Some bands are absolute gifts to bloggers and music writers abound. Rather than forcing terribly unoriginal writers to devise headlines like “A GRAND Auld Time” to sit pretty on top of their features they provide us with hyperbolic ammo in interviews such as “We’re Like Juninho Playing For Middlesborough Football Club” and are confident and assured enough in their own opinions that we don’t have to invent some for them. Even more of a boon is when they admit Pavement influences so we don’t have to force those on them either. Thank God for Grand Pocket Orchestra.

Singer and guitarist Paddy’s proclamation comparing his band to Brazilian midfielder Juninho isn’t quite as strange as it seems. Middlesborough represent the Irish music scene: steady, mediocre, filled to the brim with bog-standard players that will never attract attention overseas. Grand Pocket Orchestra, with a select few others (Bryan Robson and Fabrizio Ravanelli, at least) are the few exotic delights the banal roster offers to excite fans tired of seeing the same old dogged generic performances week in, week out. They feel most bands in Ireland are constantly five years behind, and take themselves far too seriously- an allegation GPO can never have held against them.

There is something wholly unique and un-Irish about the Dublin four-piece. They attribute this to their “camp energy”, manifested in their ADHD performances. Paddy explains that it’s difficult enough for him to sit still without fidgeting, nevermind control himself onstage. Keyboardist and xylophonist Bronwyn’s trademark nurse’s uniform and table of toys is another contributor, and drummer Peter’s seemingly neverending grins seal the deal. Their self-description says it all: “We are the lovechild of Pavement and Liza Minelli”, a mixture of an Oooh-Look-At-Us attitude and genuine introverted artistry, all pulled off with the aplomb of a band who’ve been playing gigs and reeling off interviews for as long as Liza’s been troubling the divorce courts.

Paddy, Bronwyn and Peter (Luckily guitarist/bassist Chester wasn’t around- the scarf isn’t nearly long enough)

Yet their lifespan has been a short, though eventful one. Formed in June of last year (when they kidnapped Peter and exiled themselves to Cork) they emerged with a definite identity, and a handful of songs. While a major release has still not seen the light of day, the band have managed to play to two capacity audiences thanks to support slots with Fight Like Apes and Les Savy Fav. From the latter the band took the lesson that it’s acceptable to be a bit mental onstage, as they’ll never be quite as off the rails as Tim Harrington. They recorded several songs that made their way on to a limited release and, more importantly, their Myspace, which has seen a massive amount of traffic for a fledgling band already. A little done, and a lot more to do then.

2008 looks likely to be even more hectic than their stage set-up. A reel of gigs has already been organized (including a return to Whelans, and their first overseas trip to England and Germany). They endeavour to have put out a second video and full scale EP too. If they hit success they plan not to replace the toys with acutal tangible instruments, but to buy bigger and shinier playthings. It appears though that Grand Pocket Orchestra’s ambitions are less temporal than this though. There’s is a quest to stand out from the Luke Youngs of the world and inject energy, colour and the “f” word (mentioning the word “fun” around Director, I imagine, is like cursing the baby Jesus in a nunnery) back in to the greying body of the Irish music scene.

www.myspace.com/grandpocketorchestra

“Odd Socks” - Grand Pocket Orchestra Official Music Video from Michael Healey on Vimeo.

Herman Melville wrote “it’s better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation”.  After a minute of listening to First You Live it is crystal clear that Dusty Rhodes and the River Band have never read any Melville. However, lack of originality hasn’t held back most of today’s successful bands, so why should it hold back Dusty Rhodes and the River Band? Because their singer sounds like a South Park imitation of Kings Of Leon’s singer, in short. First You Live’s first forty seconds are wholly promising, with lavish instrumentation and a short pub singalong. Then the title track’s vocals kick in. Dustin Apodaca’s voice is one that belongs in snot-nosed skater punk, and all The River Band’s lush Band-esque layers of guitar, violin and keys cannot save this album of well-worn gospel-folk clichés (there’s something terribly unconvincing about the line “I can’t wait to be free, oh I can’t wait to leave Tennessee” when it’s coming from a Californian).

Pete Silberman’s story is a familiar one- A prodigious American singer-songwriter releasing under a plural noun pseudonym capitivating the hearts of bloggers from New York to, well, the Irish Times’ finest with wistful songs and lush instrumentation. Yet, like the best stories, it’s one with replay value and a promising plotline. Currently on his 5th album “In The Attic Of The Universe”, the 21 year old New Yorker is steadily building up reputation and a brilliant back catalogue. He may well have that Basset Hound soon:

Why “The Antlers”?

I’ve gone by a few names throughout my time writing and recording
solo. By the time I moved to New York (about two years ago), I was
using a variation of my real name, but feeling less and less like
being a singer-songwriter. I decided a little over a year ago to make
what I was doing less of a solo affair. The name The Antlers was
taken from a Microphones song called “Antlers”. I think I also
probably got the plural noun idea from The Microphones, as “the band”
was mostly Phil Elverum, but with a rotating cast of people involved
in the recording and performing. You can’t really tell who you’re
listening to, where sounds are coming from, and it all becomes one
thing. So far it’s just been me on the recordings, but that’ll change
with the next record.

What’s your mission statement for the band? What do you want to achieve?

That’s hard to say. At this point, I’m loving recording and hearing
those sounds come to life through the band. I’d love to do some
serious touring soon. I guess I’d say my goal is to be able to do
this for a living. I haven’t loved doing anything in my life nearly
as much as this. I’ve also wanted a Basset Hound for awhile, so if I
someday find myself with one as a result of making music, that’d be
great.

“Uprooted” was a very folksy affair, what prompted the more widescreen
feeling of “In The Attic Of The Universe?”

Uprooted was recorded right before and right after I moved to
Manhattan, and I think my goal was to record something I could
replicate by playing solo shows, as I didn’t have a band at the time.
Universe came practically out of nowhere last September, but I think
in recording it I tried to make an album that I would like. I’ve
recorded music that I’ve been attached to but don’t enjoy listening
to. For Universe, I tried to imagine an album that I would enjoy if
it came from someone else. I ignored the practicalities of an album I
couldn’t perform by myself, and that eventually forced me to get a
band together. Aside from that, Universe was made to sound huge
inside something small, or small inside something huge, depending on
how you look at it.

You’re already writing your next album, “Hospice”. Are you concerned with maintaining a steady output of music, rather than promoting the stuff you’ve already made?

Well it’s easy to release something and then move on to the next thing
you want to write, or the next point you want to make. I’ve always
had this problem, and it’s something I can’t really turn off. Even as
I work on Hospice now I’m putting together ideas for the album that
follows it. I have a terrible short term memory, so if I don’t record
things as they come into my head they go the way of laserdiscs. It
seems funny to me that I’m still promoting Universe, but the fact that
that album doesn’t let me leave it alone is encouraging.

How did you hook up with the other members of the band? Some of them
are artists in their own right, does this lead to a conflict in
interest?

I actually found three of them through Craigslist around the time I
first put out Universe. I met the newest member Darby (trumpet,
banjo) through Justin (bass, vocals). I’ve actually found that it
helps that everybody has their own musical projects or is involved
with other groups. There’s no competition to be writing songs in the
group, and everybody has an available cast of players for recording.
I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to songwriting, but it
works because everyone can be a control freak for their own projects
without getting in each other’s way.

What’s the reception been like in New York to the Antlers so far? Is
it a positive environment for new bands?

Reception’s been…slow. I probably played twenty shows to empty
rooms in the first year I moved here, but they’re getting much better
now. The blogs here have been really helpful by booking me/us for a
bunch of shows around town. But I think New York is an insanely hard
place for new bands. There’s so many of them, and some of those blow
up the second they start playing shows, but most don’t. Pay
attention, work hard, be patient.

Do you have a dayjob? How much time do you devote to the Antlers?

I’m finishing up my undergrad here in New York, though studying
something largely unrelated to music which I hope to never use. I
spend as much time as possible on the Antlers, and tend to put it as a
priority before anything else, which is good for Antlers and not so
good for school.

What informs your lyrics, what influences your songwriting?

It depends on the album. Uprooted came out of leaving a life I’d
started in upstate New York to chase music here. It began as a sort
of hackneyed idea that evolved into something else once I arrived
because I stopped feeling that magic for an unreachable place.
Universe feels as though it happened independent of me. I remember at
the time feeling completely fascinated by space and dwarfed by its
size, reading and thinking about it all the time, but I can’t say
where that music or those lyrics came from. I guess that’s the thing
about songwriting for me - Once it’s done it’s sort of out of my
system. That helps if I’m trying to get over something But with
Universe, it makes it harder to understand in retrospect. Hospice is
my “relationship/breakup album”, and I know exactly where it came
from, but I might not after it’s done.

You’ve covered My Bloody Valentine, are you excited by their reunion?
Are MBV a strong influence on your music?

All these reunions make me nervous. I’m not sure any of them have
been good yet…but maybe MBV will break the curse. I honestly became
a big MBV fan pretty recently, at about the time I recorded that
cover. It’s the kind of music that can easily become all you listen
to if you’re not careful…which happened to me this past summer.
Since then, it’s definitely been influential on the album I’m working
on now. Hospice has alot of guitar that doesn’t sound like guitar,
but like Universe, it’s narrative, whereas MBV’s lyrics and vocals are
usually pushed to the back.

The band is signed now by Fall Records, what made you choose this label?

Around the time I first released Universe, my friend turned me on to
Page France’s Hello, Dear Wind, which I obsessively listened to for
awhile. After some research, I found out that it was originally
released by Fall, and decided to send them the album for the hell of
it, maybe because they seemed so approachable.

Would touring outside of America interest you?

I’d love to play Ireland, actually. I visited when I was about 12 and
thought it was beautiful and have been wanting to come back ever
since. Lately Iceland’s been appealing, France too…At this point
I’m really open to playing anywhere and everywhere. If the
opportunity appeared to tour Europe, I think I’d kick myself if I
didn’t take it.

In The Attic Of The Universe available for streaming, and a copious selection of free downloads available, from www.antlersmusic.com. Buy a few records and we might get him over to Whelans.

The Clientele are a band which have no bad songs, but no outstanding ones. For such an outfit, albums are capitally important. Luckily for them God Save The Clientele is a pretty strong one.
Their lyrics are poetic, wistful and consciously pretty, and their lush music somewhere between dream and twee pop, incorporating psychadelia without ever raising the suspicion that any band member has ever ingested narcotics. Ever.
Choruses never rise into giddy stratospheres; songs flow smoothly from one to the next. To look for stand-out strong points is to miss the purpose of the album. The Clientele are trying to take you into their universe of forests trails, sedate seasides and, most importantly, safety. If you spend time with this album they are sure to succeed. God Save The Clientele is a perfectly timed release- it’s one for winter evenings in front of log fires, and sleepy Sunday mornings.

Georgie James are not a stereotypical Saddle Creek band. Usually signing bands of either Emo or Folk strains, the Nebraskan label has taken a risk with putting out this album. Citing E.L.O. and Simon & Garfunkel as influences could turn many off the band before so much as listening to a song, but taking a leap of faith with this band might just pay off for both the listener and Saddle Creek.
The songs are straightforward, the artwork unpretentious, and the lyrics bordering on banal, but there’s a charm to Places that sucks you in and arrests you until the last note of handclapped closer (and album highlight) Only Cause You’re Young.
If you were a fan of band member John Davis’ previous dance-punk outfit Q and Not U, Places isn’t going to make you wish the band never reforms. However, if you’re looking for pop-rock thrills and memorable melodies, Georgie James will leave you hooked.

Friend and Foe is somewhat of a marathon for the listener- It’s easy to pelt through the first few tracks, Muscle N’ Flo, The Pelican, and Wet And Rusting, and think that “this is all a bit easier than
I thought”. However, with a little pacing,the album’s subtleties begin to reveal themselves. The sinister saxophone and strange mewing in the background (I’m pretty sure they’re using kittens instead of plectrums) on “Weird” add to song texture rather than reaching a climax, or providing hooks, a recurring feature of Friend And Foe. “Running” is an interesting sideshow- a two minute long stop-start affair accompanied by strange-voiced reassurances that “we’ll make it before the cows come home”. A paean to advice rejected in the past, “My My” has music to match the reminiscent and reflective feel of the lyrical content, is the album’s second-half highlight. This album is arduous and fun in equal measures. For example, see their “La Blogotheque” performance of “Wet And Rusting. “Post-Rock” done properly.

Washington DC’s Le Loup have all the hallmarks of the Next Big Thing. In their arsenal is a sound like a conglomeration of North America’s indie aristocracy (Arcade Fire, Animal Collective and Sufjan Stevens predominantly) that they yet craft it into something wholly unique, lyrics about cataclysm and destruction, and, most importantly, some seriously nifty artwork. And since when did a clunky album name and exclamation mark heavy song titles ever set anyone back?  The Throne is a hypnotic listen. For the work of a seven-piece collective the songs are decidedly sparse, revolving around a simple banjo riff around which echoing chanted vocals and some electronics circulate. The lyrics are based on Dante’s Inferno, which would be overwhelmingly pretentious were they not so affecting and knowingly grandiose. Opener Canto I is a vulnerable confession interspersed with “like”s and pauses that keep its lofty subject of personal hell grounded to earth. Le Loup: on the lips of hipsters near you soon.

Broken Social Scene have been keeping a secret from the world. Since You Forgot It In People established the band as indie pop champions in 2002 they have appeared a decentralized band, a band with no real leader, no chief songwriter, nobody in the driving seat. Sure, that guy with the shaggy beard was always at the front singing, smiling, and spontaneously hugging audience members. However, the recent release of Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew- Spirit If has destroyed a myth; Kevin Drew has been the beating heart and driving force of the collective from the start.

This is your third time in Ireland , do you feel you get a good reception over here?

I think so… Stars were here, Feist was here, we all help each other out in getting press and whatever.

You once said “We want to affect audience’s hearts and minds with honesty”. Do you draw a line on what’s too personal in your lyrics?

I don’t. I never really have. I never really wanted to take any personae to protect myself from myself on stage. I really wanted to get the people who could relate and take it to their own lives. I never wanted to tell personal stories, it wasn’t really a goal of mine, but I also didn’t want to hide anything from anyone who was giving me the time of day. And I never really have.

So you find it pretty cathartic writing songs?

Yeah I don’t really “write”, I just speak my mind, and I did that especially with this album. I didn’t write any lyrics, except for a couple, just made it up as we went along, and then we ended up keeping them.

How did the idea of the Presents series come about?

It kinda came at the end. Bernard (Canning, co-founder of Broken Social Scene) was making his own record, and I made this record with Ohad and Charlie (Benchetrit and Spearin, also of Do Make Say Think). We were wondering what to do because I made it as a solo record, and over the space of a couple of years everybody came in eventually. Once you have certain people come in, well, you’re like “I have to get everybody in”. These are my friends, and these are the people I make music with. And then once we chose the selection of what was going to be on the record we saw that some of these were band-written songs, songs that Ohad and Charlie had written, like Big Love which I just sang on top off. I started to see that it wasn’t so much my solo record anymore, but my stream of consciousness solo record. So we thought we’d start this Presents series 1. because Bernard had made his record, and 2. we didn’t want to veer off all the work we had done already with Bren, and our friends and this family we’d built up with Social Scene. And also because we have so much fucking music that we never know what the fuck to do with! So if we had another system to put things out, everything was great then.

What I think you’ll see more is more soundtrack work, or maybe we pull together a whole bunch of B-sides from everybody’s records and (re-do those with a Broken Social Scene line-up). And also, maybe we find some old guy who no-one ever heard of and he had these 16-track recordings of him and a banjo and I don’t know… Just somehow take it to the next level. It’s right there above you! (He points to a Buena Vista Social Club poster). That’s it! That’s it, man!

Spiral Stairs and J Mascis (Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. members) are on the new record. Do you think they’ll contribute again?

Yeah! I love both those guys now. I became friends with those two guys over the last few years.

How did that come about?

Both relationships were good men coming together, boyfriend-boyfriend. Scott (Spiral Stairs) was sweet, because I heard he was playing some of the You Forgot It In People record. I got that phone call, you know, the “DUDE! THE GUY FROM FUCKIN’ PAVEMENT’S PLAYING YOUR SONGS!” one. Then he asked to open for us in Atlanta, because he was on tour with Preston School Of Industry. So we met the Preston guys, they were all sweet, sweet guys, and then I stayed in touch with him, and then we stayed in touch more and we hung out in Australia when I was over. And we pretty much stayed in touch since. J Mascis was the same- We played with him, we met him, we stayed in touch and we did some shows together.
They say don’t meet your heroes, but you know what if they’re fun and sweet…

Get them in your band!

Yeah! Exactly!

And do you think the roster’s going to keep expanding?

I think it’s going to expand, increase, implode. I don’t know. All I know is I’m in it for life, and I’m excited to see what happens.

Who would be your dream guest to get in then?

There’s a lot of people I’d have liked to play with on this record, but I didn’t know them, and I didn’t want to reach out and ask them to play on it, in terms of I wanted to make this a really personal record, and wanted to know everybody who was doing it. There was only one person I didn’t know, and that was Tom Cochrane, but at the same time I knew he was the right choice. I grew up listening to his music as a kid, he’s a Canadian rock icon. I wanted to bring him in because nobody would’ve been expecting me to, and I wanted to throw in a bit of juxtaposition.

When do you think the next record will be released? There was a big gap between Spirit If and Broken Social Scene.

It’s pretty quick, it’s Brendan’s and it’ll be out in Spring. Then I think we’ll have the soundtrack work. We have shit we haven’t listened to in two years, on a hard drive somewhere. But also, we don’t take things so seriously, we might just release digital and vinyl releases from now on.

During the gig later that night, it’s obvious that some of the legend status of his album’s guests have been rubbing off on him. Commanding the stage, the band, and the crowd, he echoes Bruce Springsteen spearheading an E Street onslaught. The band even manage to come out the right side of a tongue-in-cheek U2 cover. It’s a testament to Drew’s charm and charisma that the 1000-plus die-hard indie heads comprising the crowd all sing along with him. Broken Social Scene’s big secret is out.

Brief encounters with bands, like with people, leave you with a first impression it’s often difficult to shake. With this in mind it’s elementary that you do not listen to These New Puritans newest offering Colours/Numbers if you have not yet met their Now Pluvial EP, featuring get-down-on-the-flo’ trademark tune “Elvis” from earlier this year. For if you do encounter the Colours/Numbers double A-side now, you will be left with a view of the band as a rather innocuous outfit. Where earlier songs “Chamber” and “C.16th” added some Throbbing Gristle to the foray of jaded post-punk influences and left them all the more compelling for it, both “Colours” and “Numbers” derive from a rather unforgivable source: Klaxons. This results in a mainly inconsequential release that will most likely be forgotten in a few months time. However the band’s addictive danceability is still intact, and the forthcoming album Beat Pyramid is still an exciting prospect.

 To fill the gap of clamorous dance-punk in the meantime check out Free Blood. “OH NO! NOT ANOTHER NEW YORK-BASED FUNK-INSPIRED DANCE BAND!” I hear you cry. Never fear, Free Blood’s debut EP (Functionably titled “EP 1″) is less Rapture, and more Timbaland- All stupidly kinetic bass-based drum beats and joint vocal duties that would not be out of place of Futuresex/Lovesounds. All the pleasure and none of the guilt then. Lead track from the EP “Quick and Painful” is the floor-filler. 3 and a half minutes of unrelenting feet-shuffling and some fucked up electronic mewing. “Never Hear Surf Music Again” then, is for the afterparty, a drugged-out 8 minute extension of it’s predecessor that’s just made for a DFA compilation. Hot Chip and ACTH’s remixes are playful and equally listenable appendages to the EP, proof that there’s a lot of content in Free Blood’s music to be played around with. Get it now so you have the pleasure of saying “Oh, I had so Free Blood’s first EP ages before they were on Kitsuné” later on.

Such is the impact of Fight Like Apes on the Irish blogosphere that I run the risk of repeating already-noted ideas in this blog, but it is no exaggeration to say that the quartet are the most exciting, and potentially most important Irish band of the century so far.

There has been a disturbing pattern for emerging 21st century Irish indie music to follow the genres du jour of British indie. The NME may be in much smaller circulation in Dublin than its home in London, but its effect on the development of music in both cities runs paralel. The bands of that have been touted with any chance of making a name for themselves (or at least a few quid) outside of Ireland have all been achingly unoriginal- Delorentoes, Humanzi, Director, and their bedfellows. One of the more exciting bands have been the Chalets, but they failed to capitalize on the brilliance of their EPs with a memorable album. And now they can be found working in various retail outlets around town, and whatever hope of them breaking out we had has diminished. The Immediate were another band with a chance of building on early promise, but their premature demise has ended that hope

Enter the Apes.

What is significant about FLApes is their ability to write great indie-pop that does not correspond with British indie trends. There was nothing altogether terrible about, say Director’s Reconnect, or Humanzi’s Out On A Wire, but such was their derivativeness that after 6 months they have become wholly unmemorable. “Lend Me Your Face” promises to be spun on the decks of Dorans, Whelans and Crawdaddy for a long time to come. This is not to say FLApes are original. They simply put an Irish spin on a North American sound. MayKays Dublin colloquialisms pack all the wit of BellX1’s Paul Noonan (a sadly maligned lyricist due to the failings of his band in aforementioned originality stakes) and none of the accent of Damo Dempsey.  She and synth-madman Pockets (nee Jamie) have a talent few Irish artists are blessed with: stage presence. The band are uncompromisingly fun, without being novelty. For every dodgy EP title there is a song compelling and well-crafted as Battlestations.

Fight Like Apes are by no means the best Dublin band going; That would be an insult to acts such as Si Schroeder and Jape who are creating some of the most artistically commendable music of the moment. It is FLApes potential to finally garner some international praise coupled with success that makes them stand out. Whelans gig of Friday bygone was a testament to this. They have sold out Whelans within a year of releasing their first EP, filling it with devotees chanting every lyric along with MayKay. To draw parallels to another recent musical phenomenon, it is the sort of reaction reported from Arctic Monkeys’ earlier gigs. In this case the local support and hype was enough to propel the band across the country, and very quickly, internationally.

 Another interesting factor of the Whelan’s gig was the support act. Grand Pocket Orchestra were similar to FLApes in a very important stake- attitude. There was little in their sound that echoed the headline act, other than a more American-centric sound and simple hooks. It was their unpredictability, their obvious desire to actually have a laugh on stage, and their somewhat mental frontman that was most similar to FLApes. Here the begginnings of the best type of scene might be coming through- one based on attitude, not on sound. Who have Arctic Monkeys inspired to follow in their footsteps other than cheap knock-offs like Milburn and Bromhead’s Jacket? On the other hand, Broken Social Scene have launched diverse sounding bands from Stars to Metric, and Feist to Do Make Say Think who all sprung from the same scene, bound by the same collective attitude.

 So here’s hoping that we don’t see MayKay behind the counter of Tower records in two years time, and Tom teaching karate to underpriveleged children in his local community centre. Here’s to the future, and here’s to Fight Like Apes.