Great Irish indie songs thread

Dave Van Ronk

This thread hopefully might unearth some forgotten musical gems..

The Rules:

1. No repeat bands: Only one track per band/artist.If someone beats you to a band, tough cookie.
That way we can get a really broad range of Irish indie bands/artists and not a lot of songs from a few bands.

2. Add some background info about the band. Where they are from, roughly when they existed (if broken up) and how you discovered them. Adds a bit of colour to the proceedings.

3. Have fun!

I'll kick things off

Simple Kid - Staring at the sun
I was working in Virgin Megastores (RIP), Cork back in '04 & '05 when Simple Kid aka Ciaran McFeely from Cork came on the scene. He was previously in The Young Offenders. This album SK1 got a fair few spins in Virgin at the time. Alas he called it a day there recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i47BcajYZU

Something Happens - Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello (Petrol)
Mainly know this Dublin band through Tom Dunne's radio show on Newstalk. Pretty good upbeat single from the band...I Like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PBzmpT0yQE

Future Kings Of Spain - Hanging Around
Again its a band from Dublin that I discovered while working in Virgin. From their self titled debut. This track has a nice punchy sound.

KeanSeenan

http://popicalisland.bandcamp.com/track/hung-like-a-noose-70s-beard-version
Been hooked on this song all week.

johnnykilo

Going back a bit here with these ones but what the hell

Blink - Cello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBa-_CymnSk

Skindive - Tranquilizer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnpCQRjlLnY

Juniper - Weatherman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MshJKwjg4gw

Epicness

The best Irish indie band I've ever heard

Love this song:
New Secret Weapon: Tea Party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrtMp9wSH_0

New Secret Weapon are still unsigned. They're now based in London, but play gigs over here quite regularly. They're very closely connected to Rock Candy/Knockanstockan/Sweeneys on Dame St.

I think they have a pretty unique sound. Sometimes post rock, sometimes more hippy 60's feel, eg; Love, Death etc.

I'm not sure if they have any interest in "making it" as they just seem to enjoy the journey they're on. I'm really looking forward to when they release an album.

The three lads are absolutely incredible musicians though!

The Scientician

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRW99lyXDkk

That Bawl album was fantastic!

Thundercats Ho

Whipping Boy - Twinkle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDXeiMoZe4

rcaz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivY4xPytlME

Guardian Review:The motorik rhythm invented in the 70s by the German group Neu! – a 4/4 throb devoid of fills or ornament, replicating the feeling of ceaseless movement – has been an increasingly frequent feature of underground rock these last couple of years, but few bands have used it as well as this Dublin trio on the opening track of their debut album. After four stabs of organ, High Tekk Train Wreck sprints away from the lights with a squeal of wheelspin, its *motorik soundling like a customised and tuned Ford Focus on a suburban *estate rather than a sedately cruising BMW on the autobahns. Its fabulously exciting, and this asbo version of *Krautrock is *repeated a couple of songs later, on Witch Hunt, which sounds like the *result of Lemmy moving to *Düsseldorf rather than forming Mot&#246

TwinKranes: Being konG.
Amazing song, quality band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMqvb9p6sn0

TwinKranes are currently signed to TwistedNerve records. I played a couple of gigs supporting these lads (the most down to earth lads you could ever meet) Watching them play feels like watching Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. The use of visuals and the steady thump of the drums really brings out the psychedelic vibe of the band.

The Guardian gave them 4 stars for their debut album "SpektrumTheatreSnakes"

Guardian Review:The motorik rhythm invented in the 70s by the German group Neu! – a 4/4 throb devoid of fills or ornament, replicating the feeling of ceaseless movement – has been an increasingly frequent feature of underground rock these last couple of years, but few bands have used it as well as this Dublin trio on the opening track of their debut album. After four stabs of organ, High Tekk Train Wreck sprints away from the lights with a squeal of wheelspin, its *motorik soundling like a customised and tuned Ford Focus on a suburban *estate rather than a sedately cruising BMW on the autobahns. Its fabulously exciting, and this asbo version of *Krautrock is *repeated a couple of songs later, on Witch Hunt, which sounds like the *result of Lemmy moving to *Düsseldorf rather than forming Mot&#246 wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/dec/04/twinkranes-spektrumtheatresnakes

Meanwhile NME gave them 9/10 in possibly one of the most badly written reviews I've ever seen. It tells you next to nothing about the album.

NME Review wrote:

Put this incredible album on and, from the first second of opener ‘High Tekk Train Wreck’ everyone – regardless of musical persuasion – sits up and asks, “What the hell is that?” The answer is that it’s a fantastically unhinged mix of speeded-up krautrock rhythms, dirty drones and wonky synthesizers, which is at once weird and danceable and very pop; as a case in point, ‘The Charmer’ sounds like Britney Spears’ ‘Womanizer’ as played by New York experi-mental duo Silver Apples. All we know about Twinkranes is they come from Dublin, there are three of them called Blonde Fox, Rooster and Auburn Spinner. But with sounds like this, who needs biog and sensible names?

http://www.nme.com/reviews/twinkranes/10956

I really can't recommend the album highly enough!

Miguel_Sanchez

Engine Alley - Infamy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-wX_zJcgLA

Revelino - Happiness is Mine. These guys really deserved to be bigger than they were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBfMeXKPtJs

one man clappin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwvV_WajG4k

Not the original video but the song is class

maccored

i think this band imploded before they even got to release this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPpotk3Xhp0

homerun_homer

The Frank and Walters have many classics. I coudn't find the video for After All and other bigger hits but Colours is a favourite. I remember seeing them on tv back in the Jo Maxi days when I was a wee lad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBAk1m-lRDo

There's a band who had 2 great Irish singles in the late 90s called the Marbles but nothing happened and the debut album never arrived and there's no videos on youtube. I heard of them through that TV3 music show with Darragh Purcell with a song called 'Something in my Eye' and thought it strange that the drummer was the singer. The follow up was great too
Slip into Sound, and later it seemed the vocalist drummer was replaced and they soon disappeared.

francois

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPwrmBDFxYI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6e3oFXFm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kguyejf2TZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb26XPQBx78

Drop-D Article

Not so much indie as Alternative. We've had a pretty crackin alternative scene when you think about it.

Kerbdog: Sally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph9xuNPsS8w

Kerbdog, fronted by notorious sell out Cormac Battle (his defence of Amanda Brunker at Oxegen sums up the man to me) were an amazing grunge band from Kilkenny. I came across them on their second album "On the Turn", which while still being regarded as a classic Irish Rock album in some quarters with songs like the aforementioned, "Sally" to gems like "Mexican Wave" "JJ's Song" and "Didn't Even Try", the second half of the album shows little development and it gets a bit mundane after a while. What was great (as a 17 year old rocker) was that this was a band that came out and said, "It's ok to be angry and Irish" Still a cracking band live. They usually play a show around Christmas for the craic.

Scheer: Wish You Were Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w0dBmGENHY

Scheer are a perfect example of a band that could have been a contender. I first heard them when (I believe) they opened up the very first Heineken Green Energy Festival in Dublin Castle. (My band at the time were up for it too, but being stupid teenagers, we broke up the band with about 3 months to go!) I came across this great article about them:
http://www.drop-d.ie/legacy-1189/1474

Drop-D Article wrote:

Scheer
A Reappraisal of a Forgotten Irish Band

If Scheer had been a landscape" they would have been an icy tundra on a beautiful clear night " the kind of night where the sky is crowded with diamond stars shining like inspiration but the ground is dense with shadows that whisper of witchcraft and black magic. An insidious darkness permeates their music" wading under the sound with the gritty metal of the band and soaring high over it with Audrey Gallagher"s ghostly vocals.

However" Scheer lived a life and died a death that has become all too familiar to Irish bands. Originally formed in 1990 in Derry" the band"s infancy lasted three years before they developed the confidence and courage to start playing regular gigs. The vivacity and edginess of their performances not only blew audience after audience away" but attracted the attention of Son" a small independent Irish label" with whom the band went through it"s adolescence. Their time with the label saw the release of the four"track Psychobabble and the single Wish You Were Dead: the single by which most people still remember the quintet.

Things really kicked off for Scheer when they were asked to sign to 4AD " an unlikely alliance which would eventually be indirectly responsible for the downfall of the band so close to hitting the top. At the top of their game" Scheer played across the world with bands like Korn" Red Hot Chili Peppers" Bush" Placebo" Throwing Muses" Ash and the Jesus and Mary Chain" and even had an interview televised in Russia to an audience of 100 million.

Perhaps most memorably" Scheer"s involvement with 4AD led to the release of an astounding debut album" Infliction. As Joe Bates "drummer" said almost 10 years ago: "When you"re listening to music and it"s really ****ing good and it"s really pushing all the buttons and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. If we could do that"" Well that is exactly what Scheer did with Infliction. The dying echoes of prog"rock and metal inherent in the crashing rhythm guitars" intricate lead work rising often to squeals and pounding drums never once overshadow the exquisite melodies and soaring soprano voice. From the immensity of tracks like openers Sh"a and Howling Boy to the painful minimalism of Babysize and Goodbye" Scheer proved themselves masters of the control of technique and sound" matching word with music in an album of subtle but haunting imagery. Mention this album in any forum and response is always immediate and enthusiastic.

Unfortunately" this would prove to be as high as Scheer could fly. As the band approached premature old age" relations with 4AD became increasingly strained and uneasy" "due"" according to 4AD" "to the fact that Scheer were an unabashed heavy metal group " not exactly a typical 4AD genre" " a statement which proves in itself how the "indie" label misunderstood the Derry band. Scheer left 4AD in August 1998 in order to start their own record label" Schism Records. However" the damage had already been done" and the fivesome disbanded not long after" releasing" posthumously as it were" the aptly titled …And Finally in 2000: the final headstone on the grave of one of our most promising acts of the last decade.

francois

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTDl70FVXnc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ncw9YEjWa8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJMghwAl8uU

Saw all of these bands-Went to loads of gigs in my youth

francois

Loads of snippets of info here

http://www.irishrock.org/irodb/azfull.html

Dave Van Ronk

Wow, pretty cool songs here, if people could add how they discovered their music choices & where the bands were from, it would make it even more interesting.

Good call! edited my posts. A lot of the stories behind the groups are fascinating

JerryHandbag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpFRIu8skLc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerskate_Skinny

Here's another great alternative band from Norn Iron. My friends supported them a few times and when they played the Ambassador (supporting Ash) they used my Amp as theirs blew up. So my amp has played the Ambassador, but not I!

Lafaro: Tuppenny Nudger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhASR6y4Tco

Treehouse72

How can all reference to Bridesmaids Never Brides by The Carrellines possibly have disappeared from the face of the earth?? One of the best Irish pop singles ever and I haven't heard sight nor sound of it in 20 years. Anyway...three Irish Indie Classics...

.............

The Would-Be's/I'm Hardly Ever Wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVEICZvdKwQ

Fergal is the Applejack/Talking to Yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoDolLQHfgA

A House - Kick Me Again Jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62QoeaGvPNU

Manchegan

Remember the time hearing this on the radio and thinking it was something special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OvQlTwsHs

pappyodaniel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7DONAWAfM4

bogmanfan

Excuse the crappy sound quality, but this is a fantastic tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQUVHJPXJXA

And another early 90s classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8TsXXO_6ew

4Sheets

4Sheets wrote: »

Perhaps not a typical track for the indie/alternative section ,, but hes Irish and a damm fine singer and ticks the unknown gem box for me at least..plus I cant think of anything else thats not already posted.
His name is Kevin Dardis from Limerick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SYxTFCjj3E

And another..sorry if these are considered off-topic still good Irish music

John Spillane ..dunno?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt9CCQpM43U

Treehouse72

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQNwSmuwimk

The Scientician

Not sure if it counts as indie but the Forget Me Nots had at least one cracker of a tune, this slab of sunshine pop from 1992. Alas I know nothing else about them other than this song, my friend put it on a tape for me years ago, only rediscovered it recently on the 'tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZCFVXwELtM

rcaz

Thread Pulls - Starts / Ends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbAA5h1SJ6w

I work in an off license and Gavin (bassist/singer/trumpet player) is a regular customer. He drinks good beer and plays good music, if anyone's wondering :pac:

Treehouse72

Microdisney/Town to Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJKcBTwvDiI

Fatima Mansions/Blues for Ceacescu (blistering Peel Session version)

The Fountainhead/Someone Like You (awesome guitar solo!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0p0TITjYi0

bystarlight

Formerly known as Dry County, now known as Alias Empire, these lads are a 3-piece from Dublin, brilliant live and currently finishing their second album. I can't wait for it.

This is a single from their first album. Also check out a song called 'Stop, Proceed'. Deadly stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdvsy6-Q02w