Age has not withered them. twenty years after they rose out of the new york underground, Sonic Youth have managed to grow old and stay hardcore. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon reveal how it’s done
Goodbye 20th Century is a double-CD compilation of various Sonic Youth collaborations and reinterpretations, with a cast including Christian Wolff, John Cage, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Reich and Pauline Oliveros and even Yoko Ono.
Hallelujah, brothers! Mercifully, the rain (which has intermittently fallen in bucket-loads throughout the day) has held off, and so the scene is perfectly set for peerless US noiseniks Sonic Youth to come along and do their alternately corrosive and blissfully melodic garage rock thang.
Freebird Records owner Brian Foley explains why over the past 25 years his store has become a firm favourite with such luminaries as Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello and U2.
Ten years on from what many critics consider to be the band’s career apex – the era of down ‘n’ Dirty, Butch Vig-facilitated crossover appeal and Kurt-ordained, alt.rock godfathers-status – the Youth are certainly unlikely to re-attain cred-heavy money-spinner status with Sonic Nurse, but as the band put it on the incomparably brilliant ‘100%’, that’s got nothing to do with a good time.
Anyway, the Dirty album proper hasn’t dated one second: Vig and Wallace had keen radar when it came to knowing just how much to sugarcoat the Sonics’ dissonant assault without compromising on raw power.
Operating in the interstice where Sonic Youth meet the Jackson 5, Brighton dance-rock outfit The Go! Team are deservedly brewing up a storm with their debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike.
Employing naked female man-slashers in their videos, hanging out with Lee Renaldo, Alex Kapranos and Rosanna Arquette – there's never a dull moment with The Cribs.
Eleven years on from their debut and New York avant-garde guitar manglers Sonic Youth have reached an ever-growing audience without compromising their ideals of integrity. Here, GERRY McGOVERN offers a personal testimony to their recorded output in anticipation of their appearance at Sunstroke '93.
Having previously traded as shoe-gaze darlings The Catchers, Northern indie-poppers The Sleeping Years are back with a new record – and a rather handsome sleeve
Their music may be dark but there’s nothing gloomy about Stuart Staples’ mood as he talks to Phil Udell about the new Tindersticks album, Waiting For The Moon, and how after 11 years they’re finally going home
If you’re going to tell a lie, make it a big one. Likewise, if you’re going to have influences, you may as well make them obvious. The Irish/British hybrid that is Sister makes no bones as to what kind of music inspires them (their name stems from the Stones/Marianne Faithful ‘Sister Morphine’). So if any or all of the following float your boat – Mazzy Star, Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth – then you’re going to just love Sister, and with good reason. They might not be reinventing the wheel but this is mightily impressive stuff.
He’s just knocked Lady GaGa off the top of the UK charts with his banging new single ‘I’m Not Alone’. So why is CALVIN HARRIS so worried about sounding like an oldie chasing after his fading youth?
Dublin is a shithole basically! that's the opinion of Kevin Shields, one of the two Irish members of My Bloody Valentine, who quit the fair city six years ago because of what they saw as the stifling atmosphere of the place. Since then they've lived and gigged all over Europe and their 1988 album Isn't Anything has put them on top of the critical approval lists and independent charts. Here, taking a break from their US tour, the band reflect on their art, their careers and what they see as the general awfulness of the Irish music scene. Interview: Helena Mulkearns
The Galway singer So claims Sonic Youth, Pink Floyd and Neil Young (“with or without Crazy Horse”) as inspiration, but the only discernible influence here is Dylan-esque folk-pop. On the EP’s lead track, ‘Just For You’, he evokes sweeping vistas but forgets to include a chorus.
The Thrills will be joining the likes of Morrissey, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth and many, many more for the Lollapalooza festivities
Nature Creates Freaks is full of frenzied angst, with gut-wrenching vocals and the kind of thrash guitar that make you fear for the band's body parts. Cay look to the Sonic Youth-led tradition of American, and particularly New York, underground rock, so it's a suprise to discover that they're actually British.
For the most important album of their post-Joshua Tree career, U2 loaded up on Nine Inch Nails, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth records, whilst also taking account of rhythmic developments in Manchester and Detroit. The result was an intoxicating brew of hard-edged industrial klang (‘Zoo Station, ‘The Fly’) and funky, danceable grooves (‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’, ‘Mysterious Ways’).
For Gen X-ers like Kurt Cobain, Matt Groening and Sonic Youth, Daniel Johnston is akin to Syd or Roky, a gifted figure beset by the demons of delusional paranoia and manic depression. A 1994 tribute album featuring Beck, Tom Waits and eels showcased his ghostly and surrealistic folk songs, and now, as the remarkable documentary film The Devil And Daniel Johnston goes on release, hotpress is granted an audience with the man who isn’t there.
While they lack the pop skills to become stadium beasts, We Are Scientists do offer more sonic delights. They can build furiously enjoyable storms of sound; full of bleary Sonic Youth riffage and pounding bass – and even incorporating a jerky, new wave sensibility on occasion.
Graham’s Sonic Youth/Pavement fantasies may have marked him out as the exception within Blur, but appreciated in any other context, he’s defiantly traditional. Far from sounding oddball or avant-garde, Coxon now peddles gnarled indie-punk almost entirely devoid of quirks and innovation.
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.
They are far, far superior to anyone in the current retro brat pack, with songs that remind you of Sonic Youth without the feedback, the Velvets without the drones, Joy Division without the doom laden fatalism and The Fall with lyrics that you can actually decipher.
Irish acts have always excelled at blowing hot and cold, but they've never been too good at playing it cool, never had the kind of urban avant-garage tradition that fosters a Sonic Youth or a Pere Ubu.
Filmmaker Gregg Araki’s shock tactics have frequently raised eyebrows and heckles, and for a while, during the late ‘90s, he threatened to become the oldest angry teen not actually a member of Sonic Youth. Though Mysterious Skin revisits many familiar Araki themes (sexual deviancy, rape, alien abduction, fucking the pain away, terminal youthful boredom, you know, the usual…) – it’s a far cry from the addled nihilism and indiscriminate buckshot of his earlier movies.
Al Jourgensen's Ministry are one of those bands - the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth are two more - who once, back in the mists of time (eight years ago, in fact), radiated a certain affectation of danger, an air of left-field cool, an indefinable cachet of credibility. These days, though, they are as stale a proposition as last night's lasagne.
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.
Katharine Gifford of SNOWPONY talks to Adrienne Murphy about the band s debut album, their impeccable pedigree and her favourite themes of sex and death.
Roo are confident, savvy and unflinching in their aim to make remarkable music. There s something about their looks and attitude that remind you of George Best in 68: blessed with handy skills and unfazed by older, less talented rivals. Roo are the best new prospect from these parts. They can be funny, too.
Having spent Easter Sunday contemplating what complete bastards the British are, we thought you might like to peruse the range of IRA action figures that are available at www.canfodmins.com/gallery.htm
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.
Difficult second album syndrome has no place in the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vocabulary. Not that the blogger faves are exactly busting a gut to have a hit.
John Walshe catches up with Teenage Fanclub s Norman Blake and hears about avoiding musical fashions, the realisation that they are growing older and how they are ambitious, despite what Alan McGee says
With their affirmative vibes and sprawling line-up, indie heroes Broken Social Scene are a sight to behold. But keeping this 40-legged rock machine on the road isn't always exactly a romp in the playground, confesses fromtman keving Drew.
Supernaut is the latest vehicle for former Blue In Heaven/Blue Angels frontman Shane O’Neill and Into Paradise mainman Dave Long. In many ways, their debut album is like a homage to the almighty guitar, which shapechanges throughout from a shimmer to a swagger, a sparkle to a snarl.
the poet Allen Ginsberg died at his East Village home in New York on Saturday, 5th April, just two months short of his 71st birthday. After more than four decades of constant, and often controversial, conflict with such repressive figures as J. Edgar Hoover, Fidel Castro and Newt Gingrich, liver cancer finally succeeded where they had always failed in silencing the notoriously outspoken writer and self-confessed beat-hip-gnostic-imagist performance poet.
Suzanne Vega talks to COLM O HARE about the
proliferation of serious female artists, the break-up of her marriage and incorporating spoken word into her performances
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 .
No, they’re not Jack White’s extra-curricular band. Rather, The Racketeers are long time veterans of the Irish scene with shades of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash in their darkly fascinating sound.
Reformed baa-aaa-aad boys pet lamb are back with a new album that's going to make Roadrunner sorry they ever dropped them. Getting the wool pulled over her eyes: Adrienne Murphy.
Forget Liam and Nicole and Pete and Kate, the hottest rock 'n' roll couple in town at the moment are The Subways' Charlotte Cooper and Billy Lunn. The female half of the duo tells Ed Power about the highs and lows of making beautiful music together.
Veteran post-rockers Mogwai have just released arguably their finest record yet. On a suitably overcast day in France, band leader Stuart Braithwaite talks about the influence of Glasgow on their work – and explains the part played by ‘nonsense art’ in their music
The past year hasn't been the easiest for Whipping Boy and all who sail in him. Their debut album, though critically acclaimed, did not sell well and they've also had to weather their own share of record company hassles. But, as Gerry McGovern discovers, the band are still setting their own agenda, and forging forward with their own brew of hope, confidence and fuck-ye-all attitude.
Peter Murphy considers Nirvana’s legacy and wonders will we ever hear their like again. Producer Butch Vig and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age help him with his enquiries
Ex-Desert Hearts drummer Chris Heaney has taken the front seat in his new buzz-saw noise-pop trio Escape Act. Parenthood, he says makes you work at double-speed.
Cormac Battle has escaped the clutches of Dublin’s vilest landlords, and now spends his days watching 24-hour news channels and enjoying his luxury mattress. He can explain the Sandy Thom CD, really.
Neil Young is God, the Riot Grrrls are a cod and Hot Press is the greatest music magazine in the Northern hemisphere. So says Monica Queen of ‘hard alternative country rock band’ thrum. Interview: Patrick Brennan.
There s very little torture involved in making a record until it s released and then the audience gets to suffer. PETER MURPHY meets the one and only LYDIA LUNCH.
They named themselves after a Japanese biker gang, they won t give details of their line-up to the music press, and their first ever recorded release was limited to 33 copies. GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR also happen to be one of the most exciting new bands to emerge in years. PETER MURPHY investigates.
DO YOU WANT NAILS OF FEEDBACK DRIVEN THROUGH YOUR BRAIN? DO YOU WANT YOUR EARS TO BLEED? THIS IS HARDCORE AND IT'S THE MOST VITAL ATTITUDE IN ROCK'N'ROLL, FROM LOU REED TO THERAPY? VIA NICK CAVE, FUGAZI AND... CHRISTY MOORE. OR SO SAYS GERRY McGOVERN, WHO ALSO ADVANCES THE THEORY THAT 'HARDCORE IS GENERALLY FOR HARD WHITE MEN'. SHOOTING GALLERY AWAITS YOUR RESPONSE!
Pete Cummins, has just released his first album as a solo performer, from which the single ‘Flowers In Baghdad’ was picked up by Neil Young’s website chart
With preparations well underway for Cork city’s hosting of the European City Of Culture festivities in 2005, the indigenous music scene is already rising to the challenge
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
From Kilkenny to LA, kerbdog have been on a seven-year learning curve that's produced a powerful second album, On The Turn. barry glendenning hears how, after an inauspicious beginning, they finally got their act together. Pic: cathal dawson.
GARBAGE are a band who absorb all the detritus, darkness and despair of the pre-millennial zeitgeist and spit it back out in a torrent of searing guitars, futuristic technological trickery and lyrics that freeze the blood. They've also made two of the most sinister pop records of modern times - the second of which, Version 2.0, is due for imminent release. PETER MURPHY met them in London to discuss sex, surveillance, studio strife, pre-2000 tension and their special fondness for The Beach Boys.
What better way for an indie musician to spend an evening than checking out the wares in one of Europe’s biggest and best stoked music stores? Welcome to XMusic, guys!
In the second part of his examination of the cult of CHARLES MANSON, PETER MURPHY looks at the cult leader s trial, his continuing influence of left-field heroes and the controversy over his recordings. Also: BONO on U2 s decision to include Helter Skelter in their Rattle And Hum set.
This is the sixth album from Idlewild, if we’re counting their debut mini-LP Captain, and it marks a partial retreat to the noisier sonic terrain they covered on earlier records.
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
Dance is dead, says Roisin Murphy, but if any act is going to raise it from the grave it’s Moloko, proud authors of the over the top and utterly sincere Statues, an album of tremendous pop songs that recapture the glory of classic disco.
Elstree, remember me, went the old Boggles tune. The location is a far-flung suburb of north London, former nerve centre of an entire B-movie industry, now home to television shows like East Enders, Holby City (wandering through the corridors, your correspondent comes across a room identified by the rather ominous notice: Make-up - GUTS), and of course Top Of The Pops.
First kisses, hanging with the hip-hop aristocracy and why life is better on the wagon are some of the topics for conversation as Hot Press hitches a ride on the tour bus with domestic goddess and soapy bath enthusiast Amy Winehouse.
With his work on the soundtrack to In The Name Of The Father bringing him into the full glare of media attention Gavin Friday takes this opportunity to put to rest any accusations of riding on U2’s coat-tails. Confident and brimming with ideas for his solo career, The Spotlight Kid gives the lowdown to an eager BILL GRAHAM.
GREEN DAY have had a meteoric rise over the last 18 years, from poky Dublin dives to colossal international stadia. But despite their maturing worldview and increasing political articulacy, they’re still as exciting a kick-ass punk rock group as ever.
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.
After 12 months which saw the group go from the indie B-division to rock’s premier league, Snow Patrol have had a more dramatic 2004 than most. In an in-depth interview, Gary Lightbody discusses a life-changing year, the Irish and British music scenes, friendships, relationships and where the band go to next.
Well at least they don’t look or sound like Flock Of Seagulls. Yes, we can actually report that there is a new guitar band around who don’t hark back to a particular period in time about twenty years ago. No, New York’s Ambulance Ltd look both further back to the ‘60s and ‘70s and forward to the ‘90s and, good God no, shoegazing. The problem is that they don’t seem to quite know which era or what band they want to borrow from, opting instead to chuck everything in and hope for the best.
A new album, a new producer, a new sound and a new lease of life so where better to launch mary black s Shine than in New Orleans? Report and
interview: siobhAN LONG
A new album, a new producer, a new sound and a new lease of life so where better to launch mary black s Shine than in New Orleans? Report and
interview: siobhAN LONG
Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
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.
Two top 20 singles, a top 5 album and a slot on the Rollercoaster tour not good enough for you? Well, no, actually, say The Revs: we wanna play the Ambassador. Make it so
As the Bush-Gore election night morphed into pure strung-out political farce, a footloose hotpress writer found himself hunkered down in Amherst, Massachusetts, the place Emily Dickinson and Dinosaur Jnr have both called home. With smalltown American as his window on the world, this is the view that Peter Murphy got
Nirvana - Ten years after. Peter Murphy talks to producer Butch Vig, musician Mark Lanegan and critic Greil Marcus, and gets the inside story of the making of Nevermind, the classic album that changed the face of music, unveiled the anthem 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and brought the world face to face with a screaming soul called Kurt Cobain.
Think about direction, wonder why . . . It’s eleven years since Stano released his debut album Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft. Despite his genuine originality and dedication to his art over the intervening years, he remains one of Ireland’s most enigmatic performers, more appreciated on the continent than in his homeland. Interview: Joe Jackson
No, it's not the overworked Hot Press subs finally snapping beneath the strain of a hectic production schedule but a finely argued debate by our finest writers on the phenomenon of naff. What is naff? Are you naff and if so how do you go about rectifying matters? Read on and be saved . . .
(N.B. This is a work of faction. All names have been changed in order to protect the guilty from certain incarceration in state mental institutions or correctional
facilities.)
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.
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
Following the huge commercial success of Set List and ‘Fake’, The Frames look poised to ascend to rock’s premier league with the upcoming worldwide release of the Burn The Maps album. Kim Porcelli joins the band on the day of their triumphant show at Marlay Park to discuss the pros and cons of pop-stardom, the departure of dave odlum, the abiding influence of mic christopher, and the challenge of creating their most eagerly anticipated record yet.
He may indeed be from Limerick but if you think you’re going to get a subheadline that mentions bringing home the bacon, acting the ham or even being on the pig’s back, then you’re sadly mistaken. Instead we’re going to keep things simple. Mick Hanly has just released a new album entitled Happy Like This. What better occasion for Jackie Hayden to visit him in his Kilkenny home and look back over his career to date, and to remember the days when he hadn’t a sausage (would you cut the crap, please? – Ed)? Pix.: Brendan Fitzpatrick.
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.
With a new ‘Best Of’ bringing the band’s story up to date, U2’s guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms, and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2
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.
With a new 'best of' bringing the band's story up to date U2's guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2.
Special hotpress.com members edition: "director's cut" featuring interview sections unavailable anywhere else.
Even if Candy Falls Here were a better record than it is, it can never be ‘essential listening’ – that ship has sailed early last decade. But these submerged vocals, these rough-yet-sweet sugar-high rifforamas and this lo-fi Sensitive Bloke moping could unmistakably be from no other lank-haired era.
A special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
Even if Candy Falls Here were a better record than it is, it can never be ‘essential listening’ – that ship has sailed early last decade. But these submerged vocals, these rough-yet-sweet sugar-high rifforamas and this lo-fi Sensitive Bloke moping could unmistakably be from no other lank-haired, flannel-clad era.
A universe removed from the campfire boilerplate of 2005’s Howl, Baby 81 sees Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (reunited with drummer Nick Jaggo) rediscovering their sub-Mary Chain fuzzbox growl.
David Kitt’s upward career trajectory continues with ‘Song From Hope Street (Brooklyn, NY)’ being co-opted onto the soundtrack of Josh “Pearl Harbour” Hartnett’s new movie, 40 Days & 40 Nights.
As tonight’s performance grates on, it’s apparent that the entire rhythm section is buried underneath a treble heavy din. Norman Blake’s guitar solos are beautiful, but in no way as crisp and clear as they should be.
As is often the case when bands have a whole host of new material they're itching to try out, the crowd become slightly restless midway through the evening. The Meltdown material sounds great, but there's no getting around the fact that we've come to hear the old favourites, and the band know it.
‘They are Yakuza, You are Belfast’ – or something like that anyway. One Nation Under Awed marks the somewhat delayed recording debut from one of the more interesting rock bands to emerge from alternative Ulster in a while, and what they lack in ‘awe’ they certainly make up for in furious intensity.
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.
Most ‘garage’ bands with half a budget sound like an over-egged simulacrum of the rehearsal room, but Modern Apprentice is brilliantly realised in the production department, tapped direct from the players’ power sources. Bottom line: Ikara Colt make a splendid noise, it just belongs to someone else.
On the face of it, you could take the title as indicating a reversal of the Manics' musical prejudices. Nicky Wire might've always professed a hatred of the New York school of hip, yet the opening notes of this album find his band blamming their way through a prime Velvets 4/4 and one-note piano motif ('Found That Soul').
Coping Mechanisms is such an astonishing record. In many ways it’s very Dublin, and more specifically, very Trust Me I’m A Thief. But the important thing is this: if you thought you’d had it up to here with mumbling singer songwriter types, think again.
On the surface 1988 was a promising year for Irish music with memorable vinyl provided by The Stars Of Heaven, Something Happens!, A House, Cypress Mine! and the sadly defunct Microdisney – but beneath that veneer, all is not as well as it might seem.
You probably wouldn't trust Therapy to babysit your little sisters and brothers. And you'd be right. They're that kind of band - psychotic dog-trashcore noise terrorists who rip ears and emotions right apart, usually in the one band-breath.
Snowpony's pedigree will make indie-lovers keen to hear their debut album. Katharine Gifford, former keyboardist with Stereolab and singer in Moonshake, is Snowpony's songwriter and lead vocalist. Drummer Kevin Bass also hails from Moonshake, while the band's bassist, Debbie Googe, used to be My Bloody Valentine.
On the face of it, you could take the title as indicating a reversal of the Manics' musical prejudices. Nicky Wire might've always professed a hatred of the New York school of hip, yet the opening notes of this album find his band blamming their way through a prime Velvets 4/4 and one-note piano motif ('Found That Soul').
It’s early days for the band, and although right now, it seems unlikely that they’re going to topple any Premier League outfits, the world is still very much their oyster and I’d venture that they’ll swallow it whole at some point.
The damaged licks and feedback-fattened melodies of LA’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have always suggested a karaoke riff on your favourite avant-pop outsiders.
Men out of time, The Verve were a neo-psychedelic jam-rock outfit who got fortuitously swept up in the Britpop boom and stumbled upon a timely form of Big Music.
Spiritualised, The Redneck Manifesto, Redsettaz and Telepopmusic are merely a few of the latest additions to the delightfully overstuffed Witnness '02 bill
Belgian folk-grungers dEUS have returned, five years after their last acclaimed album The Ideal Crash. A cursory listen to Pocket Revolution’s opening track, ‘Bad Timing’ confirms that they are not about to alter their gameplan, and remain dedicated to slowly filling their melancholy-tinged pop songs with extra sheets of guitar noise.
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.
Blur axeman, Graham Coxon, releases his second solo LP and, like his 1998 debut, The Sky's Too High, The Golden D is a trip into the speed/trash/hardcore underbelly of America.
IN HIS intro to the rather splendid anthology Poetry With An Edge, Bloodaxe Books mainman Neil Astley maintained that it's not tried and trusted forms of poetry such as the sonnet which get tired, but the practitioners of those very forms.
IN HIS intro to the rather splendid anthology Poetry With An Edge, Bloodaxe Books mainman Neil Astley maintained that it's not tried and trusted forms of poetry such as the sonnet which get tired, but the practitioners of those very forms.
If The Royal Society artefact were composed of paint rather than sound, it’d be an acid-dipped Joe Coleman print. Yes, there are elements of psychedelia, but The Disaster seem far more interested in comedown psychosis than the trip itself.
Gathering together Dublin maverick Stano’s work from his first recording, ‘Room’ in 1982, to the title track, recorded this year, Reverse Presence is an absolute gem of a collection and a must-have for alternative muso lovers.
Icky Thump fizzes with ideas. Nevertheless, you wonder whether The White Stripes are trying too hard to prod a simple formula – guitar, drums, inscrutable irony – into a new direction.
Question: Who are God Speed You Black Emperor!? Answer: They're a nine-piece ensemble from Montreal, Canada who refuse to be interviewed, issue press releases or publicity shots, remain wilfully non-specific about who plays what on their records, and are singularly wary of allowing outside forces to interfere with their music. So put that in your pipe and toke it.
Once again from the north of Ireland, we have The Id. The line up has swelled a little and now comprises Carl Papenfus on drums, Kenneth Papenfus on guitar, Tony Brady on keyboards, Brendan Kelly on vocals and Darren Campbell on bass.
Live In Your Living Room featuring Eyeslave, Travega, Karrier, Colm Heaney And The Bad DJs, Corsairs + Dali. Six relatively-unknown Irish groups playing half-hour sets, and tonight, the lower-ranked artists are the ones who shine.
MTV draws our attention with foul-mouthed puppets, Steve Albini answers your questions in an online poker forum, and we tell you where to get your Deportivo Wanka football shirts.
TRAGIC MAGIC, the third album from archetypal 30-something ex-No Wavers Madder Rose, originally only got a release in the US and Japan in 1997, hence this European version's three new tracks, plus a selection of remixes.
Presumably the fault lay with Oasis' techies rather than Witnness crew, but for an unforgivable dozen songs - the bulk of the set - Oasis battled to establish some sort of rapport with an underwhelmed crowd
If you were to look up the meaning of the word weld in the Oxford English Dictionary you'd find: *Weld v. unite (pieces of esp. heated metal etc.) into solid mass by hammering or pressure*. There's more of course, but that basically wraps it up.
It also wraps up Neil Young ... Crazy Horses' new double live album. A merciless wall of noise, Weld is all about guitars. Very loud guitars. It's also about chaos, albeit chaos in perfect motion, chaos in full flights, majestic, marauding - Weld in chaos, in control.
It’s only February and already we can hear the hissing of summer lawns. Or maybe it’s applause. Comfort Of Strangers is not Beth Orton’s most radical statement, but it is her most reactionary.
From the goodtime vibes of Hot Chip to the full-on sonic assault of Primal Scream, this year's Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more fab than its predecessors.
While we're sure it's a fabulous place, Larne's Older Fleet bar does seem a rather surreal choice of venue for Houston outsider folkie Jandek to kick off what will be his first ever tour.
Along with thousands of other ex-pats, Ash singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler has made the Big Apple his home. He explains why he fell in love with the city.
As cats all over Ireland prepare to have their fancies tickled, Jackie Hayden reflects on the comedic talents of one of the star turns at this year’s Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival, Tommy Tiernan.
It s the last song of the night. It s the final gig of the year one that has witnessed bizarre accidents, frustrations, some classic moments and the growing consensus that Snow Patrol is an increasingly fierce act.
"Power certainly has an incredibly beautiful and expressive voice, it’s just that covering big band classics isn’t necessarily putting it to its best use."
In the first installment of Hot Press' Oxegen coverage, Phil Udell, Steve Cummins and John Walshe pick out their personal favourites of the weekend. This Thursday's Hot Press will feature extended coverage from Kim Porcelli & Ed Power as well as more exclusive photos from Liam Sweeney, Graham Keogh & Andrew Duffy - PLUS the Phantom reports from backstage!
Online Gallery Of Live Shots Here
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
Last issue we profiled a selection of Irish acts who released records for the Christmas market. Here JACKIE HAYDEN, GERRY McGOVERN AND COLM O’HARE PROFILE five more who've come up trumps – from Jimmy MacCarthy, one of Ireland's best known songwriters, to young hopefuls, Sunbear.
