It would not be stretching the truth to say that JJ72 are currently Ireland’s tightest rock band, and the intimate surrounds of tonight’s venue only confirmed this.
JJ 72 have been hailed by some critics as the finest thing to come out of Ireland since U2 - and no wonder. With a hugely impressive debut album under their collective belt, the expectations are even higher for the follow-up, I To Sky. They share with their illustrious predecessors a predilection for intense songs of spiritual yearning - and a desire to make music that truly stands the test of time. But is it rock'n'roll?
It’s probably safe to say that the return of JJ72 hasn’t prompted mass celebrations in the street, such was the ‘hmm…whatever’ nature of the response to their previous output.
JJ72 aim to hot up the charts with a re-recorded, John Leckie-produced version of I To Sky track 'Always And Forever'. Read on for details of B-sides and the video
JJ72 are being cast as the great new hopes of Irish music. Intense, passionate and melodic, their music has captured an increasing number of fans. With a single in the UK Top Thirty and a debut album about to hit the shelves, they tell NIALL STANAGE how good they are and how good they want to be. Portrait of the Artists As A Young Band: MICK QUINN
Coldplay, White Stripes, Strokes, Queens, Garbage, Oasis, JJ72, Franz... With a whole slew of major albums in the pipeline, it looks like ‘05 will be the wrong year to kick that addiction to noise.
Ever since they first poked their tiny heads over the parapet of fame, Dublin's own JJ72 have always been the subject of ferocious debate on the Hot Press letters page. A tradition which continues apace on the hotpress.com messageboard ...
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.
RTÉ is doing its bit for Irish music with the 2FM 2moro 2our. Patrick Freyne went along to the live launch to catch a glimpse of the hit bands of the future.
Enter the maelstrom of I To Sky and you will hear the joyous sound of three musicians happening upon great musical moments, expressing them passionately and exuberantly, and then casting them aside to alight upon new gems
Along with the music, beer and scoffing, there was some serious talking done at the Electric Picnic. Shilpa Ganatra was taking notes as The Chalets, Flaming Lips, JJ72, Bob Mould, James Blunt, Tommy Tiernan, Declan O’Rourke and The Devlins were subjected to a public grilling by the Hot Press journalistic elite. And John Walshe.
Irish indie supergroup Concerto For Constantine have been announced as the support act for the Smashing Pumpkins' eagerly-anticipated visits to Dublin and Belfast.
Belfast, then Glasgow and NEXT STOP – the cover of the Radio Times?
Stuart Clark joins fast-rising Snow Patrol on Scottish manoeuvres. PICS: IAN McMURRAY
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.
The solid base of well-crafted songs complete with aching melodies, meandering vocals and evocative guitar lines set them far apart from the plethora of JJ72 covers bands currently choking the Dublin circuit.
The only way is up for JJ72, with a Virgin Radio priority playlisting in the bag and stints with Patrick Kielty and none other than Steve Lamacq on the cards
Suited and booted á la The Hives? Or socks on cocks á la Chilli Peppers? No, tonight’s headliners North Horizon take a somewhat more laidback sartorial approach: they all wear woolly hats.
But of course the clothes don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got the tunes, more of which later. Because first band up on an interestingly varied bill tonight is youthful three-piece The Hollow. Despite being together for only two months their front man’s haughty vocals and the slightly dark, understated rock with echoes of the likes of JJ72 and Interpol suggest there might be better to come once they gain experience.
Whatever JJ72 Version 2.0 might be, they’re no support band. A couple of years ago the trio would have had a shot at headlining here, but a new pragmatism has seeped into the music. They’ve condensed the sonic architectural shapes of I To Sky (an album not so much released as sent straight to tax write-off limbo) into byte sized synopses of what they do best.
We hope you're feeling hungry because on September 3 and 4 over 50 of the hottest live acts and DJs around are descending on Stradbally Estate in Laois for the Electric Picnic.
Two Icelandic natives who came together in London and have carved out a niche playing supremely melodic, melancholy pop music – boy-girl duo The Honeymoon look to be here for the long run.
They got their first break when their single featured on an ad for digital cameras. Now South Africa’s The Parlotones are setting out to conquer the world.
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
This year’s Heineken Green Energy festival has something for every music lover. Whether anthemic stadium rock (Snow Patrol) is your thing or you enjoy boisterous pop (Kaiser Chiefs), it’s a festival packed with sonic treats.
Reuben is one of the most innovative of the Irish comedy circuit’s new breed, a near-silent comic who’s character-based sketches are combined this month in a brand-new two-hour show. So what’s 98 FM’s funniest comedian got to say for himself then?
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
Our annual HP-7 summit brings together some of the pre-eminent movers and shakers in irish music to reflect on everything from backstage catering to the end of war, pestilence and famine. Your host: Stuart Clark.
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?
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
There are no guarantees of success in the music biz, but if you have what it takes there is plenty of expert help available to ensure you give it your best shot.
With the release of their fourth and finest album "For The Birds", THE FRAMES have zoomed straight into the Irish top ten for the first time. Now, with critical acclaim ringing in their ears, and their glowing fanbase sensing that something special may be about to take place, they prepare to take the Green Energy Weekend by storm. could it be their time has finally come? Interview: KIM PORCELLI. plus mainman GLEN HANSARD gives us a glimpse inside his private diary. out of frame: MICK QUINN
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
The HP-7 Summit is back with Michelle Doherty, Rocky O'Reilly, Niall Breslin, Mark Greaney, Niamh Farrell, Messiah J and Danny O'Donoghue sat around the only table that matters this Christmas.
Well when you've conquered the world, what else can the biggest band on the planet do except go into space? BONO and LARRY discuss matters cosmic and personal with Olaf Tyaransen
Antisocial has been a long time making its way from the studio to the record shop but the good news is that, like the famous scene in Ice Cold In Alex, the result was certainly worth waiting for.
Hot Press favourite Julie Feeney - whose superb 13 Songs took the inaugural Chioice Award earlier this year - and Humanzi have been picked by RTÉ 2fm to be Ireland's main representatives at the annual Eurosonic Festival.
Paul O'Reilly brings us Songs; Luc and the Platelets and The Warlords Of Pez say Let's Battle in the Storehouse; and Leagues and Robert Stephenson get famous
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.
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
When art student Roger Herbert set up fastfude.com as part of a term project, little did he know that five years later it would be one of Northern Ireland’s most popular and controversial music sites
JJ72 FANS DESPERATE for new material will be pleased, nay, thrilled to hear that the band are making a number of exclusives available through their .com website.
They've been called the last of the great punk rock bands, and although that's an accolade which smacks of revisionism, it does give some hint of The Pixies' colossal impact. In fact, you can still feel some of those aftershocks resonating through Nirvana, Bowie, JJ72, Fight Club and selected vodka ads.
Music Piracy is a continuing problem, and it s not just internet innovation which is fuelling its rise. COLM O HARE spoke to some of those trying to
preserve legitimate music
The foot-and-mouth crisis plunged the Irish live music scene into one of its most difficult phases. Now, however, the business is back – and flourishing. Report: COLM O'HARE
In the new Hot Press, Peter Murphy picks his 20 highlights from the last 35 years of home-grown alternative culture (in strictly chronological order!). Take a look and then have your say on the indie moments that rocked in your lifetime...
