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.
Last month the eternally under-rated indie outfit The Cribs released Ignore The Ignorant, easily their most ambitious and critically acclaimed record to date. Catching up with the band in Belfast Edwin McFee talks to Gary Jarman and new recruit Johnny Marr about press attention and expectations as well as hearing about how the former Smiths guitarist has found a new home with the brothers from Wakefield.
Hitherto of very little interest to anyone outside of the NME inner circle, the Cribs have decamped to New York to work with Alex Kapranos and, on this evidence at any rate, get quite a lot better. ‘Men’s Needs’ finds them a lot more focused than before and sounding like a proper band as opposed to a bunch of drunk teenagers, all of which is an improvement.
In music, as in journalism, one should always be wary of the exclamation mark. Too often it serves as a warning that the artist is trying a little too hard. The Cribs’ debut record features the dreaded punctuation point only once. However, it might as well be strewn everywhere, such is the project's eagerness to impress.
Not that we're complete stalkers or anything, but the Hot Press crack team did spend the majority of the Oxegen weekend camped outside the stars' dressing rooms waiting for video interviews with the hottest acts...
With the Moldy Peaches seemingly running out of juice, Jeffrey Lewis brings his brother Jack to Ireland for shows in CrawDaddy, Dublin (February 28) and McHugh’s Bar, Belfast (March 1).
Loved by the Kaiser Chiefs and bushy moustached Ukrainians alike, The Chalets have partied their way round most of the western world in recent months. Stuart Clark hears about backstage beerathons, ding dongs with Kele from Bloc Party and monkeys in track-suits.
As if it wasn’t already tasty enough, The Coral, Futureheads (pictured) and The Black Velvets have been added to the bill for the August 24 ViTal ’05 show in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens.
Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr and one-time Stone Roses vocalist Ian Brown are planning to write songs and record an album together, according to Brown.
As the masses prepare to descend on Punchestown, we dispatch Hannah Hamilton to assess the festival fitness of one of this year's Oxegen buzz bands, Franz Ferdinand.
The line-up for this year's Oxegen festival is getting bigger and better with the addition of many new Irish and international acts, including UK indie kids Editors.
With barely enough time to sober up following their Vicar St. headliner, The Chalets hotfooted it over to the UK where they’re playing two weeks of supports with The Cribs.
Have a listen to our exclusive playlist of some of our favourite Northern acts who are appearing on July 25 at the small but massive Glasgowbury festival in Draperstown, County Derry.
