The Urges Sign To American Label!!
Chaotic garage band The Urges have signed to US label Wicked Cool Records! Steve van Zant’s New York label spotted the Dublin five-piece at Cavestomp Festival in 2007 and liked what he heard so much, they’ve been snapped up. I’ve been sitting on this story since posting the news of Little Stephen championing the band as Coolest On The Planet several months ago, when a stray MySpace bulletin leaked the contract news and died a rockstar death minutes later.
Truly deserving a claim of the ‘garage’ genre, The Urges’ sound was spawned in a damp little lock-up in late 2004. Not your usual bunch of moods full of useless musical knowledge, this bunch instead admitteded their ignorance and embraced the life of rock and roll. Less than a year later, they topped the Irish charts with their debut single Around and Around and the accumulated arrogance kicked a dose of vintage mayhem across Irish boards, culminating in the release of 2007’s debut Psych Ward album, released here on CD by Stomping Ground and on vinyl through Screaming Apple Records in Europe and Off The Hip in Australia. Extrapolated from contemplative ambience or shoegaze, The Urges’ pride in chaotic, rocking regime, living the Sixties larger than the swingers themselves, has got them noticed. It’s good to see them go where they’ll be appreciated.
Built around London’s famous garage club of the same name (favourite hangout of The White Stripes, Billy Childish resides there on a monthly basis), Dirty Water Records has released a limited edition of The Urges’ latest theme, a split 7″ single with Spain’s Hollywood Sinners, launched in Eamonn Dorans and the Dirty Water Club last weekend.
From there skyscrapers are the limit with New York-based Wicked Cool. Home to Chesterfield Kings, The Len Price 3, Cocktail Slippers and The Charms, the label’s spearhead is none other than guitarist of the E Street Band, natty Silvio Dante in The Sopranos and airwave jockey on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Indeed, the world’s a fuzzy oyster.