• Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Introducing Guerrilla Sessions

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    So, here’s the story, right? I like to fuck about with music projects that really turn me on. As someone put it to me recently, “… I want it to freak me out”. Nicely put. I’m just messing around with music projects that fire me up and I guess like any other broadcaster, you try to curate something that is worthwhile, that is new and challenging, and then just maybe you might do the ultimate and capture lightning in a bottle. That probably sounds selfish and indulgent of me. But at least it’s not just me in the media game…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Rough Trade

    January 10, 2017 - By 

    To INSPIRE: to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do something, especially to do something creative. At the beginning of a new year, we probably all need a bit of inspiration. To feel inspired, to have the energy and the will to begin or to continue. For me personally, to be inspired is something that I’m always chasing. It’s not always easy to find or hold on to. But it is an energy or life source. To inspire also means to breathe in. Or in the recent first episode of This Ain’t No Disco, Dónal Dineen used a…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: We Are The Migrants

    May 25, 2016 - By 

    A few months back I had an idea for a radio piece. It was an odd one but I had ample inspiration to follow through on it. The subject was a little tricky to talk about and I didn’t take it on lightly. If anything I concerned myself with how to treat the subject. I knew that I needed to get the tone right and the discussion open-ended. The piece is about Irish music created by a generation of so-called ‘new migrants‘. I guess my personal inspiration was no mystery. I have been a huge admirer of groups like Bisect,…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Community Music – Skratch Manifest

    March 16, 2016 - By 

    Communities are inevitable among humans. They can be generational, geographical, professional, circumstantial, cultural and can take on any shape you can think of. We are drawn together by factors and forces from without and within the individual. For an example of a community; even if you’ve never read The Thin Air before, if you sniff around the pages you’ll find a community; a group of pro-active fans and know-alls and eager heads that co-operate to publish a sweet piece of street literature that reflects them and their community. Their art and their era. But of course the community doesn’t stop…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Nevermind The Zogabonds

    October 28, 2015 - By 

    ‘Oooh… that Benjamin Netanyahu, he’s a card, isn’t he??’ It’s 7.04am on May 9, 1996 and Zig and Zag are holding it down on The Big Breakfast. They are about to interview and host a live session with Eels who have earlier that year released their wonderful breakthrough album, Beautiful Freak. They go on to show Eels snippets of their favourite television program about Pike and Chubb fishing. In a few minutes time the band perform ‘Going Over To Susan’s House’ live and acoustic. Zig and Zag trip out to the groove, air guitaring, bugging out. It is beautifully and boldly…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: The Alternative Radio Times

    October 7, 2015 - By 

    “What do you mean you didn’t do much? You taught a generation of broadcasters that you needn’t be an asshole to be on TV!” This reassuring compliment to a self-deprecating Dónal Dineen hits me right in the sweet spot. The comment was by Ger Gilroy, host of the Saturday Panel segment of Newstalk’s Off The Ball sports radio show.  Dineen is on to talk about Kerry football but the subject has swung briefly to his days on the seminal No Disco music television show.  I’m loving all of this. The discussion has beautifully tied together three of my outspoken passions;…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Giveamanakick and Naive Ted

    September 23, 2015 - By 

    ‘Hello, we’re called Giveamanakick and we’re from Limerick.’ Steve Ryan’s hushed tones from under a peak hat, no eye contact, only to his comrade with the sticks. It has a vibe of menace. It feels to me like he wants to grab everyone, punch them in the gut and then fuck them out the window of the pub. This was serious. This band had such brutal force. When they played brains were shredded, lungs were sore and adrenal glands jacked. When Ryan donned a fighter-pilot mask, all of a sudden it was like Hannibal Lector and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: Tommy & The Big Guns

    September 15, 2015 - By 

    Always meet your heroes. Especially if they have proven their dedication to groundbreaking underground music time and time again. What I admire most in my heroes is that they have never compromised their integrity and dedication to creating or promoting truly great art. A couple of weeks back, my hero (and friend) Billy Jam contacted me and requested that I do him a favour; to record a radio interview for his show ‘Put The Needle On The Record’ on WFMU. I leapt at the opportunity. WFMU is broadcast in New York and New Jersey and is a world leader in…