Bó Cow: When Bobby Met Cowey

So Cow So Cow is Brian Kelly, a young Galwegian man with a penchant for the scuzzy side of pop music. His most recent album These Truly Are End Times (2007) is a truly unique gem which I - personally, yet passionately - believe to be one of the greatest Irish records of all time. Critically acclaimed and loved by all those who listened, it also resulted in support slots with the likes of Dan Deacon and Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. His marvellously haphazard cover version of Deerhoof’s ‘The Perfect Me’ even attracted the attention of musical savant Greg Saunier who made it available for download from their website. Having spent the past few years teaching English in South Korea, he has returned to our island community clutching the half hour of power that is I’m Siding With My Captors. I catch up with him as he eats a curry and listens to Times New Viking, an unwise, stomach-upsetting combination. Hey! asl? 12 / other / Basra Sweet. First of all - don’t kill me - why are you called So Cow? So Cow comes from a spelling test given to a classroom of elementary school kids in Korea. One of the words I tested them on was ‘such’. One kid, Nick, wrote 'so cow'. I saw that, and the rest, as they say, took a while. Then, by coincidence, I found out that the Korean word for ‘cow’ is ‘so’. And when asked how they are feeling, if in anyway not totally happy, Koreans will answer in English “so-so”... it snowballed from then. It’s bigger than all of us now. Wow, I had no idea it was so intricate. So the third So Cow album is coming out soon. What’s happened so far? Well, the first one doesn't count [2005’s That’s It, Christmas Is Cancelled!]. The official first one was released last year to moderate acclaim and minimal financial reward. It was called These Truly Are End Times. Google it and, indeed, buy it. The new one is called I'm Siding With My Captors. It’s the second and a half, counting the first as the half. But yeah, it's the second. The first was burned onto, like, 41 CD-Rs for friends and nobody ever commented on it. If it was a dog, it would have been a stray knocked down by a lorry on a motorway. From what age were you musically involved? What first got you ‘into’ music? I liked music from early on, specifically The Beatles and Queen. But as for writing songs, I was more of a fantasist. I would imagine myself and three classmates standing on a stage, all playing guitar (which, in hindsight, was stupid… I used to imagine Beatlemania scenarios). This would have been when i wasn't restaging All-Ireland football finals in my back yard. I would guess I was a pretty inward kid… But writing songs took ages, until I was 16 or something. And I should point out, I was restaging ENTIRE Beatles shows and ENTIRE football finals. They were more innocent times. Now, on to So Cow: The Korea Years. I once heard someone describe you, aptly I think, as “Guided by Voices meets Cornelius”. Do you think your time spent in Asia has changed or modelled your sound in some way? Do you think I sound "Asian"? I think some stuff - say the guitar solo on Casablanca - sounds un-European. I mean… if you listened to me independent of knowing where I lived - and excepting the odd Korean lyric - the Cornelius would probably fall out of that equation. Though I guess I've learnt a lot of harmonies and ways of going about them while over there. They use different scales and whatnot, and I've planned on adopting those but not got around to it yet. But yeah, I get asked that a lot. It sounds, I would think, like a man in his flat writing songs in the style of music that he likes. I'm kinda stuck in many ways with my writing. I'm not going to leap out of the blocks with an Afrobeat record any time soon… Am I this generation’s Status Quo? That's actually something I'd aspire to. You're this generation's Vampire Weekend. I do what I do, and that's the end of it. I really shouldn't have had curry. Where has been more receptive to your music, do you think... Korea or Ireland? Oh, Ireland. but maybe that's the language barrier. In the last few months, America has been the place where from I get mails and CD orders and radio play and all that. Ireland, less so. Korea, not at all. Also, Korean crowds tend to be extremely reserved. I end up trying to goad them. Irish crowds... I don't know... I haven't played to enough, and perhaps “crowds” might be optimistic. What's smaller than a crowd but bigger than a rabble? On record, you play everything yourself. So what’s your song writing process? What comes first? The idea, then the humming, then the quick documentation (MP3 player mic or jotter), then the tryouts, then the melodies, then the lyrics, then the recording from which to run. That’s the usual method. So then the song only exists in my head, and I find it very difficult to tell other musicians what to do. They could be ace musicians but it wouldn't be what I'm hearing and I’d end up disappointed. I'm better on my own. But do you ever feel restricted by it just being you? No, I don’t. I'd feel 75% more restricted in a four piece band. I'm not a good drummer. They'd be pissed off. And I'm competent at most other things, and good on guitar. With bands, there are compromises that I can't imagine making. I'm not Ian MacKaye or anything... I'm not sticking it to The Man. They’re just personal choices as to how I go about things and about the work left behind when I'm done. So do you think it's a good or a bad thing that it's just you involved throughout, until the final product? Yes, I think it's a very good thing. So you won't be going into a studio with a producer anytime soon? I would go into a studio sure, but I’d run how things go, and I'm aiming to be the only person ever to play a note on a So Cow record. (thinks) Hell, my friend Adam Hopgood of Australia introduces the first song on this album… Well, I'd have someone there to make sure things aren't clipping or sounding shit. It's not an ego thing... I know that there are roughly 3,465,331 better drummers in the world than me, or recording engineers and so on. But at bottom, I make the decisions because it's my thing. But if you're going to do something, and you have the ability to do it yourself - or at least learn from it - then why not? Then again, I'm not hell bent on being a fixture. I'm not going writing soundtracks to Lucozade ads. I could go that way if I wanted. What do you mean you're not hell bent on being a fixture? You're not going to stop making music. No. I'm going to put out an album every year until I die... that's set in stone. I'll never stop. Phew. But I haven't gone the route I've always assumed is the route so far... “do some demos, gig like mad, try and get a radio session, do an IMRO tour, do a half page in a monthly music mag where you talk about how cheap the beer was in Prague, release a decent first album, gig some more, play CMJ, release a less good second album with some odd musical direction and then, well... leave quietly”. I mean... that's a fairly solid route... “gotta play Oxegen in 09!”. If this all finally comes together in a commercially/critically successful way in, say, 2022, that's fine. I have other stuff to do, like jobs. So Cow will continue. I don't see this as something where I need to be at a certain place at a certain time. There will be many songs, that I can promise. But there are bands now where I just think "this will be over in two years", which I guess they are fine with. But I'm in this for the long haul, i.e. LIFE. You have a sexy aesthetic. Why thank you. It's not often my aesthetic gets called sexy. Anyway, So Cow for 2022. A lot of your songs are love songs, but even so they manage to be really fresh and clever - the likes of Casablanca (So Cow bemoans the Hollywood portrayal of romance), Commuting (So Cow falls in love with a lady on a bus), Ping Pong Rock (So Cow proclaims love by quoting everyone from The Beach Boys to Mirakil Whip) and Moon Geun Young (So Cow’s relationship crumbles beneath a billboard where a Korean teen superstar flogs mobile phones). What do you aim for when writing lyrics? Where do they come from? I find lyrics difficult, and I like ladies. So what tends to emerge are songs about the various stages of liking ladies... the before, middle and after. I don't aim for cleverness a whole bunch. I aim to sum up something so neatly that my friend Muiris will go "ah, nicely said". I like the idea of someone listening and going "ah, that's what I thought!". But thoughts are scattershot. We all think stuff. But I always like listening to a song where someone says something and you just think "right, well summed up". The lyrics of a Coldplay song, for example… that's why I don't like them. The lyrics have that vague "we are running through the speed of light, everybody knows the way is not the way" bollocks. I like places, times, contexts, references. I like to be someplace in a song… a map that folds out with each line. I don't always write like that, mind. Very often I get vague. Often it's a necessity of rhyme. I can’t think of many other bands whose lyrics make me laugh AND say "that's just perfect!". I get tagged with funny lyrics a lot. That's fine, but I'd hate for anyone to think I'm on a bus with a notepad chuckling to myself. What about the lyric "I've got one hundred Helens on my street"… what’s that about? Do you actually have that many Helens on your road? It's about nothing. When I was playing that riff over and over again, I just sang that. I since found out where it comes from... Kids In The Hall [a Canadian comedy troupe] apparently had a sketch called 'Thirty Helens Agree' which I probably saw on telly when I was 9. I guess that's coming through. So what does ‘I'm Siding With My Captors’ sound like? Is it different to the last one? It's more rocking. There are eleven songs in 28 minutes. The only acoustic song is the last one. I wanted it to be ‘bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang relax’. I'd like to think, in a parallel universe where I was releasing singles, that I'd have a choice on this one. Then again, it was recorded in an office, so I think we'll stick to this universe and say that I'm far more confident in this album as an across the board batting average. If I could go back to the first album, I’d cut five songs - I just got giddy - or rename it 'The Kitchen Sink Story'. But yeah, I think it's better recorded and rocks more and is pop more. There's less fucking around… not that there's anything wrong with that. I read that you started work on I.S.W.M.C with 32 songs. How did you whittle them down? haha, that's how furious I am. Half of them were ideas, half of them songs. Fourteen or so ended up not fitting in at all. Six or so ended up being dead ends. Two or so got culled at the final moment for bringing things down, upsetting the apple cart. About ten will be re-jigged. They make more sense for the next album. What are your plans for 2008? I’m going to do an Irish tour in late April. I'm Siding With My Captors is out around then. But so far it's only Galway and Dublin and I’m kinda fine with that. I'm off to America in May, for a West Coast tour with a dude called No Bunny who is amazing. Then shows in NYC, Cleveland, Columbus and hopefully Montreal and Toronto. How did that come about? It's all fall-out from a seven inch of Moon Geun Young that a label called Almost Ready Records put out. Some people went nuts for it. Sometimes I still think it's a big piss-take. But America seems a bit more interested than anywhere else, so I'm off to see why. Is the So Cow/No Bunny thing a coincidence?! Is he like the American version of you? It only crossed his mind after the third email... totally a coincidence. But I reckon it'll make for good posters. He's just him; amazing songs, such fun. So I’ll come back in July, then release album number three. That'll be out in October, I would guess. Oh, is that nearly done?! There are about eighteen songs ready. It's written. I'm recording the drums for it in two weeks. It's probably going to be twelve or so songs. Again poppy, but with some noisy noisy bits. Like, disgustingly horrendously noisy... the sugar and piss album. Like Times New Viking? Em, maybe. Shit, you've just popped my balloon! I'm not going back to four-track or anything. The fidelity will remain the same. There'll just be more... well, Cornelius would be a good mapping point. By which I mean I'll be playing with the stereo aspect of things... going nuts with it hopefully. What else you want to ask? Ask anything! Ask away! I'm into the spirit of things. I don’t trust myself. haha, in what sense? Are you a muck raking hack? If you could be in any band ever, who would it be? And how different would they be because of you? Fantastic question... In the past: The Who maybe? Everyone in that band was going nuts. I used to want to be in Pavement or a band like that, but there's no real challenge there. Me and you and two other people could fuck around in a practice room for a weekend and be like Pavement. In this modern day and age, I’d choose Deerhoof for much the same reasons as The Who. They’re just musically exciting and above and beyond, without being an arse about it. But I would hope not to effect the band at all. Oh! And why The Who? I don't know. I liked Noel Gallagher's quote about them… "they were all playing lead... mental!”. I'm not a prog-head or anything. I just think they had something a lot of bands in that time lacked. I mean… I still can't find any reason to like Bob Dylan. It just seems like petulant, whiny, plodding shite. I know I WILL like it someday. It WILL click, but right now, no. I don’t get him either. I saw The Flaming Lips supporting him a few years ago and they whooped his wrinkled arse. In Nowlan Park? Yeah [on June 24th, 2006]… I was an alien onstage! Really? How hot was it? It was unbearable until we could take the masks off. They were these big heavy plastic yolks, but we had to wait until three or four songs in. Best day ever though. I think my brother was there. I was at a wedding in Ennis. I remember that day - at around 5a.m - getting up on the roof of the hotel and having a weird pivotal moment where I decided to start doing shit, finally. And So Cow did indeed start doing - as he modestly puts it - shit, and has being doing shit consistently and brilliantly since then. I’m Siding With My Captors will be launched at Anseo on Sunday April 27th, with support from Big Monster Love. It is available for a bargainous purchase here. Click onto So Cow's myspace for more info, tour dates and new tunes. The League of Impressionable Teens (from 'These Truly Are End Times') It's Over (from 'These Truly Are End Times') The Perfect Me (Deerhoof cover)

I'm The Wolf Today, Hey Hey Hey.

B*WITCHED As teenagers and members of B*Witched, Edele and Keavy Lynch were international superstars. Ten years on from the record-breaking success of their debut single 'C'est La Vie', they have returned, manifested in the form of Ms Lynch. Hi-Fi Popcorn caught up with them before their triumphant show at NUI Maynooth to talk smack and shoot the breeze. You’re not calling yourselves B*Witched anymore - it’s Ms Lynch. Are there any particular reasons for this name change? Keavy: A comeback would be the four of us and it’s a new project so we have to call it a different name really. So is there any chance of a comeback someday? K: We’re really happy with where we’re at and… you know where everything’s pointing in the right direction? It really is for Ms Lynch at the moment, so we’re really happy with where we’re at. It said on the bill “enjoy your favourite cheesy acts under the guise of ironic pleasure”. What would you think of that? E: “Under the guise of…”. What does that mean? 'Ironically, they’re actually quite good or something?'' K: Ironically, they’re as cheesy as hell but you’ll have fun. E: Once they think we’re good. Why do you think people would consider you to be a sort of guilty pleasure? K: I think it was just the jeans and the innocence of it all. There was really nothing to it. I suppose if you look back, we probably looked like four quite geeky people, singing cheesy songs that probably do your head in. E: It was very innocent, nicer than nice, cleaner than clean. Do you think that’s the reason that people might be somewhat embarrassed to admit that they bought C’est La Vie? Because a million or so people bought it, but how many would be willing to admit it? K: A million people bought it, maybe like 200,000 say they did. Would you consider yourselves to have been a manufactured pop group? K: In some way. We weren’t manufactured to the point where we were put together. You were all friends. K: We were friends, and we put ourselves together and started the whole project, so in that respect we weren’t manufactured. Having said that… E: Everybody is manufactured. K: Yeah, and we had a record company, so everything was planned. E: Our denim was definitely manufactured. Sweatshops. K: But we did write our own songs which manufactured bands don’t. So what’s your opinion on manufactured bands, like those from reality TV shows like X-Factor or Pop Idol? E: It kind of does my head in. In one way, it’s brilliant. It’s a lovely way of giving an opportunity to people. K: But they seem to only have the year, until the show comes back around again, and then the public are like “who’s next?”. E: But then you have the lucky ones like Leona and Will who want to stand up for themselves and actually come out with something that they can stand for, rather than doing what everyone tells them to. K: They took the time to write their own record, a record that was true to them, and that’s why they’re sticking around for longer. B*Witched split up as soon as you were dropped by Sony BMG. Why did you not keep on going? E: We did try actually. We had another label on the table. But Sony made it difficult for us to leave. Even though they let us go, they weren’t letting us go very easily. K: Legally, we were still under their contract. We couldn’t sign another one, and by the time they’d let us go, the other one had spent the money somewhere else. So with Ms Lynch, would you be reluctant to get involved with a major label like Sony again? Both: No, not at all. K: It was just an unfortunate shame that they had a new managing director come in and he wanted to put his own mark on the record company. E: It happened a lot with a lot of other bands, not just us. So now you’re 29 years old, which is still really young, and you have a new project called Ms Lynch. Tell us a little bit about that. K: We started about a year and a half ago. We were writing separately before then and we just thought ‘actually, we’re better together’. We write better music, we’re better performers… So we’ve been writing the album ever since. We started gigging to get people used to the fact that there’s only two of us and it will be live. So it was kind of doing the background work first to make sure people would accept the new music and the new look. E: So people would understand what to expect from us as a duo, without trying to rewrite B*Witched in 2008. A couple of songs - ‘Tip It’ and ‘Diet Coke’ - first appeared on your myspace in January 2007. A year is a long time in the popular music business. What’s been going on? K: They were the first two songs we wrote for Ms Lynch. We put them straight on our myspace when they were written. We just wanted people to understand that we were out there and we had stuff that was maybe worth listening to. E: We haven’t been ready for a release yet. We’re still with the gigs and the studio work and stuff. We’ve been finding Ms Lynch’s feet, and now our feet have been found. Edele, you’ve been writing for Xenomania. When you were co-writing hits for Sugababes and Girls Aloud, did you ever think ‘actually, I want to keep this for myself’? E: Totally. I remember someone going “are you so excited that they’re gonna do your songs?” and I was like “not really, I’d rather do it myself”. K: Somebody approached us about taking the Ms Lynch songs for somebody else and we were just like “how dare you!”. You have a song called ‘Diet Coke’ which positively mentions the drink. Do you hope to get it on to an ad or something? K: No, that would be great! But that’s not why it’s there. E: All our songs should be called ‘Gucci’ or… whoever wants to sponsor us, we’ll change “Diet Coke” to whatever… (singing) L’Oreal, L’Oreal! Lyon’s Tea, Lyon’s Tea! But you’re just fans of diet coke? K: Yeah, it’s just… E: I hate diet coke. K: Actually I don’t drink fizzy drinks at all. I drink vodka though. Vodka and diet coke. E: Wait, can we not say we hate diet coke in case they do give us an ad? I’ll edit it out. So anyway, what are your hopes for Ms Lynch? K: Just to get back on the road, back touring, sell our records. E: It would be really nice to think that people still want us out there, because we are good and I think the music is good. I’m blowing my own trumpet here, but… (trumpet sounds). Dustin is representing Ireland in the Eurovision. What do you think of that? K: The Irish are gonna love it. We’re all gonna think it’s brilliant. Have you heard it? K: No actually, I haven’t, but just for comedy value we’re gonna love it. But I think the rest of the world is gonna go “what?”. I was talking to Lindsay earlier and she said it was on the English news, going “oh my god, you’re gonna make a show of yourselves”. Would you ever consider entering the Eurovision? E: I couldn’t be bothered. It’s very political now. The year that Brian McFadden wrote the song, England and Ireland had two of the best songs and they were way down the bottom. It’s a very European thing now. I don’t think we’re gonna win it ever again. C'est La Vie video Their myspace

Holy Moly, Look At The Crazy Dude On The Beach.

EL GUINCHO Within several cynical and elitist bubbles of the internet, folk have recently been dreading 2008's inevitable arrival of a bandwagon crowded with "the solo artist with the sampler", desperately attempting to mimic Panda Bear's breathtakingly original Person Pitch record. Hipsters: you can treat yourself to a rest and some fresh air, because the bandwagon has pulled into town and El Guincho has disembarked, armed with a Boss SP-303 and a love of loops. And he's fucking good! Whilst it's undoubtedly true that nobody will ever speak of Pablo Díaz-Reixa without mentioning Noah Lennox in the same breath, that's no excuse for resistance. In many ways, his debut album Alegranza is the heads to Person Pitch's tails. Gone are the sounds of trains rattling by and in are the sounds of schoolchildren singing and clapping. It isn't a dark journey through the cavernous chambers of the listener's mind, but rather a trippy picnic in a sun-kissed inlet. It'd be more sensical to consider that El Guincho has inherited Jay Dilla's wondrous trove of samples than to think that he's actively splicing up long-forgotten songs by Cat Stevens and the Zombies. And whilst the vocals are still as indecipherable as Lennox's, this time it's due to a language barrier and not a productional technique, as Díaz bounces through the songs in an exotic Spanish tongue. The lyrics could be a musical adaptation of Stroszek, but ignorance is almost as blissful as tropicalia. Similarly, he might mask his face in hair and ignore the audience when performing live, but it's difficult to imagine him not dancing around the crowd topless, wearing baggy yellow trousers. Antillas features a tropical flickering guitar riff which sounds like the resulting treasure of a day digging through sand on the beach, bursting to the surface and greeting the summer sky. Sung over this is a vocal melody which is suspiciously - yet forgivably - similar to that of Animal Collective's future classic Brother Sport. Strangely, Kalise sounds even more like the Collective's electro-pop breakdown, either pinching or coincidentally concocting the same tune as both the "open up your, open up your... Maaaaaatt" and "you're halfway to fully grown..." sections of their song, as well as building-up in an unnervingly comparable fashion. But don't worry! Even Martin Luther King plagiarised, and he wasn't half as cool as this dude. And before you check your pockets during Costa Paraíso; no, that's not your phone vibrating. It's a sample. Nobody loves you, but cheer up! Here are nine songs as gleeful as Hey Ya, delivering everything you'd expect from a record named after an uninhabited volcanic island off the coast of Lanzarote, which was itself named after the Spanish word for 'joy'. Let the summer begin. Fata Morgana Palmitos Park Buy Alegranza here or here. Kalise video His myspace

Hard Working Class Heroes: Part 3/3

The Radio - One of Two Ways The Radio is the studio project of Stephen Murray (formerly guitarist with one of the best Irish bands of all time [Rollerskate Skinny]), in which he composes incredibly catchy ditties and enlists various females to contribute gorgeous vocals. 'One Of Two Ways' is so angular it could take your eye out, and its crispness suggests that Murray's shoegazing days are well and truly behind him. The most wonderful and concise definition of 'art rock' yet. Oh No Ono - Keeping Cold In Warm Country Keeping Cold In Warm Country is what would happen if The Strokes were gifted with an otherworldly synthesiser and forced to enter the Eurovision. In other words, Oh No Ono are awesome! Despite often sounding so impossibly 1970's NYC, there's definitely enough inventiveness in their music to convince us that we're actually listening to 21st century Danish rock music. The Lovekevins - Tamagotchi Freestyle The only thing stopping this Swedish duo from being called Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - apart from the very obvious legal reason - is that they have names like Lindefelt and Fredrik. Yes, Lovekevins brand a very similar brand of digital twee to that of their tourmates and friends. But I - and anyone else with half an ear - should find it very hard to get tired of any number of Pavement/Abba fusions. Jape - Floating Here's an all-time classic by the man who promises to be the saviour of Irish music in the very near future. His forthcoming 'Jape Is Grape' EP will contain the first of the much-anticipated batch of songs which have been amazing Jape concert attendees for over a year now. 'Floating' is where the many colours of Richie Egan combine to create a blinding white light, as slacker-pop and intentionally-lazy philosophical meanderings gradually squelch towards a euphoric conclusion.

Hard Working Class Heroes: Part 2/3

Fight Like Apes - Lend Me Your Face Here we have 114 of contemporary Irish music's most celebrated seconds. Despite the misleading running time, everything is played at such an illegal speed that the tune seems to squeeze in at least three choruses. And that's not to mention the pant-shittingly scary and forceful title motto which has since taken on a life of its own, in various "lend me your..." forms. It won't be long before this is a household phrase and Fight Like Apes a household name. The Terribles - These Songs The Terribles' predominantly downbeat and tremendously rich compositions makes their team statement - "to make people with converse-type trainers dance" - appear ludicrous. But it's not as though the world needs another Maximo Park. 'Those Songs' is a slice of lo-fi Americana just the way that Jason Lytle and Georgia Hubley like it, with dreamy vocals, lush drums and twinkling glockenspiel. Evil Harrisons - Lion Salad There's something distinctly theatrical about Dundalk quartet - and purveyors of showband indie - Evil Harrisons. 'Some Grand Plan' is their masterpiece; shuffling drums, Libertines-esque guitar, a stirring string section and oddball stream-of-consciousness rap vocals which are thankfully closer to Born Ruffians than they are to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Loveninjas - I Wanna Be Like Johnny C Labrador Records continue their generous, hook-laden contribution to the world with this group of electro-pop messers. Although they can sometimes be an annoyance (see: a song entitled 'She Broke His Penis In Two' and a couple of forays into 'eighties' overkill' mode), their debut album 'The Secret Of The Loveninjas' is filled with enough lovely moments to balance the books. The slow-building opener 'I Wanna Be Like Johnny C' is a good example, all climbing synths and Jarvis Cocker shouts. It is only unfortunate that their HWCH set clashes with that of their similarly-monikered countrymen Lovekevins.

Hard Working Class Heroes: Part 1/3

Hard Working Class Heroes festival 2007 takes place this weekend, in six venues within Harcourt Street's POD complex. There has never before been such an abundance of amazing Irish bands and - as many of them have yet to release albums - a festival like this is ideal for people to figure out what's awesome and what's awful. As well as showcasing hundreds of great tunes from this island, the weekend will feature a 'Scandinavian Invasion'. Although the Canadian showcase of last year's festival was of a slightly disappointing calibre, the foreign bands - probably en route to Ireland on longboats right now - performing this year are almost entirely great. This week, Hi-Fi Popcorn will be featuring twelve of the best acts... Soda Fountain Rag - Red Tape This bedroom pop project introduces us to a yé-yé girl for the 21st century. Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl - drummer with Norwegian indie-popsters The April Skies - makes chirpy songs influenced by some of her fantastic fellow Scandinavians. Think France Gill or Clothilde, but armed with Fruity Loops and a laptop. Her debut album is due for release this autumn on Ireland's lovely yesboyicecream records, but until then, she has fifteen songs available for free download. Super Extra Bonus Party - Everything Flows Choosing a name which strings together three massively enthusiastic adjectives with one of the most positive nouns in existence doesn't leave a band with many options. And so Super Extra Bonus Party rise to the challenge, throwing samples, indie guitars and guest vocals on top of breakneck beats. Their awesome live show is a collision of inventive goodtime electro and bizarrely appropriate visual art. Michael Knight - Coronation Street Michael Knight is neither the name of a Knightrider obsessed band nor a singer-songwriter with a bizarre birthname. It's actually the assumed title of Berlin-based musician Richie Murphy, a man who specialises in clever piano-based pop songs infused with the spirit of many dead classical composers, as well as the smart-arse bounce of The Divine Comedy and multi-tracked harmonies which recall that band which were fairly popular during that decade we were in around forty years ago.. Grand Pocket Orchestra - Radio Following in the footsteps of their sometime bandmates Fight Like Apes, Grand Pocket Orchestra look to the genius of America's Elephant 6 collective for inspiration and to procure a distinctly un-Irish sound. 'Radio' is an exciting sprint to the finish line with clanging guitars and duelling vocal melodies, whilst 'Little Messy' is a summertime gem which falls somewhere between Pavement and Modest Mouse. HWCH sees the band make a much-anticipated rare live appearance.

Danielson In Dublin.

DANIELSON FAMILE It's not everyday that a troupe of film stars clamber onto a Dublin stage, fully decked-out in matching medic's regalia. Whilst maybe not - yet! - of the same calibre as Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts, last year's A Family Movie marked the Danielson Family's induction into the rockumentary hall of fame. Charting the band's progress since their inception (the first songs were written in 1993 as part of frontman Daniel Smith's thesis project), the film is a thorough study of an intriguing group. Perhaps most surprising is its exposition of Smith's stringent Christian beliefs. He often sings somewhat tell-tale lyrics such as "I love my lord, I love my lord, I love my lord", but it is still surprising - and perhaps even refreshing - to hear such a talented, respectable and nice man speak passionately about his spiritual mentality. As he insists that the band's material is written by God but channeled through him, we are given reason to praise the lord (and God's lawyers are given reason to sue the band for some royalty cheques). Shortly before the release of Danielson's sixth - and latest - record 'Ships', one of their cohorts released a solo album entitled 'Illinoise'. Although he utilised a similar approach to instrumentation, melody and harmony as his employers, it's easy to see why Sufjan became a megastar - whilst Danielson remained firmly underground - when you hear Stevens' soft croon alongside Smith's yelping, excitable and radio-unfriendly falsetto. According to the ever-industrious Pitchfork Media, he has a voice "like a mouse! Or a scary clown!", although maybe something like "Black Francis on helium" would be a more fitting reference point (Hi-Fi Popcorn 1-0 Pitchfork Media). Either way, they are some truly unique vocal chords which will be resonating and colliding with glockenspiels to fill the air in Dublin's Crawdaddy on Sunday night, as Danielson make their debut Irish appearance. We Don't Say Shut Up Rubbernecker Did I Step On Your Trumpet Good News For The Puss Pickers Uh Oh (It's Morningtime Again) (live Little Wings cover) 'Did I Step On Your Trumpet' video Their albums and shirts are all at reduced prices right now! Their myspace

First I Was Afraid, I Was Petrified.

LA CASA AZUL I first heard La Casa Azul at 4am in their native country. Hammock-bound after an exhaustive day's exposure to a 35°C sun and even hotter music (yes, I went there), I passed by an Elefant Records stall which was playing some wonderfully bouncy music. Despite being full on that day's gluttonies of Animal Collective, The Go! Team, Patrick Wolf and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, I was compulsed to find out who was behind the sugary sweetness that was quickly eroding my teeth and ears. The guy at the counter pointed towards a t-shirt which featured four grinning cartoon figures and I instantly realised that this pop group must be Spain's equivalent of the likes of Steps, S-Club 7 or Aqua. I was later to discover that La Casa Azul is actually the mysterious solo project of a musician called Guille Milkyway. But far from being one of those millionaire pop masterminds who have inexplicably found fame as-of-late, Milkyway is a bearded and unmistakably "indie" music boffin who seeks to modernise disco and surf rock from the 60's and 70's. It even transpired that on the fateful early morning that I first heard his music, he was working at the stall next to Elefant Records selling t-shirts and bags; far removed from the world of private jets and a spin-off TV series set in Los Angeles. Lots of bands nowadays compose 'kitschy' music in an ironic style and try to sculpt it into something more credible, varied and substantial. Why bother! Listen to La Casa Azul and you will hear shameless midi synths, female backing vocals, handclaps and vocoders. One song even sounds a bit like 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day'! It's like the most exciting elements of Electric Light Orchestra, Of Montreal, Leo Sayer, The Jackson 5 and Abba have been channeled through a blender and outputted in Spanish. It also proves that music in Spain consists of a lot more than drunken karaoke editions of 'I Will Survive' and 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'. En Noches Como La De Hoy El Sol No Brillará Nunca Mas (video) His myspace

Oh, The World Is Ridiculous!

BODIES OF WATER You do not need to own guitars You do not need a set of drums Usually, it would be rather contradictory of a rock band to include such lyrics in a song. However, Bodies of Water's insistence that "all you need is your throat and mine" is entirely accurate and unironic. Despite Our Friends Appear Like The Dawn being punctuated by piano, organ and trumpet stabs, the cheering vocal melody is the one indespensible thing that makes it so stomach-churningly powerful. By tapping into the Polyphonic Spree's patented 'more is better' theory, this band realises that having four human beings in a band means that you also have four sets of vocal chords at your disposal. No matter what the subject is, when everybody sings or yells at once, it is sure to sound universal and rousing. Over thirteen songs - as on their excellent and excellently-titled debut album Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink - it results in an album of timeless campfire anthems. Our Friends Appear Like The Dawn (from Said The Gramophone) Doves Circle The Sky (live video) Their myspace

Rabbit, Rabbit, White Rabbit.

WHITE RABBITS On White Rabbits' official site, they include a 'Press' section which - rather than linking to Pitchfork's glowing review of their debut album 'Fort Nightly' - consists of a number of often disparaging reviews from 13-year old schoolkids. One of the more appreciative children makes a sidenote to state that they are in the school orchestra and so knows "alot about music". This is obviously true, because they then concisely describe White Rabbits without their fellow reviewers' need for incaccurate and repellent comparisons to the likes of The Strokes, Muse, Madness or Arctic Monkeys. "nice beat, great choice of notes, flows quite well, fine choice of words" This summary could easily be elaborated upon to include references to their beautiful summertime Calypso piano lines, powerful double drumming, multi-layered vocal and instrumental harmonies and mass singalongs ("We held our tongues throughout it, one day we'll laugh about it!"), but those few words are simple and understated enough to simultaneously address and reflect the wonderful pop music of White Rabbits. Kid On My Shoulders The Plot Their myspace White Rabbits were performing in Dublin last Saturday night at Nokia Trends Lab's inaugural event, alongside Simple Kid (download Simp's free 3-track EP here) and Halves. The Rabbits and The Kid will both be returning to Ireland in September to play on Electric Picnic's 'Nokia Trends Lab' stage. The stage will also host - at least - three more of the festival's highlights; The Kissaway Trail, Good Shoes and The Little Ones.

So Cool.

SO COW Mundy is gonna freak! Finally, Ireland has been blessed with a singer-songwriter who is aware that a computer can handle more than just one track, and is therefore able to innovate with the utilisation of instruments other than an acoustic guitar. Instead of living off the dole in a dreary bedsit (and singing about it), he is a teacher in South Korea (and sings about non-boring stuff). And instead of covering people like fucking Jeff Buckley, he covers fucking Deerhoof! The ADD-tempo'd League of Impressionable Teens is carefully comprised of everything that is great about So Cow. And so we are bombarded with a scuzzy staccato guitar riff, an infectious - if short-lived - vocal melody, schizophrenic harmonies, a gloriously theatrical solo and yells that would make Black Francis proud. Released in February of this year, 'These Truly Are End Times' is the country's finest album of 2007 to-date, as Brian (unfortunately, 'So Cow' isn't the name on his passport) takes us on a journey through the past, present and future annals of indie rock. Once you've heard them, you're defied to ever rid your head of songs as catchy as Moon Geun Yeong, the wonky allusion-fest of Ping Pong Rock or the frentic drumroll of Casablanca. However, the LP is unlikely to retain its crown for much longer, considering that a new album - entitled 'I'm Siding With My Captors' - is nearing completion and set to feature songs whose working titles include 'Ba Ba Da Da Da', 'Voice 115 - Isn't It Just Casablanca Slowed Down?', 'Weird Picking, Three Chords, Add a Fourth', 'Starts On G, Stays On G, Ends On G, Goodnight' and 'David Pajo Will Sue'. The League of Impressionable Teens The Perfect Me (Deerhoof cover) Buy These Truly Are End Times His myspace

a museum facility primarily dedicated to the presentation of historical and cultural information about a place and its people

HERITAGE CENTRE IN WHELAN'S - 02.06.07 (photo: Dara Munnis) It's not difficult to fall in love with Heritage Centre, as they make their grand entrance onstage waving around a bubble machine to the soundtrack of Stig Baasvik's Darkplace theme tune (based on a melody originally whistled by Garth Marenghi). The stage itself is lovingly adorned with a living room lamp, an inflatable palm tree, a pinata and lots of elaborate artwork, making it immediately apparant that Heritage Centre don't wish for their audience to have any qualms about having fun. And for an unsigned band without a release to date, it's an audience that is more crammed and enthusiastic than they have any right to be. It's not every Irish band of their calibre that attracts English devotees across the channel especially for one of their shows. And it's not any band - at all - who are accompanied in the limelight by an enormous rubber duck with "Fuck Heritage Centre" scrawled across its face. Conal McIntyre's former band Walter were expert purveyors of bright piano-based pop songs. The nagging melodies are still there, but this time they're at the foreground of an altogether fiercer wall of sound which is aided by the inclusion of an actual guitar (and sometimes two). Floating over a sublime concoction of Grandaddy-style Americana and British Sea Power-style grandiose - as well as dozens of tubes of bubbles distributed by an avid fan - are McIntyre's smooth vocals. Elegant and wistful, they shine particularly during set hightlights The Boss, Oldest Friend and Death By Science. One hundred extra bonus points go to the song which is seemingly-titled Proof Rock, but later transpires to be the more thoughtful 'Prufrock'. Later, after all has been said and done, genuinely deafening yells beckon the band back onstage for an encore. Having broken his instrument by using it to violently smash a pinata, guitarist Darragh Grant joins the audience down the front. As the three remaining members breathlessly cover Weezer's Surf Wax America, limbs flail, stage props fly and bouncers are called to break up the most fervent and energetic scenes I've seen in this venue since Arctic Monkeys played here almost two years ago. As the band sings the chorus of their current radio single - "we could be stars in the city" - one begins to realise that they already are, somehow. Oldest Friend Their myspace

Whatchamay*callitSaw

Thinguma*jigSaw A banjo. A flute. A seriously demented singer. Just over two months ago, Seth Buncombe and Martha Redivivus decamped from their native Norway to the Albion-esque Dublin, to start afresh in what they considered to be both the mythical world of a James Joyce novel and the Earth's folk capital. Marvellously for them (and us!), the town's changes of the last eighty years haven't left the band downbeat and disillusioned and they have quickly become darlings of the underground scene. In such a short time, they've seemingly plied their trade around every venue in the city, where they stand amongst the crowd and direct their raw, unamplified tunes towards each onlooker individually. As Buncombe viciously strums his banjo in a way that the instrument has never before known (think Joey Santiago during the breakdown in Vamos), Redivivus splutters deranged half-notes into the air. Atop of this glorious stew of sound are Bumcombe's lyrics, which reference Moby Dick, Stephen King's Carrie, Ulysses, The Bible and Daniel Johnston (Buncombe's previous band collaborated with Johnston and thinguma*jigSaw are known to deliver terrific versions of Walking The Cow and Spirit World Rising). Although his yelping, grunting and general air of insanity may lead the audience to genuinely consider that he may be possessed by the quare fella, he is actually quite a mild-mannered man who speaks in a whisper ("I can't even make myself heard in Londis") and - like Redivivus - assumes a stage persona; this, of course, despite the fact that they don't utilise a stage. Their debut album will be released in June on Deserted Village Records, and it is expected to be bundled with a live recording of their haunting performance on the top floor of the equally archaic Hotel Ballymun. Vox Populi (On The Verge session) Spirit World Rising live video Their myspace

It's Time For You To Lose Your Excitement!

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army today began their march towards their LP release in June, with this seamless (I thought everything started at the seam?) teaser of each song on the record. The "video" for the album's title track is as bizarre, original and brilliant as the song itself (which is an ode to soldiers dying on a battlefield, sung over a dynamic interplay of sorrowful ballad and celebratory theatrical pop song). It actually features no video footage, instead weaving together 2,341 photographs of the band performing live, hanging around backstage and posing for their album cover and press shots.

The Ides of April.

frYars This time last week, it would have been silly to refer to frYars as "the new Patrick Wolf", as the old model was still in perfect working condition and came supplied with all mod cons. But now it seems fitting. As the hi-fi pop inclinations of The Magic Position LP lead to soul-destroying promotional duties, one wandering antique Englishman falls as another begins to rise. With laptop beats and imaginative countryside lyrics, the soft-singing 17-year old Ben directly evokes the sauntering spirit of Lycanthropy or Wind in the Wires. And In the Depths of the Scilly Isles, I heard you reside, And in the depths of my mind, I can still see your eyes. Over a barrage of enough tinkling piano, swirling synths and electronic drums to make Didier Dambrin a very proud man, The Ides' verses sprint along in harmony with the singer headlong into a killer chorus and a rousing group chant. In Chocolate, swooning vocals tell a tale of a girl who wants to be a boy and a boy who wants to be a girl over the kind of music you'd expect to soundtrack your completion of a Pokémon game. It is, of course, impossible to "complete" a Pokémon game. The Ides Chocolate (Demo) His myspace

Emergency.

PATRICK WOLF SPLITS UP AND THEN REFORMS Today, 23-year old multi-instrumentalist and songwriting virtuoso Patrick Wolf fortunately unretired, although making little sense about why he announced his demise in the first place! Whilst touring his brilliant third album The Magic Position, he made his way over to Dublin's Olympia Theatre in support of The Arcade Fire and Today FM persuaded him to perform a stripped-down and slowed-down acoustic session. The Magic Position Pigeon Song Enchanted

Lend Me Your Apes.

FIGHT LIKE APES Female fans of Fight Like Apes everywhere have long been commending lead singer May Kay for her lyrics, which they believe are powerfully feminist. If you're on the lookout for your gender's new icon, it's obvious that the phrase "I'm gonna cut you with glass" is loaded with far more Girl Power than "gold lion's gonna tell me where the light is". The only problem with this is that the band's (male) synthist Pockets actually writes most of the group's lyrics, creating an altogether more confusing situation regarding the identity of the speaker and the intended recipient, as well as giving some of the songs a somewhat more sinister aura. The majority of the band's influences are wonderful guitar-based pop groups such as Deerhoof and Apples in Stereo (who they will support on the Apples' first Dublin outing on May 17th) but because they omit the inclusion of a six-string friend, what is produced is an entirely original - yet instantly familiar - mash of exciting synth lines, loud tribal drums and insistent vocal melodies. Faces will be lent and KFC may or may not be tasted when their debut EP 'How Am I Supposed To Kill You If You Have All The Guns?' is released on May 18th. Lend Me Your Face Lend Me Your Face video Their myspace

Taps N Taps.

TAP TAP The musical side-project of a band's frontman is rarely better than what is made during the dayjob. Albums by the likes of Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs may be brilliant, but it's evident that each of them could only benefit from the contribution of the other. As the chief decision-maker in a band called Pete and the Pirates, it makes little sense for Tom Sanders to branch out and release a solo album under the suitably more indie-sounding moniker 'Tap Tap'. But be glad that Mr. Sanders did bring a separate set of songs to the world, when late last year he assembled a collection of wondrous scuzzy gems onto an LP called 'Lanzafame'. The album opens with the great unwashed 100,000 Thoughts, which could easily be the joyous and climactic sound of I'm From Barcelona marching and clapping along en route to a picnic in outer space. But there's a darkness to these perfect tunes which is brought on by the Mangum-ated acoustic guitar sound, coupled with the lush Beach Boys' harmonies of the likes of To Our Continuing Friendship. With the Isaac Brockish accordion-led blast of Way To Go, Boy and The Reason I'm Here's euphoric and intimidating guitar riff, there is more vitality, jauntiness and timelessness crammed into Sanders' bedroom than there is amongst the rest of today's English bands combined. It feels unjust to refer to Tap Tap as a "side project" - given the implications of this tag - so perhaps it is time for his swashbuckling cohorts to join in on his party and lend a hand on deck. Anything could happen. The Reason I'm Here 100,000 Thoughts Buy Lanzafame His myspace

What Happens In Newbridge Stays In Newbridge.

SCHARPLING AND WURSTER Every Tuesday night, Tom Scharpling hosts his perfectly-titled The Best Show on New Jersey's brilliant radio station WFMU. It's a music/entertainment show loved by everybody who's anybody (Ted Leo, Conan O'Brien, Ben Gibbard, Danielson Famile, Zach Galifianakis, Henry Owings, Paul F. Tompkins). But as a call-in phone show, it unavoidably attracts some extremely weird characters who have questionable morals and exciting - yet insane - plans which they often insist on Mr. Scharpling involving himself in. The Art of the Slap is the forthcoming fifth release of hilariously bizarre conversations being put out on Scharpling and Wurster's Stereolaffs record label. The Hero's Call (from Fluxblog) Go to the Stereolaffs website to hear clips and pre-order your copy. Subscribe to the podcast and listen to the archives. Become a Friend of Tom.

Bird Flu.

ANDREW BIRD Andrew Bird's best record Armchair Apocrypha has just been released and I finally got to see him live last week. Oddly - but wonderfully - for an Irish concert, a bootleg recording of the show has surfaced on the Internet Archive. Despite suffering from flu, his music was twice (or even more!) as brilliant live as it is on record, combining his own amalgamation of M. Ward's old-timey electric guitar pickings and Owen Pallett's 21st century violin virtuosity with Martin Dosh's futuristic drum beats and samples. He may have been clad in a countless number of jumpers and scarves to fight the fever, but he even managed to play more layers than he was wearing. Plasticities (live in Dublin) Live in Crawdaddy, Dublin on March 21st 2007. (entire show, zip file) His myspace