As the saying goes ‘when in Rome’...I’m currently in Ireland so this week blog is a St.Patricks Day special:
Something Old...
Thin Lizzy are, in my opinion the ultimate Irish band and also one of the greatest bands in history. Formed in Dublin in 1969 by drummer Brian Downey and the legendry bassist and frontman Phil Lynott who met at school. The band went onto to produce 13 albums including classics like ‘Jailbreak’, ‘Dancing in the moonlight’ and ‘the Boys are back in Town’. Lynott was one of the few black musicians to achieve commercial success in rock and certainly the 1st black Irishman to do so. As well as being multiracial, the band drew their members not only from both sides of the Irish border but also from both the Catholic and Protestant communities during the Troubles. Their music reflects a slice of working class life, dramas of love and hate influenced by Hendrix, Dylan and Van Morrison.
On the day the 1st black president of the USA, Barack Obama announced a visit to Ireland which coincides with 25 years since Lynott's death. Lynott died in 86, aged just 36 caused by drug dependent multiple organ failure I pay tribute to one the greatest men in Rock n Roll history with on of the greatest songs in history. As covered by Metallica amongst others, the classic ‘Whiskey in the Jar’, turn it up LOUD!
Something New...
From north of the border, Two Door Cinema Club are a young indie band from County Down bringing their unique style of fresh, chirpy riffs to the pallet of the pop charts. The band are composed of Sam Halliday, Kevin Baird and lead singer Alex Trimble who met at school and thought being in a band would be a good way to ‘get with girls’. The band released their debut album ‘Tourist History’ in March last year and it scooped the ‘Choice Music Prize’ for ‘Irish album of the year’ and featured in BBC’s sound for 2010 poll.
The album includes stand out tracks of ‘Something Good can work’, the latest single ‘I Can talk’ and my personal favorite track ‘Undercover Martyn’ for more than the obvious surname similarities...
Something Borrowed...
Axis of Justice is a non-profit organization co-founded by a couple of my heroes, the legendry System of Down frontman Serj Tankian and one of the greatest guitarist of all time Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music and grassroots progressivism to fight racist, fascism and social justice together.
Performances alongside Serj and Tom include Flea from RHCP, Brad Wilk from RATM, Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Perfect Circle, the genius that is Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave, Slash of Guns n Roses and Velvet Revolver, Travis Barker of Blink 182, Hip Hops finest Jurassic 5 and master of spoken word Knowledge, In 2004 a live album/DVD was released of a gig in LA as a benefit to raise money for a variety of causes...taken from this album, possibly the greatest live cover of all time, in aid of St.Patrick himself the U2 classic ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’....
Something Blue...
The Pogues are an Irish rock band formed in 1982 in North London as Pogue Mahone— being the Anglo-ism of the traditional Irish póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”. Fronted by the ultimate lad Shane MacGowan, the band reached international prominence in the late 80s and early 90s before he left in 91 due to drinking problems. The band continued first with Joe Strummer and then Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996. After 10 years of ‘getting his act together’ Shane and the band reformed in 2001 and play regular since, notably around Paddies day and in December thanks to their all time 1987 classic ‘Fairytale of New York’ alongside Kirsty MacColl.
Their politically-tinged music is influenced by a punk background yet uses traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, mandolin and accordion. The best way to some up the band would be poetic story-telling and definitive interpretations of old traditional classics like ‘Dirty old Town’, ‘And the band played waltzing Matilda’ as well as my personal favorite Pogues track, with the Dubliners ‘The Irish Rover’, which co-incidentally bankrupted their record company ‘Stiff Records’ after the 1987 release...
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