• The Complete Guide to Therapy?: Part 4

    March 28, 2014 - By 

    PREVIOUSLY: Having almost burned themselves out after six years of constant activity, drummer Fyfe Ewing leaves Therapy? in January 1996, almost halting touring for the rest of the Infernal Love album-cycle (eugh). Moving quickly, the band auditions for a new sticksman, and decides on Graham Hopkins, formerly of My Little Funhouse. Filling out the line-up is new addition and longtime collaborator Martin McCarrick, on cellos and guitars. After jaunts to the U.S. in 1996, including supports for Ozzy Osbourne, things get quiet, as the second line-up gets used to a new dynamic while demoing and writing. Pursuing a broad new…

  • The Complete Guide to Therapy?: Part 3

    March 26, 2014 - By 

    PREVIOUSLY: Signing with A&M (now part of Universal’s maze of industry-quashing acquisitions), Therapy? begin setting about making debut full-length Nurse, a mongrel of industrial production, noise turbulence and well-honed pop that immediately makes an impact, from charting to making a cameo in Seinfeld. ‘Teethgrinder’ charts in Ireland, and touring continues apace. The grunge bandwagon comes calling, however, and Therapy? do the right and appropriate thing: fuck off and write a punk album for themselves. Troublegum and the slew of singles that precede it transform the boys in black into chart-bothering, festival-headlining titans, with ‘Screamager’ leading the Shortsharpshock E.P. into the…

  • The Complete Guide to Therapy?: Part 2

    March 25, 2014 - By 

    PREVIOUSLY: Guitarist Andy Cairns and drummer Fyfe Ewing meet at a Battle of the Bands and start jamming after talking about bands they like in common. First demo tape 30 Seconds of Silence showcases a wide variety of ideas, and soon they’re joined by Ewing’s classmate Michael McKeegan, for the recording of second demo tape Meat Abstract. The intrepid trio set off on tour around Ireland, and with the release of their debut single, also entitled Meat Abstract, the UK. While in London, the band gets airplay from John Peel, and begins to garner label interest. Signing with Wiiija, Therapy?…

  • The Complete Guide To Therapy?: Part 1

    March 24, 2014 - By 

    Your writer would have been six years old when, at the end of The Den, the video for Nowhere came on. It was unlike anything. From the kaleidoscopic visual onslaught, to the menace of frontman Andy Cairns and his bob ‘n’ goatee combo behind his black Gibson SG, to the wailing police-siren lead that overlays its rollicking chorus. There are times when you can’t explain what makes sense, but it just does, especially at that age. And it stayed with me, lying dormant through childish flights of fancy through Britpop, nu-metal, assorted electronic pop and whatever else was handy to…

  • Classic Album: The World of Twist – Quality Street

    March 12, 2014 - By 

    The World of Twist were, and are, an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, cocooned in carpet off-cuts and bundled out of a burning warehouse window onto a waiting barge. I knew nothing about them when I first fell in love with them twenty years ago and I know less than that now, the intervening decades having been something of a blur and, let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger. The Twist’s singer Tony Ogden isn’t getting any older either, as he died several years ago. Drummer Nick Sanderson has also passed on. But this is no “curse of the…

  • Frame by Frame #005: Oh Volcano – Oceans

    March 7, 2014 - By 

    In the fifth installment of Frame By Frame – a regular feature looking at the production, concepts behind and creators of local music videos – Belfast-based filmmaker and musician Colm Laverty talks to fellow jack-of-all-trades Edward F Butler about his recent video for ‘Oceans’ by Owen and Enda Strathern AKA Oh Volcano. First off, tell us a little bit about your role on this music video. I mainly work in post production, but for this, it was a collage of all sorts. I worked on this short film with a team in Lithuania, no one really wanted the film, so…

  • Getting re-acquainted: ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man (1983)

    March 4, 2014 - By 

    Like a punch in the face, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ explodes out of the speakers, a sleek, streamlined beast of a song, riding a pulsating electric beat into the horizon. Never mind the suits, the beards, and the cool cars, ZZ Top’s legacy to popular music is making hard rock that you can dance to. Trying to sound ‘modern’ is the kiss of death, but when you do it as good as this, you’re onto a winner. Eliminator, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’s parent album, kinda came out of nowhere. ZZ Top had been a very successful boogie-rock band, churning out blues riffs,…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… February

    March 3, 2014 - By 

    In his latest review of the very best music released in the month just passed, the altogether audibly-attuned Aaron Hamilton bestows up our very ears some exceptional tracks from the likes of Sun Kil Moon, Lydia Loveless (pictured) and the behemothic pairing of Sunn O))) & Ulver. Banks – Brain (Harvest) Since her breakthrough last year, Banks has been one of the more promising acts in the annual flurry of year-end nominations and awards. Brain is a sardonic, down tempo collaboration with producer Schlomo, and the pairing works to the benefit of both of them – Banks sounds years more mature…

  • Frame by Frame #004: VerseChorusVerse – No More Years

    February 27, 2014 - By 

    In the fourth installment of Frame by Frame – a feature looking at the production of Irish music videos from the perspective of their creators – Colm Laverty catches up with Adrian Rowe and Emma Louise Dodds from Industrious Dark about their recent video for ‘No More Years’ by singer-songwriter Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse. First off, tell us a little bit about each of your roles on this music video. We are Industrious Dark – Adrian Rowe and Emma Louise Dodds. We were the creators/directors of the video. In a sentence, what sets ‘No More Years’ apart from other Northern Irish…

  • 20 Years of Being Brave – How Marillion Crawled Back From Obscurity

    February 20, 2014 - By 

    Twenty years ago, a record called Brave hit number ten on the UK album chart. It was by a band who had best been known for ‘Kayleigh’, a hit single they’d had nine years earlier, fronted by a different singer. It’s all ancient history now, but the band are still going, and whilst they’re still largely known for that hit single, the hardcore fans have been celebrating the Brave anniversary with much fanfare, a veritable army of fans rhapsodising over the raw, emotive music contained within the album. But how can a band who are arguably remembered for one 29…