The border counties may not exactly be a hotbed of indie rock but that hasn’t stopped Monaghan hopefuls The Flaws from producing one of the year’s most mesmerising debuts.
Faction records is to release a new compilation of Irish acts, Faction 2, next month, featuring ten up-and-coming artists including The Flaws and Television Room.
Available as a free download from their website, The Flaws' new single does little to justify their increasingly hyped reputation. Though ‘Out Tonight’ is a fine surge of pop-punk delivered at breakneck speed, it isn’t particularly memorable. Little here will set the Carrickmacross lads apart from a host of new acts plying the same territory.
It’s remarkable that Carickmacross’s The Flaws can produce something so mature and confident with their first proper release. ‘No Room’ is majestic, with its understated verses providing a launchpad from which frontman Paul Finn can soar to spectacular heights in the chorus.
In another life, he would be holding those epic notes all the way to the final of The X Factor. But such a waste doesn’t bear thinking about.
Monaghan sensations The Flaws talk to Hotpress.com about their incredible year. Plus, revisit their live acoustic set in the Hot Press Chatroom at Electric Picnic
Paddy Casey is just one of a host of the nation's finest acts at the Sennheiser Live Stage for two days of great live music. Fresh from releasing his Addicted To Company album this month, Paddy plays a set on Saturday evening, and will be joined over the weekend by The Frank & Walters, The Walls, The Flaws, Neosupervital, Royseven, Dirty Epics, The Kinetiks and Messiah J & The Expert, with lots more yet to be announced.
The sun shone on our Sunday Chatroom, with talkative adventures aplenty and guests The Flaws, Gemma Hayes, Mark Geary, Hadouken, Foals, The Roots, Michael Franti and more!
Three bands, 10 venues, 12 dates, four DJ comperes and two high-profile corporate sponsors, including the official national pop station. Jackie Hayden talks to the bands scheduled to play this year’s RTÉ 2fm 2moro 2our, coming to a town near you.
Formed when they were fresh-faced school kids, border country gloomsters Sanzkrit are at long last set to unleash their debut album. You could say they’re looking forward to finally getting stuck in.
From Sister Sledge to The Spikes, plus non musical attractions such as massage, fortune-telling and art exhibitions, Castle Palooza promises a festival in the conventional sense of the word.
Beating off strong competition from the Electric Penguins and The Flaws, Single Of The Fortnight goes to O’Rourke’s haunting ‘Big Bad Beautiful World’. O’Rourke’s effortlessly deep voice is captivating, and if this track is any measure of his forthcoming album, then we are in for a treat come August.
Monaghan via Louth three-piece Green Lights release their Time To Tell The Parents EP this Friday, followed by an Irish tour – including a date with Duke Special.
Le Cheile have revealed the previsionary line-up for this year's August festival, which will feature appearances from the likes of Cathy Davey, Republic Of Loose and Damien Dempsey.
Cheeky lads: on the sleeve of the single, they’re self-described as “one of Ireland’s premier rock bands”. They are? Because that must have been declared while I was busy listening to everyone from The Flaws to Therapy?. Still, given time, it’s not an impossible objective for Ronan Power and company. Containing the maximum riffage legally allowed, the heavier end of the rock spectrum is fully explored in the space of these three songs – from Alice In Chains-stylings on ‘Inside’ to the shadows of Nickelback on ‘Raged’ – a killer ballad which oppositely to its sound is a big, screaming siren that this is a band to watch.
The local support acts have been unveiled for the RTÉ 2fm 2moro 2our, which finds Messiah J & The Expert, Giveamanakick and The Flaws zapping round the country for a goodly part of May.
Clash legend Mick Jones, his Carbon/Silicon and Generation X counterpart Tony James, Elbow and The Flaws are among the stars set to appear at this year's Hot Press Chatroom at the Electric Picnic
Cathy Davey’s Tales Of Silversleeve has been installed as the 5-2 favourite to win this year’s Choice Music Prize, which is worth a none too shabby €10,000 to the winner.
Music Ireland ’07 has scored a major coup by getting Prince drummer John Blackwell to grace the Sennheiser Live Stage at the October 5 to 7 event in the Dublin RDS.
Spirit Store announces their upcoming gigs for the weeks leading up to Christmas and into the New Year with acts including Director, The Flaws, Declan O'Rourke and more.
The IMRO Showcase Tour returns for its 17th year in spring 2008, and hundreds of Irish acts are expected to join the race for a highly coveted slot at one of the nationwide series of gigs.
Of the many festivals that took place over the Bank Holiday weekend, Indie-Pendence – previously known as the Mitchelstown Music Festival, but since raised a level or three in the coolness stakes – had the most to offer, yet was the most precarious.
The great and the good where out in force for a rockin' night with live performances by The Flaws, Talulah Does The Hula and Vengeance And The Panther Queen
Aslan were the unexpected winners of the night at the Meteor Ireland Music awards, beating off competition from the likes of Ash, Delorentos and the Flaws to take the title of Best Irish Band.
Music lovers of the world, unite and take over! Whether you play music, work in music, want a career in music or just love to listen, don’t miss Music Ireland ’07 – the country’s biggest music show and exhibition.
The legacy of a punk great is scrutinised in a new documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. Filmmaker Julien Temple explains what motivated him to make a movie about his old friend.
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.
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.
Never mind the Champions League, if it’s fierce competition you’re after look no further than the National Student Music Awards. Doing his third level best to pick the winner: Neil Brennan.
I thought I was doomed to a night of generic college guitar bands trying to be the next Frames, but was instead treated to well-written and strongly performed music.
From circus dwarves, incest and lesbian love affairs to severed organs and transvestite Indian brothels, John Irving’s novels are awash with enough tales of screwball sex and lurid violence to make even Quentin Tarantino blush. With his mammoth new 633-page novel A Son Of The Circus just published, the multi-million selling New Hampshire author indulges in a spot of verbal wrestling with liam fay, who discovers why he should keep this particular tête-à-tête purely literary. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
The Corrs Talk On Corners was the biggest-selling album of 1998 in the UK. So far it s shifted 6 million copies worldwide and rising. And now the band are set to embark on their American campaign, with who knows what ultimate destination at journey s end. So they ve had it easy, eh? It s all a big marketing scam, masterminded by the moguls in the American record company that signed them? We thought you d like to know so we put these and other accusations to someone who should know, their manager of nine years, john hughes. And got some interesting answers too. Interview: niall stokes.
This issue, Hot Press magazine comes with a stunning cover mount CD. Here’s your track by track guide to this exclusive collectors’ item, featuring the winners and headline acts from Murphy’s Live 2007. Click here to buy the mag and get your free CD!
“All men are bastards” Country star trisha yearwood firmly believed – until she met the one who would become her husband. Here, she talks to Joe Jackson about how her marriage to Robert Reynolds of The Mavericks has changed the way she looks at the opposite sex. She also discusses her rivalry with LeAnn Rimes, and the darker side of the Nashville country ’n’ western scene.
Pix: Cathal Dawson
From dark age to middle age, Nick Cave is such a far cry from the blood-spilling junkie of rock legend that these days you’re likely to encounter him commuting to his 9 to 5. Except of course that his job is writing and making music, his new album is called Nocturama and there are, he admits, some sizeable blow-outs in the memory banks.
Oppenheimer, Jinx Lennon, Joe Rooney and his very special comedy guests are the latest additions to the Hot Press Chatroom at this weekend's Electric Picnic.
David Holmes, whose latest album The Holy Pictures received a resounding thumbs up in the latest issue of Hot Press, will join the Hot Press Chatroom at the Electric Picnic.
Grand Pocket Orchestra and Joe Echo will be making the trip to Charleville Castle, Co. Offaly, courtesy of the Hot Press 'Your Band At Castlepalooza' competition.
The results of the last Tisch competition, where Irish artists get their video made courtesy of talented students from the Tisch School Of Arts, New York University, are in.
There are moments during the set where everything sounds a little samey, and FKOS don’t put on the thrilling rock show that various parts of tonight’s performance hint at.
Fresh from their appearance at the BudRising Spring festival, Dublin's Delorentos return with a new single, support slots and a headline tour of their own.
Fresh from wowing the crowd and walking away with the prize at the National Student Music Awards The Delorentos will play Whelan's, Dublin in May as part of The IMRO Showcase Tour.
Those going to the Hard Working Class Heroes musicfest in Dublin next weekend (August 26-9) will be mighty thrilled to learn that there will be a series of lunchtime in-stores at Tower Records as a taster for what the three-day event holds.
Saturday was chatterday here in the Hot Press Chatroom, with appearances from Josh Ritter, The Stunning, Elbow, Oppenheimer, Cathy Davey and That Petrol Emotion.
Has an award ceremony in Ireland ever created such an optimistic buzz, or such a feverish sense of righteousness among the music community as the Choice Music Prize?
Swords fly, blood splatters and comely wenches wobble like never before in glorious motion capture animation. You wonder why the filmmaker didn’t, you know, go and make a real film.
I cannot tell you how appalled I am by the explicit sexual content in Michael Winterbottom’s latest. There’s but one lousy cum shot, Ms. Stilley’s breasts look steamrolled flat and our central couples’ idea of kinking things up involves knee high boots and blindfolds. I mean, yawn. This might pass for filth among incredibly sheltered fifteen year olds, but really, this is coy first date stuff.
This fortnight's Hot Press is our Electric Picnic special to celebrate we've teamed with O2 to put together a collection of the best Irish talent to grace the festival in a 16 track free CD. There’s something here for everyone; in fact, it’s the perfect picnic spread! Not only that, but we've got some of the bands in question to preview the festival for you (and us!!)
hotpress.com can exclusively reveal the hundred or so acts that are getting offered a slot at the prestigious Hard Working Class Heroes Festival 2005. Selected by over 25 judges including the likes of Thrills & Humanzi manager Allan Cullivan
An old friend. A warm place. A moment of rare intimacy. Lust takes its own wonderful shape. Having slept together before, what difference would one more trip through the wild undergrowth make?
Elvis was first sighted in a 7-Eleven in central London, sneering at the staff while purchasing cigarettes and condoms, looking for all the world like the new king of rock'n'roll, shabbily dressed and sharp-tongued, a man with a mission. It seems such a long time ago, now.
From U2 to The Frames and Sinead O’Connor to Damien Rice, music has helped put this country on the map. So why is the government so slow to back the music industry?
Your live set's honed to perfection, you're tighter than the proverbial duck's posterior in rehearsal but how are you going to persuade that hotshot record company exec that it's more than his or her job's worth not to sign you? Colm O'Hare gets the lowdown from the experts on how to make the perfect demo.
