SOUNDTRACK: MY LITTLE FUNHOUSE-Standunder (1991).
Drummer has a funny story about joining My Little Funhouse. It’s especially funny given how young he was and how raunchy the band seems.
This album feels like a hair metal band whose second guitarist had just heard of grunge. Lead singer Alan Lawlor sounds bratty and sleazy like an L.A. hair metal stud.
There’s some ripping guitar solos (“Destiny”) and big soaring ballads (“Wishing Well”) and there’s a dumb straight up rocker (“L.S.D.”). There’s even the quiet intro (lighters up in the air) “sensitive” song (“breaks my heart/tears me apart”), “Anonymous.”
The one musical surprise is the summer guitar intro of “Been too Long” which sounds like it belongs to another song all together. Although the bass/drum clap along is pretty apt. “raintown” is another song that is a little unusual here–it feels like a B-side. Lawlor’s vocals are toned way down and the production is much softer.
Perhaps the one thing that sets them apart from the West Coast metal is the song “Catholic Boy.” Yup, it’s just as sexual/ist as a typical metal band, but the specificity of being Catholic seems very Irish to me.
My Little Funhouse opened for Guns N’ Roses when they toured Ireland. And that makes perfect sense. This album is completely of its time (or maybe a year too late). With the right exposure, they would have been huge. But this is the only thing they released before they broke up.
[READ: December 30, 2020] Irish Drummers Volume 1
I received this book at work and thought it would be interesting to look though. I flipped through the names in the contents and was pretty sure I hadn’t heard of any of these drummers. But it turns out I knew a lot of the bands they played in, just not their names.
Gilligan says that he created the website Irish Drummers several years ago. It was an opportunity for him to interview Irish drummers and celebrate them. Gilligan himself is a drummer but never really played with any bands. Probably the most famous Irish drummer, U2’s Larry Mullen, Jr is not in this book, but he is on the website.
Gilligan thought it would be very cool to publish a book and here it is. The interviews are truncated for the book, you’ll get a lot more online.
Each interview has a picture (or two) and three to seven questions.
I have made some notes of interest from the drummers who had something unique to say. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?: Music Through a Cheap Transistor: The BBC Sessions (2007).
SOUNDTRACK: BBC Sessions (various).
Many many bands that I like have recorded tracks for the BBC. And after several sessions, they tend to get released as BBC Live or BBC Sessions discs. In the last few years, I’ve gotten discs from the Cocteau Twins, Tindersticks, The Beautiful South, Belle and Sebastian and Therapy? One of the first ones I’d every gotten was The Smiths’ Hatful of Hollow. 
SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?-Lonely, Cryin’ Only [single] (1998).
I have a few Therapy? singles, but I wanted to mention this one specifically because it has two “new” recordings on it. The first is of “Diane” the Hüsker Dü song that they first recorded on Infernal Love. The second is of “Teethgrinder” their first “hit” off of Nurse.
SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?-High Anxiety (2003).
I hadn’t listened to this disc in a long time, and I was delighted by how much I remembered (and liked) it. This was the last Therapy? album that received a release in the U.S. And it is a solid collection of heavy alternative metal with some seriously catchy bits thrown in for good measure.
SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?-Never Apologise Never Explain (2004).
This album is the prior release to One Cure Fits All. It’s not true that Therapy? works on a harsh release/melodic release kind of schedule, although judging by these two discs it sure seems that way. Never Apologise begins with a blistering, noisy “Rise Up.” The really notable difference with this disc and other Therapy? releases is the amount of noise in the track. One of Therapy?’s most notable sounds has been a guitar that is so clean it sounds almost unreal.
SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?–One Cure Fits All (2006).
I’ve always liked Therapy?’s brand of aggro-alt metal/whatever you call it. Their earlier stuff was harsh and dark. During their middle years they grew surprisingly commercial (although they’ve always had a bit of a commercial side to them, even at their harshest).