You May Like This: Lynched

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Lynched – playing the BBC Folk Awards tonight at the Royal Albert Hall

1. Dublin traditional/folk four-piece Lynched are the antithesis of safe, diddly-aye stagnation in the genre, commenting fearlessly on austerity, social issues, trad tropes and modern Irish identity.

2. Having existed in various guises for over a decade, Lynched as we know them today came together when the Lynch brothers met bandmates Cormac and Radie at various trad sessions around Dublin around 2012, and began arranging songs the duo had been working on for the prior few years, as well as some lesser-known traditional pieces.

3. Streaming above is Cold Old Fire, the title track from their second album, recorded by Danny Diamond of Slow Moving Clouds in Merrion Street’s Irish Traditional Music Archive in 2014.

4. This was the tune that helped get them kicked off RTÉ Radio on Culture Night a few years back, when showrunners attempted to steer their set away from the recession ballad (how’s about that recovery!) before removing them from proceedings. Nevermind, though: they wound up on Jools Holland after.

5. Tonight, they’ll be a world away from upsetting the official narrative, representing themselves and performing at the BBC Folk Awards, live at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Streaming tonight on BBC iPlayer, because why should public-service broadcasters provide “niche-interest” television or anything, it’s only what they’re funded to do, like.

6. Fight!

Verdict: Alongside The Gloaming, as well as the likes of Daithí, Moxie, Slow Moving Clouds and others, Lynched are not trad’s future: they’re the genre’s present. Passionate and progressive while retaining a world-weary authenticity.

Lynched

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60 thoughts on “You May Like This: Lynched”

    1. Quint

      Agree. The name is really off-putting. I just see black people hanging from trees in Alabama. Saw them on Later…they’re alright, not particularly memorable.

          2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            According to the lack of creativity going into coming up with a name?

            Welcome to the club idiot :)

          3. Broadsheet Spawned A Monster

            Thanks :)- I’ve always wanted to join this club but they never let me in before

          4. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            You get a cool badge and everything! The kids at school are going to be sooo jealous

          6. rory

            The reason i was looking back that far, i remember writing a vague definition of what it is to be a hipster. And I found it!
            —
            To be a hipster – where priority in your mind is given more to how you appear to other (what you would consider to be) ‘cool’ people, more than on what you genuinely are. The outer manifestation of such priorities depends alot on ‘the cool image’ that is in your brain, your own self awareness, intelligence and general sophistication at manifesting said image.

            You might ask: Surely this description is applicable to any time period and not just the present one where the label of hipster exists? Answer – The manifestation of what is currently labelled as the ‘hipster’ is basically down to the overly commodified/corporate sanctioned realities we are steeped in in the modern world, and what is deemed ‘cool’ by such a representation (deemed cool by music magazines/fashion industry etc.) Hipsters are basically a strata of the ‘rebellious’ consumer within this representation/reality.

            The criticism of the hipster is not that they don’t dress in a more ‘mainstream’ way (although certain comments on here seem to think that is a worthwhile reason. Shame on you people.) The criticism is the vanity, the vacuousness, the emptiness on display. Of course, living in the civilised world, no one is ‘not guilty’ in this regard imo, but I would be of the opinion that ‘the modern hipster’ would be more guilty than others.

            I would consider it to be a uniform inidividuality. A bourgeois affectation steeped in a ‘radical chic’. What has become known as the modern Hipster is essentially a corporate sanctioned demographic for the people who believe they are beyond such a demographic.

            I suspect hipsters consider themselves to be free spirits/genuinely eccentric, e.g. wearing hipsterish clothes/styles is a sign of eccentricity and thus should be celebrated because the world would be boring without eccentrics – But really this is not eccentricity that ‘hipsters’ are exhibiting.
            Not dressing as a hipster, not grooming your social image to perfection would be more eccentric.

            I hope this answers your question to some extent. If you need clarifications, or have some questions, please let me know.
            —

    1. Broadsheet Spawned A Monster

      Lynched’s stuff is dreary ould Shiite but it’s well arranged and some nice harmonies.

  5. BillyTwelveTrees

    I like this…
    What’s in a name?
    A rose by any other blah blah blah…
    I’ll get me coat..

      1. Jess

        Yes go back to what real folk music is about, drinking guinness and selling plastic bodhrans to tourists!

      2. human

        Yea it is undesirable …… Particularly when they are advocating for potentially millions of Muslim men of fighting age entering Europe.

        1. Jess

          Well if your argument can be beaten by a folk band, then maybe, just maybe your argument is poop

          4. human

            Hey Jess, ‘we’ know you like policing language but maybe you should sit this one out….

          1. rory

            Not sure I understand. I don’t know the cork rappers you mentioned. I don’t remember anyway.

  7. Iwerzon

    I like the name – Lynched – if it upsets you then stick the the shiny pop monikers that fill you full of giggly glee!
    Joy Division had an ‘odd’ name but did it conjure up images in your head of women being forced to have sex with Nazis at gun point?
    I prefer The Jimi Hendrix Memorial Ceili Band to be honest. Or Hole.

  8. Liam Deliverance

    I think they’re pretty good, nice arrangement, interesting lyrics, a break from the norm.

          1. rory

            Out of curiosity, was there a subtextual meaning in your comment, with the inclusion of the smiley face?

  11. rory

    I’m assuming that line about the button factory is meant to be a criticism?
    (P.S. I’ve never been. Heard of the venue occasionally but have no idea of its reputation.)

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