Walking on Cars drummer Evan Hadnett cited some pretty heavy bands as influences in the Irish Drummers book. But also noted how important Irish trad music was to Irish drummers. None of the songs on this album are as heavy or fast as anyone he talked about, but you can hear the anthemic power of those bands.
I hadn’t heard of Walking on Cars and I’m kind of surprised by that because they seems like they could have been really big. They just called it quits after releasing the 2020 EP Clouds.
But Colours pushes every button for anthemic angst pop. I’m hearing Imagine Dragons, The Head and the Heart, Of Monsters and Men. and that’s just in the first song, “Monster.” A huge chorus and dramatic vocal chops are only the beginning. “Waiting on the Corner” has some processed “oohs” that could be an immediate hook.
Most of the songs are filled with intense angst–Patrick Sheehy’s voice is gravelly and passionate–“she’s in love with somebody else–someone who won’t let her down” (“Somebody else”) and “I was looking for a friend / And it all came to an end / But I survived, yeah I survived” (“Coldest Water”). His voice is also prominent in the mix “yeah it as better when we were kids” (“When We Were Kids”), where he also throws in some angsty falsetto.
“Two Straight Lines” plays simple guitar lines off of electronic washes and “Too Emotional” is even poppier than the other songs. “One Last Dance” features co-lead vocals with pianist Sorcha Durham (I’m surprised there weren’t more prominent female vocals on other songs). Paul Flannery rounds out the band on bass and vocals. The final song “Pieces of You” ends the album with a big piano ballad.
The big surprise to me about thee songs is that they’re all pretty short. The longest tracks on the record are just over three and a half minutes and the whole album is just over half an hour. It seems like an album full of over the top anthemic bangers might stretch out and maybe overstay its welcome. But this record is efficient.
It seems like the band is ending their career on a high note. They’d been together for ten years and played around the world (although never the U.S. it seems). I imagine if they’d gotten this album in the right hands they could have definitely opened for one of those earlier mentioned bands here.
[READ: February 15, 2021] Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo
I saw this series at the library and thought it looked promising–I rather liked the cover art work.
So I was quite surprised to open it and find it in black and white.
A skeleton seems to have come to life and is walking with a mass of other skeletons through the woods. They all seem to know their destination but our skeleton does not. Then a song begins and sings of his plight. It tells of the Road to Epoli.
Then the book switches to color and Rickety Stitch is seen sleeping on a rack. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: PILLOW QUEENS-“Liffey” (Live on the Late Late Show, January 13, 2021).
I learned about Pillow Queens from the book about Irish Drummers. Rachel Lyons, Pillow Queens’ drummer is interviewed for the book and I thought their band sounded interesting.
I had no idea how good this band would be. They have released a few EPs and a number of one-off songs on bandcamp. They released their debut album in September. To celebrate, the band made their American TV debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden performing “Liffey.”
The band has two leads ingers and all four members sing backing vocals. As this song opens, Pamela Connolly sings an opening verses while everyone else sings harmony and counterpoint until everything comes crashing in–drums, guitars and bass. (That’s Sarah Corcoran on bass and Cathy McGuinness playing lead guitar).
There are some cool parts in this song. The bridge has as series of two note punches, while the verses are supported by soaring single guitar notes. Lyons’ drumming is a real high point. There’s martial beats and lots of floor tom (in the video you can see that she’s using mallets all the way though). Noting her sounds expected and yet it all works together really nicely.
The roaring buzzsaw guitar that ends the song is just perfect.
I’m looking forward to listening to the whole album.
[READ: February 10, 2021] Stranger Things: Zombie Boys
I get to see all kinds of unexpected things at work–books from other countries, books graphic novels in other languages, even popular novels. One thing I never expected to see was a Stranger Things graphic novel. In part because I didn’t know there were any.
But here one is.
This book is set right after Will is rescued from the Upside Down. He’s been drawing pictures of their adventure.
But at school kids are calling him zombie boy. Which is no fun.
The only bright spot is AV Club. But even that’s no fun lately because the boys are all behind in school (what with fighting the forces of evil) and their AV advisor is making them do school work.
Until a new kids comes into the picture. Joey Kim has just moved to town from San Diego. His mom works for Sony and he has a brand new betamax film camera.
Their AV advisor says that he’ll see if they can make a movie for extra credit. But what movie will they make?
That’s when Joey pulls out a drawing that Will made (it fell out of his bag). The boys love the drawing and think it will make for an awesome zombie movie.
Will’s mom isn’t too keen on him drawing scary pictures–she even takes him to the doctor. (The doctor is affiliated with the bad guys, but that doesn’t have an bearing on this story). So Will changes the drawings into zombie joke pictures–it’s a pleasure to eat you, etc.. But the guys are having none of it. And Joey Kim says that it’s horror or nothing.
So they play with make up effects (kielbasa for eaten flesh!) and draw on some of their darker moments (of which they have many) to pull out some acting chops.
Lucas has an important demand though–the black guy always dies in horror movies and he wants Joey to know that this black guy is not going to die.
The book is pretty short and aside from a few of the bullies there’s nothing too dramatic in it–except for a moment when Will goes too deep into a dark place. But the story line is cool and it feels like a setup for more to come.
I have no idea if Joey Kim is coming in the new season or if he is comics only, but he’s a fun addition for this story line.
[CANCELLED: February 18, 2021] Swans / Anna Von Hausswolff [rescheduled from June 25, 2020]
As it looks like the COVID pandemic will continue into 2021, bands have already begun cancelling their shows/tours in the early parts of the year. Swans were very proactive back in the summer when the virus hit and they are being very proactive again, cancelling the tour in October 2020.
On October 7, the band posted this:
Due to the pandemic and the uncertainty and health risks it engenders all Swans tours and shows are cancelled. If you’ve purchased tickets please contact your local venue or the place where you purchased your ticket(s) for a refund – Michael Gira
In the comments section, Gira assured us it was not the end of Swans, though. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: THUMPER-Out of Body Auto-Message (2019).
THUMPER was mentioned in the Irish Drummers book. They actually have TWO drummers, (Stephen D’arcy is in the book).
I hadn’t heard of them (They are reasonably new). This EP collects their first few singles and adds a couple of other tracks.
The rest of the band is: oisin leahy furlong – vocals & guitar; alan dooley – guitar & backing vocals; brendan mcglynn – guitar & backing vocals; joey gavin – bass; stevie d’arcy – drums; shane holly – drums.
“(You’re Bringing Me) Down” opens the set with a rocking fast chords. It’s a catchy melody with a simple but effective guitar riff on top. Clean vocals lead to a catchy chorus with a rumbling bass and roaring guitars. I love that at 90 seconds the song changes sonically to as a glitchy guitar playing the chords before returning back to the fast rumbling joy of the verse. The song more or less finishes after 3 and a half minutes, but the full version of the song tacks on a three minute jam to the end.
“AFL” pummels along in a similar vein–fast catchy fuzzy rock with lots of feedback. Even though the song is pretty much nonstop, they do put in some interesting musical dynamics to mix it up.
“In My Room” is quieter and less fuzzy, although it opens with a squall of noise. It does still have a fast and bouncy chorus. “Half Light” is a woozy acoustic song with a woozy filter on the whole thing. The guitar solo is feedbacky and almost out of tune. And it ends with a wall of noise.
The final song is ten minutes long. “3AM & Restless” takes off right from the get go. It’s relentless song with a lot of sounds going on (spoken conversations, screaming or feedback or something). But after two and a half minutes the song slows down and stretches out. Big chords ring out while a spoken conversation or something seems to be going on underneath them. the end of the song stretches into a slow noisy jam of scratches and synth sounds, kinda like they had the tape rolling and just keep messing around with their gear until it ran out.
The ending is a little uninspired, but the rest o the EP is fantastic and I look forward to more from them.
[READ: February 15, 2021] Trespassers
This is the story of Gabby Woods and her family. They are headed up to their vacation house on the lake. It’s an annual trip that they all enjoy very much.
Gabby’s older sister, Morgan, is sort of out of the picture (she’d too old to hang with Gabby and their younger brother Simon), but she’s nice enough. Gabby’s parents are kind and funny, but they have just learned that Gabby’s dad is going to have to take a new job in a different state. This might be their last time visiting their lake house.
Gabby is a bookworm which Simon finds very boring. He hates that Gabby wastes her time reading when there’s so much to do at the lake. Gabby does put her book down from time to time, but really, a vacation is about resting.
When they arrive they see their neighbor Gene. Gene is an older man who has lived in his house for decades. He is a nice guy and he looks forward to the Woods’ family’s arrival.
As the Woods canoe around the lake, they approach Gabby’s favorite building–a beautiful architectural marvel with a gorgeous view of the lake. It was built by Walter Goldworth, a Chicago architect who married a model, Angela. He built this place for her. They were very happy until they both disappeared and have not been seen since. The house has been vacant for decades. Continue Reading »
Despite a terrible name that would keep me away from wanting to see them, The Redneck Manifesto are a very interesting and complicated band. I discovered them through the book of Irish drummers. TRM drummer Mervyn Craig is in the book.
The How is the band’s fifth album (and first in eight years). The album is chock full of instrumentals that touch all genres of music.
There are jazzy elements, dancey elements and rock elements. There are solos (but never long solos) and jamming sections. Most of the songs are around 4 minutes long with a couple running a little longer.
“Djin Chin” has jangly chords and quiet riffs that switch to a muted melody. All the while the bass is loping around. It shifts tempos three times in the first two minutes. Around three minutes the bass takes over the lead instrument pushing the song along with deep notes.
“The Rainbow Men” has a circular kind of riff with swirling effects that launch the song during the musical pauses. After a minute and a half it drastically shifts direction and the adds in a cool solo.
“Sip Don’t Gulp” starts with a catchy bouncy guitar riff and bass lines. At two minutes it too shifts gears to a staggered riff that sounds great.
“Kobo” is the shortest song and seems to tell a melodic story. The two guitars play short, fast rhythms as call and response while the bass rumbles along.
“Head Full of Gold” is over 6 minutes with a thumping bass, rumbling drums and soft synths. “No One” is nearly 7 minutes and feels conventionally catchy until you try to keep up with the beats. After a middle series of washes from various instruments, the back half is a synthy almost dancey rhythm.
“Sweep” is a pretty song until the half-way mark when it just takes off in a fury of fast drumming and complex chords. The end builds in upward riding notes until it hits a calming ending
“We Pigment” is a poppy staccato dancey number. The second half turns martial with a series of four beat drum patterns and a soaring guitar solo. More staccato runs through to the end. “The Underneath Sun” also has a lot of staccato–fast guitar notes interspersed with bigger chords. The end of the song is just littered with sweeping guitar slides until the thumping conclusion.
This album is great and I’m looking forward to exploring their other releases.
[READ: January 10, 2021] A History of Ireland in 100 Words
This book looks at old Irish words–how they’ve evolved and how they show the way Irish history came about. The authors say:
our store of words says something fundamental about us and how we think. This book is meant to provide insights into moments of life that may be otherwise absent from history books. The focus is on Gaelic Ireland throughout as Gaelic was the native language of the majority of the inhabitants of the island for the last 2000 years. It yielded its primacy to English only in the last 150 years.
We selected words with the aim of illustrating each of our themes as broadly as possible. We wanted the words in all their richness to tell their story … like how the word that originally meant noble came to mean cheaper (saor).
Almost all of the entries reference The cattle raid of Cooley (The Ulster Cycle) which features the hero Cú Chulainn. This story is at the heart of most of historical Ireland and it’s pretty fascinating how many of these Gaelic words either originate with that story or get their foundation from the story.
There’s a general pronunciation guide although I wish each word had a phonetic guide because anyone who speaks English will look at Irish a if it is just a jumble of nonsensical consonants.
The book is broken down into sections, although the authors insist that there is no correct way to read the book.
Writing and Literature
Technology and Science
Food and Feasting
The Body
Social Circles
Other Worlds
War and Politics
A Sense of Place
Coming and Going
Health and Happiness
Trade and Status
Entertainment and Sport
The Last Word
There are also delightfully weird wood carving-like drawings from by Joe McLaren scattered throughout the book.
The words are listed below with either a definition or an interesting anecdote included. Continue Reading »
[CANCELLED: February 16, 2021] Holy Fuck (rescheduled from June 10, 2020]
Not only did Holy Fuck cancel this tour, Boot & Saddle closed its doors. Mega cancelled.
~~~
After seeing that this show was postponed, it gave me an opportunity to explore their music. I was now looking forward to seeing them in the new year. Well, I guess February is still too soon to plan anything, so this tour has also been cancelled.
Holy Fuck have a great name that pretty much guarantees they won’t get much in the way of airplay or advertising.
Of course their music isn’t super commercial either–although it can be quite catchy (and has been used in a bunch of soundtracks). They play an electronic dance music but in a decidedly old-school fashion. They don’t use laptops at all, employing all manner of old school equipment. Continue Reading »
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. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc One: Boris) (2016).
In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time. Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).
Disc 1 was all Boris. Disc 2 was all Merzbow.
When you play them together, you get the drumless Boris with all of the glitching electronica of Merzbow sprinkled around it. The songs are set up in a very clever way with one of Merzbow’s songs being exactly equal to two or three of the Boris songs.
I played the CD of Boris and the stream of Merzbow on Spotify. It was cool to be able to raise and lower the volunme of one to change the intensity of Merzbow’s glitches.
Merzbow’s “Planet of the Cows” plays over the first two Boris songs “Farewell” and “Huge.” Farewell’s quiet drone tacks on Merzbow’s squeals and glitches which fill in the gaps quite nicely. When “Farewell” ends, the Merzbow continues until the loud gongs heavy chords of “Huge” ring out. The Merzbow chaos sounds almost like a solo over the slow low heavy drone chords. Atsuo’s low growling even complements the spare noises. Both parts ends with squealing feedbacking sounds–analog from Boris and digital from Merzbow.
Merzbow’s “Goloka Pt. 1” plays over three Boris songs “Resonance” “Rainbow” and “Sometimes” (the My Bloody Valentine cover). “Resonance” is mostly percussion–kind of randomly hit in a slow rhythm. Merzbow’s noises sound like static in a distance echoing signal from outer space. “Rainbow” is a piece I don’t know. This version features Boris playing some quiet guitar and a grooving bass with Wata singing vocals. Merzbow’s electronics sounds restrained here, adding louder noises when the vocals back out This song has some tasty soloing from Wata with the electronics almost keeping pace. It segues into “Sometimes,” with its loud thumping echoes and eventual wall of noise. The vocals are pretty well buried but you can hear the melody of the MBV song.
“Goloka Pt.. 2” plays over “Heavy Rain” and “Akuma No Uta.” “Heavy Rain” starts out with noisy stabs of sound–it’s actually hard to tell who is making what, but then things mellow out as Wata sings. The guitars drone loudly and the vocals mix in with the electronics. It ends with the noisy guitar buzzing from Boris while the noises from Merzbow continue between songs–sounds of noise and electronic bleeps. “Akuma No Uta” starts slowly with washes of guitar build up. The glitching Merzbow adds keeps it from being purely a drone. The drone gets louder and louder and I like the way Merzbow’s glitches seem to back off as the man riff enters the song. As it nears the end, glitching sounds to me like a menacing voice coming through the static and heavy riffage.
The final song is Merzbow’ “Prelude to a Broken Arm” which plays over “Akirame Flower” and “Vomitself.” It starts out with watery sounds before the big chords and vocals kick in. Merzbow’s noise is like a screaming train underneath the slow crooning. The main riff from Wata has some electronic percussive sounds tacked onto it. As the final chord rings out the song segues into the musch noisier “Vomitself.” It introduces a huge wave of low chords as Merzbow’s noise amps up to correspond with a lot of low growling percussive sounds. As the song rumbles to an end the squealing intensifies like feedback added on top of the roar with the last notes sounding like a person raging.
It’s interesting how I don’t really like the Merzbow tracks, but how they add interesting textures to the Boris songs.
[READ: February 19, 2021] Caliente
Matu Santamaria is an Argentinian illustrator and his work is really stunning.
This book has a big warning: 18+ but it’s not fully explicit. There are drawing of naked women and sex acts, but there’s only a few things that are NSFW.
Santamaria’s work is full of clean lines and and dramatic colors. I really enjoy looking at it, regardless of the content.
This book contains a lot of his most recent work. It seems to be split between positive messages about sexuality, body positivity and appreciation for frontline workers during the Coronavirus. There’s also some celebrity pictures as well.
After some definitions of the word caliente, the book opens with series of pictures of women exploring the sexuality with each other. Interracial women kissing and a woman taking her top off with the comment–“and without realizing it, it’s poetry.” Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: BORIS with MERZBOW-Gensho (Disc Two: Merzbow) (2016).
In 2016, Boris teamed with Merzbow to create Gensho, a 2 CD package that was designed to have both CDs played at the same time. Not the easiest thing for many people, but with the advent of digital recordings it’s now pretty easy to play both discs at the same time (this release is on Spotify).
Disc 1 was all Boris. Disc 2 was all Merzbow.
Merzbow is a real challenge for me. I’m not really sure how anyone can listen to his music for pleasure. It’s harsh, electronic sounds, with high pitched squeals and low staticy distortions. As an exercise in noise, it’s fairly interesting, but never enjoyable.
This disc includes four songs.
“Planet of the Cows” is over 18 minutes long. It’s high pitched squealing and a low distortion. There’s a thumping that works almost like a rhythm. After ten minutes it sounds like a space alarm is sounding.
“Goloka Pt. 1” is 20 minutes long. It feels bigger and more metallic. The noises seem to coalesce into a distant screaming sound.
“Goloka Pt. 2” is 19:30. It’s got a slightly lower tone, with slower movement among the noises. Although sirens and pulsing sounds are present. Then at 12 minutes all the sirens drop out to just a quiet robotic pulsing with thumping that sound like a heartbeat. The track ends in what sounds like mechanical breathing.
“Prelude to a Broken Arm” is the shortest song at only 16 minutes. It is quieter with a low crunching and bug-like sounds. At 6 and half minutes the distortion comes in really loud with a mechanical drum/broken engine sound and then a looping siren with the kind of static noise that sounds like more screaming.
It is an unsettling and challenging listen and not for the squeamish.
[READ: February 10, 2021] “Our House”
Irish writers are often known for their humorous storytelling. But wow, can Irish writers really hit hard with the tragedy, too.
This is one of the darkest stories I’ve read in a long time.
The story begins with the narrator saying that his father always told him to never buy a house on a corner. But the narrator and his wife did anyway. It was in bad shape and needed a lot of work, but they fell in love with the place and felt they were up to the task.
The story sets up the spouses as opposites in love. She is a non-practicing Protestant with a Catholic name (Ursula) and he is a non-practicing Catholic with a Protestant name. She thinks he is funny and he never dares to admit that she rarely gets the jokes.
The previous owner died three years ago and they are the first people to check out the place. The more they clean the more work they see needs to get done. Although there are some nice surprises (like the five hundred pounds in cash they find under the carpet).
But it’s the neighborhood that proves to be more hostile to them than they could ever have imagined. Children began gathering at the corner every day. They get up to mischief right away–ringing the doorbell and running, bouncing a ball off the house. But there is an underlying air of menace behind all of this. Continue Reading »
[POSTPONED: February 13, 2021] Fuzz [rescheduled from June 27, 2020; moved to April 11, 2022]
Postponing shows for a second or third time is certainly depressing. But it’s also a sign of hope. The belief that there will be live music again. Even if it’s a year away. This show has been moved to April 11 of next year and I just bought a ticket to make sure the venue knows I’m coming.
Ty Segall is one of the more prolific musicians out there. He has released 12 official albums in ten years and that doesn’t include the countless self-released material he has put out. He is also in a bunch of other bands. Fuzz is one of them.
I can’t believe that there wasn’t a band named Fuzz before Ty Segall and Charles Moothart came up with the band.
Segall makes all kinds of music, but the music of Fuzz is pretty easy to categorize–fuzzy, heavy, fast rock with a debt to early Black Sabbath. Segall is on drums for this project.
They have only released two albums since 2013, with Fuzz II coming out five years ago. But it was a big album with a 13 minute jam at the end.
I’ve often thought about seeing Ty Segall–he seems like a bonkers performer–but it never worked out. He can’t be quite as crazy behind the drums, but this sounds like a great show.
SOUNDTRACK: WALKING ON CARS-Colours (2019).
Walking on Cars drummer Evan Hadnett cited some pretty heavy bands as influences in the Irish Drummers book. But also noted how important Irish trad music was to Irish drummers. None of the songs on this album are as heavy or fast as anyone he talked about, but you can hear the anthemic power of those bands.
As it looks like the COVID pandemic will continue into 2021, bands have already begun cancelling their shows/tours in the early parts of the year. Swans were very proactive back in the summer when the virus hit and they are being very proactive again, cancelling the tour in October 2020. 
I Just Read About That... 