Band of the Week: Cry Monster Cry

 



Cry Monster Cry is a folk rock duo out of Dublin, Ireland. The band features the brothers' beautiful harmonies packed with emotion and lyrics full of shared experiences. Cry Monster Cry was formed by brothers Richie and Jamie Martin in late 2010.  The brothers have been involved in music together for many years before the band's formation, but it is now a central focus for them. In 2012 Cry Monster Cry recorded their first EP, "The Fallen." Upon the release of their debut EP, "The Fallen" went straight to #1 on the Irish iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart and was promptly followed by a sold out launch Upstairs in Whelan’s. The band's music was also recently featured in Tourism Ireland's Jump Into Ireland online. Since the success of the EP realease, Cry Monster Cry has been touring Ireland with their original material. Over the past few months of touring, the band has played gigs with artists such as Sea of Bees, Wallis Bird, Hudson Taylor and Jape.

In between touring, Cry Monster Cry has managed to begin work on their debut album. Jamie  commented on the upcoming album, "We're working with the same producer from the EP, Keith Lawless. We are trying to hone our skills and deliver something well thought out and mature. We were very pleased with the EP, the trick now is to do better this time round and to mature as song writers." The band should have show dates once the album completed and released.

 Below is a track from "The Fallen" EP. If you like what you hear, follow the link for a free download of the song. The full EP can be found on iTunes. If you're interested in following Cry Monster Cry, they can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and on Youtube.
 

"If we're doing this, you can do it too." An interview with a band who just wants a chance.

The Bordellos are an interesting band to say the least.  They have evolved musically since their start as Onion King in 2004 after some changes in line ups.  The band as it is today consists of brothers Brian and Anthony Shea, and Brian's son Dan.  With 30 years separating the oldest member from the youngest, the range of influences of the band is staggering and combines to give the Bordellos a unique sound.  Here's what they had to say for themselves.

How did The Bordellos get started? When?

DAN- We formed out of the ashes of the band Onion King, with the addition of guitarist/producer Geoff and keyboardist/general musical genius Vinny. Then there was a drummer, Mike, who was really good and left to play with ska bands who would actually pay him. I joined by osmosis - my dad was a member and it got me out of the house. The first two albums, the only ones with any distribution, I'm not on, but gradually I've seeped into it and started producing too.
BRIAN- Yes, we formed after Geoff and Vinny heard our 4-track demos as Onion King in 2004 and wanted to turn our Songs of the Wickerman into the Footloose soundtrack, so we became The Bordellos and proceeded to play gigs and such. Then Geoff, Vinny, and Mike left the band, so I got Dan in to replace all three. He was only 14 at the time but had a great talent. Around about this time, Bomp Records heard our Songs For Swinging Stalkers LP that we had made but never released with Geoff and Vinny. It looked like for a while they may release it, but cooled on the idea when they realized I had replaced the lead guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist with my 14 year old son. But Northern Star Records then came into the fray and released the Stalkers LP as a download only LP and received fine reviews. We then released another LP called Meet The Bordellos on The American Indie Brutarian Records and also reissured the Stalkers LP on Brutarian.
 

Where is your favorite venue to play?

DAN- Anywhere that'll have us. Where we live, there's no scene, which is a shame on one hand but no scene equals no clique and familiarity breeds contempt. Or contentment - but no chance of that in a hurry. Basically, we don't do enough AC/DC covers for St. Helens.
BRIAN- As Dan says, we really do not do many gigs, only two this year. We did both as acoustic gigs, just myself and Dan - my brother and our third member was incapacitated at the time so they could not play...
 

What are your hopes for the band's future?

DAN- That someone will pay attention to us at some point, really. We're never going to be a fashionista favourite but someone (and this is where you and other places come into it) needs to give people the permission they need to enjoy us. After that point, should it happen, I don't know - I've got visions of string sections and Polymoogs.
BRIAN- Well, I hope to get better known and for more people to pay attention to our strange take on music. We have a backlog of about sixty songs already recorded and some more that just need mixing, so it would be nice to find a label to release some of them on.
 

What influences your music?

DAN- All sorts [of infuences], musically speaking. We've all got a fairly broad range of tastes and it changes all the time. I'm reading the Wreckers of Civilisation book about Throbbing Gristle at the moment, and it's really a shame there's not much as brave or exciting going on at the moment that I've heard of but I'm sure that's open to change. Musically, the big ones for me are 60's girl groups, Rowland S Howard (and everything else Nick Cave related), Burial's Untrue, anything with that thread that runs through all those running through it. It's not about genre, it's about mood. That same principle goes into the music too, I guess - disgust at how closed minded and needlessly judgmental people can be, useless irritation but hope that it'll all get better.
BRIAN- As Dan says, all sorts [of infuences]. We do tend to mix all kinds of genres of music together. Our latest release, the Bring Me The Head of Justin Bieber EP, out on Small Bear Records www.smallbearrecords.com is our tribute to The Jamc and an attack on the mobilephone pop that is being force fed to the kids on the radi. But my main musical loves are sixties beat bands and garage punk and psych with fiftes rock n roll and rockabilly. Our third band member has a unhealthy interest in seventies singer songwriters and is currently boring everyone in earshot with his one-man appreciation society to Bruce Springsteen, but he does like Neil Young so we will forgive him for that.
 

Is there a message you want to get out with your music?

DAN- "If we're doing this, you can do it too. Don't wait around for permission, just lose yourself and get right into it."
BRIAN- Our message is bring the fun and excitment back to music, where is the danger, where has the humour gone to, where has the shock factor gone in music?
 

How would you describe your music?

DAN- I wouldn't - I'd leave it to journalists and listeners to do that.
BRIAN- TWO WORDS: BLOODY ACE.
 

What genre do you consider The Bordellos to be?

DAN- That depends what release you're talking about. Lo Fi, Folk Off, for instance - that's pretty straightforwardly folk. But it's all pop music, isn't it?
BRIAN- We tend to genre hop so I would call us a "postpunkpsychgaragerockcountrybillyfolk" band.
 

Tell us about upcoming tour dates and recent/future releases.

DAN- Bring Me The Head of Justin Bieber is available for free download here - http://thebordellosbieber.bandcamp.com/ - you can also pay if you want, doesn't hurt to try, does it? I'm doing a solo gig at the Rendezvous in St Helens, that's about it for the future that I know of but you can follow my endeavours/download my stuff for free at - http://neuroticwreck.bandcamp.com/. That's a good listen if you like every other vaguely interesting electropop with dubstep influences thing that's out at the moment, but it's not groundbreaking.
BRIAN- We have Bring Me The Head of Justin Bieber EP out now via Small Bear Records and have two LPs that can be downloaded for free. The Lo Fi, Folk Off LP and the Monkee Complex are
available to download from our bandcamp page. Both LPs were recorded over a couple of days as a bit of fun, so they're not to be taken too seriously. We also have two LPs out on Brutarian Records, Meet The Bordellos and Songs for Swinging Stalkers, and have other split EPs and such released on various labels. The future, well, we are just finishing recording a new EP which is based on the old EP The Walker Brothers Brought Out in the Sixties Called Solo Scott Solo John. This one will be called Solo Brian Solo Dan and will have four ballads and it will sound great when they are mixed. We will be looking for a label to put it out, hopefully on vinyl. Dan and I have recorded some solo stuff under the name Honeyfuzzmole so we'll hopefully find some way of getting that out next year, all recorded on a very old four track tape recorder - very lo fi. Maybe play some gigs. And I had forgotten, we have a track coming out on a Small Bear Christmas LP which will be available at Christmas.

Concert Report: Last Thursday

In the middle of the night, on the East side of Atlanta, under a bar, last Thursday one of the most energetic concerts I've ever been to went down at The Basement.  The Basement is an extremely small venue with amazing acoustics, and the crowd was absolutely tiny.  I'm talking maybe ten people there who weren't in one of the bands.  I fell in love with the place, which was nice enough to let me into an 18+ show even though I'm not 18+.  Seriously, people in the Atlanta area, go to The Basement.  They need your patronage.  Anyway, onward.

The four bands performing were Wolves, Nico's Gun, Yip Deceiver, and Chappo.

Wolves is an Atlanta based, self produced alt-pop band made up of Kyle Dreaden and Zak Ray.  Their debut album, "Youth" was released in April, and is available for free here.  It includes eight songs, one of them is called 'Twenty Something' and I have had it playing in my head since the show.   Wolves has a unique sound that I can only describe as something to the tune of dance-rock.

Nico's Gun played a set of mostly funk, but ended their time on stage with two very different songs that had an almost metal feel.  Talking to them after the show, I asked them about why that was, and they said that, had they had enough time, they would have played some of their punk stuff.  Nico's Gun is great to watch live, if not for the music then for their look. Barney, the singer and guitarist, wore glittery fake eyelashes, the keyboardist was in a blue fur jacket and had his hair in a topknot.  The bassist looked like he could have stepped right out of a hard rock band.  With their unique mix of people, massive amounts of talent, varied influences, and general want to have a lot of fun, it's hard to tell just what Nico's Gun will do from one song to the next.

Yip Deceiver was definitely a surprise for me.  I had listened to their music before the show, but that didn't prepare me for the fact that the two piece electronic dance group is made up of Davey Peirce and Nicolas Dubbratz from of Montreal.  Having missed seeing Of Montreal earlier this year, I was excited to see Davey and Nicolas's side project.  They did not disappoint and had the small crowd dancing from the first song.

"Get Strict" - Yip Deceiver

Chappo was amazing, as always. I had a chance to talk to keyboardist Chris before the show.  We didn't really talk about anything important or interview-ish.  It was actually a lot like old friends just chatting, which was a good change from the normal "I have a blog, let's talk business" type conversations I've had with bands.  By the time Chappo went on stage, I had talked to the whole band.  Living in New York, they were lucky to have sustained little damage from hurricane Sandy and managed to be one step ahead of the storm while on tour.  Their set went by entirely too fast, but was very theatrical and very intimate.  Frontman Alex Chappo requested tht everyone in the audience form a semicircle around him and made sure to touch everyone at least once.  In a later song, he opened a bottle of water, poured part of it over his head, part on the floor, and the rest on the audience.  I definitely enjoyed the close quarters of their show, and preferred seeing them in a small venue opposed to outdoors.

(CHAPPO on stage at The Basement)

News From CHAPPO

CHAPPO has recently released their music video for "5-0." The band says, "There are no singing nipples this time, but there ARE some teenagers getting it on in bathroom stalls, taking pills, and driving recklessly." You can find the "5-0" video posted below.

 

If you're interested in catching CHAPPO live soon, check out their upcoming tour dates for their Fall Soiree Tour:

 

OCT 21 – Brooklyn, NY: 151 Kent – Rooftop Party and "5–0" screening

OCT 22 – Long Branch, NJ: Brighton Bar

OCT 26 – Philadelphia, PA: The Fire

OCT 28 – Richmond, VA: House Party (RVA Magazine)

OCT 30 – Charlotte, NC: Evening Muse

OCT 31 – Athens, GA: FreakFest Party

NOV 01 – Atlanta, GA: The Basement

NOV 02 – Durham, NC: Motorco Music Hall

NOV 03 – Washington, DC: The Pinch with Nicos Gun

 

Band of the Week: Wise Children

After a long stretch of no posts (which we sincerely apologize for), we're finally getting back up and running. So, without further delay, this week's featured "Band of the Week" is Wise Children.

Wise Children is an alternative folk-pop band from the South Coast of England. The band was originally a three-piece band, but now primarily consists of just its founder, Robin Warren-Adamson. "I started the project at uni with a line-up of 3, and then over the years people have come and gone. Sometimes I perform by myself, sometimes with others. It's mainly based on where abouts I'm living at the time and who is around. At the moment there are three of us in London," says Robin.

The band has released three albums over the past four years. The first is a self tiled EP, released in 2008. Wise Children produced Absence & Reunion just 2 years later (2010), with their most recent, The Woods, to follow the year after (2011). Robin describes his music as "delicate, atmospheric pop songs." He pulls from a variety of different influences to achieve his incredibly unique sound. "I listen to a lot of electronic music and experimental classical music. This influences the kinds of atmospheres I try to create. On top of that, Sigur Ros, Frightened Rabbit, Nick Drake amongst many others." The combination of Robin's hauntingly beautiful vocals and lyrics often filled with heartache make Wise Children's music more than memorable.

After taking a break for the summer, Robin says that he's really excited to get back to writing a recording. Plans for the band are small for now. Ryan told us, "I don't have any grand dreams for it [Wise Children]. It's just on-going and adapts to particular times. I really like how it doesn't ask too much of me." Wise Children's next show will be October 7th at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London. They will be performing with six other London-local artists that night and the event is expected to be a sell-out. The band prefers smaller, informal venues (especially house parties), but they would love to play at Union Chapel in the near future.

 

Here are a few of our favorite Wise Children songs. Enjoy!

 

"Absence" - Absence & Reunion (2010)

 

"Compost" - The Woods (2011)



 

"A Heart You Can't Find" - The Woods (2011)

 

"You Were a Single Red Blood Cell But I Lost

You in This Knot of Capillaries" - Wise Childern EP (2008)

 

"Artichoke" - Absense & Reunion (2010)

 

If you would like to hear more music by Wise Children, look them up on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube. Also, check out their website for a free download of their EP, The Woods.