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
I wonder if My Bloody Valentine were aware of the avalanche they were about to trigger when they first took Belinda Butcher's airbrushed vocals and smothered them with layer upon layer of white noise guitar?
No longer content to be an indie under-achiever, Joe Chester has produced a solo album that owes as much to Fleetwood Mac as it does My Bloody Valentine. Interview by Maurice O'Brien.
While Electric Picnic did not lack for non-musical highlights, the hottest action was to be found on stage, where the likes of the Sex Pistols and My Bloody Valentine whipped up a storm.
The latest release from the Mr. Beast album, 'Travel Is Dangerous' shows why Alan McGee reckons Mogwai do shoegazing even better than My Bloody Valentine. There's an immense sense of brooding, emotional restraint during the verses, which give way to a stirring chorus. Genuinely powerful stuff.
Whether feeding dubious cups of coffee to celebrity chefs or coercing Joe Strummer to dress up as an Indian on Top Of The Pops, Alex James is a man who knows how to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of life.
From Oasis to The Ping Pong Bitches, ALAN McGEE is living proof that there s life after
success, excess, Labour, near-death and, oh yes, Creation Records. Even if you re a Rangers
supporter. Interview: STUART CLARK
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.
Having wowed David Bowie into a collaboration, Brooklyn’s TV On The Radio – an idiosyncratic mesh of Spiritualized, The Beach Boys, Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine – have seen their profile spiral skyward.
For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.
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’).
Hearts And Unicorns opens as it means to continue, with a dreamy blast of feedback and blizzard drifts of melody. There are cooed vocals and weird dissonant surges – think ‘90s college rock pin-up Tanya Donnelley warbling over a My Bloody Valentine fade-out.
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.
The Sex Pistols are back! In what has the look of a major coup for the event, punk’s great trailblazers are among this year’s headliners at Electric Picnic 2008, which takes place in Stradbally over the final weekend in August.
From Radiohead to Springsteen, the twelve months ahead are already packed with highlights. But will Led Zeppelin be among the group’s hitting the comeback trail?
Former My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields in among those interviewed in a new documentary on the shoegazing movement. Billy Corgan and Trent Reznor also feature.
The Jesus & Mary Chain are playing their first Irish gig in over seven years as part of May's Heineken Green Energy Festival. Stuart Clark appreciates their god-like genius.
MAZZY STAR are still going strong, but HOPE SANDOVAL has also got a side project up and running. She tells NICK KELLY all about
HOPE SANDOVAL AND THE WARM INVENTIONS and her collaborations with everyone from The Chemical Brothers to Bert Jansch
Having shifted from playing drums in “loud, noisy rock bands” to becoming a Hot Press contributor in 1996, Peter Murphy has fast gained a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading journalists.
Following on from Hot Press' extensive polling of musicians around Ireland, we herewith present The 100 Greatest Irish Albums Of All Time as voted by You, the population of hotpress.com
In 2007, Hot Press will celebrate its 30th anniversary. By way of a prelude to the up-coming festivities, at Music Ireland ‘06, we will be unveiling the Hot Press Covers Exhibition featuring a selection of the great, and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards...
Their odd-ball sound is hard to pin down, but that hasn’t prevented indie rockers 8 Ball from becoming one of the most buzzed about Irish groups on the scene.
Despite having Kevin Shields stolen away from them by Gemma Hayes, Primal Scream are in the best shape of their careers. So says Bobby Gillespie in a no punches pulled interview.
Rollerskate Skinny frontman Ken Griffin is back with an ace new band, Favourite Sons. And, would you believe it, they’re the toast of New York’s rock scene. Even Jack White’s a convert.
Who said trad music was for fogeys and whiskery aul' fellas? Spook of the Thirteenth Lock draw on old-timey Irish sounds whilst also referencing prog and nu-gaze
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.
Astronomical record sales, sell-out tours and critical plaudits have not dimmed Coldplay's reputation as the worried men of pop. Bassist Guy Berryman gives us the lowdown.
Underground heroes for the best part of a decade, French soft-rockers Phoenix look set to break-big with their latest album. They talk about drawing inspiration from the annals, and hanging out with Francis Ford Coppola
Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes, from Death in Vegas, explain how they survived Big Beat, made one of the albums of the year and ended up working with their heroes.
Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
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.
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.
Oh, the irony! That well-known abuser of ears, Kevin Shields, is one of the people opposing the granting of a late licence to the Room 68 bar in the Hampstead area of London.
Well, a little about it, at least. JONATHAN O'BRIEN discovers that jim REID
doesn't have too much to say about The Jesus And Mary Chain's seventh album, Munki.
hey’re the biggest thing to hit indie-pop in years, with a slew of day-glo hits and a reputation for partying until they drop. Ahead of their Electric Picnic headline slot, MGMT discuss falling out with Nicolas Sarkozy, their new base in sun-dappled Malibu and their work-in-progress new album. words
DOMINO RECORDS has released some of the most essential music of the 90 s by the likes of Sebadoh, Palace Brothers, and Elliott Smith. NICK KELLY talks to lynchpin Laurence Bell and one member of the label s current roster, Stephen Pastel of The Pastels.
From the profound and the insightful to the weird, funny and just plain daft, Paul Nolan rounds up what the famous and infamous had to say for themselves in 2004...
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
The soundtrack to Icelandic director Einar Mar Gudmundsson's movie Englar alheimsins (Angels Of The Universe) was predominantly composed and aranged by fellow countryman Hilmar Vrn Hilmarsson and unfortunately merely features two Sigur Rss tracks already available on the 'N4y Batterm' single over here.
THE UNDERTONES have played a series of triumphant gigs since reforming. GEORGE BYRNE met the Derry punk legends, now augmented by Today FM producer Paul McLoone on vocals
Why they really should have been called Super Feathery Birds, the pleasant job of signing breasts, how Don Henley bought their tank and the worst welsh swear words ever. Hannah Hamilton pops the readers’ questions...
Why they really should have been called Super Feathery Birds, the pleasant job of signing breasts, how Don Henley bought their tank and the worst welsh swear words ever. Hannah Hamilton pops the readers’ questions...
Hotly-tipped art-rock outfit Headgear fuse bed-sit miserablism with a masterful pop instinct. But what’s former D’Unbelievable Pat Shortt doing on sax duty?
Hot Press crime correspondent STUART CLARK
preaches zero tolerance to MASSIVE ATTACK and in return gets the
lowdown on their new album, Bruce n Tarby-style hobnobbing with Radiohead, and why Bristol City piss all over Bristol Rovers
Bobby Gillespie's still staying up all night but now it's because there's a baby in the house. Otherwise, it's all systems go for Primal Scream at their bunker hq - Witnness cometh, Mani's back and Kate Moss, Kevin Shields, Robert Plant and AndrewWeatherall all feature on the groundbreaking evil high
Though their second album, All The Way From Tuam, has yet to hit the shops in Britain, The Sawdoctors are beginning to pack em in in the strangest of places like Norwich and Leeds. Bill Graham talks to Leo Moran about the band s phenomenal success to date and, against a backdrop of cynicism among rock s self-conscious cognoscenti, asks the perennial question: what is hip?
They may be named after the cute and cuddly creature from Gremlins, but the noisefest Mogwai inflict on the eardrums is more like the after effects of nuclear fallout. John Walshe met them.
During the heady days of Italia ’90, The Stunning provided the unofficial soundtrack to the nation’s summer-long party, playing a series of uproarious shows around the country and treating the top-ten like their local. thirteen years later, having just re-released their classic album, Paradise In The Picturehouse, the group reflect on what a long, strange trip it’s been and why they’re not ready to hang up their guitars just yet.
Super Furry Animals are yet another Welsh band poised for huge success on the back of their new album. They talk to STUART CLARK about their rejection of Brit Pop, strange Japanese fans and the glory days of The Free Wales Army. Pics of Super Furry Animals with super furry animals: Mick Quinn.
As Duke Special set off for a jaunt around Europe with the Divine Comedy, our correspondent hitched a ride on the tour bus. In between the sound-checks and the motor-way pitstops, he received a unique insight into the life of the touring musician.
In a rare interview, DJ, Sabres Of Paradise mainman and all-round geezer andrew weatherall tells stuart clark about why he won t be working with Primal Scream again, comes clean about his Van Morrison obsession, and does his best not to slag off Kula Shaker and Mansun.
Stuart Clark, whose middle name is “Intrepid”, recently spent 48 hours on tour with PET LAMB, grindpopcore merchants extraordinaire. His liver and tympanic membranes survived intact, and after a mere six weeks recuperation, he filed this report.
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.
Although the acclaimed C Mon Kids was conspicuous by its absence from the
Best-Of-96 polls, The Boo Radleys sice and martin carr aren t bitter. As they prepare for an assault on the States, peter murphy gets the lowdown on their hatred of videos, their contempt for producers and their disapproval of outfits such as Dodgy, The Lightning Seeds and Everything But The Girl.
Here is an album that is effortlessly beautiful, devoid of emotional grandeur (or delusions thereof), yet is understated, simple and cool for all the right reasons.
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
The sub-title says it all. You really couldn't sum up Alan McGee's arrogant revisionism of British music in the last fifteen or so years in a better and more overblown phrase. Despite the illusions of grandeur, there is no denying Creation's mighty influence.
They were the coolest band on the planet – until the backlash started. Now The Strokes have released their most ambitious album yet. Can they leave their past behind?
Around this time last year, American Whip was being treated to the kind of rave reviews that might have suggested it would feature in many people’s albums of the year lists. Problem was, it was never actually released due to label legal wrangles.
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
It’s Christmas time and, as far as the hotpress journalistic elite are concerned, there’s not a turkey in sight. JOHN WALSHE, COLIN CARBERRY, CHRIS DONOVAN, EAMON SWEENEY and BARRY O'DONOGHUE report on the Irish acts who are going to be huuuuuuuuge!
over the next 12 months.
Back in their terrifying heyday, they threw pigs’ heads around on stage, covered themselves in muck, provided Marilyn Manson with a career and wrote ‘Community Games’ for Aidan Walsh. Having escaped the clutches of a sinister born-again Christian turned transvestite, they’re now making movies with Neil Jordan, dining with Damien Hirst and consorting with Tony Blair. All in all, it’s been a long, strange trip for The Virgin Prunes
He’s the joker in the Irish music pack, a working class hero who has at once conquered and subverted the mainstream. For his first album in six years JERRY FISH and his MUDBUG CLUB have also roped in some top-tier collaborators including rockabilly queen Imelda May and Carol Keogh.
Gone is the major label deal, along with most of The Ataris' members, and Welcome The Night sees them return as a seven-piece, complete with cello player and handling their own affairs.
Underdogs who've clawed their way into the top flight, Setanta Records, like Wimbledon, are a premiership act - with attitude. stuart clark gets the rags to (comparative) riches story from label boss, Dubliner Keith Cullen and also seeks the considered opinions of boys-done-well, Neil Hannon and Edwyn Collins.
As over the top it may sound, the best way of describing Mogwai's music comes in a sample from their first LP Mogwai Young Team; "if the stars had a sound, they would sound like this."
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.
With Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous putting rock hackery on the silver screen, no less, Peter Murphy wonders if Seventies rock journalism is the new rock n roll. Helping him with his enquiries: PAUL MORLEY and GREIL MARCUS
Electro-pop duo Oppenheimer have a very strong melodic sensibility, which means that, for all the sonic experimentation, the songs remain very accessible.
The stakes are high, and BOC raise the benchmark further by opting for a final selection of 23 tracks sprawled across a lush electro-symphonic soundscape
This particular Northern light has lent his distinctive guitar and vocal style to a host of collectives and collaborators over the years –from Snow Patrol and The Reindeer Section to Juliet Turner and Ursula Burns.
This venture is the brainchild of former punk folk-poet Patrick Fitzgerald (then Patrik) also famed for his efforts with Kitchens Of Distinction, and written and recorded in deepest, darkest Connemara.
Dundalk upstarts Walter kick off proceedings with their upbeat piano-based tunes akin to that of current 'it' bands Keane and Hal - an impressive performance which hints that this band are bound for higher plains...
As skyscrapers, lightning storms, and oceans blaze above them in lieu of further communiques, it becomes clear that this wordless, relentless music is in desperate love/hate with planet earth, testing the boundaries of its ugliness and majesty
There are some pretty sonic snippets throughout the evening, but none seem to be stretched over the course of a full track, instead becoming lost in a hurricane of furiously-pounded electric guitar.
Ambient but not a dance album, modern-classical without any of the academic seriousness or rigidity that connotes, and finally a world-beating, thoroughly modern pop record, this marvellous debut from Dubliner Daniel Figgis is an impressionistic gem.
Three cheers for Peter Fleming. The former Scheer bassist is the man responsible for the band's second album finally seeing the light of day, four years after their debut, Infliction, and a year and a half since they split up. . .
A real humdinger of a noisefest which firmly refutes charges of noodling self-indulgence and stays well wide of any meandering musical cul de sacs, apart from the very best kind
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.
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.
IN THE benighted 1980s, the charts were full of whites trying to sound black: anti-rock outpourers like Mick Hucknall, Annie Lennox, Hue ... Cry, Bono, Kevin Rowland, all baring their beige-coloured souls, wasting their time in slavish imitation of James Brown, Curtis Mayfield et al.
THERE WAS a time when the magical words "for charity" were the guarantee of any old tat selling a million but nowadays, cynicism being what it is, there has to be musical substance to the good intentions.
Today sees the first unveiling of the complete Hot Press Covers Exhibition online, featuring a selection of the great and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards
With the same old trad royalty still being treated with grovelling reverence, promoter and manager David Caren thinks it stime the young and innovative got their dues. But will it happen? Report: SIOBHAN LONG.
Yes, the incessant downpour ensured that Punchestown Racecourse often looked more like the set of a World War 1 epic than a music festival, but the rain couldn't dampen the 80,000-strong Oxegen crowd's spirits, not to mention the fiery performances delivered by Arctic Monkeys, Franz, The Who, the Chili Peppers and a cast of, well, hundreds.
Learn from the best with a wide range of workshops and master classes from some of Ireland's finest musicians, and some others from further afield. The workshops on offer this year include 'How To Get A Kick-Ass Recording' by the Bodytonic Crew, and master classes in drumming by Bobby Arechiga (in association with Meinl Cymbals), as well as much, much more...
Well, reader, we ve finally reached the end of our journey, after navigating our way across the length and breadth of the 32 counties (and detouring briefly to New York for a tincture of the tastiest in that honorary 33rd county).
