The Automatic and The Klaxons are to headline the NME tour, which this year is divided into two genres: indie rock and the ludicrously monikered 'indie rave'.
It may well be their fate to end up on some future compilation entitled The Classic Sounds of January 2007, but, for tonight at least, The Automatic are indie rock’s (ahem) undisputed heavyweight champions.
Although bass player Rob is the lead singer, most of the band’s energy is channeled through keyboardist Pennie who has a very serious case of Frontman’s Syndrome. When not screeching backing vocals he’s prowling about the stage like a hyperactive child fed a steady diet of sugar sandwiches and Iggy Pop records.
The ubiquitous ‘Monster’ may have been this year’s ‘I Predict A Riot’ but you suspect that The Automatic are a little too edgy for any sort of mass consumption. It’s both their strength and their weakness. ‘Raoul’ is another edgy pop song with a huge chorus, although the high-pitched shouty bloke on keyboards can be a tad annoying. Generally a winner, though.
The Automatic’s third single restores them to the realms of candyfloss indie dross. Previous single ‘Raoul’ may not have been half bad in a Killers-meets-The Futureheads kind of way. But ‘Monster’ suggests The Automatic are just another slice of great white hype. Heaving with synth riffs, hints of ska, teen lunacy and dumb chorus lines, ‘Monster’ is as irritating as it is poor.
Sodding everything else, the debut album from Welsh wonders The Automatic is worth buying for the single ‘Recover’ alone, possibly the best indie dancefloor anthem since ‘Song 2’ by Blur shattered eardrums everywhere.
A case of food poisoning in the Keane camp was Welsh band The Automatic's golden ticket to a Jools Holland performance. Next stop, a UK top five hit in the form of ‘Monster’.
An errant fan got more than he’d bargained for at the Dublin Ambassador last night when he clambered onto a speaker stack during The Automatic’s NME Indie Tour headliner and lit a cigarette.
Click to see the Indie Rock tour photo gallery!
No, this is not a cover of the incessantly catchy festival anthem by The Automatic. Rather ‘Monster’ is the slick and punchy debut from Dublin-based The Spikes. Propelled by a sparse rhythm, singer Tom Dunne (no, not him) delivers a vocal performance that puts one in mind of a stripped-down The Zutons, with more than a hint of Joy Division.
If it’s on B-Unique, home of the Kaiser Chiefs and The Automatic, it’s likely to be okay-to-amazing, and Alterkicks don’t disappoint. ‘On A Holiday’ is, oddly enough, a hybrid of The Kooks and Morrissey, taking the former’s retro sensibilities and the latter’s veiled mournfulness. Thus, all the stops are in place for these Liverpudlians to be huuuuge.
The two bands who are in the running to win a prize that includes a support slot with the Automatic, an EP with Fifa Records, studio recording time, full PR and a six month management deal, are exclusively revealed.
Four years on from Inflammable Material and even Jake Burns is beginning to wonder if Stiff Little Fingers are losing their bearings. Here he reveals some of his misgivings to Bill Graham
From piano-plonking crooners to nihilistic electro-pop duos, the UK and US are bursting at the seams with fresh talent in 2007. Could there be a new Arctic Monkeys out there somewhere?
Martin McCann, lead singer of Sack has been ‘out’ for a number of years now. Here he talks about his homosexuality and its impact on his music. Interview: George Byrne.
Never mind the naysayers, Dublin 2006 is spilling over with white hot talent. Steve Cummins and Shilpa Ganatra run the rule over the capital's new breed.
At the end of the last decade, Philip King was best known as a founder member of Scullion and writer of the music to the Frank O’Connor translation of the Irish lyric ‘I Am Stretched On Your Grave’. However, since setting up Hummingbird Productions with his partners Nuala O’Connor and Kieran Corrigan in 1987, he has established himself as one of the country’s leading makers of films about Irish music and culture, including acclaimed series such as Bringing It All Back Home, A River Of Sound, and Sult. Here he talks to Peter Murphy about the current Irish climate for independent film-makers, his stop-start relationship with RTE, and post-Riverdance Irishry. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He was soccer s hardest man. Now he s in the process of becoming a genuine Hollywood star. Here VINNIE JONES talks to STUART CLARK about being mates with Madonna and Brad Pitt, his years with the Crazy Gang, and why he dislikes Johnny Giles
It's been ten years that's shaken a fair bit of the world and now, suddenly, OASIS are back. what better time for a reflective, confessional, candid and scandalous one-on-one with a man who always gives great quote, NOEL GALLAGHER. Interview: STUART CLARK
Has Madonna become the immaterial girl? Or will the Re-invention tour re-establish her as the foremost female icon on the planet? On the eve of her first ever Irish appearance at Slane, Peter Murphy takes a look at the strange twist the Queen of Pop’s career has taken – and how she is now fighting back, for all she’s worth.
Dublin up’n’comers The Marshals (formerly known as The Marshal Stars) kick off 2006 as they mean to go on, with a spate of live outings and new record releases.
