News : I’m Home
Happy days, sort of…desktop PCs have too many wires and old, old music on iTunes. But as I said to Cloud Castle Lake, equine orthodontics was never my forte.
So while I acclimatise to working in the home environment - percolating coffee, room to dance - let’s just chat…
How do you feel about Irish music? Has this been a strong year in terms of releases? A friend texted the other week to say a journalist reviewing Halfset on TodayFM said something like ‘thousands of Irish albums are released every year and only a handful are worth listening to’. Would you agree?
In terms of media coverage, is enough done for our own bands? Do they deserve more attention or healthy competition with popular international acts? Are journalists and presenters getting lazy? What role do outside influences like radio, TV, print and web have on your musical discoveries? Mostly everything I’ve listened to in recent months has been a stumble or friendly recommendation.
As a musician, what do you consider the most important method of promoting your music?
Small sites struggle to keep abreast of a rapidly sprawling array of new music and face burial in the face of sterile competition. Support these independents. Download the podcasts and mixtapes, link to them, tell your friends.
I think our radio is stilted and repressed. It’s too easy put a sponge on air by day and hide the oysters in graveyard shifts. MGMT at 10am is not adventurous. Are we stuck with this model of communication? Is there a point in petitioning broadcasters to expand their playlists or is it futile to expect a change from accessible trite?
Record labels do fuck all beyond setting up MySpace. Where are the daring signings, the knicker-wetting collaborations? I don’t mean to generalise, some brilliant work is being done by Richter, Out On A Limb, YesBoyIceCream and Skinny Wolves but it’s not enough. A movement is needed, spearheaded by the industry free radicals, to reclaim Irish music scene from indifferent masses.
And yes, I know it’s time-consuming and expensive but that’s what makes it a vocation.
I haven’t finished yet, either. Why is there no solidarity? Bands are insular bastards, sticking to the same grotty garages and rehearsal rooms, listening to the same British Sea Power CD. You ain’t gonna get 700 at your remix launch album that way. Get some fresh air! Go to more gigs, parties, meetings, WTF-ever, just mingle. Explore. Develop. Be more than a handfull. Fill the void.
Normal service resumes tomorrow.
I do agree with your last paragraph.. I am in band myself I do find some bands never really support other bands but always expect people to show up at their gigs and be interested.. I am an avid gig goer, especially Irish bands and have made some great connections by doing so. There is so much out there and no one seems to know or care about them. A very healthy year for Irish music I think, Subplots 2 releases, Adebisi Shank album, Sick boy, Half set, Kill Krinkle Club, Ugly Megan, Funeral Suits , Holy Roman Army, GPO, New Amusement (I am guessing your BSP dig was at them - unnecessary!) and of course Dublins hardest working band in the last 5 years or more, FLAPES. Fair F**s is what I say to that! All the above produced some very impressive releases. Need more good blogs (like this) to help promote them though.
I believe you were quoting me up there, it was actually the free paper Herald AM” that I quoted not Today FM
“What role do outside influences like radio, TV, print and web have on your musical discoveries?”
The first 3 do not and have never had any influence on what I listen to, in fact I’ve always been pretty hostile towards those 3 when it comes to music.
In the past the most common ways I made new discoveries was catching (and liking….obviously) a support band, and “through the grape vine”, thinking about it, nothing much has changed really, just that the “grape vine” now also includes the internet, blogs/forums/myspace/whatever
i could try to answer some ofthose if i wasn’t half-asleep… and in work…
Colin, yo, I just used BSP as an example, it’s not a dig at any particular individual outfit but it’s a long time since Open Season and as an influential record, it’s been flogged to an inch of its life. I find it hard to understand why it doesn’t beat more strongly within to be original.
You mentioned Adebisi Shank. The album launch was electric, a who’s who of Rock. There’s an orbit of activity surrounding that band which stands as a solid example of what needs to happen on a much wider basis: go to each others’ gigs, gaffs, grotty garages, get into each others’ heads, pick apart the skeins and weave them into a brand new form.
As it is, there’s a glut of Indie-Pop coming out that’s just fading into ether. I really believe that these particular bands desperately need to assimilate themselves into a unified front who inspire each other, pushing their style as far as it can go. Am I naive? Is it idealistic to imagine an Irish indie scene in which musicians band together as a troop, work, inspire and develop unusual elements so desperately lacking right now? We can praise Grand Pocket Orchestra’s energetic live shows, New Amusements’ skilfull grasp of melody and the potential of The Parks but these plaudits are spread too few and far between a very detatched spectrum. Our musicians should be flying in V formation but instead seem to be more like gulls, out to grab whatever crumb they can peck their way to first.
In terms of albums, it’s been okay…as you mentioned, there’ve been some very strong releases. However there seem to be wide gaps between records when nothing very interesting is getting through.
Would this be because there’s nothing out there, or there’s a lack of promotion?
(Which band are you in?)
Andy, excuuse mee, I was in the bank paying my rent at the time, your timing sucks!
Funny that you think of the Internet as a grapevine and not an official media portal. I suppose cos we’re mates I fall into that category but as an aspect of HP.com, this is the media. If someone else was writing this blog, would you listen to their suggestions?
What more do you think could be done for Irish bands? I know your tastes lay beyond the indie rock scope, so it must be frustrating to look for music from Ireland that really interests you. How would you like to see things change? What’s needed?
Leigh: I’ve given you time to get coffee. Fire away now!
I’m too sick at the moment so the cocktail of drugs I am taking agree with you and now I’m off to blow my nose.
Yum!
“Leigh: I’ve given you time to get coffee. Fire away now!”
I’d best not - I doubt anyone would be that interested in what I say - besides I’d moan wayyyy too much
Leigh, of course we want to hear what you’ve got to say!!
“‘Thousands of Irish albums are released every year and only a handful are worth listening to’.”
Whoever said/wrote that has certainly not been paying attention to the scene over the past year. 2008 has been THE best year for new Irish music ever, as far as I’m concerned - certainly within my lifetime, anyway. The sheer volume and diversity of bands coming out of Ireland these days is really, really exciting.
D’ya really think so? I think a good year for Irish music would be defined on a broader scale than simply the diversity of talent. The albums are there but they’re not getting anywhere. People like us go into raptures and listen incessantly but they don’t get a chance to penetrate the national charts, let alone abroad. Unless they’re FLApes!
I would like to meet the person who has time to listen to thousands of Irish albums every year. I still have dozens of the things sitting unobserved on my desk!
The last 12 months (since last October, because I can) have been incredible, with Fight Like Apes second EP, Bats, Adebisi Shank, MJEX, Loose… even the Blizzards album was a decent enough outing.
I wanna hear that Heathers album too.
I have the Heathers. Lovely, tis.
Nah, the diversity is just a bonus - a lot of the stuff that’s come out this year, I think, is genuinely potentially world-beating. Fight Like Apes are doing especially well at the moment because they’re especially brilliant, and have a great manager, I suspect.
any conversation about mangaers with FLA is a funny one - they’ve hit it on the button now, but they’ve gone through some lousy gobshites in the last couple of years
Yeah Leigh, so their blog on Entertainment.ie a while ago revealed!
I spoke to someone in a very prolific band a few weeks ago who said FLApes received an incredible amount of help quite disproportionate to the usual reserves for home talents.
And yes, we do have some class contenders. Adebisi Shank and Tracer AMC wowed Japan, Crayonsmith and Heathers toured the US and the Guggenheim Grotto are hot on their heels. I’d love to see BATS and ASIWYFA hit the European circuit, they could do our reputation a helluva lotta good. However the impetus for this rests with the bands as there’s very little support for our own original musicians. Shame, shame….
Ah yes, personally met Flapes first manager when they started. No name to be mentioned! And what a KN*B he was!!
Names mean nothing here. Scandal is everything
i know him well enough
You are excused Nay.
Generally I avoid, any kind of official or well known music sites/blogs. If it weren’t for this being you, I might not have even known about any hotpress blog goings on. Oh and btw….who said I listen to your suggestions
I refered to the net as the grapevine because the info I get from it usually comes from various forums (not necassarily music focused), and recommendations from people I’ve gotten to know purely online.
Also most of the music I listen to IS indie, in the true sense of the phrase.
As to what I’d change in the Irish scene? All the scene needs is a motivated public, we have talented bands and artists coming out the earholes, seriously, how many times have you, or I, or anyone viewing this blog gone to a gig of a great band, only to find the venue empty? It’s a joke!
You could argue that the media should be supporting the bands to let people actually know about them, but that’s backwards as far as I’m concerned.
The media/industry is a business, it’s there to make money, more often than not, it doesn’t care a jot about music. It’s not going to promote a band unless theres something in it for them, and promoting a band without an existing fan base is throwing their money/time away.
They can only expand on what is already in place, not create something from scratch.
Which again comes back to the motivated public thing *shrugs* a vicious circle fuelled by apathy.
Interesting post which ties in what Jim carroll has been discussing all week on his blog
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2008/10/28/this-is-what-the-future-of-the-music-business-looks-like