Bill Callahan, pioneer of lo-fi alt-country, continues in the same vein as always with his latest single 'Rock Bottom Riser' under his Smog moniker. Melancholy and poignant, Callaghan's vocals sound deep and reedy as ever as he waxes lyrical on matters from family to his guitar. "I love my Father, I love my Mother, I love my sister too", he drones. If there was ever a song that would put you to sleep, this is it but if wallowing is your thing you'll love this.
There is a tendency to regard Bill Callahan, the morose Kentucky songwriter who trades as Smog, as a sort of bargain-basement Will Oldham, a rural malingerer perched perpetually on the brink of an emotional fault-line.
For all its starkness though, Callahan’s oeuvre is tinged with a cautious beauty. Beneath the artist’s pained snarl – he’s one of those live performers who seems in constant distress – one begins to detect the hint of a rueful grin.
For his 12th record, Callahan retreats from the mannered melancholia of his recent albums. Here, the ominous tranquility of nature is Callahan’s obsession. Where most see a tranquil lake, Callahan senses the sinister undertow.
What's this, Bill Callahan's comedy hour? Not exactly. The flippancy of the whimsical title is just there to lull you into a state of joviality before the punches come raining down.
Like a bizarre cross between Nick Cave and Johnny Cash, "God," or so the man says, "does not answer this type of prayer," and – to be honest – I’m not surprised.
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.
The Coldspoon Conspiracy have made steady progess in both Chicago and Glasgow in addition to their hometown, building up a substantial profile. The Dubliners have enlisted the recording savvy of Rod Bochnik, responsible for engineering duties with Smog, Shellac and The Breeders.
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.
The name Domino has deservedly become synonymous with the most cutting-edge and vital contemporary music. At the beginning of this year, Domino unleashed long-playing recordings from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Smog and Sebadoh in quick-fire succession. Now they close their 1999 account with a similar burst of welcome activity.
Here he comes again, Tricky, leering out of the spliff-smog, all expectations of ever recreating the warped coffee table perversions of Maxinquaye well and truly dispelled by those difficult second and third albums.
It was a year when all manner of ecological malaise seemed to come home to roost. In particular the Sudan was in turmoil, putting our own nasty little problems of smog, toxic waste and criminal fish kills into sharp relief –
DOMINO RECORDS has released some of the most essential music of the 90 s by the likes of Sebadoh, Palace Brothers, and Elliott Smith. NICK KELLY talks to lynchpin Laurence Bell and one member of the label s current roster, Stephen Pastel of The Pastels.
Great weather for ducks, they say. This island has been deluged. Inundated. East to west, south to north. And it is, if anything, worse to the east. The Rhine is already many metres above normal as far inland as Köln. By the time it subsides, billions of marks worth of damage will have been done.
Domino Records – home of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Max Tundra, Franz Ferdinand and Four Tet – turns ten. Kim Porcelli talks pop culture with label boss Laurence Bell.
Perfect weather has been promised for the next year’s Olympics Games thanks to a man called Zhang Qiang who is in charge of the city’s artificial rainmaking and prevention programme.
Patrick Freyne interviews chief Charlatan tim burgess, about 20 years of music, a new collaborative album and his role as a mentor for this year’s JD Set band competition.
A fresh voice has joined the chorus calling on the embattled Minister for Health to step down. But this time the cry is coming from within her own party – and from a doctor, to boot.
Or how to stare apocalypse in the face and still keep smiling. Liam Fay talks to Ute Bellion, the German-born chairperson of Greenpeace International and a woman who remains optimistic despite the scale of the environmental problems with which she daily grapples.
SEBADOH, for so long the epitome of the slacker rock band,
seem poised to finally make the breakthrough.
NICK KELLY met them in Dublin only to be asked for cocaine,
and told that Kurt Cobain was so lame he killed himself .
Best known as the author of the modern noir classic LA Confidential, JAMES ELLROY is back in the spotlight with his new book The Cold 6000, a factional encounter with late 20th century America.
Here, the straight-talking Ellroy tells why JFK was second-rate and J. Edgar Hoover a fiend, why Bill Clinton is a horrible human being and George W. Bush not as bad as we think, and why Martin Luther King was the greatest American man of the last century
Words: DANNY ILEGEMS
But who started it? Olaf Tyaransen went to the final protest march against Britain’s repressive criminal justice bill and found himself reading helpful hints on how to throw a brick with maximum effect before a full-scale riot broke out. This is his report . . .
Dana may be trying to shunt him into the background, but TCG O?Mahony is adamant that it was he who inspired the former Eurovision winner to run for the presidency. And while he is confident that ?she will win if it is God?s will?, he warns of serious repercussions from above should one of her opponents triumph in the race to the Aras. Our man with the locust repellant: liam fay.
Arriving in Dublin in the last sixties as a 16 year old guitar wunderkind, Belfast born Gary Moore embarked on a musical career that has seen him go through several metamorphoses and achieve numerous notable success in the process.
30 years after the savage Tate/LaBianca murders that epitomised the dark side of the American hippy dream, CHARLES MANSON aka God aka The Devil, continues to exert a potent influence on popular culture. In part one of a two-part feature, PETER MURPHY recalls the twisted vision of a charismatic man whose personal interpretation of The Beatles Helter Skelter helped give rise to one of the crimes of the century.
UK reviews for Soon It Will Come Time To Face The World Outside - the debut album from Cork's Boa Morte - range from excellent to, er, even more excellent. See what the quiet riot's all about at an upcoming live date near you
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).
Gut’s tracks are built out of hypnotic loops, and layered up with samples, found sounds and instrumentation, gently shifting, pulsing and moving, working their way into the subconscious.
Three years and numerous side-projects on from the somewhat underwhelming TNT, Tortoise have regrouped to lend a new clarity and warmth to the Chicago underground.
Small Engine Repair may be Niall Heery’s first feature film, but having picked up an award for best first feature at Galway last year and several other shiny trinkets, it’s one of the most keenly anticipated Irish titles in years.
Whatever your fancy chances are the capital will be able to oblige. Here, the Hot Press team pound the pavement in selfless pursuit of Dublin's hottest - and coolest - nightspots.
Wasn’t there a Michael Winterbottom film out just last Tuesday? I’m starting to believe this man sleeps while propped up behind a camera on set. Not that Winterbottom’s profuse output (Jude, Welcome To Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People, In This World) and generic promiscuity has ever been to the detriment of his work, as this dreamy, low-key sci-fi quietly demonstrates.
Hales has ploughed his own furrow in an admirably single-minded and low-key fashion, deservedly earning himself a loyal following for his Tindersticks/ Joy Division-indebted brand of spectral melancholia.
Hales has ploughed his own furrow in an admirably single-minded and low-key fashion, deservedly earning himself a loyal following for his Tindersticks/ Joy Division-indebted brand of spectral melancholia.
Bloc Party's A Weekend In The City is both less oblique and more understated; initially the album proves harder work than its predecessor – at the same time it's more open about what it has to say.
Over three days, the cream of up-and-coming Irish and Scandinavian talent gave it their all. Killian Murphy picks out those that shone brightest. Click here. for live gallery.
Like many trades the music industry has its own language unique to itself. To the untrained ear conversations between musicians and industry pros can sound indecipherable, or have a completely different meaning to modern English.
For the uninitiated Demo Dip provides a handy sampler to some of the often used phrases and linguistics devices preferred by the musical fraternity.
