House Of Cosy Cushions - Palace For The Lost Ones

House Of Cosy Cushions were once known as 'Amsterdam's best kept secret'. When its creator and driving force Richard Bolhuis moved to Dublin back in 2005 and formed a new House Of Cosy Cushions, with a new and more intense Irish band around him, the alternative music scene in Ireland witnessed a band hitting the ground running, exploding onto the Dublin rock scene.

They make their debut Irish EP release with 'Palace For The Lost Ones', released this October 31st. I received an advance copy from SeaDog Records recently and have been enjoying the listen. The influence which jumps out at me first is Nick Cave, in the vocals, the tone and some of the undercurrent themes, but this is a band best described as 'different'. I could throw in a spread of other influences to include The Velvet Underground and perhaps some of early dEUS, but would miss the mark. What you get with House Of Cosy Cushions is a vibrancy, a chaos of sorts, rock n'roll with a blues trombone, melancholy and mystery, menace and tension.

The lead track from 'Palace For The Lost Ones' is immense. I didn't know what to make of it for the first 80 seconds or so, as it ghosts almost directionless with haunting creaks and scattered trombone before the song emerges from the wilderness with raw headstrong directness 'Sad battered donkey thinks he's in a hospital...' this is a track laced with gothic menace. Guitars weigh in to add crunch to clamor and by the grande finale, I'm hitting '<<' to listen again. As for the rest of the EP, you get the perky and poppy 'Goodybe Tiger' which is the stand-out radio track on the EP, through to the beautifully haunting 'Up and Down The Hill', followed by two live tracks; a delicate and somber folk number in 'Flow' and the rousing rock of 'She's Not Your Witch', all encompassing shows the creative and chaotic dynamics that make up House Of Cosy Cushions. An excellent EP.

A few tracks from House Of Cosy Cushion's EP can be listened to on both the SeaDog Records website and on the House Of Cosy Cushions myspace and sonicbids pages, while a video to 'Palace for the Lost Ones' will be available for viewing from the SeaDog Records website in the coming weeks. A busy gigging schedule sees them continue to gig across Ireland over the coming months, details of which can be found on their myspace. The EP is out on October 31st.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/houseofcosycushions

http://www.sonicbids.com/houseofcosycushions

http://www.seadogrecords.com

Betamax Format

There is not much Betamax Format material available to listen to online, but what is there is intensely infectious. This is new wave electro-punk that originated from the Dublin underground a few years back, but played with old-school lo-fi electronics, serrated guitars, 80s synthesizers and loaded with sleaze and psychotic compulsion.


Their limited edition debut single 'XXX Robot' released in 2005 was a frantic onslaught of guitar driven electronica, sounding like what The Contino Session might have done if Death In Vegas has collaborated with frenzied robots instead of with Iggy & Co. It's flip-side instrumental 'Raus! Raus!', a deranged krautrock groove that descends into psychotic chaos is equally infectious, but their best moment to date is perhaps the live recording of 'The Knife' available for download from their myspace, an immense track with 80s Gary Numan style synth-punk sounds, sleazed vocals, pent-up frustration and dark stage adrenalin.

As far as I'm aware, there has been no studio recording release of 'The Knife', or at least none that I can find. A track titled 'Nothing With A Face Is Safe' featured as the lead track of a compilation of mainly leftfield electronica oriented bands from Ireland released by Risc Records in 2005, while Betamax Format also featured on the 'Music for People with Long Ears' double CD compilation of underground independent music in Ireland released in 2006 on Softa Records.

Their debut 7" single 'XXX Robot' was a limited pressing and is long since sold out, but can be downloaded from their website, while the follow-up 12" tentatively titled 'I was Fist-Fucked By The Wannadies' was due to be released earlier this year on an NYC label but does not seem to have materialized as yet. Seemingly on the lookout for a new guitarist, perhaps it will be a while before a release will be seen now, although one thing is for certain, Betamax Format are too good to stop here.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/betamaxformat

http://betamaxformat.com

http://www.riscrecords.com/home

http://www.sofarecords.ie

The Ruby Tailights - Dressing Up

The Ruby Tailights have just released a superb indie-pop album this month, titled Dressing Up, some songs from which can be downloaded from their website. This is lo-fi gentle indie rock sounds blending fuzz and acoustics to capture the ideologies of everything from Teenage Fanclub to The Beach Boys, and music which could be played over and over on lazy breezy days. I just love it.

Of the songs available online, Switch is undoubtedly an excellent indie-pop song, but it is the more laid back Buenos Aires which I'm most taken to, enchantingly wondering and wandering, and best epitomed in the lines "lets go to Argentina, jump on a trampoline, maybe we'll get so far we'll see the sun"; a simply beautiful song which stands out amongst others on an album brimming with top quality material.

The Ruby Tailights started out a few years ago by Martin Kelly, one of the core members from Sunbear, the rather excellent Dublin shoegaze indie-pop band which was active in the mid 90s on the Irish music scene. Some old tracks from Sunbear are also available for download, from the Sunbear myspace, and again highly recommended.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/TheRubyTailights

http://www.therubytailights.com

http://www.sonicbids.com/TheRubyTailights

http://www.myspace.com/sunbeardublin

NURSE

Nurse are a punk-rock band from the Dublin underground back giving it another go. They had a rather excellent punk song called 'Heartbreak' released on 'One Good Jukebox' last year, a double-CD compilation which featured a disparate collection of unsigned artists from Ireland involved with Dun Laoghaire College of Further Education. Although calling it a day soon after that release amid growing disillusionment and tension, Nurse have returned this year as a new unit, involving just one of the original band members, singer/songwriter/bassist Simon Burton.



The track 'Heartbreak', punky, riffy, simple but very effective, is available for download from the Nurse myspace. Other tracks on their myspace include 'Black Sugar' taken from a 2004 demo, which sounds akin to Pixies meet the Ramones, and 'Girl From The Neck Down' an anthemic grunge-punk number with early-Nirvana borrowings recorded earlier this year. It may all sound a bit amateur and hindered by a rather irksome demo recording quality, but this is good fun punk.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/bandnurse

http://www.onegoodjukebox.com

REVERE - Modern Science

Cork alt-rock band Revere independently released their debut album Modern Science in 2005 to quite high critical acclaim in Ireland, receiving such appraisals as the Best Cork band of 2005. They've been referred to as 'raw and driven' and with influences including Morrissey, Radiohead and Echo and the Bunnymen they've a natural big stage presence.

Some tracks from Modern Science can be downloaded from their myspace including 'Untruth' which has touches of Ian McCullough and 'Seizure Song' which has a massive Morrissey influence. Hearing the influence of such great men in their songs should inspire me to like this band a lot, but it doesn't. In general, their songs just sound a bit too safe, too radio-compliant and too wearily familiar. There are the few exceptions however, and they get the mention here for the superb 'Seizure Song', quite emphatically cutting with overtones of resentment, it delves into the deep and personal like the fallout from an annexed convulsion and is a must listen for Morrissey fans. I'll take Morrissey any day instead however, as despite this and some other strong moments I'd just get too tired listening to Modern Science through. As a whole, it just doesn't add anything for me that I can't get somewhere else done better.

"You hate me, oh when I’m right
You say aren’t you so clever, aren’t you a clever
Cad behind the mask of a rat
You swinish luxury man
Who wished me malediction in this my prison
And this is how I feel.." - Seizure Song by Revere

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/revereofficial

The Tides

The Tides are a 3-piece indie-rock band from Magherafelt in Northern Ireland rapidly on the up. They indulge in the sounds of The Verve, Oasis, Kula Shaker, Hendrix and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and for this you get a band with quite a lot of guitar technique, but with enough indie-rock awareness not to overtly flaunt it.


I've read good and bad reviews about this band. They've been criticized for defaulting to strumming and riffing out their songs too often, while those same songs have been praised by one of Northern Ireland's better known radio music presenters as of "the best band in the country". Well, they are not the best band in the country, nor should they be criticized for strumming out songs when it sounds genuinely fitting to do it that way. If anything I'd criticize them for indulging too much in technique at times, but that is a matter of personal preference. As far as this opinion goes, they are a solid good band. I could not understand them being billed as anything less than that. They're not the most original band around, but this is good rock n'roll, and sometimes that's all that matters.

After two independently released EPs, 'The Tides' is 2004 and 'On Our Way' in 2005, they are now taking a break from what has been a few years of rather extensive gigging to focus on completing a new release. Although quite appreciated in Northern Ireland for a few years now, it is only after winning BBC ATL RockSchool earlier this year, that they started to receive more extensive coverage, after which they were featured in most major newspapers across Northern Ireland as well as receiving frequent radio air-play, and have since played a number of festivals in the UK and Ireland, including playing at the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival this weekend in Dublin.

Both EPs can be streamed from their Bebo space, with some tracks from each EP also available to download from their myspace. In 'Happy Homecoming' from their debut EP and 'Just Getting Started' from their second, they have some endearingly soft strum-along numbers not far from Oasis on their more laid-back moments. More characteristic of their sound is 'How Does It Feel', the lead track from their 2005 EP, an anthemic adrenalin-rush number, albeit again with a massive Oasis footprint. Despite a few awfully over-indulgent showings of technique at times on some of their other tracks, this is a band that shines of sold rock n'roll vibe, and when the core of their songs sound this good does it really matter that they don't sound that original?

Related Links:

http://www.thetidesonline.co.uk

http://the-tides.bebo.com

http://www.myspace.com/thetidesindie

The Butterfly Explosion in Trinity Rooms

I've been going on about The Butterfly Explosion quite a bit this year, both here and over on tmc's Lostmusic, so it was a real pleasure to finally catch them live when they played Limerick's Trinity Rooms this weekend.

Well worth the wait, The Butterfly Explosion sounded every bit as good live as they do on their releases, seamlessly blending the blissfully haunting with more weighty dirges and shimmerings, and hearing songs performed well live always adds new dimensions, even to songs which have become quite familiar. For those less familiar, this is music blending Slowdive shogaze-esque textures into a more readily accessible experience, centered on indie-rock moods and strong vocals, but layered with melodies which can burst into weightier moments of sheer energy.

They went through the majority of their material in the set, and although leading off cautiously with an instrumental, they quickly found top form with an excellent delivery of 'Next Year', from their recently released Turn The Sky EP, an instantly lovable song with leanings more towards indie-rock than their generally more shoegaze sound, and which clearly won over the audience in attendance, many of which may not have been so familiar with The Butterfly Explosion before the gig. No doubt the highlight for many was their performance of Chemistry, a fine shoegaze song with pop sensibilities which has become something of a flagship song for The Butterfly Explosion, and into which they worked an interlude back to the 80's with a few moments of Simple Minds' Don't You Forget About Me. Oddly, the interlude fitted in very well, and it was clear that an appreciative audience had taken to The Butterfly Explosion. By those accounts the gig could certainly be considered as a win. The only disappointing aspect was the size of the audience in attendance, which was a touch short, and to which fingers could be pointed at Trinity Rooms for not arranging for a local band to support. However, this should not take from the positives. This was an excellent live performance by an excellent rising band. I have said it before, and I will reiterate it here, this is one of the finest bands to emanate from Ireland in many years.

The Butterfly Explosion play at this years Hard Working Class Heroes Festival in Dublin this Oct 15th, followed by a return to the UK on Oct 29th when they play Break In The City in Manchester, details of which can be found from their myspace. Their excellent Turn The Sky EP, which was credited as 'single of the week' recently in several press reviews can be purchased online at Road Records.

Related Links:

http://www.butterflyexplosion.com

http://www.myspace.com/butterflyexplosion

Sanzkrit - Yeah But What If

Sanzkrit, from Monaghan in Ireland, released their third EP Yeah But What If earlier this year to wide critical acclaim. Despite this, it had managed to pass below my radar until now. The reason? Well, their previous EP, Remember To Breath, was also highly critically acclaimed despite being an overly-derivative punk-grunge affair with much less "unique clever songwriting" than it was ever credited to have. I was expecting more of the same. I was wrong. This time the music press in Ireland have had it right. Sanzkrit have evolved into something rather special.

This EP is not just a massive step forward but a considerable turn in direction for Sanzkrit. Overall a lot warmer, considerably more fragile and a lot more melodic than anything they have touched on before, they really have found an indie-rock sound now which is quite unique and have written some genuinely memorable songs. There are two superb tracks on the EP; 'Futulia' and 'Beautiful Something', both simultaneously delicate and anthemic, they are worth the price of the EP alone, while the rest of the EP is far from filler material.

"we used to think that someday we'd make history,
and we thought we'd live our lives forever happily,
we were wrong...... we were wrong,
and when we meet again,
betrayed by yesterday,
you'll read..... my lips,
they'll say..... yeah but what if..."
- Futila by Sanzkrit.


Tracks from the Yeah But What If EP are currenly streamable from the Sanzkrit myspace, including the two standout tracks 'Futulia' and 'Beautiful Something', while four tracks from their previous EP can also be downloaded from their website.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/sanzkrit

http://www.sanzkrit.com