The definite article

The Vines, The Datsuns, The Thrills, The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and now, direct from Donaghmede, we have The Things. What gives?

“When we named our band nearly two years ago there wasn’t the big ‘the’ thing going on,” explains Robbie, bass player of The Things. “And I really hate the one word name. I just think the ‘the’ describes it more of a group thing.” Fair enough. Joining the thriving ‘The’ fraternity can’t bode all too badly for this Northside Dublin band. At least they didn’t go for The Brady Bunch, or worse still, The Yokes.

It’s the story of a Robbie Brady and his two buddies, Vinny and Jimmy, who started up a neighborhood garage band. “We all live around the block from each other and got to know each other that way,” he explains. The lads, aged 20-21, then enlisted the vocal chords of Neil Moore and before they knew it were strutting their stuff all over town.

“Mainly when we started out we didn’t have very much of our own stuff, it was all covers,” Robbie recalls. “After a couple of months we got a keyboardist (Ruairi Paxton) in, which was a real turning point. Everything went original and kinda took off from there. We all do a bit of writing. We come up with a basic tune and then everyone puts their own thing into it.”

Indeed the component ‘things’ that make up the sound of The Things come from places as diverse as punk, blues, folk, jazz and psychedelic garage.

“We all have very wide tastes that are completely different from each other but we all aim for the one sound,” explains Brady. “All these different influences come in but what it boils down to is kinda garagey – really garagey, punky, fast rock with a mix of electronic sounds.”

If it all sounds kinda confusing, that’s because it is.

“There’s been stuff said about us before and then hotpress said of one of our live gigs that we were like a fusion of The Cramps and John Spencer. That’s probably the only thing that’s ever been said to us that we’ve actually agreed with and liked. The whole Crampsy-kinda-psycho-billy-thing we really aim for, and we mix it in with the other stuff so we don’t actually pigeon-hole ourselves.”

Add to this the onstage X factor and it seems The Things might have themselves a formula for success. I ask Brady about the lead singer’s reputation for psychotic screaming, “That goes along with his psychotic actions,” he laughs. “Neil is a bit of a lunatic, but he seems to come across really, really well with people.”

Instrumental to the underground germination of The Things have been their live performances supporting such high-profile acts as The Basement, The Warlocks, The Damned and Alan McGee’s Death Disco. With an increasing amount of headline gigs this year, plus a new residency at Eamonn Doran’s Friday night Radiator club, The Things seem to be going from strength to strength.

Apart from a burnt live CD they’ve been selling at gigs, the burgeoning Things’ fanbase has been feeding solely off their live appearances. “We did have two songs recorded that we’d sold at a gig, but later we checked on the Internet and someone was selling it for four times the price. So we don’t plan on doing anything like that until it’s all legally done,” says Brady.

And it may only be a matter of time, after their recent performances at the IMRO showcase tour gave them the all-important Industry Exposure. According to Brady, The Things have attracted considerable interest from labels both here and in the UK, and are currently recording a demo to “see how far things can go”.