighty Roars tread a different territory, one previously occupied by the likes of the B52s and The Pixies. Their Take A Bite Of Peach EP caused quite a stir when it was released last year. If this song is any reflection of their album, it won't be long before The Mighty Roars are heard everywhere. The B-side, 'Whipped Ma Bitch' is also well worth checking out.
Too many live albums are about the stuff that didn’t actually get captured on tape: the ritual, the lights, the t-shirt, the bog roll, the bar tab. Please Leave Quietly is about music, sufficient unto itself.
Here’s the pitch. Take one ’60s pin-up turned crawler from the ’70s wreckage turned Weimar Republican and furnish her with a body of songs drawn from co-writes with and original compositions by PJ Harvey and Nick Cave.
SPARKLEHORSE TAKE CARE of headline duties when the Witnness Rising tour swings by the Empire, Belfast (June 27th); Warwick, Galway (28th); Savoy Theatre, Cork (29th); and Whelan’s, Dublin (30th @ 2 and 7.30pm).
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling'
- have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go
on sale tomorrow morning at 8
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling' - have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go on sale tomorrow morning at 8
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling' - have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go on sale tomorrow morning at 8
Colm O'Hare talks to boy-girl sensation The Kills about their adoration of the US underground, touring with Franz Ferdinand and Primal Scream, and why those White Stripes comparisons are totally wide of the mark.
If that figure easing down the road looks strangely familiar then that s because it s WILL OLDHAM under yet another nom de plume. EAMON SWEENEY reports
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
After a career barely spanning five years, there is a definite feeling amongst those who know about such things that POLLY
JEAN HARVEY is destined to be one of the true rock music greats. Her darkly visceral, sexual and lacerating work has struck a
raw chord, and made her the object of passionate adoration. But it has also cast her in the eyes of some as an
"axe-wielding bitch cow from Hell."
LIAM FAY travels to meet ze monsta, but instead finds a home-loving Yeovil lass who likes nothing better than gardening and whipping
up pots of rhubarb marmalade.
Hailed as the new Courtney Love, Distillers vocalist Brody Dalle has surely been taking tips from the ex-Hole star on how to keep herself in the headlines.
Music | Interview
28% | 27 Jul 2005
Colm O Hare
She’s been a rock icon, a tabloid sensation and a muse to Mick Jagger. But you won’t find Marianne Faithfull mooning over past glories.
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
When Martin Scorsese made Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis an offer he couldn’t refuse, the result was the British component of an unprecedented film history of the blues.
Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley impressed a lot of people here last year with the quirky guitar pop of her debut solo album Grey Will Fade. hotpress catches up with her as she wows the masses at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.
While women are still far from achieving equality of opportunity in music, the last thing women artists want – or need – is to be ghettoised, writes musician and journalist Kim V Porcelli. The point about the women who are at rock’s cutting edge – from Sinéad O’Connor through PJ Harvey to Peaches – is that they defer to no one in their pursuit of greatness.
Staten Island-born writer and musician Kim Porcelli worked in the City Arts Centre in Dublin before joining the Hot Press team as a writer in 2000 and then becoming Content Editor of hotpress.com.
From the profound and the insightful to the weird, funny and just plain daft, Paul Nolan rounds up what the famous and infamous had to say for themselves in 2004...
Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on the firing of bandmate Nick Oliveri, the London bombings and his plan to disappear once their current tour is over
Furious Tradesmen present a four band 'extravaganza of joy' in Belfast this month, with New York native Pixie Saytar and Belfast acts Panda Kopanda, Three Tales and Heliopause.
In a year that saw events which will forever change the world in which we live, selected hotpress contributors offer some personal recollections of the past twelve months. We begin by listing the critics’ choice of 2001’s single and album releases
placebo have probably garnered more column inches in the British press for frontman
brian molko s effeminate appearance than for their music.
colm o hare meets the men who want to be a band that parents hate .
It ‘s upsetting, however, that the specific track choices here frequently reduce truly great artists with vari-coloured work, and a number of obsessions and preoccupations, to their one track that most addresses what a lecturer at my university used to call The Ongoing Fight.
Peter Murphy catches up with former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley to talk about 'crazy woman's music', writing songs and collaborating with XTC's Andy Partridge.
Going back to the deep-seated roots of music is the route taken by THE PALACE BROTHERS on their stunning debut album. GERRY McGOVERN goes to meet them at the crossroads where cultures collide . . . well, The Baggot Inn actually.
On the eve of the release of their highly anticipated debut album, Dublin quartet Delorentos take five from their latest video shoot to discuss playing with Gang of Four, hanging with Steve Albini and playing football in Texas.
With the release of their hugely impressive Turbulence album, LA/Irish outfit Saucy Monky have emerged as genuine contenders. As the critical plaudits continue to mount up, twin lead vocalists and songwriters Cynthia Catania and Annmarie Cullen step up to the mic.
peter murphy meets the multi-faceted pelvis, whose debut album Who Are You Today marks them out as one of the most formidable new Irish
talents in years.
How do you follow an album that sells 26 million copies? Since Jagged Little Pill, this is the dilemma that has haunted Alanis Morissette. A decade on, she feels able to come to terms with her whirlwind success.
Something Ilk display the tender shoots of what promises to be a hugely illustrious career. Hype can often be akin to the kiss of death for a new artist, but Davey has the sheer talent and the lust for life to kiss right back.
Starting at Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and ending seven days later at BBC WM in Birmingham, ASTERIX are on a mission to conquer England s airwaves. Joining the tour in Nottingham,
SUSAN DARLINGTON witnesses three days of maps, mobiles and milkshakes.
Melbourne’s favourite experimental, instrumental, indie-folkists The Dirty Three make a welcome return to Dublin for an intimate show in Whelans on Wednesday December 9.
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.
Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O'Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. .
A chick-flick with attitude, a delicious comedy that’s become a phenomenon in the States, and a journey into the hellish world of teen girl bullying – there are plenty of good reasons why Mean Girls is one of the movies of the year.
The star of cult movies such as Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and Strange Days, Juliette Lewis appeared to have a direct entry to rock's premier league when she turned her attention to her punk outfit The Licks. Instead, she opted to embark on a small-scale tour and play a series of small venues throughout the US and Europe. Peter Murphy was on hand as Lewis' magical mystery tour reached Ireland, and was witness to some truly fascinating scenes as the singer and her band bewitched the Dublin indie cognoscenti, travelled south to rock Limerick and strolled the red carpet to join the glitterati backstage at the Meteor Awards. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
U2 manager Paul McGuinness is among the most powerful players in the music industry. To coincide with the DVD release of U2’s classic ZOO TV Live From Sydney, he talks candidly about his relationship with the band and their controversial decision to move part of their business empire to the Netherlands in order to lower their tax burden.
He might have been a young Einsten but instead MARK OLIVER EVERETT ended up as EELS aka a man called E aka the Souljacker. PETER MURPHY discovers how it all went horribly right
First she learned to pout - then she learned to kick butt. from Revlon to Resident Evil, Milla Jovovich explains how a girl from the Ukraine conquered the world. In Prada boots, of course
The Scottish singer-songwriter, unheard of a year ago, oozes the kind of charisma and girl-next-door charm that makes for a refreshing change from the wistful and mournful personas of most in the genre
It s the morning after the night before and BRET EASTON ELLIS feels like he s got Marilyn Manson playing inside his head. A dinner date with fellow penslinger Irvine Welsh has gone seriously pear-shaped and like his most famous literary creation, the Californian is fit to kill. STUART CLARK offers tea and solpadeine, and in return gets the lowdown on American Psycho, trans-Atlantic stalkers and why both Air Supply and the Teletubbies are evil. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
As the founder of Island Records Chris Blackwell can claim a unique role in the evolution of popular music. He pulls up a chair and shoots the breeze about his Jamaican heritage, his relationship with Bob Marley and taking power-lunches with U2.
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.
Underdogs who've clawed their way into the top flight, Setanta Records, like Wimbledon, are a premiership act - with attitude. stuart clark gets the rags to (comparative) riches story from label boss, Dubliner Keith Cullen and also seeks the considered opinions of boys-done-well, Neil Hannon and Edwyn Collins.
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
Lest you think that The Kills are a one-hit wonder, this sophomore album signals a further move into malevolent, dark territory, and their sound is all the better for it. Dabbling in dense, nihilistic atmospherics as championed by Joy Division, No Wow is gloriously twisted and angular.
This is actually the Manhattan-raised Sophie B Hawkins’ follow-up to two successive gold albums, but some folks round these parts may only know her from the catchy ‘Lose Your Way’, included here, as heard on the Dawson’s Creek compilation.
Word around the campfire (well, okay, judging by the press release) suggests that this, the fourth album from Garbage, is a record that’s lucky to have gotten this far. Bleed Like Me, it seems, has had a troubled gestation...
In a sense, ATP is an anti-festival. Each year's 'curator' - the band who decide what other acts to invite - is willfully chosen on the grounds of their rejection or open denunciation of the mainstream music system
IF PEDIGREE alone paid the rent, The Floors' mastermind David Donohue would be a made man. Always ten years ahead of his time, this Carlow-born film-maker, musician, songwriter and alternative entrepreneur first made his mark in 1989 with Put Blood In The Music, an excellent documentary study of a downtown New York downtown scene that included John Zorn and Sonic Youth.
The school I attended, if some dirty little urchin broke foul wind in class, the boys seated around him would wrinkle their noses and say, ‘Something crawled up your leg and died inside you, boy.’ The way Lanegan sings, it sounds like something died inside him a long time ago.
1995 had us gaga about Courtney love, PJ Harvey, Tindersticks, R.E.M., Blur, Whipping Boy and, em... Star Trek. Plus, our Rory Gallagher memorial issue.
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.-Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O’Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. Pix: Michael Quinn.
