Brian Wilson is among the most influential forces in modern music and created, in The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, what many music fans agree is the greatest record ever made. In February he takes his world tour to Dublin's Point Theatre and Stephen Robinson asks what's on the set-list
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the second of a three-part series, Jackie Hayden meets IRMA winner, Hot Press Readers' Poll champion and Pet Sounds-smith Tom Dunne
"Why aren't (insert fave newish band here) playing Witnness?" we hear you gripe. Well, Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds (Today FM, weekdays 7 to 9pm) are giving you the chance to vote your favourite Witnness Rising artist right onto the festival bill. Done and done
Having stopped touring with the band two years previously, head Boy Brian Wilson set about creating what could really be his solo masterpiece, provoked by The Beatles’ most recent works to go beyond the formulaic limitations of your average pop song.
Rarely has anyone taken pop so seriously as Sean O'Hagan. Like a rocket scientist who hasn't left the lab in 20 years, O'Hagan has spent a beach's worth of hourglasses in recording studios trying to find the formula that will lead him to make the Pet Sounds of today. Snowbug is probably the closest he's come yet.
Smile, as every amateur rock historian knows, is the great lost Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks project, abandoned after the commercial failure of Pet Sounds and Wilson’s descent into drug-induced paranoia.
Songs like ‘Sentimental Heart’, a concerto for piano, strings and Pet Sounds haberdashery, suggest this pair are as natural a songwriting team as Karen and Richard.
The perfect pop record: it’s an elusive goal. Some people say Pet Sounds, others any one of a rake of great singles from the collected works of Abba. In either case, they wouldn’t be far wide of the mark. But the magic pop gene also disports itself in all sorts of musically diverse situations, from ‘We Are Family’ by Sister Sledge, through ‘Perfect’ by Fairground Attraction, to ‘There She Goes’ by the Las.
Over the past number of years, Today FM has consistently supported Irish music, playlisting records by local artists and doing in-studio sessions on a regular basis. in the process the station has played an important part in the increasingly impressive chart and sales achievements of irish acts.
Sandwiched between his Glastonbury triumph and his Live 8 appearance in Berlin, the former Beach Boy and pop genius came to Dublin for what surely must’ve been the most intimate show on his current tour.
A brace of new albums from Lambchop suggests the soundbyte generation is ready for something more substantial. Eamon Sweeney talks it out with Kurt Wagner.
Compositional genius, musical visionary, tormented genius – Brian Wilson is many things, but a garrulous interviewee is not one of them. Peter Murphy undergoes strenuous discourse with one of the true icons of ‘60s culture.
Hotpress.com brings you our exclusive first photos from Oxegen '08. Our man Graham Keogh was up front to catch all the action for headliners Kings Of Leon, along with Interpol, Cat Power and Friendy Fire.
“Come up and see my snails sometime,” is hardly the best chat-up line ever coined, but an undaunted Jackie Hayden decides to brave all and call on Today FM jockette Ann-Marie Kelly.
Though soaked in the musical culture of Southern California, female-fronted indie quartet Saucy Monky say there’s an undeniably Irish strain to their music.
When it comes to meeting musical legends, few people have hobbed with as many rock ’n’ roll nobs as Blondie.
Kicking back before their recent Vicar St. show – an amazing night, in case you’re wondering – Clem Burke and Chris Stein are recalling some of their choicest encounters.
As he prepares for the release of his band s third album, Cold And Bouncy, high llamas mainman
sean o hagan tells an awestruck
nick kelly exactly why there s always been a Beach Boys element to his music.
Neil Young, the Pixies and the Beach Boys are just some of the influences that Californian quintet grandaddy include in their own particular brew. Tape: nick kelly.
AIR's latest outing is the kind of thing that gives the soundtrack a good name. JONATHAN O'BRIEN talks to the finest French musical outfit since LITTLE BOB STOREY!
Since swapping Dublin for Los Angeles, hotly-tipped indie rockers La Rocca have experienced all the ludicrous pleasures and extremes of the City of Angels. Here, they regale us with tales from their California exile.
Paul Weller has a reputation as one of the most truculent men in pop, with a deep-seated dislike of the promotional process. But with the release of his latest solo album Illumination, the man who once led The Jam and the Style Council agreed to put himself in the firing line. Looking back over a career that's studded with success, he's reflective and forthright - but the anger that inspired much of The Jam's finest output still burns
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.
After two years of being that bloke who used to be in the Stone Roses, John Squire is back in the saddle with The Seahorses. On the eve of their Heineken Green Energy appearance at Dublin Castle, Madchester s answer to Jimmy Page talks to Stuart Clark about old friends, new challenges and his penchant for obscure Belfast punk bands.
With their fifth album Push The Button, the Chemical Brothers have replaced big beats and star names with subtlety and even the odd anti-war protest tune.
Raised in the Bible belt, Kings Of Leon have fallen in love with the devil’s music. In an exclusive interview, they explain why rock ‘n roll is just like preaching and reveal what’s in store on their next album.
Trip-hop legend Tricky on how he's falling in love with Europe, why he's dying to work with Kylie and why if you live in a rough part of the UK, it's best to carry a knife.
To coincide with the release of the Today FM DJ’s double-CD compilation tracking the history of alternative rock in Ireland, Tom Dunne talks to Jackie Hayden about the state of Irish music, singer-songwriters versus guitar bands and the role of Irish radio.
It’s time for the singer-songwriter fraternity to move over and make room for the new generation of Irish guitar bands. Director, Marshal Stars and The Blizzards are just three of the acts who feature on the debut compilation from Faction Records, the new label which aims to promote and nuture the brightest stars of the Irish underground.
Steeped in classic sixties West Coast pop styles, albeit with a futuristic edge, this LA trio have a recent history that most like-minded outfits would kill for. They not only appeared on the first Austin Powers movie soundtrack but, far more impressively, they form the core of Brian Wilson's 12- piece backing band on his current stateside tour.
Ten, nine, eight… we count down the contenders for 2003. Words Hannah Hamilton, Colin Carberry, Niall Stokes, Richard Brophy, John Walshe, Eamon Sweeney and Stuart Clark
After an undoubtedly slack 2003, 2004 was the year in which TV comedy once again came into its own. In addition to to further series from Monkey Dust, Peep Show, Little Britain, 15 Storeys High and Curb Your Enthusiasm, there were also excellent new shows in the shape of The Smoking Room, The Mighty Boosh, Nighty Night and Catterick. In particular, the forum for alternative humour provided by BBC3 and BBC4 continued to provide an invaluable creative outlet for the oddballs, misfits and mavericks of British comedy.
BECK is one of the most eclectically talented musicians of his generation. STUART CLARK sees the man play a stormer at Witnness and hears him talk about fame, musical obsession, heroes like Bowie and Black Sabbath and 'Britney fascism'
You’ve grown your hair and want to make a bitching rock record. Who do you call? Arctic Monkeys tell Stuart Clark about their remarkable journey from Sheffield to the Mojave.
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
The ace bass in the STONE ROSES and PRIMAL SCREAM, MANI is the living embodiment of the concept of largin it . In Ireland to dee-jay and hang out, he sinks a few beers and offers his uniquely colourful thoughts on music, Man U, drugs, Thatcher, Reagan, Blair and Bill Clinton s blow-jobs. Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
Leaving behind his desk job, Paul Oakenfold has enlisted a galaxy of stars to perform vocal duties on hs new album Bunkka including Tricky, Nelly Furtado and, uh,
Hunter S. Thompson
...cos it's mano-a-mano combat time for Petronella and Sutras, the two remaining competitors of the Bacardi Hot Press Song of the Year competition. Put up your dukes
It’s been a hell of a year for The Thrills, propelled from rehearsal rooms in rainy Dublin to a number one album, sell-out shows and limo-driven tours of L.A. at night. Hotpress catches up with the band as they kick off an irish homecoming trek with an exclusive Dublin fan club gig.
The last 18 months have been a hell of a ride for The Thrills, catapulted from the relative obscurity of the south dublin suburbs to the top of the uk charts, rubbing shoulders with Van Dyke Parks and Peter Buck along the way. But are the band suffering from diver’s bends? is that laid-back california-in-my-mind facade starting to crumble? We put on our therapist’s hats and endeavour to find out, if something’s gotta give, what gives?
Or should that be The Clash? Well no, actually, cos there's no Clash, Damned or Pistols in 1999. But there s still joe strummer, who was there when Shane got his ear bitten off and, 22 years later is back for his own second bite with THE MESCALEROS. I ve seen everything that it s possible to see go down and I ve survived it, he tells STUART CLARK who finds himself shanghaied on a ferry to Stranraer.
Main pix: MICHAEL QUINN.
Heard the one about the Irishman, the Bronx and the tab of industrial-strength acid? Stuart Clark hadn t either until that most eligible of bachelors, David Holmes, talked him through the mad month in New York that inspired his Let s Get Killed album.
While the path to rock n roll stardom is never smooth, RICHARD ASHCROFT has experienced more ups and downs than most. In a wide-ranging interview with DAVE FANNING, he talks about drugs, The Verve, his new solo album and why the old hometown doesn t look so bad.
There are no saints in love. That’s a lesson The Frames’ mainman Glen Hansard learned the hard way – and which he articulates in the bittersweet love songs that make up much of the band’s new album The Cost. Hot Press hits the road with the band for an extended interview, conducted in radio studios, backstage areas, tour buses – and one very dedicated fan’s house.
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
The Red Hot Chili Peppers visited Lansdowne Road, Dublin on July 8 but we caught up with the band in Paris recently and heard why the west coast warriors of funk-rock have never been hotter
What links Richard Harris with Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel with The Supremes, and Frank Sinatra with er, Ghost Of An American Airman? Why, the music of Jimmy Webb, of course, one of the most widely-respected songwriters of all-time. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his friendship with Richard Harris, his encounters with Elvis and his deep-rooted love of Irish music.
The Heineken Green Room Sessions will travel to County Kilkenny in September. The Super Furry Animals will headline the fourth gig of the 2005 sessions on Wednesday 28 September in Langtons.
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.
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.
Half way through the second track, ‘Boss Of Me’ and we’re back in familiar territory – toe-tapping guitar pop with a chorus as infectious as a regurgitated bacteria sandwich.
Over the course of a whole album their inherent idiosyncrasies can wear a bit thin.
I suppose there’s no law requiring any change in style by a band’s fifth album, and if a good mixture of grunge and pop sensibilities floats your boat then you’ll be happy enough with this.
"THE WEEN diet of mind enhancing drugs has been replaced with alcohol and pharmaceuticals, giving the band new insight into the psyche of working class America."
Fierce Northern Irish guitarristas Indigo Fury win Bacardi / Hot Press Plugged Band Of The Year - and go home with no less than EUR30,000 worth of music industry goodies. Congratulations! ...Lend us a tenner, willya
He’s still capable of the odd moment of genius, and his place in the pantheon of rock greats is more or less sacrosanct, but Gettin’ In Over My Head singularly fails to reach the stratospheric standards Brian Wilson has previously set himself.
Lending a new meaning to the phrase ‘genre-hopping’, this atrociously-named outfit serve up a thoroughly weird, studiedly eccentric sort of neo-psychedelic stew, fusing elements of prog-rock, electronica and lightweight summertime pop into a multi-faceted concoction that defies all rational explanation
A few hours after Bono hoisted up Trimble and Hume s arms at the Yes show, I found myself trying to buy drinks at a city centre bar and having a strange conversation with a well known local politician. A prominent face during the pro-Agreement campaign, I d assumed that he d be delighted with the way that the gig had panned out. But no, he shrugged off the entire occasion as a bubbly inconsequence and said that the Yes camp would be lucky to get 68% of the vote. For someone convinced that his cause was on the cusp of a massive historical defeat, he didn t appear to be overly upset. In fact, he seemed happy enough showing off his Larry Mullan Jr autograph and blaming the Unionists.
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.
Morty McCarthy, drummer with the Sultans of Ping and unreconstructed Corkman, is teaching English in Stockholm University. He gives us the lowdown on local attractions.
The new found confidence of Oxegen 08, more than made up for the overcast weather and chilly temperatures. Hot Press were there to catch the best of the best.
Further adventures in Witnness '03 - more video interviews, reviews, gossip, pics and everything else that'll fit. It's the next best thing to being there
Recorded in a day across various locations by a cast of 22, Help! A Day In The Life is the second WarChild album, the objective being to raise funds for child victims of global conflict.
Pet sounds of Ulster: Kharma 45, The Undertones, Triggerman, Red Organ Serpent Sound and the late great Billy Browne. Not to mention masturbating monkeys.
The finalists, chosen from the hundreds of entries received, were all winners of the regional heats that had taken place up and down the country since January
Irish songstress Camille O'Sullivan wowed the crowds at the Pet Sounds stage at Oxegen earlier today, with an energetic and sultry set of old and new favourites.
The Irish radio awards took place on Friday, and saw East Coast walk away the overall winners for the music programming, for their East Coast lunch show. Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds, meanwhile, won the award for the best specialist music show.
