If it s sombrely beautiful, slow-moving, Mogwai-esque instrumental mini-epics you re after, you ve come to the right place. EAMON SWEENEY meets THE REDNECK MANIFESTO.
TRM fans will take delight in being both surprised and disorientated - two signs of an excellent band that aren't afraid to flip the script and take a couple of risks
Having added such a forcefully new dimension to proceedings here in Ireland, it’s hard to believe that I Am Brazil is TRM’s first full-length album proper.
Spiritualised, The Redneck Manifesto, Redsettaz and Telepopmusic are merely a few of the latest additions to the delightfully overstuffed Witnness '02 bill
They're the hottest thing to come out of the Midlands since, well, ever. Slinker rockers Zing talk about growing up hooked on Michael Jackson and give us the lowdown on the Portlaoise scene.
They've been known to hand-craft their own instruments and, just for the hell of it, once toured Korea. Little wonder that boy/girl partnership Mirakil Whip are fast earning a reputation as one of the country's most eclectic new bands.
Cork Independent outfit The Waiting Room have just released their debut album Losing Patience, yet they're quite prepared to hold on to the day jobs for a little while yet as Marc O'Sullivan discovers
Where the Redneck Manifesto appear brimming with intent and fury, the music of The Redneck’s Richie Egan’s other vehicle, Jape, is beautifully lilting and celebratory.
Gary Lightbody, Mark Geary, Rick O’Shea, The Frames, Jape, Mario Rosenstock, The Redneck Manifesto and the Eyebrowy crew slug it out for the title of The Simpsons’ most obsessive Irish fan.
A thrilling collision in the Guinness Storehouse between the aural and visual worlds, Wonky2 - brainchild of Leagues O'Toole - proved that at some parties, you don't have to check your mind in at the door
Dublin-based Somadrone may share their name with a US rock band, but there the similarity ends. While the Massachusetts rock quartet trade in fiery metal, Neil O’Connor (whose other musical credits include The Redneck Manifesto and Connect Four Orchestra) specialises in instrumental elecronica so unobtrusive it’s almost transparent.
Not so long ago mavericks and experimentalism were thin on the ground in Ireland. But with the growth of an independent scene, all of that has changed. for confirmation, look no further than the rise to eminence of The Jimmy Cake.
Jape and Lisa Hannigan may inhabit opposite ends of the musical spectrum but their careers have followed remarkably similar paths. On the road together in the UK, he talks about bagging the Choice Music Prize and she discusses her dramatic split from Damien Rice
Decal, Rollers/Sparkers, Redneck Manifesto, Spectac, Donal Tierney, Michael Morris, Nina Hynes, The Tycho Brae, Lacklustre, Felix Kubin, Max Tundra, Wevie Stonder, Pierre Bastien & The Mecanium Orchestra + more
Born to a teenage mother, brought up in a succession of trailer parks and working in bars age 14, Nashville-based country-rocker Gretchen Wilson has had to earn her fame and success the hard way. And with even the great Tony Bennett high-tailing it from his own shows to catch her performances, it looks like the singer’s popularity is set to grow and grow.
The Road Relish singles club has played a central role in the growth of the local independent scene. the main players explain their philosophy to Hannah Hamilton
Along with the likes of Jimmy Behan, Joan Of Arse and Daemien Frost, Estel are the much undervalued and underexposed anti-christs to the Frames, Mundy and Damien Rice’s hand-wringing preachings.
Killarney-based instrumental foursome HELIOPAUSE say they’re keen to keep rock ‘n’ roll alive in the Kingdom. We caught up with drummer Jamie O’Donoghue to talk mountains, his instrumental icons and supporting fellow sticks man R.S.A.G.Punk, Mark Morrison with Muse and Bob Marley with TLC, they show real production potential.
The Rose of Tralee proves that it’s good for something this month when it spawns Bloom, a five-day feast of rock ‘n’ roll running from August 18 to 22 in the Town Square.
He's not a Christmassy guy, he says, but perhaps the season has made Jape's Richie Egan reflective. Patrick Freyne talks to him about the past, present and future.
Wonky was conceived for the eyes and ears as a celebration of the best live bands around sharing a stage with the best new electronic producers with the most entertaining visual backdrop possible courtesy of D.A.D.D.Y. and Del-9
To mark the release of his new album, Jape main-man Richie Egan took comedian David O’Doherty to the zoo on condition that he write 1200 words about it for Hotpress.
Paul Nolan talks to Neil Hegarty, author of Waking Up In Dublin, a new book which offers an outsider’s view of the music scene – and more – in the capital
With interest in this year’s 10th Roundstone Arts Festival already building up, we sent our very own Roundstone Cowboy Jackie Hayden to check out this year’s line-up.
In the second part of our two-part competition and pop-video bonanza, watch the D.A.D.D.Y.-produced animated video for Warlords of Pez's 'Padre Pio', and enter to win a copy of Kicking Against... Nuggets from the New Irish Overground
It’s hardcore heaven this autumn as Dischord records release a 20-year retrospective CD, the story of Hope Promotions is chronicled in a new book and Fugazi return for an Irish tour
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the final of a four part series, Jackie Hayden meets No Disco founding-presenter, new-music savant and legendary nighttime DJ Donal Dineen
…it’s a new video from Badly Drawn Boy! It is entitled ‘Silent Sigh’; it is by all accounts very lovely; and it is on tonight’s No Disco. Pencil it in, kids
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
How Bubba Sparxxx went from being nose-down in a bowl of coke to becoming hip-hop's greatest white hope since Eminem. Peter Murphy hears how the southerner fell and rose
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
The Sabbath means no work and all play; The Last Post wrap up number two; Exile Eye find hip-hop equilibrium; and The Road Relish Singles Club says, We are ten
You could say that Goodtime John has his ducks all in a row at the moment.
Having released the well-received Brought Four Ways Out Of Town, John Cowhie found himself comfortably nestled within the city’s sometimes cliquish lo-fi community..
After defining the currency and potency of much contemporary instrumental guitar music, Pajo acquaints himself with the role of a skewered folk and blues artist astonishingly well
The tunes on Of Pattern And Purpose – are so cool that they offer the kind of pleasing, relaxing, thought-disengaging, space-creating emotional detachment that we find in Steve Reich or Brian Eno circa Music For Airports.
Dragged Four Ways Out Of Town saw a cast of fellow musicians, friends and clowns immerse themselves in the rustic charms of a house in Avoca, Co. Wicklow
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
It’s Christmas, time for some of the leading lights of the Irish musical family to return from far-flung stages and convene for a traditional evening of reflection, revelation, conversation, merriment and, well, gargle. The guests: Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and David Kitt.
Myrtleville: the name sounds too good to be true as the setting for an olde time hoe-down. Last weekend, a hoard of guitarslingers, mostly from Dublin, did indeed descend upon the sleepy seaside Pine Lodge pub in way-out-west Cork for the low-key country music festival, High Noon.
Paul O'Reilly brings us Songs; Luc and the Platelets and The Warlords Of Pez say Let's Battle in the Storehouse; and Leagues and Robert Stephenson get famous
The Rednecks deliver a second manifesto; the 'Fuzz request rebels without causes; Woodstar know what time it is; and a new flute'n'turntablism odyssey from Cork display shades of brilliance
This year’s genre-redeemers, here to re-prove that words are for losers who can't say it with music, are the pathos-laden, relentless, positively monumental The Uptown Racquet Club
It was always going to be a bit messy. Students being students you couldn’t but have expected the odd scuffle, girls vomiting on their expensive ball gowns, lads pissing wherever there was a wall and thousands of well dressed revellers drunkenly stumbling around the courtyards of Trinity College. What was unexpected though, certainly for a first timer, was just how good a night the Trinity Ball is. This was an event streets ahead of most outdoor events. Everything was well organised, queues for loos and bars were minimal, and security didn’t make themselves felt. It meant that all were allowed to just get on with the night at hand and enjoy Europe’s largest private party.
One-off clubs, chillout nights, New Year's Eve events and of course gigs, gigs, and more gigs to suit your every mood: hotpress.com picks the very best stuff to do over the holiday
'Tis the season, so it's Christmas gigs a-go-go with Woodstar, Josh'n'James, the Juice Machine and a Very Corpo Christmas Caper to say the least. Ho ho ho
They said it couldn’t be done, but this year’s Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more joyous, vibey and action-packed than its predecessors. Hot Press was in the thick of things as 200 acts and 30,000 music lovers descended on one very big house in the country.
