This weeks news September 14

This weeks news September 14

Now that was a good week for gigs – Jello with Guantanamo School of Medicine on a bill with Sissy and Paranoid Visions last Wednesday in the Button Factory. And then two days later the Ex in Whelans. Something else. Spolied for choice again this week with Danko Jones, Sissy + Exploding Eyes, Sleaford Mods, XSLF + Hooligan and Disguise all on over the next 7 days

Some good music being released too
UK diy trio Grubs have just released ‘It Must Be Grubs’, a short-spanning but instantly charming first work. Spanning eleven tracks, ‘It Must Be Grubs’ blitzes through ramshackle, energised garage rock without ever looking back. Like hitching on a bike, riding downhill and realising the brakes don’t work, it’s a chaotic journey into the unknown, more rough-edged and free-spirited with every song. ‘Windwaker’ shakes off mid-week blues, while ‘Good Timez’ ends things on an all-smiles moment of rejoice.
There’s always a happy ending with this record. The band consists of Joanna Gruesome members Owen Williams and Roxy Brennan (also in Two White Cranes and Towel) and former
DIY scribe / champion of fashion Jake May. ‘It Must Be Grubs’ officially out came out on Friday 11th September on Reeks of Effort.

One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to is turned out a punk . It features a conversatio with someone sho was influneced by punk rock and is a great document of our movement. One of the more interesting ones is a conversation with Danko Jones. Whilst the music of Danko Jones was too steeped in metal for my ears I never realised how much Danko identified with punk and hardcore. They are in Whelans on September 18

With the September 18 release of their forthcoming second LP Sun Coming Down fast approaching, Ought have now shared a full stream of their new album one week prior to release. Including the smouldering yet introspective fan-favourite “Beautiful Blue Sky” and thrilling album-opener “Men For Miles”, these are two gems in this album of many…
OUGHT’S NEW ALBUM SUN COMING DOWN out now on Constellation Sun Coming Down maintains the band’s tight, twitchy and economical sound, with the unfussy, understated rhythm section of drummer
Tim Keen and bassist Ben Stidworthy anchoring Tim Darcy’s electric guitar and Matt May’s fuzzed-out keys (sounding, as often as not, like a second guitar). Ought pursue an artistically apposite austerity in committing these new songs to tape, referencing the arid and unvarnished production of no-wave and early indie rock while balancing carved-out angularity against an evolving comfort with textural coalescences and measured pacing. It makes for an album that’s consistently, insistently propulsive but also feels unhurried and pleasantly unhyped. Songs like ‘Beautiful Blue Sky’ (already a fan favourite from live shows) and ‘Never Better’ unfold with gradual and deliberate ebb and flow, where scratchy guitars play like dappled shards of light on gently roiling waves of bass and organ; ‘The Combo’ and ‘Celebration’ keep things crisp and concise. Darcy’s voice and lyrics continue to distinguish and define the personality of the band: his blend of ironic detachment, declarative insistence, fragmentary stammering poetics, and the occasional direct aside to the listener, finds various ways to weave within or drive through the mixes. Sun Coming Down confirms the distinctive vitality and purposive naturalism of this band; Ought resists facile primitivism and
overhyped dynamics in equal measure, keeping things hermetic but never airless, ascetic but never dispassionate, literate but never prolix. The band’s steady and subtle charms don’t make them the cool kids or the iconoclastic freaks – just a satisfyingly unrefined and substantive rock band that eschews indulgence or aesthetic bandwagoneering to seek a humble, thoughtful corner from which to articulate a position within and contribute meaningfully to a 40-year continuum of indie, punk and DIY tradition.

Forthcoming Gigs

danko Jones + The Amorettes – Whelans – September 18

Sissy + Exploding Eyes + Shrug Life – Sweeneys – September 19

Sleaford Mods – Hangar – September 19

XSLF + Hooligan – Fibber Magees – September 19

La Misma + Disguise + Overbite + Surge – Tenterhooks – September 20

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Whelans – September 26

The Winter Passing + Chewing on tinfoil + Kates party + Driveaway – Grand Social September 26

Wheatus – Whelans – September 28

B Dolan – Wormkans Club – September 29

We Shall Overcome – Dublin – October 2-4

Hard Working Class Heroes – Dublin – October 2+3

Juan Wauters + No Monster Club – Whelans – October 4

The Lemonheads – Academy – October 5

Hey Rosetta – Workmans Club – October 9

Giveamanakick – Whelans – October 10

Nothing Clean – Tenterhooks – October 10

Cockney Rejects – Grand Social – October 10

Inner Terrestials + Dubtones + Suckin Diesel + Jobseekers + Kluster-Fux – Fibber Magees – October 16

English Dogs – Fibber Magees – October 23

dAVID kITT – wHELANS – oCTOBER 24

Litovsk – Dublin – October 25

US Girls – Whelans – October 25

Liturgy – Whelans – October 26

Dragster + Angry Itch + Stop start Again + Black Pitts + Jobseekers – Fibbers – October 30

Deer hunter button factory – November 1

Slaves – The Academy – November 5

Girl Band – Button Factory – November 7

Stiff Little Fingers – The Academy – November 13

Coitus + Paranoid Visions + Coldwar + Liberty – Fibbers – November 14

Mercury Rev – Button Factory November 22

Chelsea Wolfe – Button Factory November 25

Peter Hook and the Light – The Academy – November 27

OM – Button Factory – November 28

Therapy – Button Factory December 11

The Selecter – The Academy – December 11

Bad Manners – The Academy – december 28

Jello Biafra and John Lydon…the punk jesters.

The punk jesters

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine came to Dublin this week and they entertained a large and receptive crowd in the Button Factory. When I say ‘they came to Dublin’ I actually mean that some promoter brought them over and make it happen….in this case, as Jello acknowledged from the stage, the promoter was one Timmo, or Paul Timmony. Jello explained to the crowd that Timmo was the only person who ever promoted shows for him in Dublin.

In which case, Dublin has a lot to thank Timmo for, Jello Biafra is one of the most articulate, thought-provoking and interesting characters from the early US punk/hardcore movement. Yet with the Dead Kennedys he always seemed to stand apart from that movement…if he was one of its leaders, he was also one of its innovators and most unorthodox figures. Maybe people like that are what stopped punk becoming so (or more) formulaic and standardised, even when commercial forces seemed to drag it in the direction of a generic identikit market segment.

So we have a lot to be grateful for to promoters like Timmo and acts like Jello B.

Seeing Jello with, what was a really cracking band, in Dublin, also brought home how funny he is. Onstage, he was almost a cartoon character, which rather than make his words feel like gimmicks, or his points silly, actually made his message sink deeper. He runaround actions drew me in, made me pay close attention…and made me smile. He would probably have been an excellent stage actor..although probably one who would not be constrained by a script. I can imagine: “To be or not to be…..hey, why don’t we think about that for a moment!”

So he is a Merry Prankster, making serious points and making us laugh by ridiculing situations and power. What an intriguing way to Fight The Power. Maybe laughter is the best medicine.

Mirroring this idea..punk frontmen as Merry Pranksters, this week Neil McCormick (former Hot Press writer/artist) printed a really good article/overview of one John Lydon, whose excellent PiL have released a new album.

I haven’t heard it yet, but the interview reminded me why I look forward to buying it. Lydon achieved the unthinkable when he formed, and maintained, PiL and became an even more fascinating front-man that he had been with the Sex Pistols. And that is not to deny what a thrilling and innovative frontman he was with them!

Funnily enough, for such a lightening rod of controversy, for such an engaging and vibrant front-man, he also professes to be a very shy individual.

In the interview, he spoke about how humour was a great weapon….and clearly in his hands, just as with Jello, it is a wonderful tool/skill to make your point, to be heard, and to be sensational!

To me, Jello and Lydon are valuable contributors to our culture, and also possess sharp minds and know how to cut through a cluttered media landscape.

Long may they entertain us.

Wild hearted outsider

Hope Show 102 – the lowdown

This weeks show

The Dead Kennedys have been such a huge part of my life. Like so many other bands that fit into my invisible memoirs Jello’s troubadors have always been close to my heart.

I remember my brothers buying Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, the vinyl kept getting played. We dissected the songs and wondered did they really want to ‘Kill The Poor”. Of course they didn’t and as my horizons broadened and the tunnel vision glasses of world politics were removed the Dead Kennedys played a part in assisting my global understanding. My globalisation was American hardcore in the form of the DK’s and Bad Brains and Minor Threat – Spanish history from the Ex, Central and South America from the Clash – british politics from Crass, the Redskins, three johns and new model army. Personal politics from Flux of Pink Indians and how to conduct business from labels like Alternative tentacles.

That is why a book like Michael Foleys review of Fresh Fruit is vital or Alex Ogg’s synopsis of the same record . They are talking about my education and expanding on it.

Of course Jello is still playing and is in Dublin this week. IN celebration of his gig this weeks radio show is a compilation of some of his bands. You could be have a lot of shows considering the amount of records Jello has been involved in but I wanted to take a selection for this week show. Enjoy
niallhope

This Weeks news – September 7

This weeks news September 7

The Winter Passing release their debut album, A different Space of Mind on September 18 on 6131 records
The launch gig for their pop punk emo mix in Ireland is in Grand Social on the 26th, the band will then cross the Irish Sea for a UK tour in October

Another good release this week is from Scotlands Make That a Take Records. They are releaseing the Dark Days EP from Perth band PMX . “Dark Days” is a mission statement that combines the pop-punk sensibilities of their earlier material with razor-sharp guitars, massive harmonies and a pervading darkness wrapped up with a super-speedy technical and progressive skate punk edge. Bursting with passion, frustration and a healthy dose of existential angst, “Dark Days” takes classic skate punk/melodic hardcore and adds an undeniable Scottishness with an injection of thrash metal, like classic Fat Wreck meets early 00s UK punk rock, never a dud release on that label.

Of course this is UMack Week – Two classic gigs on the way in Dublin. Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine with two of the best bands from the Dublin punk scene – Paranoid Visions and Sissy on Wednesday night
To celebrate the gig I dedicated my radio show to songs sung by Jello this week. Spanning all the Dead Kennedys records as well as collaborations with the Melvins, Al Jurgenson, NO WTO and a solo track as well as some songs from GSM who are playing this week

And then when you’ve had Thursday to recover we see the ex coming to Whelans.

For anyone left in the punk scene who don’t know about the Ex
“THE EX is a punk, industrial and experimental band from Amsterdam, Netherlands. They formed in 1979 at the height of the original punk explosion and have released over twenty full-length albums since, making them one of the longest-lived and most influential underground bands (along with The Fall) still in existence. THE EX just celebrated its 33⅓ year anniversary with a series of festivals. Not merely retrospective but primarily forward-looking and adventurous.
The Ex have defied categorization ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as ther starting point THE EX have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day: the early 1980s saw collaborations with industrial, experimental and jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band. In the 90s the group found a myriad of partners from varied musical and non-musical backgrounds including Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder, Shellac and Wolter Wierbos. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia, which eventually led to two CD recordings and hundreds of concerts with the legendary saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria.
After 33⅓ years, more than 25 albums and around 1800 performances the band continues to work as they did in when they began, completely independent of record companies, managers or roadies. Because of this ‘do it yourself’ work ethic The Ex is still a great example for other forward-thinking bands and musicians.
The Ex debuted with a single titled “Stupid Americans” on the Utregpunx vinyl 7″ compilation released by Rock Against records in Rotterdam. The release of their first 7″ All Corpses Smell the Same came shortly thereafter in 1980. Through the decades they gradually developed into their current form of highly intricate, experimental punk/post-punk/no wave-inspired work. Always involved in a large number of projects, both in and outside the band, its members have been able to keep their music fresh and exciting, and, some opine, constantly better.
Breaking from the relatively narrow confines of punk rock, The Ex has incorporated a wide array of influences, often from non-Western and non-rock sources. Some include Hungarian and Turkish folk songs, and more recently music from Ethiopia (including collaborations with Ethipian saxophonist Gétatchèw Mèkurya, Congo (shown in their tribute to Congolese street band Konono Nº1 and Eritrea (whose independence song is covered on Turn). Other examples of branching out stylistically include the improvised double album Instant and a release under the moniker Ex Orkest, a 20 piece big band assembled for performances at the esteemed Holland Festival.
The band has had successful collaborations with many disparate artists, including UK anarchist band Chumbawamba (sometimes using the name Antidote), Dog Faced Hermans, and with the late avant-garde cellist Tom Cora in the early 1990s, resulting in the watershed album Scrabbling At the Lock in 1991 and the follow-up And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders in 1993. They have also collaborated with members of Sonic Youth, Dutch improvisers ICP Orchestra, and released a collaborative EP with America’s Tortoise.
In January 2009, front man and founding member G.W. Sok announced on the band’s website he quit the band. Arnold de Boer from the Amsterdam band Zea replaced him.”

And after that, if you have any energy left you can go see Vic Goddard and Subway Sect in Fibber Magees

niallhope

Forthcoming Gigs

Workmans Club 5th Birthday Celebrations – Sept 8th – 12th
Al Porter – Sept 8th
The Hot Sprockets – Sept 9th
Little Green Cars w/ guests Other Creatures – Sept 10th
Little Green Cars w/ guests Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Sept 11th
Eternal Summers w/ guests Pleasure Beach – Sept 12th
Tickets to all shows just €5

Jello Biafra + Paranoid Visions + Sissy – Hangar September 9

The Ex plus guests – Whelans – September 11

Vic Goddard and Subway Sect + The Dubtones + Gakk – Fibber Magees – September 11

Eternal Summers + Pleasure Beach – Workmans Club – September 12

Dope Body – Whelans – September 12

August Wells – Workmans Club – September 13

Sleaford Mods – Hangar – September 19

XSLF + Hooligan – Fibber Magees – September 19

La Misma + Disguise + Overbite + Surge – Dublin September 20
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Whelans – September 26

The Winter Passing + Chewing on tinfoil + Kates party + Driveaway – Grand Social September 26

Wheatus – Whelans – September 28

B Dolan – Wormkans Club – September 29

We Shall Overcome – Dublin – October 2-4

Hard Working Class Heroes – Dublin – October 2+3

Juan Wauters + No Monster Club – Whelans – October 4

The Lemonheads – Academy – October 5

Hey Rosetta – Workmans Club – October 9

Giveamanakick – Whelans – October 10

Nothing Clean – Tenterhooks – October 10

Cockney Rejects – Grand Social – October 10

Inner Terrestials – Fibber Magees – October 16

English Dogs – Fibber Magees – October 23

dAVID kITT – wHELANS – oCTOBER 24

Litovsk – Dublin – October 25

US Girls – Whelans – October 25

Liturgy – Whelans – October 26

Dragster + Angry Itch + Stop start Again + Black Pitts + Jobseekers – Fibbers – October 30

Deer hunter button factory – November 1

Slaves – The Academy – November 5

Girl Band – Button Factory – November 7

Stiff Little Fingers – The Academy – November 13

Coitus + Paranoid Visions + Coldwar + Liberty – Fibbers – November 14

Mercury Rev – Button Factory November 22

Chelsea Wolfe – Button Factory November 25

Peter Hook and the Light – The Academy – November 27

OM – Button Factory – November 28

Therapy – Button Factory December 11

The Selecter – The Academy – December 11

Bad Manners – The Academy – december 28

Don’t Belive What You Read: The Boomtown Rats

One of Bob Geldof’s catchiest lines (and he had many) was ‘Don’t Believe What You Read’. It fitted in well with punk’s ‘no heroes’ and ‘Do It Yourself’ philosophy. And with that in mind it is worth taking a look how the Boomtown Rats fared in print this week.

Ireland’s own Hot Press features that band on the cover…how many bands from 1976-1980 would be placed on a cover in 2015?

The headline reads ‘The Band that Changed Ireland’ and the interview with Geldof (with a little piece from Pete Briquette too) is fascinating in that it focuses on the early days of the band…struggling for attention in Dublin, where the rock scene was very under-developed, and how they made alliances that led to massive chart success in Britian and beyond.

The interview is done by Stuart Clarke who interviewed Joe Strummer shortly before his death. I really like his appraoch, he knows his stuff, and is able to mine the minds of pop stars to get interesting recollections and opinions. The 5 page piece is well worth reading. Highly recommended if you want to understand just how hard it was to make noise in Ireland in the late 1970s.

A choice quote from Geldof…in case anyone thinks he has mellowed with age:

“All that stuff on ‘Banana Republic’ – the church, Haughey’s government, the murderers in the North – it was all fucking true. I can’t stress to you how awful it was; we were kept in this purile infantalism by the church, the government and big business. Someone had to start talking about this claustrophobia of silence, this suppression.”

That sounds pretty consistent with the punk rock attitude of the time…and having seen The Rats at the Blackpool Rebellion festival a few weeks ago, I was naturally curious about how they fit in with the people who are active in the current punk scene.

Vive Le Rock is one of my favoriute magazines to rad these days. I love their in-depth articles of some of the really interesting acts from the punk and post-punk era. The new issue had The Damned on the cover, reflecting on 35 years since they released their ‘Black Album’.

The review of Rebellion is really positive, they appreciate the acts and the energy, and no magazine seems to cover the Rebellion-type bands more comprehenisvely that Vive Le Rock.

There is one notable exception to their enthusiastic reviews: Bob and the Boomtown Rats. The magazine rips their performance apart, although Geldof would probably be happy that their show was described as the ‘the main talking point and ‘water-cooler’ moment of the festival’…which they describe as ‘Geldof-gate’. The review of the Rats ends with a very rude phrase that contains the word ‘off’.

What is most interesting is how the Rats are celebrated in Ireland as a progressive force, a band who drew attention to hypocracy, who challanged authority. Yet, elsewhere, particularly in Britain, they are represented as outside the acceptable boundaries of punk…which may suit Geldof.