CLUAS Irish Indie Music https://www.cluas.com/indie-music RSS feeds for CLUAS Irish Indie Music 60 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/575/Kate-Bush-50-Words-For-Snow#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=575 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=575&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Kate Bush '50 Words For Snow' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/575/Kate-Bush-50-Words-For-Snow Review Snapshot: The release of new music from Kate Bush is always a monumental event. Seldom is wonderful, but '50 Words For Snow' is her second release this year, and her first studio album of new material in seven years - and as always with Kate, it’s quality not quantity that matters. The CLUAS Verdict: 9 out of 10 Full Review: The album title says it all. This isn’t a Christmas cash-in, but a seasonal album and the topic is definitely snow. The opening number ‘Snowflake’ sets the tone for the album with Kate playing piano while duetting with her son Albert (Bertie) who takes on the soprano role of Aled Jones singing “we’re over a forest / there’s millions of snowflakes” while Kate’s beautiful voice only adds to the mystique and beauty, with a sense of motherly love throughout. On ‘Misty’ Kate falls in love with the Snowman. While some might suggest double entendres to some of the lyrics “I can feel him melting in my hand “or “the sheets are soaking” this really is a harmless, beautiful love-song with no sexual innuendos intended as the snowman enters her bedroom and makes love to her. Kate doesn’t do censored music The first single, ‘Wildman’, is probably the weakest track here, and at the same time, the only track that will possible get airplay as most of the tracks range from 7 – 10 minutes in length. There is a constant catchy riff throughout, while Kate tells the tale of the Yeti that she doesn’t want killed: “We found your footprints in the snow / We brushed them all away”. Perhaps she’s fallen in love with him as she sings “they want to hunt you down / you're not an animal”, and a guest appearance from Andy Fairweather Low The standout piece here is her love duet with Elton John, ‘Snowed In At Wheeler Street’. While it’s no ‘Don’t Give Up’ it is a beautiful story of two lovers meeting up again and regretting letting each other go in the past, and reminiscing about their time from ancient Rome through World War II in Paris and London. Elton gives one of his best vocal performances. His memory is “Can't we just stay there forever? We were so happy! I'd live that day over and over” while Kate’s says “Come with me, I'll find some rope / I'll tie us together”. This could be the soundtrack to Casablanca. 'Among Angels' is trademark Bush, with just her tinkling at the piano doing what she does best. No whistles and bells, just vocals and piano and that haunting technique of hers. “I can see angels standing around you /they shimmer like mirrors in summer” she sings. The title track does exactly what it says on the tin. Stephen Fry makes a surprise appearance trying to come up with literally 50 words for snow while Kate counts them down. From “drifting …avalanche… ..mountainsob” Kate comes in at various intervals with “Come on Joe, you've got 32 to go / let me hear your 50 words for snow”. Some of Fry’s words are a bit dubious though including “anklebreaker", "boomerangablanca", and "bad for trains". This shouldn’t really work, but it does somehow. Only Kate could make it work. This is yet another masterpiece from the woman nobody knows anything about, and this concept album won’t reveal anything more personal about her. It doesn’t have the hit singles that 'Hounds of Love' had, but Kate’s in her 50s now, not her 20s. Fans will love this, and for them this year, December will be magic again. Mick Lynch Mick Lynch Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:30:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:575 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/571/George-Michael-live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=571 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=571&PortalID=0&TabID=36 George Michael (live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/571/George-Michael-live-in-Dublin Review Snapshot:  Having returned from a performing exile in 2006 to promote his back catalogue of hits, this time George Michael brings his Symphonica Orchestra to Dublin, and while it may not have been the first time he’s had a horn section behind him, he proved he can songs from a wide range or artists ranging from Tim Buckley to Rihanna. The Cluas Verdict: 8 out of 10 Full Review: Dressed immaculately  in a dark suit and tie (like he does for his court appearances), tonight George Michael alternated between standing front of stage for up-tempo numbers like 'My Baby Just Cares For Me', to sitting on a stool for ballads 'Cowboys And Angels', 'True Faith' and 'You have Been Loved'. What becomes evident in the first half of the show is boredom setting in amongst the audience, with the increase in chatting volume while George does his best to keep their attention with unknown covers from the likes of Rufus Wainwright and Terence Trent D'Arby. It’s not until the up-tempo Bowie cover 'Wild Is The Wind' that the audience come to life, while 'Brother Can You Spare A Dime' puts the spotlight on the Orchestra for the first time. After a 20-minute interval the ballads continue. 'John & Elvis Are Dead' features a backdrop of Lennon and Presley images while 'Love Is A Losing Game' plays tribute to the late Amy Winehouse on the big screen. With the show entering its finale, the classics begin to appear. 'A Different Corner', 'Kissing A Fool' and 'Praying For Time' are elegantly performed by the band, meeting audience approval, while 'Roxanne' (with its video featuring real-life prostitutes) goes down well with all the heterosexual males present. For the encore we get all the up-tempo numbers like 'Amazing', the Wham! classic 'I’m Your Man', and 'Freedom ’90' brings the whole place to their feet. A second encore of 'I Remember You' is probably unnecessary but it doesn’t take away from a great evenings’ entertainment.  Those that went to the gig expecting the hits were five years behind the times but after 30 years in the business, George has proved he still has the voice for any genre of music and to a Wham! fan like me, this was Fantastic. Mick Lynch   mick Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:03:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:571 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/570/Album-Review--Why-Alopecia#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=570 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=570&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Album Review - Why? 'Alopecia' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/570/Album-Review--Why-Alopecia Review Snapshot: A mix-up of genres and emotions, where bright melodies sit beside bleak lyrics- and why not? The third album from this Cincinatti band is difficult but ultimately worthwhile listening. Diverse, ambitious and brilliant. The CLUAS Verdict? 9 out of 10 Full review: Why? are a band devoid of a genre. Call it alternative, rap or even hip-pop, but either way Jonathan “Yoni” Wolf and his band of not-so-merry men have created an infusion that’s as engaging as it is difficult to listen to. 'Alopecia' is the band’s third venture (the second as a four-piece) and although the basic formula doesn’t vary much from their previous albums (‘Oaklandzulasylum’ and ‘Elephant Eyelash’) there’s a very tangible change in tone.  The album really plays in two parts, which have been mixed up at random. On one side you have the melodic, free-flowing pieces that are bright and optimistic; while on the other a sense of regret, anguish and disgust prevails. From the onset the listener knows what he’s getting himself into; the driving bassline of Mark Erickson behind the sounds of whipped chains in the opening track ‘The Vowels Pt II’  lets us know, all too unsubtly, that we’re not in for an easy ride.  And from there starts Wolf’s winding verses and melodies; creating the most fantastic and disturbing images that can take on so many meaning’s it’s virtually impossible to nail one down. One thing does seem clear in this album though - Yoni is getting older, wiser, and more conscious of his place in the world. Working harder to maintain his reputation as younger blood tries to take his place: ‘Faking suicide for applause; in the food courts the malls; and cursing racing horses on church steps’. The second song, ‘Good Friday’, displays the other side to the album. A seedy, gritty, slightly disturbing chapter that is initially painfully difficult to sit through, but with time creates a contrast that’s absolutely essential for the album, and the concept of what ‘Why?’  actually do. ‘These Few Presidents’ plays as one, if not the most melodic tune on the disc, and contains another gem of Wolf’s lyrics: ‘Even though I haven’t seen you in years; yours is a funeral I’d fly to from anywhere’. 'The Hollows' shows no respect or remorse, with lines one can only presume to portray the homo- and xenophobic nature of those caught up in an unfamiliarly liberal society ‘In Berlin I saw two men fuck in the dark corner of a basketball court/I thought I’d go back to get my money but…oh no, those gypsies probably got knives’ The images come thick and fast in ‘Song of the Sad Assasin’, which starts about as morbidly as any song I’ve ever heard, while ‘Gnashville’ also haunts us, hinting at someone’s last moments before death: ‘And when they come calling, I won’t go calm; there is no palm or divine mitt’. ‘Fatalist Paramilitary’ is most definitely the cheeriest song of the lot. After six songs we finally hear a truly positive attitude. It may be naïve to assume it’s due to new love, though the line ‘Your cat clawed out my eyes while I was distracted by your smile’ is a clear sign of Yoni’s contorted image of optimism and happiness.  Whether ‘The Fall of Mr. Fifths’, the next track on the album, is a reference to the one that came previous we don’t know; but after hearing‘If I remain lost and die on the cross; at least I wasn’t born in a manger’ might show Wolf’s frustration at his own relationship breaking down when comparing it to that of his parents. ‘Brook & Waxing’ and ‘A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under’ are two more rhythmical raps strung out in front of a tuneful background, while ‘Twenty-Eight’ proves as a useful distraction from the usual bombardment of words.  'Simeon’s Dilemma' once again shows Wolf’s fearlessness of writing on the taboo. Opening with the lines ‘Stalker’s my whole style; and if I get caught I’ll deny’ for once it seems he’s feeding us exactly what he wants us to think about the song. ‘Are you giving me a dirty look in the rear view mirror?...On my fixie with the chopped horns turned in; Trailing behind your biodiesel Benz’; it’s plain for us to see that he refuses to let this go. 'Torpedo or Crohn’s' is the last true rap song on the record, and the repetitive piano line easily finds its way into one’s brain as the lyrics skim across our conscious. It’s another tale of woe and downright vile images: ‘Today after lunch I got sick and blew chunks; all over my new shoes in a lot behind whole foods…As a kid I did not shit my pants much but why start now with this stuff? And man I do not bluff’. He’s most certainly an artist not afraid of confiding things one wouldn’t want the public to hear, nay details we the public we don’t even want to know ‘The kinda shit I won’t admit to my head shrinker’ (‘Good Friday’). It’s this complete honesty though that endears us to him even more and makes us appreciate the anguish and toil that came in forming these songs. What really makes this album though is the brilliant production. For a four-piece band to be able to create a record that’s so diverse and rich is a true testament to these Cincinnatians, whether they are rockers, rappers, or hip-poppers. Cluas Verdict: 9/10 Kevin Galvin shefellover93 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:39:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:570 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/565/Brian-Wilson-live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=565 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=565&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Brian Wilson (live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/565/Brian-Wilson-live-in-Dublin Brian Wilson (Grand Canal Theatre, 7 September 2011) Snapshot Review: The legendary Beach Boy performs the music of two of the world’s greatest composers - Gershwin and Wilson - and a draw is a fair result. The Cluas Verdict: 8 out of 10 Full Review:  “About two years ago, I was approached by the Gershwin family to work on some of his music and the result was Wilson does Gershwin, and we’d like to sing those 14 songs for you now” was how Brian Wilson greeted the audience on his return to Dublin. Over the next 45 minutes he sat almost motionless behind the keyboard while his 10-piece band, (and a five-piece orchestra of Irish artists) playing a lounge selection of beautiful composed and arranged Gershwin pieces including ‘Summertime’, ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and ‘Someone To Watch Over You’. The band were faultless throughout, with a mix of brass instruments, keyboards and xylophone playing in time with each other majestically After the interval he returned to the Grand Canal Theatre stage, sat at the keyboard and launched into ‘California Girls’, ‘Dance Dance Dance’ and ‘Catch A Wave’. He invited the crowd to join him in a sing-a-long of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ in an effort to recognise if we could sing our not. He announced ‘The Little Girl I Once Knew’ as his “sequel to California Girls” and played keyboards for the first time of the evening on ‘Salt Lake City’. His guitarist Jeffrey took lead on ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ as Wilson obviously struggled with the high notes, and he performed it adequately. For the majority of songs, Wilson took lead vocals, but on numerous occasions I could see him reading the lyrics from the monitor placed in front of him. ‘Do It Again’, ‘Darlin’ ‘’I Get Around’ and ‘Sloop John B’ were mixed in with lesser known, but just as great tunes like ‘Sail On Sailor’ and ‘Pet Sounds’. As the show went into overdrive, Brian stood up and put on his bass for a few number, while we were treated to ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Heroes And Villains’ and Good Vibrations while I saw Paul Brady clapping along to every tune. “Paul McCartney once told me that this is his favourite song of mine” was how Wilson introduced ‘God Only Knows’ to which one of his band members jokingly replied “have you met Paul McCartney?”. For the encore we got the Chuck Berry classic ‘Johnny B Goode’, ‘Help Me Rhonda’, ‘Barbara Ann’ and ‘Surfin USA’ which had everyone in the venue on their feet singing along, and the final encore consisted of ‘All Summer Long’. While there’s no doubt that it’s the band around Wilson that are making this music sound so good, Brian’s presence is certainly required and if this is the last appearance by this icon here in Ireland, it was a great way to bow out and be remembered. Mick Lynch mick Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:19:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:565 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/562/Mister-Heavenly-Out-of-Love#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=562 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=562&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Mister Heavenly 'Out of Love' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/562/Mister-Heavenly-Out-of-Love Mister Heavenly 'Out of Love' The CLUAS verdict: 8 out of 10 Full Review: Artists tread a fine line when they dabble with the idea of a super group. The end product will invariably be judged by their former glories and, in many cases, will not survive such a comparison. Thankfully, Nick Thorburn (The Islands), Ryan Kattner (Man Man) & Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse) surpass expectations with their incendiary incarnation Mister Heavenly. Inspired by their shared love of doo wop and avant garde indie, Mister Heavenly exist within a genre of their own creation: doom-wop. Their debut release Out of Love is a modern revision of the 50s pop era, full of macabre tales of heartache and disaffection. Their playfully ironic love songs are written for a generation more accustomed to text message breakups than Dear John letters.  The two-stepping “Charlyne” is a satire of the sweetheart ballad with a surf rock vibe in the style of The Beach Boys. A touch of horror pop filters into the piano-driven “I am a hologram”, with Kattner’s crooning drawing comparison to Danzig’s earlier years. Thorburn’s Buddy Holly-like harmonies complement Kattner’s rasping baritone and highlight the depth and range of the band’s eclectic style. The trio’s uncanny fusion of doo wop and garage rock produces a sound that is at once familiar and yet unique. While traces of The Marcels and The Misfits appear at regular intervals, Out of love expands upon earlier genres and never merely becomes a game of “spot the influence”. At moments, the trio find a perfect balance between the two genres, producing a sound that is distinct from the sum of its parts. The title track is a fiery, subversive love song combining doo-wop rhythms with a bass-heavy rock beat. The anthemic “Bronx Sniper” abandons the 50s pastiche in favour of a raucous bluesy sound in the vein of Queens of the Stone Age. These deviations hint at a more refined style, which could be the basis of the band’s future releases. The energy of earlier tracks begins to wane as the album draws to a close. The final four songs rely heavily on the 50s pop template and fail to develop it further. In lacking that unique twist, the conclusion of the album sounds more like a tribute to the genre rather than a reinvention. Even still, they possess a certain nostalgic charm unlike anything on the airwaves today and suffer only by comparison to preceding songs. Mister Heavenly have accomplished that rare feat of creating a crossover album that can be judged on its own merits. While remaining true to its musical blueprints, Out of love delivers its message with an ironic charm that will warm the heart of even the most critical indie fans. John Ryan John Ryan Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:07:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:562 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/561/Easy-Star-All-Stars#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=561 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=561&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Easy Star All Stars https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/561/Easy-Star-All-Stars When Easy Star records set out to release a reggae adaptation of Dark side of the moon in 2003, they were faced with the perilous task of staying true to the original while taking the music in a whole new direction. With musical director Michael Goldwasser at the helm, the label went in search of a supporting cast strong enough to undertake such an ambitious project. Drafting some of the finest musicians the New York scene had to offer, they created a dream team of modern reggae; the Easy Star All Stars. The album has remained on the Billboard reggae charts ever since. In the eight years that followed, the band have released seminal versions of Radiohead’s Ok Computer and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; garnering praise from fans and critics alike. And now with the release of First Light, their first full-length original album, the band are ready to show the world that there’s more to the Easy Star All Stars than trips down nostalgia lane. State caught up with the band before their performance in Cork city to talk about their past, present and future. What inspired you to join Easy Star All Stars? Ras: It wasn’t really a question of inspiration; it was more of an opportunity. You know, we were all in New York, and the label was based in New York. The inspiration is more of question of how we made the music; that’s through Jah himself. But with the band, that was just a wonderful opportunity to come and expand on what we already had in the reggae scene. Easy Star has been the vehicle for us to express ourselves for the last 8 years. I would say it’s just like when you get a good job. Every job has its beginning and its end. Do you think there will be a time when the Easy Star All Stars will be no more? Ras: Well no, I think there’s always going to be ‘An’ Easy Star All Stars; it just might be a different rotation of cast members. I think they set it up for it to be that way; no matter who’s there and who’s not, there is always going to be an Easy Star All Stars. Each member could pass it on to their grandchildren and it’ll still be the Easy Star All Stars. We’re just passing through; as the present line up. Following the success of your first three concept albums, what made you decide to produce a full length original album? Ras: It was time. We’d done the concept albums and they did quite well. They got us a lot of exposure and earned us a lot of fans, who probably wouldn’t have ever listened to reggae, but they love Pink Floyd, they love the Beatles, they love Radiohead, so they wanted to know what they sounded like as reggae. The concept albums gave us the opportunity to reach a wider audience with our own music.   Menny: It’s like the world’s expectation of us, you know, we’ve proven we can cover these albums in an original kind of way, so we also have to show the world our originality. Ivan: We’ve spent the last eight years touring together so we wanted to create some music of our own. We’ve always had a policy to have a couple of original tunes in the set, so people weren’t just hearing those albums but getting a taste of the people on stage as well. So as the original songs became a bigger collection, Michael G said ‘let’s do a full-length’ album. Was it difficult to arrange the album into a cohesive unit or did it come naturally? Ivan: That’s where Michael G comes in. He’s the executive producer so he makes those decisions. It was kinda fun this time cos they made it sorta like a competition, they said ‘alright you have this amount of time to submit any demos you want, we’ll listen to everything’. There was definitely way more songs submitted than what made it on the record and he had to figure out what we were going to put out as a band. It’s not always about whether it’s a good song or not it’s just about creating the right combination of songs. There’s actually a couple of songs on there from the Israeli part of Easy Star All Stars. Michael G spends a bit of time in Israel. He’s got a collective of musicians he works with out there so they put a couple of those tunes on there. He wanted the majority of it to be the touring band but he wanted to throw that flavour in there too. The album title First Light is quite evocative. What does the album title mean to you? Ras: It’s not one dimension at all as you can tell; I think it takes on a different meaning every time we perform it. At one point, it can just mean ‘hey good morning, get up its first light’, you know or it could mean the dawn of a new era, the dawn of a new age, the dawn of a new generation; it’s timeless, it’s endless, it’s infinite. The songwriters who wrote the song “First Light”, wrote it as a tribute to the first tour that we did way back in 2003, and that’s what really inspired the lyrical content; we were just retelling the story of how we experienced the first tour. It was like the dawn of a new vibe; being on the road together for the first time and performing “Dub side” live for the first time anywhere. First Light is there to recapture those moments; those first days. But as you can tell, the album takes on a lot more meaning than that. While First Light is predominantly reggae in style, there are hints of motown and soul in some of the songs. Were these influences subconscious or did you want to expand on the band’s sound on this album? Menny: To be quite honest, reggae itself is based on that kind of vibe; you’ll hear every type of music in reggae, it’s always been that way. Bob Marley did it, Denis Brown did it, you name any great reggae artist, and you can hear that soul influence; they’re all connected. As they say in Jamaica, fingers can’t rock, you know what I mean; music can’t be mathematics. You’re gonna hear certain vibes in certain things, but we don’t think about it that way; we just let it flow. Ivan: The foundation of the band will always be reggae but it’s fun to touch on other styles. Reggae itself is a mix of African, Caribbean & soul influences. And before reggae, there was ska in the 60s. From what I understand, those ska musicians in Jamaica were listening to soul & jazz records coming off the radio from Miami and they combined them with Caribbean rhythms. There’s a story about how reggae was supposedly invented in the summer of 1968. It was an unusually hot summer in Jamaica so they slowed the ska tempos down and there came that reg-gae reg-gae rhythm; that’s what I heard. I’d love to hear Toots’ take on that. I love that story. Has it been more rewarding touring in support of First Light than your previous albums? Menny: It’s all great; everything has its own respect. With the originals, we definitely feel it more, cos that’s our own material; we wrote it and recorded it, so then we feel it while performing it. It’s a different sort of vibe singing the Pink Floyd material cos the people already know it and sing along to it; but it’s just as rewarding. Have there been particular gigs that stand out as being the most memorable for you as a band? Jennifer: Definitely Glastonbury. We played three days there and each day we played a different album. The first day, we played Dub side in the dance tent; the second afternoon was Radiodread and then the third day we played Sgt. Pepper. Menny: Yeah, Glastonbury has always been at the top of the list, no band has ever played three nights in a row before. On one stage, we were on at like 10 or 11am and there were thousands of people there for it cos they didn’t want to miss it. It was great to see people waking up early to see us, after acts like Bruce Springsteen the night before. They should have all been asleep... until at least 3pm! What are your favourite songs to perform? Ras: As of now, definitely the First Light material. The more we do it, the more it evolves; you feel ownership you know. Doing the concept stuff has been great, but I’m feeling it personally every night when we perform the First Light material. It becomes more and more a part of us. If I had to choose one song out of the new album, it would be “Something went wrong”. The people really get it, like they’re not just listening but they’re actually getting what the song is saying. How has the new album been received on this tour? Ras: We’ve had a few nice reviews, but even the greatest artists had their critics. You know guys like Elton John got bad reviews for songs they’d written, so we’ve got the full gambit I’m not going lie. We get some saying ‘the shit is whack’ and they hate it, and then on the other side there are those who love it. We know that’s just how it is when you’re put under the litmus test. For the most part, it’s been good. Menny: It was surprising for me when people already knew the songs. I’m singing songs like “Something went wrong” and I see their lips moving to the words, and I’m thinking ‘damn these songs are so new’ and to see them singing it, that shows me that Easy Star are doing a good job in terms of spreading this new material, and it also shows me that we’ve written songs that the people enjoy enough to sing along to. What albums have inspired you in the past? Ras: Bob Marley’s Uprising really did it for me. I heard Uprising and here I am today; that was my life-changing moment. Menny: Well, there have been a lot of them but Gregory Isaac’s Night Nurse was definitely one of them; that was one my mother bought; she was the one that would buy all the records. I would break needles every day playing those songs.  What have been your biggest challenges as a band? Ras: I’d say just remaining true to the music; that’s always the biggest challenge. You know, the more popular you get, you’re always tempted to lose yourself and get lost in trying to please everyone. You can lose that certainty in yourself. So I think the greatest challenge is staying grounded. Jennifer: Keeping it fresh, you don’t want to play a boring show or play the music the same way every night; you’ve got to always bring something new to it every night. Ivan: It’s important that you deliver every night but you’re not always going to have the perfect conditions. Sometimes you know it’s just the luck of the draw. Yesterday we played in Dublin and the sound out front was great but there was a problem with the monitors on stage. In this business you can’t let stuff like that stop you. We could’ve spent the whole time trying to get it sorted out but we realised we gotta just play. Easy Star All Stars were interviewed by John Ryan John Ryan Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:03:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:561 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/560/Kristin-Hersh-An-Unquiet-Mind#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=560 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=560&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Kristin Hersh, An Unquiet Mind https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/560/Kristin-Hersh-An-Unquiet-Mind Kristin Hersh is reminiscing about her early tours with the Throwing Muses, the influential art-rock band she formed as a teenager in the early eighties with her stepsister Tanya Donnelly. The Pixies were their opening act. ‘Yeah, they were always our support act when we went out on tour’ she tells me, down the line from her home in Laguna Beach, California. ‘We brought them with us because we didn’t want to be alone. We brought them to 4AD too because we didn’t want to alone on the label there either with all those English bands that were so pretty, gauzy and ethereal and we knew we were nothing like that!’ she remembers, laughing ‘The Pixies just kept us from being lonely’. Throwing Muses, along with Sonic Youth and the aforementioned Pixies, were key figures in the alternative rock scene in the US in the eighties and nineties, and paved the way for Nirvana and the alt-rock explosion that followed. Yet, Hersh is not one for looking back or resting on her laurels, in fact Throwing Muses never officially split up and are hoping to release a new album soon. The mother of four has written and recorded almost twenty albums in her career to date, with Throwing Muses, as a solo-artist and with her loud, art-punk side-project 50 Foot Wave. To say Hersh is prolific sounds like an understatement. ‘Well, I’m just riddled with songs! I could make a record a week!’ she declares, bursting into that wonderful laugh once again that peppers the conversation. Hersh is a delightful interviewee; she’s articulate, light-hearted and down-to earth, at odds with the haunting intensity of her songs and their sometimes stark lyrical observations. She has spoken openly of her bipolar disorder and has described in the past her singular creative process whereby, rather that hearing a melody, or a snippet of a melody, that is then worked on laboriously until a full song is constructed, she can ‘hear’ songs already composed in her head, complete with somewhat incoherent lyrics. This would go some way to explain the huge body of work she has already accumulated in her career to date. ‘I don’t really know whether that was the bipolar disorder or the bad car accident I was in when I was teenager’ she says ‘I had a double-concussion, I was in a wheelchair for a long time and I started hearing songs then but I had written songs before that. I already had the craft down but there was no real magic to the material so now it’s a combination of hearing the songs but not bringing any of my personal baggage into it’ she explains ‘The songs are about my life - they’re my life stories and my pictures - but they don’t seem to be coming from me. They’re not really what I would choose to say, that can cause problems, it can be awfully embarrassing’ admits Hersh. ‘I sort of have to remain true to what they want to get said but at the same time keeping myself out of the process’. So the songs are fully formed already, simply leaving you with the task of recording them? ‘Yes, but there is a certain amount of wrestling I must do to make sure I’m playing them right and hearing the lyrics right’ reveals Hersh ‘I can’t always understand the words. The lyrics are always the part I wrestle with but the music has always been very clear. I can play it; I never heard a song I couldn’t play. But words are tricky; you don’t want to ever lie. You just have to careful about them. In writing about it, in the book last year ('Paradoxical Undressing', a memoir she wrote which details the early years of Throwing Muses), I started to analyse it more than I ever wanted to. Perhaps to reduce it to a concussion seems minimising but I really believe that they are there, that they are real but I choose not to think of it as an illness’. Hersh plays a solo show in Dublin this month and, at the time of writing, a Throwing Muses tour has just been announced, which will see Kristin return to Dublin with her old band in November. With so much music, and the tours to promote it, Hersh unsurprisingly spends a lot of time on the road. But she’s never been comfortable as a performer ‘I’m very shy so performance doesn’t really come naturally to me' she admits 'When I’m playing, it doesn’t really feel like I’m there at all and that’s okay but the whole idea of putting yourself in front of a bunch of people and making them look at you? I just don’t have that gene, that type of drive. Yet I know the type of high, that energy coming back to you (from the audience) and I’m sort of addicted to that. I also like the simplicity of the lifestyle. It teaches you what you need as opposed to what you want. It’s like a religion and I get to practice my religion for a few hours every day’. Almost inevitably, Dublin is one her favourite places to play but Hersh offers a refreshingly cerebral explanation as to why that is. ‘You know, it’s just never disappointing. It has this…focused intelligence. Dublin is a city that is very musically aware, psychologically vibrant and very alive’ she says ‘It implies a musical fluency, music is a language and not everyone is fluent in it and in Ireland a lot of people are. It’s something you’re born with, I guess.’ I put it to her that this innate musicality may be born of our turbulent historical past, a post-colonial inferiority complex and the inclement weather ‘Absolutely but then it’s not like Russia because there is a sense of humour that infuses every conversation, every response. That’s hugely important as it means you have grasped drama and not melodrama’. As if Hersh wasn’t busy enough releasing a new album almost on a yearly basis, she also co-founded the CASH project as an alternative method for up-and-coming musicians to distribute their music and finance themselves. According the site, the ‘goal is to help artists find sustainability and to encourage innovation in the music industry’. An earlier version of the project saw Hersh upload an EP of her side-project 50 Foot Wave and then allowed fans to download it for free, a few years before Radiohead were lauded (and castigated) for doing the same thing ‘I started CASH (Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders) project as a non-profit with some friends a few years ago to provide software tools which would allow musicians to circumvent the traditional recording industry’ she says ‘Which means that musicians no longer have to have a middleman to judge the marketability of their product. It’s a problem I’ve been trying to solve in my life since I was 14 years old. CASH has allowed me to be listener-supported which means my sponsors are actually my audience. Finally, after all these years, I can be in this industry and nobody is asking me to dumb down what I do’. An interesting facet of CASH is that fans can, not only support the artist in monetary terms, but can also gain an insight into the creative process by joining Hersh or one of the other artists involved in the studio ‘Yeah, the initial subscription was 30 dollars a month for access to any of my shows and you get the record for nothing. Eventually we realised people just wanted the music to happen and we introduced different platforms’ she says ‘That was a successful one but I wasn’t sure I would be comfortable. I’m sort of lost in that world when I’m working so I thought it would be uncomfortable but they add an energy to the room that I didn’t expect. It’s like a keyhole-view into our world' she continues 'Sometimes, they even seem to have ideas for songs!! I’m honoured that anyone would want to do that. To see them re-mixing the music on the site, downloading new songs every month, helping to name the new record, buying the last album ‘Crooked’ even though it was in book-form – I’m just honoured’. Hersh is returning to her rock roots with a new Throwing Muses album but a release-date is yet to be confirmed. ‘I’m still trying to raise money to mix it. Recording is done and we’d just like to be able to mix it. I can’t wait for you to hear this record as I swear it’s the best one we ever made!’ she says, with genuine enthusiasm. ‘A lot of the songs are really short but it’s a really cool piece. I’m really excited about it; we’re just hoping to mix it, as it’s very special in my opinion. The Muses are just very special me’. Interview by Ken Fallon Kristin Hersh plays a solo acoustic show at Dublin’s Workman’s Club on 24 August 2011. Ken Fallon Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:38:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:560 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/559/Prince--Malahide-Castle-Dublin-30-July-2011#Comments 2 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=559 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=559&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Prince - Malahide Castle, Dublin, 30 July 2011 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/559/Prince--Malahide-Castle-Dublin-30-July-2011 Review Snapshot: His Royal Purpleness fulfils his appointment in Dublin, at the second time of asking, and makes it up to those disappointed fans first time round, with a show packed with classic hit after hit. The Cluas Verdict:9 out of 10 Full Review: Easily the most eagerly awaited gig in Ireland this year, Prince was determined to make it up to the Irish fans on Saturday night, and he did so, in front of almost 30,000 fans at Malahide castle. Wearing a creamed coloured poncho he walked on stage and started taking photographs of the crowd before opening with ‘Gold’. “I’m sorry it took so long to come to you” he said as an apology before immediately kicking in a storming collection of ‘80s classics. ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘Delirious’, ‘1999’, ‘Little Red Corvette’ and ‘Take Me With U’ followed in quick succession and there was no doubt that he was determined to make this his greatest Irish performance ever. For ‘Raspberry Beret’, one of his female guitarists proceeded to sketch a picture of a beret on a drawing board, and ‘Cream’ brought us into the 90’s for a few minutes. A couple of covers followed, with ‘Don’t Stop Til You get Enough’, and The Time’s ‘C.O.O.L.’ before Prince took a much needed rest and disappeared for a change of clothes while Shelby J, and two other group members gave us their version of ‘To Make You Feel My Love’. Prince returned, all dressed in black and gave us ‘Purple Rain’ (complete with purple confetti sprayed into the crowd), and his timing was impeccable as the rain started to fall slowly. ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’ was next, and for ‘Kiss’ he sang  ...”you don’t have to watch Big Brother” (Dynasty being outdated). His support act, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were brought back on with all their Trumpets and French Horns for ‘Musicology’, ‘The Bird’ and ‘Jungle Love’ and he invited several members of the pubic up on stage for ‘Love Rollercoaster’ and ‘Play That Funky Music’. One girl even managed to give him a kiss, while Prince offered his guitar to play, to another unexpected fan on stage. He certainly looked chilled and I’ve never seen him smile so many times during one concert. It looked like the concert was over but he appeared back on stage for the beautiful ballads ‘Sometimes It Snows In April’, and ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, the latter he dedicated with “love and respect to Miss Sinead O Connor’. He sat at his purple Piano for ‘Sign of The Times’, and mixed it with ‘Alphabet Street’ and the intro to ‘When Doves Cry’. He stopped abruptly and said “I’ve too many hits. We’d be here till tomorrow if I play them all” which provoked unanimous cheering. He played ‘When Doves Cry’ through this time, along with ‘Hot Thing’, Sheila E’s ‘A Love Bizarre’, and ‘Controversy’. As he reappeared for what was his third and final encore he commented “you’re a gluten for punishment. Let’s go back to 1982” he added. He finished the set with ‘Let’s Work’, and ‘U Got the Look’ and again thanked the fans. I’ve seen Prince four times in Concert, and this was by far the best. Smiles and apologies are things you don’t normally see or hear from him, and while he’s now 53 he certainly seems to have mellowed quiet considerably. An outstanding performance on Saturday night by the little purple fella.                                      Mick Lynch Mick Lynch Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:06:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:559 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/558/Marc-Carroll-In-Silence#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=558 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=558&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Marc Carroll 'In Silence' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/558/Marc-Carroll-In-Silence Review Snapshot: Carroll’s rhythmic arrangements and calming husky tones will accommodate most tastes as the album gently works through a plethora of genres, but it both requires and deserves your full attention. Best enjoyed on a long quiet car journey.  The Cluas Verdict:  7 out of 10 Full Review: It’s a joy finding something new­­­­­ to mull over, although in this case ‘it’ is hardly new as singer/songwriter Marc Carroll has been carving out his musical career for over 20 years, albeit with modest commercial success. ‘In Silence’, a collection of his work to date,  both requires and deserves greater attention. The collection begins with ‘The Boy Who Dreamed’, an instrumental of gentle inoffensive folk melodies before elevating into ‘Love Over Gold’ the second track and my first opportunity to sample Carroll’s striking vocals and confident delivery - its rousing, almost ethnic, sound discusses loss and faith, It’s heartfelt with lyrics that prompt repeated listening. The reverb, courtesy of the wah pedal effect, build the song well while blending comfortably with the acoustics. ‘In Silence’ is a grown-up album. Carroll is evidently well-seasoned on the life torments of love and loss and can articulate his experiences in a reflective, not bitter, way. Melodies on ‘No Time at All’ and ‘Against My Will’ are modest in their construction. This isn’t an album of intricate chords and complicated note arrangements.  Carroll’s guitar execution is not fuelled, but rather a delicate extension of himself to chaperone his vivid and enchanting storytelling. His stories are descriptive and animated “When I turned to the West, I felt instantly alone, kicked the mud off my boots and slept for days..” Carroll comes across as a life observer rather than player. In ‘What’s Left of My Heart’, he is dejected yet refrains from anger: “She can ease my pain..And sadly I all I can do is stand beside, and bless the day I found her” His despondent but accepting attitude is refreshing.  “Its clear to see even natures singing in the minor key .. and will forever”  The acceptance of his environment is mature and real, and with a surprisingly upbeat melody and pace for such a melancholic track this is one of my favourites on the album. ‘No Time At All’ has a one minute instrumental introduction which sets the pace nicely on this soporific take on the passing of time. Uncomplicated chords again accompany Carroll’s dulcet tones and the harmonies simmer along nicely with lyrics that perfectly illustrate the singers tolerant attitude “Gotta keep movin ..don’t look back don’t hesitate”. ‘A Dark and Lucky Night’ combines electric and acoustic and lends itself to the power pop genre before building to an uplifting harmony buoyed by an undeniable gospel influence.  ‘A Way Back Out of Here’ meanwhile sounds like a Randy Travis tribute before progressing to combine string and percussion to layer and give a soundtrack quality.  It’s thin for the most part however and one of the weaker tracks for me. Along with ‘Love Over Gold’, ‘Always’ is one of the most melodious songs on ‘In Silence’ .  Unlike ‘Love Over Gold’ however there are no distortions to bait you in. Its poppy harmonies achieve enough of a hook and go a long way to disguise some of the darker lyrics “Its not a beautiful world, its a cold..sad and lonely world” In ‘Press On’ Carroll does little to deny a Dylan influence, while the stirring ‘Against My Will’ vocals fail to hide his Irish roots. An album of contradictions some might say, with the assimilation of so many varying impressions, but something tells me Carroll is keen to not be pigeon-holed, and has in fact a very international sound. ‘In Silence’ works through every genre from pop to Irish folk. Much is made of the Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson influences, and their subsequent championing of his cause has been well documented.  A gravel voice and an acoustic guitar, however, will eternally draw parallels with other songwriters.  There are a multitude of impressions in Carroll’s work, but with his candid approach to each performance, none of these influences could be construed as intentional or contrived.  Instead, let the depictive nature of his storytelling along with the simplicity of themes like love, loss and the less glamorous endurance, be the real testament to the maturity and substance in this talented song-writers music.  Yvonne Moore Yvonne Moore Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:35:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:558 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/557/Eddie-Vedder-live-in-San-Diego#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=557 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=557&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Eddie Vedder (live in San Diego) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/557/Eddie-Vedder-live-in-San-Diego Eddie Veder, Copely Symphony Hall, San Diego (July 5, 2011) Review Snapshot: Eddie Vedder is touring solo across North America with a brave and beautiful show, crossing musical generations and styles, challenging his audience and himself.   The Cluas Verdict: 10 out of 10   Full Review: Eddie Vedder has got soul and guts. He's touring solo again, this time playing stuff from his new 'Ukulele Songs' album, as well as stripped down versions of Pearl Jam gems, songs from his 'Into The Wild' album, and some amazingly great covers. Eddie can make a lot of noise with just a guitar or ukulele and that beautiful booming baritone voice. He jumps across decades to croon a 20s ukulele love song, on to a 60s Beatles heartbreaker, 80s Springsteen & X covers, and the whole breadth of Pearl Jam's time.   As with Pearl Jam shows, he has great faith in his audience, and we have complete faith in him, and that feels good.   Eddie started with a set of beautiful ukulele songs, strumming and picking, then moved on to electric and acoustic guitar versions of Pearl Jam songs, including a radically re-worked Betterman – many in the crowd didn't know what he was playing till the "Can't find a betterman" line- and a communal ode to Lennon/McCartney (and Vedder) ideals, in Love Boat Captain: Love boat captain Take the reins,.. steer us towards the clear. I know it's already been sung,... can't be said enough. Love is all you need,.. all you need is love,.. Love,.. love,... Love. He followed with a set of Into The Wild songs, then closed the 19 song main set with a string quartet backing him up on a couple recent Pearl Jam ballads. Then on to the first (10 song) encore. He just kept going, and the energy and invention never wavered.   A few highlights... On the spur of the moment, Eddie changes the plan and he and Glen Hansard, who opened the show, leave the circle of mics and chairs and instruments, he brings a ukulele, and they step out onto the edge of the stage. They stand like two buskers harmonizing & strumming, with no technology involved, crooning the 1950s country love song Sleepless Nights. The couple of thousand listeners went dead silent, sensing that something real special was happening. That was grand. Eddie turning You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - not exactly a pleasant sentiment -  into a sing-along, much like Betterman (similarly bleak) has become an anthem sing-along. Weird, but he lets the audience make that call. Eddie singing ass-kickin' versions of the L.A. legends X/Dave Alvin's song 4th of July and of Springsteen's Nebraska stomper Open All Night, which was bravely and raucously sung much like Springsteen did on his own solo tour in 2005. Eddie covered moods from vulnerable and tender to angry & near violent, crossing musical generations and styles. It was a sight to behold.   Alas, he does very few of these shows. But you can get a taste by getting hold of the new DVD Water On The Road, a film of Eddie's last (2008) solo tour.  You won't be disappointed.   John Ford   Set List - Eddie Vedder, Copely Symphony Hall, San Diego (July 5, 2011)   01. Can't Keep 02. Sleeping By Myself 03. Without You 04. Broken Heart 05. Hey Fahkah 06. You're True 07. Longing To Belong 08. Deadman 09. I Am Mine 10. Off He Goes 11. Love Boat Captain 12. Betterman 13. Long Nights w/Glen Hansard 14. Far Behind 15. No Ceiling 16. Guaranteed 17. Rise (incomplete) 18. Just Breathe w/string quartet 19. The End w/string quartet   Encore 1 20. Unthought Known 21. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away 22. 4th Of July 23. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town 24. Sleepless Nights w/Glen Hansard 25. Society w/Glen Hansard 26. Falling Slowly w/string quartet 27. Wishlist 28. Open All Night 29. Porch   Encore 2 30. Hard Sun w/Glen Hansard   John Ford Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:04:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:557 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/555/Bobby-Bobby#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=555 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=555&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Bobby 'Bobby' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/555/Bobby-Bobby Review Snapshot: On their self-titled debut album, Bobby have created an absorbing, multi-layered record, one that definitively disproves the oft-quoted cliché that 'less is more'. Cluas Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 Full review: In some respects, Massachusetts band Bobby have emerged from the wilderness. They were not subject to the the sort of media hype that occasionally pursues up and coming bands, often to their detriment, like a lion stalking a young zebra. In fact relatively little was known about the ensemble, save for the former musical exploits of certain group members. And for a while there wasn't even a photograph of Bobby around, which further shrouded the band and their record in mystery and intrigue. It is befitting then that Bobby's music lands as alien and mystical as the group did. It is lush and layered, complex, bittersweet and, most importantly, emotionally engaging. With album opener, 'We Saw', the listener is promptly ushered into the surreal soundscapes of Bobby. Said listener will not emerge again until the final track, 'The Shed', has run its course. 'We Saw' builds and recedes like a storm, harnassed by conflicting acoustic guitars and the repeated chanting of the track's title, in effect sounding more like some strange pagan incantation than lyrics to a rock song. 'The Shed' meanwhile, concludes the album in a similarly quasi-religious fashion. It has a church feel to it (without the unrelenting boredom), as a choir of male voices chant along gravely to the fragmented drama of Bobby's music. 'Sore Spores' is one of the more pop-oriented tracks on the album and continually swaps singing duties between male and female until the voices meet towards the track's tender finish. 'Dustbeam' is another terrific song that again bides its time before unleashing its magic. Throughout the debut album, there is a real sense of there being communal music-making behind this creation. Various tastes, tempos, voices and emotions somehow merge in the mixing pot of the album resulting in something cohesive and compelling, if not immediately accessible. The tracks have been patiently constructed and, while they do not tend to follow the formula conventions of pop or rock songs, there is still an appreciation for moments of honest melody and boy/girl harmonies. Many tracks have the ability to evolve and branch off in unexpected directions, that only become apparent in time and after repeated listens. Few albums this year will be as rewarding of effort as this is. But what is most impressive about Bobby is the group's recognition of the power of the quiet moments. The album is generous in length (over an hour long) and as such it allows the songs to breathe and develop as naturally as possible without any need for dramatic crescendoes or quickly arranged climaxes. This is a record with plenty of dead ends and odd directions along the way, down which the listener can enjoy getting lost. One of the standout albums of the year so far. Kevin Boyle Kevin Boyle Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:05:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:555 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/554/Skully#Comments 2 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=554 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=554&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Skully https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/554/Skully A talented innovator who forged a very successful international musical career, the acclaimed Cork-born musician and producer known simply as Skully has been exceptionally busy of late. With two of his songs included on the soundtrack for the new Hollywood film Soul Surfer (2011) and the release of his new solo album earlier this month, Skully (left) is now preparing to reprise his role as part of the successful Cork-based musical duo Métisse and work on their as yet untitled third album. Discussing his new solo album entitled Scent Of A Moment (2011), Skully admits that the inspiration for his second record was triggered by unusual stimuli. “Each song on Scent Of A Moment is about a moment in my life. There are songs on it about lost love, the economic climate in Ireland today, friends, relationships and history. Every song comes down to one moment that I remember because of a particular smell that I associate with that moment.” Based in the County Cork seaside town of Crosshaven, Skully also drew creative inspiration from restoration work that he did on a voluntary basis at the historical site of Fort Camden in Crosshaven, which had fallen derelict after years of neglect by the authorities. Together with a fellow volunteer called Vincent Farr, Skully embarked on many days of hard-work for no pay and is delighted to have been involved in such a worthwhile project, that for him, yielded creative dividends. Before being forced to withdraw from the project in the Autumn of last year, Skully enjoyed his working holiday from recording commitments, which are now taking centre stage once again. “Up until we finished back in September of 2010, Vincent and I devoted every free moment of our days to renovating Fort Camden. Vincent and I founded ‘The Rescue Camden Group,’ with the sole goal of restoring the fort on a not-for-profit basis, for the entire local community. Under Vincent’s guidance and as part of a team of hard-working volunteers, I went into the fort and painted, scrubbed and panel-beat. On Scent Of A Moment, there is a piece of music that tries to bring you on a trip through Fort Camden.” “From time to time, I will be putting up the meanings behind some of the songs on my website [www.skully.ie]. At the moment, there is a blog up about the track Mrs Noble. She was a woman who was murdered in West Cork in the early part of the 20th century and this track was inspired by her story and is a tribute to her.” An interesting dimension to the physical release of Scent Of A Moment is the fact that each copy will have an accompanying aroma. “In keeping with the record’s name, we are spraying the albums with different aromas such as coffee and aftershave. Not only does it look nice, but it also smells nice.” Now as he gears up to work on the new Métisse record, Skully reveals his future plans: “We are buying a new recording studio at the moment and we want to make the studio more portable. Once I have settled on the equipment that we need, Aïda [vocalist with Métisse] can come with me and record in West Cork and in Cobh and different places. So it will also affect the music that we are recording. We have finished recording four tracks together already and we are very pleased with the results. So hopefully by the end of this year, that album will be out.” For more information on Skully and his upcoming releases, visit his website: www.skully.ie. Scent Of A Moment was released on June 1 and is now available on CD and as a download release. Mark McAvoy Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:10:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:554 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/550/The-Pains-Of-Being-Pure-at-Heart-Live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=550 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=550&PortalID=0&TabID=36 The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart (Live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/550/The-Pains-Of-Being-Pure-at-Heart-Live-in-Dublin Review Snapshot: Not to worry, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, it's not your fault. I don't think that the combined bill of Obama, the Queen of England, Jedward and a large hadron collider could have breathed life into the Button Factory on Wednesday night. Tough crowd. The CLUAS Verdict? 5 out of 10 Full Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were in Dublin this week for their first headline gig in Ireland, having visited these shores only once before as support to The Wedding Present back in 2008. And with their energetic, chorus driven indie-pop, I was expecting quite an atmosphere. However, like a certain American preacher whose recent doomsday predictions went tits up, I was left sorely disappointed. I missed the support act through a series of unfortunate events, namely my finishing work later than I had expected and also finding a nearby pub that were serving two euro pints. But I made my way there sometime before nine to find the Button Factory comfortably crowded and took up a position near the bar. When the Brooklyn troupe wielding the most emo name in modern music made their way to the stage they were greeted not by whoops or cheers (not many anyway), but rather by half-hearted applause which turned quickly into silent judgement. Kicking off with the title-track of their second album, 'Belong', the band seemed unaffected by their lacklustre welcome and powered through the first few songs of the set with great intensity. However despite churning out established tracks like 'A Teenager in Love' and 'Heart In Your Heartbreak' the crowd never really got going. When 'Young Adult Friction' fell to a similarly muted response, we knew there was something wrong. What could have caused such untypical coldness from an Irish audience? Maybe a case of early summer lethargy? Perhaps we were all puckered out from the welcomes afforded to the too cool for school president of the world and the 'not as much of a bitch as we initially thought' Queen? Whatever the case, the Cead Mile Failte was found desperately lacking. The crowd were even treated to an intimate version of 'Contender' from the band's debut album played alone by front man Kip Berman. It's a brave man that confronts an unenthused crowd, armed with only a guiter and a melody. The payoff must have been considerably less than he had expected. They finished the night on an old favourite 'Everything With You' and were gone with as little fan fare as they had arrived. And I left the Temple Bar venue feeling that it just wasn't the gig that it might have been. Through no fault of the band, the evening had been a bit a little disheartening. Gig goers, get your act together.   Kevin Boyle Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:53:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:550 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/549/Richard-Marx-Live-in-Dublin#Comments 1 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=549 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=549&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Richard Marx (Live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/549/Richard-Marx-Live-in-Dublin Review Snapshot:  An 80s heart-throb making his debut appearance in Ireland has the crowd eating out of his hand with a mix of story and song from an illustrious singing and songwriting career that would have even his most cynical critics smiling. The Cluas Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 Full Review: Richard Marx! Now there’s a name from the '80s that we haven’t heard much from lately, but thankfully the man is back with a new album ‘Stories To Tell’, which includes some stripped down covers of his classic hits, and these are what he performed at Dublin’s National Concert Hall during his first ever gig in Ireland. Opening with ‘Endless Summer Nights’ and ‘Take This Heart’, this two hour show basically featured, one man, 2 guitars and a piano, and the occasional assistance of his mate Steve tinkling the ivories, but it really was a one-man show of music and chat, and what stories he told us throughout the evening. Coming through passport control earlier that day he informed us that the lady asked him what he was doing in Ireland. Upon telling her he was a singer/songwriter she enquired “And would I know any of your songs”. Telling her, she might, she then asked him to sing her one. He looked around and saw a huge queue forming behind him, and instead told to Google him, to which she replied “Do I look like I have time here to Google you”. It was this kind of humour and relaxed atmosphere that really set the tone for the evening. Before ‘Keep Coming Back’ he spoke about the late Luther Vandross ringing him up asking if he needed anyone to do backing vocals on any of his songs. “That’s like us playing basketball in the yard, and Michael Jordan enquiring if we need another team member”, he joked. During songs the crowd would shout up several requests. “At least you’re shouting up my songs” he said, before going on to tell us about the guy at a gig that keep asking for ‘Cuts Like A Knife’, and not realising it wasn’t one of his. He concluded by telling us about going backstage at a Bryan Adams gig six months ago, relaying the story to Bryan and asking him “Do people shout out my songs at your gigs?” - to which Adams defiantly said “No”. ‘Hazard’ had everyone singing every single word, a song he said he hated, but his wife told him it’d be a hit. “So I recorded it with a big band, just to prove her wrong. It went to no. 1 in 13 countries” he added. He sat at the piano for the first time this evening to perform ‘Through My Veins’, an emotional tribute to his late dad on the video screen behind, whom he’s not shy in revealing that he was a fantastic musician, and it’s certainly hereditary. For ‘Angelia’ he told us about needing a four-syllable girls name to fit into a song he’d written, and found it courtesy of a stewardess serving him a ginger-ale on a flight to Texas, while ‘Satisfied’ was another track performed from the classic ‘Repeat Offender’ album. At one stage during the evening he joked “you may know this next song, but please don’t join in, you’ll ruin it”. A new song ‘Save Me’ showed that talent certainly runs in the family. His three sons (the Marx brothers) played piano, drums and guitar individually on the screen behind him, while he sang this rocky number, and there’s no doubt we’ll hear more from them in the future. He was genuinely impressed with the acoustics in the National Concert Hall, by spontaneously pulling the lead out of his guitar, walking away from the microphone and sitting down at the front of the stage to perform ‘Always On My Mind’. You could have heard a pin drop. This is what the term ‘Unplugged’ typifies. Then he sang a few of his own compositions that were recorded by other artists. Introducing ‘Better Days’ by Keith Urban he says “This was a huge hit for Nicole Kidman’s husband….Tom Cruise” he joked, while performing ‘This I Promised You’ (N Sync) he had another great story to tell. "N Sync were huge when they recorded my song, so we had to find studio miles away from anywhere, but the girls would follow them and camp out waiting for them. About 3am in the morning when we finished, the guys were secretly taken out a back door, while I just walked out the front door to the parking lot. As I was putting my stuff into the car, a 19 year-old girl appeared out of nowhere” he added. “Are you Richard Marx” the girl enquired. “Yes” he said, to which she replied “Oh my God! My mum loves you!” So he dedicated ‘This I Promise You’ to “all the mums”. “This next song was recorded when I had a mullet” was his intro to ‘Should’ve Known Better’ and for the encore he gave us “my first hit” ‘Don’t Mean Nothing’, the ballads ‘Hold On To The Night’ and ‘Now And Forever’ blended in together, and he sat at the piano for the final song of the evening, his signature song ‘Right here Waiting. “Thank you Dublin, you were amazing” were his parting words as he spent time shaking hands with several fans. He promised he’ll come back and on this performance there’s no doubt he’ll fill the place again. On a glorious June evening, this was one endless summer night to remember. Mick Lynch Mick Lynch Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:51:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:549 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/543/Milk-Maid-Yucca#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=543 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=543&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Milk Maid 'Yucca' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/543/Milk-Maid-Yucca Review Snapshot: An uninspiring new project from Nine Black Alps' former bass player Martin Cohen, Yucca's fuzz-pop is tedious and unengaging. The Cluas Verdict? 4 out of 10 Full Review: At a time when British rock music was feeling pretty good about itself as a slew of post-Libertine style bands dropped records of varying quality to the enthusiastic music press, Nine Black Alps were something of an anomaly. Most apparent was that, unlike most of his contemporaries, singer Sam Forrest didn’t perform in a heavily-accented style. Instead he drained any evidence of their Mancunian roots from his voice as the band looked to early-nineties grunge music for inspiration. Their output was sometimes absorbing, but these footpath-crumbling rock anthems didn’t sit well next to Franz Ferdinand’s disco stomps or Maximo Park’s choppy pop that were fashionable at the time. Despite some initial positive write-ups for their first album Everything Is, Nine Black Alps were for the most part ignored. But that era is over. The UK music press are scratching about for new movements. Having finally decided that British rock music no longer needed Oasis some five years ago, now they once again look to Liam Gallagher to move issues and his new band Beady Eye have graced every rock publications cover, sometimes more than once. Meanwhile, editors and journalists were almost apologetic for building significant hype around The Vaccines, realigning their opinions before their debut record even dropped. All in all, British indie needs a re-up. Perhaps sensing a tide change, Martin Cohen, Nine Black Alps’ former bassist (described as being on an indefinite hiatus from the band), has cut a record that goes slightly further back in time than the band’s major influences. Now under the name Milk Maid, he looks to My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain-style shoegaze and fuzz-pop for inspiration. Nostalgic it may be, with revivalists like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Asobi Seksu and Wavves sparking a full-blown fuzzy renaissance felt both sides of the Atlantic, for once Cohen’s timing might be just right. Coming in a sprightly 31 minutes, covering 11 tracks, Yucca is a short sprint of gentle melodies over coarse and hazy instrumentals. Recorded in Cohen’s flat, the album does have a sleepy, bedroom feel, but rather than dreamy, the whole project feels lethargic and dull. Like Cohen needed to open a window so breeze could blow the dust off his dreary compositions. On ‘Oh’, for example, the melody follows the lazy, chugging guitar lead note for note. Single ‘Not Me’ rides a familiar chord progression and well-worn tune, all of which is fuzzed up unnaturally with a gritty guitar solo thrown in just for good measure. On both tracks Cohen turns the vocal effects way up and his transparent singing gets lost into the instrumental. Fans of Forrest’s boisterous baritone will find little to enjoy in Cohen’s twee vocals. For the most part he drains his voice of any real melody, using indistinguishable mumblings as an instrument. And when he does allow sense to be made of his voice, the lyrics are often lacklustre. The folky ‘Girl’ sports the cleanest vocal, but is a disappointingly clichéd and passionless tale of fish-out-of-water romance. Redeeming tracks throughout most of the album are few and far between. ‘Dead Wrong’ is tight, jaunty and charming, but the album’s final quarter is actually its strongest. There’s a welcomed change of pace with the fist-pumping ‘Back of Your Knees’. Despite its name ‘Sad Song’ is an enjoyable, ramshackle pop tune, while closer ‘Someone You Thought You Forget’ is a sweet, drum-less trance. But Yucca just sounds too contrived for recommendation.  Cohen’s clearly a student of fuzz-pop but he’s followed the user manual a little too closely, allowing any personality he might have to become lost in the recreation. My Bloody Valentine might have been a starting point, but this is love-less in a whole different way. Dean Van Nguyen Tue, 31 May 2011 19:36:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:543 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/542/Chain-And-The-Gang-Musics-Not-For-Everyone#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=542 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=542&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Chain And The Gang 'Music's Not For Everyone' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/542/Chain-And-The-Gang-Musics-Not-For-Everyone A review of the album 'Music's Not For Everyone' by Chain and the Gang Review Snapshot:  The follow-up to 2009’s 'Down With Liberty... Up With Chains!', and Chain And The Gang’s shtick has worn thin. The Cluas Verdict? 3 out of 10 Full Review:  Ian Svenonius, a cult songwriter/front-man and creative multi-tasker, returns in his Chain And The Gang guise to continue pedalling his theatrical punk manifesto. This, as on their debut offering, is borne-out in the band’s ironic anti-freedom sentiments and fatalistic lyrics. As on Chain and the Gang's first album, Svenonius uses musical genres previously seen as socially conscious or rebellious (for example seventies funk on 'Livin’ Rough' and '(I’ve Got) Privilege') and distorts them with his defeatist stance.  This is problematic on various counts.  Firstly, the mixture of genres has a jarring effect on the album’s overall sound. Secondly, while the styles may differ, the philosophy doesn’t vary greatly; which is the comic equivalent of a stand-up comedian telling the same one-liner in ten different accents. Even when the musical copy is indistinguishable from the source it aims to duplicate (such as the MC5-aping 'Detroit Music Parts I & II'), the results feel soulless. Aside from the comedy genre; parody, by its contrived nature, is apt to leave the listener cold. Lyrically we’re on well-worn ground too, and while dry humour was used somewhat effectively on the debut album, here it falls flat. To add to the disappointment, the album starts strongly, with the bluesy 'Why Not?' , followed by the playfully sardonic Not Good Enough. However, things deteriorate from there. Svenonius is a believer in a lo-fi approach to recording, and has been quoted as saying that “The whole problem with music is that people are thinking of it in this historical, sophisticated way.”.  It’s a valid point, but in truth the rough and ready aesthetic soon grates. Songs contain a distinct lack of chord progressions or melody, which leaves many sounding monotonous and restricted.  The use of female backing singers, previously an asset, is negated by their off-key delivery. The relaxed approach soon crosses the line in to lazy territory; of the album’s fourteen songs, three are alternative versions of tracks already included, and these have the quality of rushed b-sides.  The album’s low-point is the title-track, a five minute-plus tedious and condescending diatribe attacking casual music listeners.  Fans of the group protest that the song is deliberately bad as either a further attempt at irony (as a play on the album/track’s title) or as a test to weed-out the less devoted people experiencing it . Either way it’s a self-indulgent artistically vapid waste of time. Svenonius' stance throughout his career has been theatrically anti-authoritarian, but none of his posturing stands up to closer examination. The entire concept here isn’t enlightening on any level. And that’s the underlying problem, it’s not that the joke isn’t funny anymore; it’s that it was a dud joke to begin with. As the album’s opener drolly puts it, “who cares anymore?”. Harry Bo Harry Bo Thu, 26 May 2011 20:24:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:542 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/541/Roger-Waters-live-in-Dublin-review-no-2#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=541 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=541&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Roger Waters (live in Dublin, review no. 2) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/541/Roger-Waters-live-in-Dublin-review-no-2 Review Snapshot: The legendary 1979 album performed in its entirety, coupled with a visual display to rival anything seen in a science fiction movie. This is as good as it gets. The Cluas Verdict? 10 out of 10 Full Review: Roger Waters show at the O2 in Dublin was a visual spectacle from the opening. The half constructed wall, with so many fantastic images projected onto it, dominated from the start of ‘In The Flesh’ and ‘The Thin Ice’. The sound for ‘Another Brick In The Wall (parts 1-3)' was crystal clear, during which the group of young school kids singing the chorus had hair standing on the back on my neck, while the huge Gerald Scarfe school teacher puppet with the large cane in his hand, moved eerily above the children as they sang “Hey Teacher, leave those kids alone”. The tracks were performed in the order they appeared on the album, as the bricks continued to be put in place during ‘Mother’ and ‘Goodbye Blue Sky’, with the last bricks slotted in place as Waters peered out through the one remaining space to deliver ‘Goodbye Cruel World’. The animation and 3D effects were a show in themselves, and numerous tributes of people who died unnecessarily appeared in the form of pictures, with Roger posting the following message on the wall at the interval; "I Would Like To Thank All Of You Who Have Sent In Photos Of Fallen Loved Ones – We Will Remember Them – Roger". The second part of the show began with ‘Hey You’ and ‘Is Anybody out There’ from behind the wall, before he appeared in his sitting room watching TV to ‘Nobody Home’. One of my favourite pieces ‘Vera’ was brief, before the crowd sang along to ‘Comfortably Numb’ which portrayed some colourful images of explosions on the wall behind him, and even the flying pig appeared several times above the crowd. His military uniformed band appeared for ‘The Show Must Go On’ with the two crossed hammers image draped behind them, while Waters appeared for ‘Run Like Hell’ wearing a long leather coat and shades complete with machine gun which he activated on several occasions to great sound effect. As the show reached its conclusion with numbers like ‘Waiting For The Worms’ and ‘The Trial’, the images continued to be very effective with the marching hammers behind him again while as he shouted through a megaphone, and the explosion to bring the wall down was very effective and dramatic. For the final number, obviously titled ‘Outside The Wall’, the complete band appeared at front of stage as Waters named checked all 11 members (which included his son on Accordion and the legendary Snowy White on guitar). He thanked the crowd for making his appearance here in 2002 the reason he came back again, and then he was gone. Even without the music, this was a theatrical orgasm from the beginning, a production of gigantic proportions, including a satisfying climax. Unmissable. Bet you wish you were here.  Mick Lynch Mick Lynch Thu, 26 May 2011 10:26:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:541 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/540/Wild-Palms-Until-Spring#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=540 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=540&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Wild Palms 'Until Spring' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/540/Wild-Palms-Until-Spring Review Snapshot:  Despite occasional glimpses of promise, the debut album from British band Wild Palms loses its way somewhere between ambition and execution. The Cluas Verdict? 5 out of 10 Full Review: There is a lot to like about Wild Palms brand of music. Whilst drawing on an array of influences and blending genres as traditionally opposed as pop rock and shoe gaze, the group still manage to arrive at their own unique sound, a characteristic sorely lacking in many of their contemporaries. As well as having an imitable voice in lead singer Lou Hill, the album is also littered with catchy hooks and clever musical experimentation. So why then, having given the record fair chance, did I find myself so unmoved by the experience and even a little frustrated? Well for one thing the group don’t appear to have settled on a direction. There is an imbalance between simple, radio-friendly pop tunes and long, drawn out tracks that fluctuate in intensity only to arrive at an anti-climatic and unfulfilling conclusion. The final track on the album ‘Not Wing Clippers’, for example, is a fourteen minute epic (epic in length only) that begins as a fairly customary pop song, only to plunge into four minutes of unfathomable silence (this is fashionable amongst certain groups these days, personally I blame Sigur Ros) before it finally picks up again into a bit of good old fashioned post rock. This track alone demonstrates everything that is good and bad in Wild Palm’s music. The lead single from Until Spring, ‘Delight in Temptation’, is another Jekyll and Hyde type of song that develops nicely with a basic guitar hook and slight lyrics from the front man before surrendering to a terribly predictable, and consequently uninteresting, chorus. With this song, as with the entire album the promise of Wild Palms is belied by their brash execution. ‘Caretaker’ is one of the few songs on this record that works from beginning to end. And it works because it doesn’t try to be epic or sweeping. It is a quiet little track where Hill’s voice soars above the music, rather than competing with it as happens throughout much of the album. The overall tone of the album is a little too melancholic, which would be fine if the melancholy being put forward seemed genuine. But it doesn’t and the whole thing just ends up sounding forced, uninspired and confused. That said, however, they are a talented group who will perhaps come back to wow us with a much improved second album. We shall see. Kevin Boyle Kevin Boyle Thu, 26 May 2011 00:52:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:540 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/539/Roger-Waters-live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=539 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=539&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Roger Waters (live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/539/Roger-Waters-live-in-Dublin Roger Waters, The Wall (live in the O2, Dublin, 23 May 2011) Review snapshot: Waters is currently touring with ‘The Wall Live 2011’, an ambitious and spellbinding performance of the 1979 Pink Floyd epic double-album and film, on a massive visual scale. Flawless sound, a light show that would make the most seasoned stoner wet themselves, and a multimedia extravaganza charged with biting social commentary. If rock is your bag, then this is one show you do not want to miss.   The CLUAS Verdict? 8.5 out of 10 Full review: On Monday night Dublin’s O2 Arena played host to one of England’s finest, Roger Waters, ex-bass player / lead singer of rock gods Pink Floyd. Waters is currently touring with ‘The Wall Live 2011’,an ambitious and spellbinding performance of the 1979 Pink Floyd epic double-album and film, on a massive visual scale. The success lies in the mix of flawless sound, a light show that would make the most seasoned stoner wet themselves, and a multimedia extravaganza charged with biting social commentary. The roaring guitars, roving spotlights and SS-type costume elicited such a frenzy, one could have been forgiven for thinking they had time-travelled to the Nuremberg rally. The opus  tells the story of the progression of one man’s psychological isolation and resulting disintegration, at the hands of key figures in his life, such as the terrifying Scottish school master who inspired the anthemic lines ‘Hey! Teacher! Leave us kids alone! / All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall’. Gerard Scarffe’s famous  iconic animation and artwork is used to great effect in the stage production, emulating a nightmarish descent into madness.  To call this event a concert would be sheer folly. This is an audio-visual feast, underpinned by pertinent themes of the human experience, such as the injustice of war, fear and disunity. (Notably, Waters’ father died in World War II and was the inspiration behind the album). Over the course of the performance a giant wall is constructed and dramatically destroyed on the stage. The wall is used as a canvas to display dramatic images of war and its victims. The only drawback  was the partial obscuring of the visuals by large lighting rigs and being victims to unlucky seating arrangements. Waters himself was in relaxed form and traversed the gargantuan stage with ease and age-old rock wisdom. This was not the usual cringe-inducing display of the old-timer refilling his empty coffers: the man has heart and he has a message. Undertaking a tour at two years shy of his seventy years is not only impressive, but a testament to his deep-seated conviction that war is a choice and, ultimately, avoidable. Waters conveys this in a way that avoids patronising his audience and with classic songs that have withstood the test of time. Despite hearing the opening lines ‘Hello, is there anybody in there?’ hundreds of times over my life, ‘Comfortably Numb’ still manages to make the neck hair stand on end. This show has re-invented a classic album as a vehicle for important social truths, which is a tribute to the genius of, not only Roger Waters, but a team of designers that dreamt up the most impressive multimedia spectacle imaginable.  Whether or not rock is your bag, this is one show you do not want to miss. Liz Murphy Liz Murphy Wed, 25 May 2011 20:48:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:539 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/537/Dan-Sartain-Legacy-of-Hospitality#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=537 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=537&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Dan Sartain 'Legacy of Hospitality' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/537/Dan-Sartain-Legacy-of-Hospitality A Review of the album 'Legacy of Hospitality' by Dan Sartain Review Snapshot: The perfect starter kit for Sartain virgins, this long album may be a lot to digest but it is the perfect showcase for the singer/songwriter's diversity. The Cluas Verdict? 7/10 Full Review: Dan Sartain is anAmerican rock singer/songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama and while he has not achieved the heights of fame that he may have been originally been aiming for, he has proven to be a talented and lucky man in the music world. Since 2001 he has released six studio albums, the most recent being Legacy of Hospitality.   The album is being presented by camp Sartain as a companion to previous album Dan Sartain Lives and even something of a document of the musician’s career: it containing tracks that succeed even his early self-produced titles as well as alternative versions of songs from his previous offerings.  On listening to the current LP, it is clear to see that Sartain takes his influences from a variety of genres as it is a plethora of styles and eras mashed into one 21 song album. While at times tedious, overall the album contains many hidden treasures. It is impossible not to compare some of the songs to their sound-a-likes. Atheist Funeral is without doubt one of the strongest songs on the album, and it bares resemblance to Liverpool indie rockers The Coral, right down to the drudging bass-line and the harmonious backing vocals. Another impressive song is the fast-paced Those Thoughts which highlights the singer/songwriter's ability to capture the listener's attention with compelling lyrics and train-like beats. The mood quickly changes from sober adolescence to a bluesy feel that can only be accomplished through life experience with Box Cutter In My Boot, another impressive track.  As can be expected however, there are some weak links in the otherwise delightful album such as the flight of the flinch. To be blunt, it sounds as though it should be on the soundtrack from a recent Nicolas Cage movie, and that is by no means a positive air to exude. Other downfalls include Day-By-Day, a weak effort that apes some of the better songs on the album. Then there is the cheesy Besame Mucho, which is reminiscent of a song you would find some sun burnt Irish man singing in a classless bar in Costa Del Sol.  Overall the album is worth the listen, there are some dreary moments that you will feel inclined to skip over but they can be forgiven as it would be a hard task to produce a faultless 21 track album. If you have not already listened to Dan Sartain's work, this would be a good place to start.   Claire Kane Claire Kane Mon, 23 May 2011 14:17:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:537 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/436/Foo-Fighters-Wasting-Light#Comments 1 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=436 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=436&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Foo Fighters 'Wasting Light' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/436/Foo-Fighters-Wasting-Light A review of the album 'Wasting Light' by Foo Fighters Review Snapshot: Let me start with something that may be controversial for many  fans of the Foo Fighters: this might just be their best album since 'The Colour and The Shape'. I’m just saying.    The Cluas Verdict: 9 out of /10   Full Review: What you see is what you get with the Foo Fighters, one of America's last standing (real) rock bands that haven’t changed their form since Dave Grohl kicked off with his post-Nirvana days with the Foo's debut.   This, their seventh album, drops twenty years after Grohl worked on ‘Nevermind’ with Kurt Cobain, but this is only noteworthy because Grohl has recruited both Butch Vig and Krist Novoselic to play a part in the album's production. Pat Smear, who hasn’t stepped in on a Foo’s album since 1997’s 'The Colour and The Shape', has also been re-recruited.   Another point that peaked my interest when I first heard about this record was how they went about it: shunning their state of the art studio 606, instead opting to make a huge rock record… in a garage. Not only that, it was completely recorded using analogue gear with Vig ditching his Pro Tools. The result is a solid sounding record that hasn’t gone through relentless studio cleansing.   This album breaks out with ‘Bridge Burning’, a track that is sure to be a staple part of their stadium diet. With it Grohl pulls you back into the Foo Fighters' definitive sound with “These are my famous last words”, a line that lets you know you’re back in your comfort zone with this record.   Clearly influenced by his days in Them Crooked Vultures, Probot and even Queens of the Stone Age, you don’t question Grohl when this album plays heavy, particularly if their video alongside Lemmy from Motorhead for ‘White Limo’ is anything to go by.   This record has its negatives but they’re hard to spot and few and far between, disregarding some of the lesser tracks this album is still one magnificent piece of music that will be heard ringing throughout stadiums late into their next three records.   Simply put, buy this record. If you love the Foo Fighters all the trimmings are there. If not, this is still a solid rock record with enough eclectic tracks to intrigue even the biggest music snob. Gregg Synott Listen to this album here on Soundcloud. Greg Synnott Thu, 19 May 2011 08:46:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:436 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/88/Duke-Special-live-in-Portlaoise#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=88 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=88&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Duke Special (live in Portlaoise) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/88/Duke-Special-live-in-Portlaoise A review of Duke Special (live in Kavanagh’s, Portlaoise) Review Snapshot: While there’s no room in tonight's small venue for his piano, Duke Special still  managed to put all his energy, enjoyment, and drama into a gig which enthralled us for over two hours. The Duke managed to silence us with his fascinating stories and history lessons, bringing a different perspective to what can be achieved when you mix music and art. The Cluas Verdict? 9 out of 10 Full review: Having witnessed a few Duke Special gigs over the years, I thought I’d seen all this man has to offer, but I have to admit his May Day Bank Holiday performance in Portlaoise recently was the best I’ve seen him deliver. There’s standing room only as the venue cramped with 100 lucky people has an intimate feel to it, like he’s performing in your sitting room.  With at least six studio albums to his credit now, there’s no shortage of material to pick from, and the early part of the evening consist of tracks like 'As Good As It Get', 'Apple Jack' (a story about Adam and Eve) and the sing-along favourites 'Everybody Wants A Little Something Good' and 'Sweet Sweet Kisses'.   With Duke banging away on the keyboard, his partner in crime percussionist Chip Bailey frantically runs around the place, keeping the beat going on everything from the kitchen sink literally which brings a humorous angle to the show.   If Chip provides the humour, Duke’s serious lessons in history and art provide the darker side to tonight’s performance. There are stories about Irish washer women ('Washday Blues'), and Eastman’s Kodak camera ('You Press The Button, We Do The Rest') which Duke tells with such interest that you could have heard a pin drop.   Renowned for his interesting choices of cover-versions, he gets the crowd going with 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' segued in with his own song 'Diggin An Early Grave'. The recent Neil Hannon composition Wanda Darling Of The Jockey Club brings up back to the 1940’s.   In recent months Duke has been supporting DePaul Ireland, a charity that looks after alcoholics and homeless people (which Duke jokes that “most musicians are only two steps away from”). He donated the proceeds from his recent 'Songs of Ruby Murray' EP to this cause. We’re treated to the beautiful Happy Days And Lonely Nights from same, before the show goes into over-drive for a frantic finale of 'Last Night I Nearly Died' and 'Our Love Goes Deeper Than This'.   As the audience give him a standing ovation and shout for more, he duly obliges with a song that he says “wasn’t on the set list”. He beckons his support act Bill Coleman to get back on stage with his ukulele and we’re treated to a great version of Dylan’s 'I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight'.   Having gone well over his allotted time, the crowd applaud this genius, because that’s what he is. He may not have the hit singles under his belt, but he doesn’t need them. Duke Special has the talent, and the personality. He doesn’t need the commercialism to prove how good he really is.   Mick Lynch Mick Lynch Mon, 09 May 2011 23:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:88 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/435/Esben-the-Witch-Live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=435 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=435&PortalID=0&TabID=36 Esben & the Witch (Live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/435/Esben-the-Witch-Live-in-Dublin Esben & the Witch (Live at the Crawdaddy) Review Snapshot: The critically acclaimed Esben and the Witch make their Dublin debut in The Crawdaddy, and give a performance appropriate for the fairy tale from which they’re named. A memorable night for those in attendance. The CLUAS Verdict: 7.5 out of 10  Full review: A small crowd of about forty gather for the night's support act, The Ambience Affair. The unsigned Leinster band have to date released two EPs, but with a full length LP in the works expectations are high. Pounding drums and jangling guitar sail the band from track to track, from upbeat to soothing and from start to finish. The band, masters of creating a wall of sound, seamlessly mount guitar and vocals on replayed loops, building a sound far more tangible and expansive than could be expected from a three member group. Once the applause after each song has died down there is a dead silence with frenzied guitar changes and set ups for the next song. They attempt to distract the crowd by using this downtime to crack a few jokes and plug their debut album's upcoming release. Only the small audience stood in the way of a rapturous farewell at the close of their set. Headliners Esben & the Witch - aptly named after a strange and dark fairy tale - are met with a slightly fuller room of about one hundred or so when they hit the stage, devotees and sceptics alike gathered for the Brighton-based band's first Irish gig. They waste no time in getting started and launch into their first track “Argyria”,  opening track of their debut album ‘Violet Cries’. Sticking to the album's track listing for much of the set list, their next number is ‘Marching Song’ the hauntingly beautiful 2nd track on the album. It loses none of its intensity or allure in the live environment, the crowd hardly move throughout. Only when a gracious few words of appreciation are uttered is it clear that the track has ended the crowd applauses. The performance is carefully coordinated: members rotate their position constantly and efficiently - this is a well toured and rehearsed band. Just as well, as the band members regularly swap their instruments (Rachel Davis on lead vocals sometimes doubles as a bassist, and Tom Fisher and Daniel Copeman swap backing vocal,  bass, rhythm guitar and synths duties). There is also a solitary drum in the centre of the stage, and each member takes their turn at playing it. At one point the band show remarkable - if not manic - harmony and coordination when two members share drumming duties. And not one beat or clash of the cymbal is out of sync. Track ‘Chorea’, as close to an upbeat dance number as they get, finally sees some movement from the crowd, heads nod approvingly.  The reception has been mixed, some ecstatic, others still not quite sure what they have just seen. With their debut album released only 2 months before the gig, this is a band who have the potential to grow in years to come. Based on tonight's performance, their future could be something quite spectacular. Katie Murphy Katie Murphy Sat, 09 Apr 2011 08:12:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:435 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/89/The-Hold-Steady-live-in-Dublin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=89 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=89&PortalID=0&TabID=36 The Hold Steady (live in Dublin) https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/89/The-Hold-Steady-live-in-Dublin The Hold Steady (live in The Academy, Dublin) Review Snapshot: Playing to audience of 30 something men, The Hold Steady deliver a set much appreciated by the many converted in the audeience. A band however lacking the urgency and depth to ever become a major force in rock music. The Cluas Verdict? 6 out of 10 Full Review: The first thing that is noticeable upon entering The Academy tonight is the clientele. Without exaggeration, the crowd is made up of 90% men. The Hold Steady’s combination of classic and geek rock appealing, based on those in attendance tonight, more to the male 30 something demographic than any other, The band, who have forged a career by releasing consistently decent albums, struck up a genuine bond between band and audience from the off in The Academy. Even so, front man Craig Finn looked somewhat out of place. Reminiscent of a young Elvis Costello, his on-stage dancing borders on embarrassing-uncle-at-a-60th territory whilst sipping his can of Diet Coke. But it is this carefree spirit that seems to endear Finn to the reasonably sizeable crowd in attendance. His voice is an acquired taste, mixing Springsteen-esqe moments with the occasional spoken word. Finn sings about his home town of Minnesota; obviously holding a strong connection with the place of his upbringing, and there is an unquestionable autobiographical theme running through many of the songs tonight.   The band play songs from all of their studio albums and early gig standouts include the melodic ‘Ask for her Adderall’ and ‘Hurricane J’. The band do not rely on their singles to power their live performance and after ‘Sequestered in Memphis’, follows the highlight of the gig: a trio of heavier tunes (Stevie Nix, Smidge, Southtown) with dual guitars reminiscent of Thin Lizzy in their prime. The wonderful mid-section break in ‘Southtown’ ends too fast and shows another, groovier, dynamic of the band.   By this stage, the vast majority of the crowd are won over. The band return for a strong encore consisting of  ‘Stay Positive’ and ‘Slapped Actress’ (both from 2008’s ‘Stay Positive’ album) and a birthday wish to a fan’s girlfriend who had contacted the band directly by email – a testimony to the Hold Steady’s lack of pretentiousness and rock star ego.    The Hold Steady strike me as an ideal act to see on the main stage at a summer festival before the sun sets. For me, they are a little middle of the road’, lacking the urgency and depth to ever become a major force in rock music. This gig was one my parents would have enjoyed - rarely a healthy sign.    The Hold Steady might not be the most contemporary, or vital for that matter, band to visit Ireland in 2011, but they deserve their place in the industry. In many respects they represent a welcome juxtaposition to some other self-aware and media conscious acts of present. Colin White More ... Host Account Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:89 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/223/White-Lies-Ritual#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=223 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=223&PortalID=0&TabID=36 White Lies 'Ritual' https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/223/White-Lies-Ritual A review of the album 'Ritual' by White Lies  Review Snapshot: Has the second album curse taken its next victim? White Lies' new release promises big with some of the biggest names in indie lending a hand along the way. But can the champions of nu-shoe gaze really deliver on the follow up to ‘To Lose My Life’?. The Cluas Verdict? 3 out of 10 Full Review: White Lies' new release ‘Rituals’ appear to be just that, a ritual. It's as if they took their previous effort ‘To Lose My Life’ - songs about love, songs about death - changed the wording around a bit, a dash more synths and, voila, album number two is born. Songs about love and death mean nothing if no feelings are involved. It could be said that their style of expressionless vocals explains the lack of emotion in these songs and those in previous recordings. That is until you compare them with lead vocalists of bands in a similar vein, such as Joy Division, Interpol and Editors. In these cases the dead pan style manges to enhance the raw emotion of the lyrics. This is just not the case here with White Lies.    When any real insight seems to be gained from the nonsensical lyrics its message is vague. All in all, quite frustrating for the listener. The sense of frustration  continues with its little bit of head banging here, some fist pumps there. What missing on 'Rituals' are the stand out tracks that littered ‘To Lose My Life’. Here by comparision it is difficult to decipher the songs from one another.   The record, with 10 tracks averaging at 5 minutes apiece, runs a little long for its content.  Don’t be misled though, this album is crammed with catchy hooks and melodies. The album's euphoric debut single ‘Bigger Than Us’ is filled with whirling guitar and a pounding drum backing the refrain “I want you to hold me, and I want you to pray”. For a gloomy rock trio they can really put out the radio friendly tracks.   This only leads to the conclusion that this is a band that knows exactly what they’re doing, there’s not a hair out of place. Every word, no matter now nonsensical, is put there intently and purposefully. It's a pity they take themselves far too seriously to allow a simple thing like poetic insight or sentiments hold them back.   In recent interviews the band has firmly set their sights on global domination. Stints supporting Kings of Leon on their American tour the band appear to have gotten a taste for the high life, literally. Say what you will about Kings of Leon, but they have the back catalogue to back up any success that has come their way. White Lies on the other hand seem to believe that this kind of fame is owed to them. In the cut throat music industry it should be a well established fact that bands don’t necessarily get their dues, and does two frankly mediocre albums really equal global success to rival Kings?   They appear to have the ambition and determination required for a band to succeed. What they lack is heart. Katie Murphy More ... Katie Murphy Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:223