Hi! This here is a post about some of the (imo) best bands in Ireland today, who, if I was feeling bold, I might claim could also be some of the best bands in Europe, and (in one case) maybe even a contender for the world's best. So here goes.
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Even though they've only released one 26-minute EP so far, [indietronica act] VOIDS are incredibly good. The dude in the band uses bass guitar to get 99% of his sounds, feeding it through all kinds of effects to create atmosphere / harmonics / textures, as well as rhythm and percussion. I recently bought their EP on cassette ('cos the digital download just wasn't enough!), my first cassette purchase in years!
Sleep Thieves are signed to a Chicago-based label called Minty Fresh. They deal in a kind of eerie, ghostly synthpop. It's great! The band recently became "Spotify millionaires", racking up 2.6 million plays for their tracks. A member of the band wrote this interesting piece about their experiences with the streaming giant.
Fox Jaw shortened their name from Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters last year and released their second album, 'Ghost's Parade', in September. That album is really good but I prefer their debut from 2011, 'The Devil In Music' - it's quickly becoming an all-time favourite. The first song I ever heard by them was 'Thread The Needle', and though it might take a listen or three to make sense of their sound, it's well worth checking out.
Finally, my potential contenders for "best band in the world today" - a band called...... The Hard Ground. Patman360 has done a lot of work on these forums to promote this band, so I'm picking up the baton here for a while! Somewhere on these forums recently someone asked if there were any bands or artists who had a knack for great opening tracks - well, this band's two albums both have phenomenal opening tracks. I've played both of these songs probably over 100 times each, and I think Patman is in the same boat. They were both the lead singles off their parent albums.
So hopefully one or two of these bands will be of interest to someone - and for anyone who might be interested in checking out a little more from the scene(s) that spawned these bands, I've put together a bunch of "Irish year charts" over the last couple of weeks (will hopefully add a few more as well).
If anyone else has any Irish music that they've been spinning a lot lately, feel free to use this thread as well.
I've been really digging Women's Christmas. Ever since I saw them support for Viet Cong back in May, I've been in love with their sound as they describe it as: "consistently rewrite The Thermals' best song and inject it with the fuzzed out wonky joy of Ronald Jones-era Flaming Lips (1993 - 1996) and the boozy punk rock abandon of The Replacements." Some of the best Irish indie-punk out there right now!
Decided to start with Squarehead, a delightful garage pop/punk/jangle pop sort of trio out of Dublin. I cannot recommend RESPECT enough, an album the band decided to actually give away for free initially (I guess they finally copped onto how brilliant it really is). Knives is a particular favourite, showcasing them at their lo-fi, jangly best for me. Also, here's a dope cover of Neil Young's Walk On, which makes them even cooler, cause as we all know On The Beach is Neil Young's best album (and one of the best albums of all time).
I was gonna write more now on The Crytearions, Ginnels, Stanley Super 800 and (the now sadly broken up) Time Is A Thief, but I got hungry so I'll get to it later. _________________
Ginnels are a similar style of band to Squarehead, maybe a tad more poppier at times but some of their stuff keeps that lo-fi goodness, they have quite a bit in common with Squarehead, so much so that Roy, a regular member of Squarehead, is an occasional member of Ginnels. They've 4 releases out now, all of which are absolutely lovely, but most of which still need to be added to BEA (shall get on that soon I hope...). Here's Mountbatten Class, a fantastic (and currently freely downloadable) mini album/EP, while their last album 'A Country Life' is a must for indie pop fans, they've 2 other albums up for streaming via bandcamp also. Check them out, I can't recommend them enough.
Haha, you guys have just exposed my 2014 "year chart" for the lie that it is! Gonna have to add Women's Christmas and Ginnels eventually (and also this one). Squarehead added to collection as well...
To be honest I didn't (and maybe still don't) really see this thread as a goer, it was a bit spur of the moment as I was just keen to try and get those four bands a bit more notice. But seeing as it's here, a quick intro to the last few years in Irish music...
There's been a lot of very good indie / alt. rock type stuff and a lot of very good electro / synthpop type stuff, all of which is very much my thing, and most of which has come from outside Dublin.
There's also been a more lo-fi, off-kilter, punky / garagey / twee-poppy type of scene, and that scene is more or less confined to Dublin. The Popical Island label (or collective) is / was central to this... there are countless Dublin bands / projects / aliases that have some kind of link to it... cross-pollination between bands par for the course. I basically just wish I had more time to explore it but I've been kept very busy by the genres I tend to prefer... but, I'll catch up on it soon hopefully. What a great track this is, for example (from 2011).
Huge kudos to Pat for mentioning Ginnels. 'A Country Life' was my favourite LP of last year and with good reason - it's a collection of indie-pop pocket symphonies the like of which having not been seen since Modesty Blaise's Melancholia.
Would thoroughly suggest people check out this compy:
Which is one of the most life-affirming, heart-warming and downright brilliant watches of recent years. The moment when Terri Hooley hears Teenage Kicks for the first time is celluloid brilliance. _________________ 'Reggae' & t'ing Folk 'n Stuff SHAMELESS RECORD DEALER PLUG
To be honest I didn't (and maybe still don't) really see this thread as a goer, it was a bit spur of the moment as I was just keen to try and get those four bands a bit more notice. But seeing as it's here, a quick intro to the last few years in Irish music...
I love the idea, I finally have a thread where I can rant about lots of local music if need be.
I'm I'll be sticking stuff here often and I hope others do to, heck, it might even draw some more Irish users to the forums!
So I've actually been having a lot of fun just going through 2008 and 2009 in Irish music, as it was just before I became a very serious follower of the scene here, and also just before I started using the internet as my main way of discovering music. Have made some mad good discoveries over last couple weeks.
So here are my (minimal) takes on 2008 and 2009 just now
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