The sun is shinning and nothing celebrates sunshine like good old fashioned surf music. (we) The Mushburgers have a new video (above) from our gig last week at The Generator (Smithfield, Dublin 7) .We’ll be onstage next month at The Sea Sessions (link below),.If anyone would like to book us to soundtrack their summerpartaay. Ya’ll can contact us here mushburgersband@gmail.com…
1. Emerging from Sligo, Myles Manley is a songwriter that is Ireland’s (definitely-not-self-proclaimed) “foremost highbrow, underground popstar”.
2. He’s grand for a tune, though – past the sarky sense of humour lies a penchant for pop goodness, as ably demonstrated in debut album Greatest Hits 2012-2013 and last year’s More Songs. It’s translated to UK, European and Russian touring, as well as love from BBC Radio 1 and the Irish music media.
3. Streaming above is the Arsenal-tastic vid for Pay Me What I’m Worth, described by Radio 1’s Phil Taggart as “an anthem for anyone who works below middle management”. ***NSFW bit at the end.***
4. He’s playing a free gig at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork this Friday 13. He’s also at Broken Home in Galway on the 14th, and the Swagman in Sligo on the 15th.
Verdict: World-weary troubadour, or grinning smart-alec with an ear for pop? Worth the while to find out in a live environment.
Kojaque – Sunday Roast mixtape and upcoming YESTIVAL appearance
What you may need to know…
1. We’ve been sleeping on Kojaque. A confessional, Dublin-accented patter is married to polished, jazzy self-production.
2. Garnered attention online last year from the likes of Noisey, for the video to single Midnight Flower, in which he rhymes for over three minutes with his head underwater.
3. Streaming above is his recently-released Sunday Roast mixtape in its entirety. It’s also available for download here, via his own Soft Boy Records.
4. Next appearing at Mother’s inaugural YESTIVAL on May 21 at the Tivoli, Francis Street, Dublin, a fest marking the first anniversary of the marriage equality vote. Also confirmed are Peaches (!), the Rubberbandits and Sugar Rush (girlband/supergroup featuring Panti) among others.
Verdict: Capable of vitriolic outbursts and noise, but more given to cool, cracked-leather holdings of court, suited to his more subdued sonics.
1. Cork post-metal/post-rock trio Ealadha have quietly set about impressing a lot of fans of the genre in the past year…
2. Not the least of whom are 2FM/2XM’s Dan Hegarty, who’s been somewhat of a champion for the band, giving their past two singles regular airtime.
3. Sticking their heads above the live parapet, the band gigged consistently throughout 2015, including a featured slot of IndieCork festival’s new music programme, and making the trip to Dublin for the Mother Fuzzer’s Ball.
4. Hurricanes is taken from upcoming debut EP Limit of Our Sight, the artwork for which was revealed yesterday on the band’s Facebook. More details impending.
Verdict: Atmospheric, soaring stuff that doesn’t spare their own tendencies toward heavyweight tones and riffs in pursuit of beauty.
1. Emerging from jam sessions in Cork’s Big Skin studios, The Bonk derive their moniker from a colloquialism for complete mental and physical collapse.
2. The band is headed up by Waterford man and O Emperor guitarist Phil Christie, and features several of that band’s members. They made their debut appearance under the name earlier this year, at the Quarter Block Party festival.
3. Last week saw the release of debut single Ancestor as a free download from the band’s Bandcamp page, streaming above.
4. The band’s next live excursion is April 16 as part of Cork record shop/community centre/institution PLUGD Records‘ celebration of five years at their current home at the Triskel Arts Centre’s TDC venue.
5. Also appearing are the impossibly promising Barchester Chronicles, prolific troubadour Laurie Shaw, singer-songwriter Roslyn Steer, with Cork hip-hop icon Stevie G spinning discs in the shop (upstairs, 12-6) beforehand and in GULPD Cafe (downstairs) all night.
Verdict: A bit early at this stage for hyperbole, but what’s here reminds your writer of Captain Beefheart’s more focused moments – swaggering, confident grooving that doesn’t necessarily skimp on the psychedelia.
White Line Fever – playing Cork, Galway and Kilkenny this month
Here’s what you may need to know…
01. Named for an apparent lack of focus that afflicts long-distance truck drivers (and the Peckinpah-esque truxploitation flick of the same name), Cork’s White Line Fever trade in a proggy, post-rock-inflected strain of folk rock.
02. 2014’s Anomie EP set the tone for their current live show, a concise, yet polished two-tracker that they’ve used as the foundation for their current live sound, to be heard on their upcoming follow-up.
03. Streaming above is the band’s most recent video, Lordship & Bondage, filmed and recorded live at Youghal’s Claycastle Studios, and mastered by Murdock man Aidan Cunningham.
04. The four-piece is playing the rest of a series of spot-shows with alt-rockers Harbouring Oceans and singer-songwriter Míde Houlihan throughout March, hitting the Crane Lane Theatre in Cork on the 18th, and the Brewery Corner in Kilkenny on the 26th. The band also plays Galway’s Citóg night at the Roisín Dubh on the 23rd.
Verdict: Minimalist, yet somehow massive, the band’s recorded output and confident live excursion so far bode well for the future. Check ’em out.
01. The gatekeepers of the Irish underground are in rude health as always. Twenty-seven years and counting in the game, with their fourteenth album Disquiet hitting shelves last year, Ballyclare/Larne’s Therapy? unleash their best ‘pop’ single in years with Tides.
02. Though many casual observers associate the boys in black with their major-label heyday in the mid-Nineties, they never went away.
04.Disquiet, from which Tides is taken, acts as a sequel of sorts to 1994’s million-selling Troublegum, and sees the band revisiting that album’s teenage protagonist as a middle-aged man in the throes of further tumult.
05. The song itself is inspired singer/guitarist Andy Cairns‘ time living in Dun Laoghaire [Co Dublin], as evidenced by the single’s artwork.
06. Keen punk fans will spot the other reference in the cover art immediately, and it’s intentional: Bob Mould, of hardcore trailblazers/accidental college-rock inventors Hüsker Dü was a major influence on the song’s writing.
Verdict: Though the album itself feels a little retro after the band’s insistence on forward-thinking for the better part of three decades, Tides is one of its highlights. Here’s hoping for more of this somewhat psychey, washed-out pop in the not too dim ‘n’ distant.