Cork’s Top 50 Albums 20-11

Slightly later than planned (those hosting gremlins have been dealt with severely) but here now is the penultimate entry in our poll of the Top 50 Cork albums.

If you’re joining this poll for the first time now, here are the entries from 50-21 –

http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/11/corks-top-50-albums-50-41/

http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/11/corks-top-50-albums-40-31/

http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/12/corks-top-50-albums-30-21/

This week’s list has a third Frank & Walters album so far, a first Microdisney and the one and only Stump album to be released.

Get a load of it down below.

*The final instalment of the poll, by the way, will appear this Saturday evening. Stay tuned.

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20. Boa Morte – The Dial Waltz (2011, Kicking a Can Records)

This second Boa Morte album was the definition of long-awaited – you’ll find plenty of references in reviews to “taking their time” or “at their leisure”. These epithets seem to suit the mood of the music, which is generally sombre, and most often referred to as alt-country or some offshoot of folk.

Here are some astute observations along those lines from Cork blog The Culture Collection (http://theculturecollection.blogspot.ie/) -

I know through work a member of a band called Boa Morte, who have just released their second album ‘The dial waltz’. Boa Morte are very Americana in spirit, even if from Cork, and their music has a hushed grandeur and stately grace particularly reminiscent of Lambchop in their more mellow phases, or perhaps Smog. I have seen them live quite a few times and so many of the songs are familiar, but they are lovely and tracks like ‘Darkened doorway’, ‘Priceless prize’ and the beautifully-titled and sung ‘All this we must consider’ really grow on you with their slow and sombre atmosphere. The harmonies when used are unusual and quite ghostly at times, and I like the subtle drumming.

However, if you spend enough time with the music, you’ll hear drifts and echoes of other things. The band’s previous incarnation, perhaps; Hubble, a post-Pavement guitar band with a great line in scuzzy pop tunes. Hints of jazz, here and there, the spacious, improv kind. Even some avant garde or contemporary classical inclinations, at times.

The majestic ‘Priceless prize’ for example, begins with a brilliantly restless drum pattern, but morphs into a neo-classical string playout. It’s quiet, sustained and intense. That’s what time can do.

19. Hope is Noise – Applaud Friends, the comedy is over (Rimbaud Records, 2007)

The first Hope is Noise album made quite an impression with critics and audiences, both at home and abroad, and the people we polled for this list were no different. Here’s a review from Frequency Ireland (http://frequency-ireland.blogspot.com).

More often than not, releases from Cork label Rimbaud Records tend to reach beyond the comfort zone of many listeners, a label which proudly pitches itself as a ‘slap in the face of public taste’. However, Applaud Friends, The Comedy Is Over, the debut album from Hope is Noise, who have become a favourite among the vibrant Cork scene, is a notable exception, and is an album which has aptly been championed as ‘a gem from start to finish’.

Described once as ‘laced with caustic lyrics of rejection, heartbreak and uplifting revenge’, opening track ‘Lions Led By Donkeys’ sets the tone, but it is ‘Dancing With Johnny Five’ that perhaps stands tallest here for me, opening on themes of urgency ‘and we can talk about it at the airport, and we can write about it in my contract’… it quite soon launches into perhaps the most emphatic chorus of the album ‘I’m dancing with Johnny Five, he asked me was it true’… quite an awesome song, perhaps we should complete a trilogy of Short Circuit movies just so this song can be used as the soundtrack. Continuing the analogies to science fiction celebrity, the album closes with a propulsive punk anthem in ‘I Live With Bruce Banner’. Whether this refers to vocalist Dan Breen’s personal demons or something else entirely it’s hard to tell, but regardless it is a fitting psychotic way to take the album to a close. 9/10.

Paul Linehan, of the Frank & Walters, was one of the people who nominated the album.

“This is my favourite Cork album, mainly because the songs are so great. The songwriting is world class and I love the melodies, lyrics and most of all the passion that Dan Breen delivers in his vocals. The guitar work on this album is also amazing.

I love the combination of the beautiful picking in the verses and the harmony power chords in the choruses, along with fantastic infectious riffs from both Dan and Joe Jolley. Stand out tracks include ‘Lions Led by Donkeys’, ‘I Tell Lies …. Just Not To You’, ‘Two Gods Short of my Trinity’ and ‘I Live with Bruce Banner’.

I also like the production in this album as it displays Ciaran O’Shea’s uncanny knack of being able to capture such powerful guitar sounds and drums.”

18. Cyclefly – Generation Sap (Radioactive, 1999)

Speaking of Ciaran O’Shea . . . here the ex-Cyclefly guitarist-turned-producer casts his mind back to that band’s debut album.

“We toured the UK hard and demoed the tracks in the year building up to the album. We locked ourselves away for pre-production with album producer Sylvia Massey in a studio in Blackpool for a few weeks before heading out to Sound City,Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California.

The band were full of excitement we were making our album in one of the greatest studios on earth. Every room had a story, so many classics were recorded there – Nirvana’s Nevermind,Rage Against The Machine, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours etc.. Plus being in L.A., the equipment we were using, the team we’d built up and the people we were meeting, the partying, was all very rock n’ roll.

Sylvia made us work really hard. We played for weeks and weeks in a very hot, big room in a desert until we got the great performances, then moved to Studio B for overdubs and mix!

My best memories of Generation Sap are the songs, the emotions we felt and the good fortune to have been in a band in full flight on an adventure into the unknown on record!”

17. The Shanks – The Prawn Lawn (Rescue Records, 1994)

For urbanites, it may be hard to credit that the countryside of North Cork could produce rock n roll of such a stonking (technical term), visceral quality. In fact, we’ll have to invoke “spadgie” to describe The Shanks, because no other word will do. Harking back to last week’s entry, 30-21, the 9 Wassies from Bainne’s Ciddy Hall, here’s a reminder of Cathal Coughlan’s words from The Knock Bonya Express: “There were eclectic rural spadgies, whose vocation had somehow propelled them from the vaporous hollows surrounding Cork.”

There’s the key – vocation. Because The Shanks were not assuming a role, they were living it. A fact that seems to have gone over the heads of some reviewers of the time. Here’s Patrick Brennan from the pages of Hot Press in February of 1995.

With eleven songs that have a total playing time of less than thirty minutes you might be forgiven for thinking that the Punk Rock revival has well and truly hit Ireland. However, as the title of the Shanks’ debut album should indicate – not to mention such madcap song names as ‘Cowgirl Fish (Do The Moonfish Tango)’ – this Cork outfit seem to be following in that quirky line of grand old British rock music eccentricity rooted in the late ’Sixties, but carried on in different ways by Five Go Down To The Sea and Nine Wassies From Bainne. 

One problem with The Prawn Lawn is that too often songs such as ‘Time To Be Mine’ and ‘Hi-Hi (Don’t Do It)’ sound like snapshots of longer, looser, more meandering tunes – whereas, as successive masters of the under three minutes classic pop form show, each brief track should ideally be the epitome of brevity and completion, and sweetly autonomous.Thankfully, this isn’t the whole story with The Prawn Lawn. ‘Babbling Brook’, due to its punchy and runalong, concatenating delivery gets it more or less right. It makes you want more.

Meanwhile the buzzing, fuzzing chord work of ‘Angular Bells’ and the grey silicone moodiness of ‘No T-Bag’ suggest that there are better things to come from this energetic trio. The promise of these arias is equalled on the angst-ridden ‘Trickle Away’ but possibly even surpassed on the witty ‘In The Morning Thing’, which, clocking in at exactly four minutes long, is definitely the ‘epic’ on The Prawn Lawn. There’s enough on here to merit your attention but when The Shanks become even terser and tenser then they’ll be more of a force to be reckoned with. They’re getting there, though. They just might need more time.

Mmm, the words of someone slightly missing the point. Perhaps if Patrick had seen the band’s performance of ‘Heart of a rhubarb’ on Saturday morning children’s television, filmed in RTE’s Cork studios circa 1995, he may have been moved to recognise spadgie-ness in action.

Ex-Shank Mick Hayes gives us his thoughts, looking back on that time now: 

“Hard to believe it was so long ago now but The Prawn Lawn was our psychedelic rural hibernopunk groove, recorded in Leap with the late great Paddy McNicholl. We used to record all day and sleep out under the stars at night and we had a riot making it.

This was a time when techno and house were king and guitar bands weren’t really that cool but we were enjoying ourselves and a few other people also seemed to like it even though it was laden with nonsensical references and in-jokes – Going to make you a home in the heart of a rhubarb, Angular balls anyone? Well, I suppose we weren’t the only Cork band guilty of this, it’s just a pity we never got around to writing and recording its compendium The Haddock Paddock.”

The Haddock Paddock? Please, make it so. Demand still exists, we believe. As recently as 2007, “Skibbereen Feen” posted this message on the Langers Forum of the People’s Republic of Cork website -

“Come on stan ffs! get the prawn lawn growing man”

In what could be a reply to that post, Stan Shank has been in touch with us as well.

“We recorded The Prawn Lawn with the late Paddy McNicholl in Connolly’s of Leap over
two or three sessions between August and November 1994. It might have added up to about a week’s
work in total. It was mostly recorded live with sparse overdubs because Paddy’s setup at that time
was limited to 8 tracks. It was the beginning of digital recordings and the ADAT machine we used
took VHS video cassettes. The finished album had eleven tracks which came in under a half an hour -
the longest track, ‘In the Morning Thing’, is an epic four minutes.

We had great times around the recording and its full youth, joy and craziness. I’ve been listening to it again tonight as I’m writing these few lines for wearenoise.com and I expected to be cringing and wincing but I must say it’s got plenty of balls and I’m really enjoying it – but that could be the glass of brandy talking so I better leave it there.

I have to say too that it’s full of daft lyrics and titles that were written while spending too much time smoking squidgy hash and slugging bargain bin Rioja. My favourite tracks are ‘Sun Dogs’, ‘In the Morning’ and ‘Heart of a Rhubarb’ and my only real regret is that the cover photography had to be black & white – due to a budget issue. It was the start of a great relationship between ourselves and Paddy who became a mentor to us.

We toured it from Dingle to Dresden and went on to make better records but this is the baby Shanks and I suppose everyone loves babies. I have to consult with Mick and Niall but I’d like to remaster it sometime soon for digital posterity.
Thanks to all of you who voted it into this list ” 

Top class. We second that.

*It may also interest the band to know that one Greek seller on the Music Stack website has a copy of the album retailing at €14.05. (link here: http://www.musicstack.com/item/19858115)

16. Rulers of the Planet – In 30 Minutes We Destroy the Earth (Sofa Records, 2005)

Noise’s Michael Carr managed Rulers of the Planet for two tempestuous years full of highs and lows. He gives us a brief lowdown here:

“I haven’t met many Irish bands who divided opinion quite like Rulers. From folks who really loved them to those who genuinely hated them. (I almost got into fisticuffs one time at a festival because I was wearing one of their t-shirts!). I’m happy to say I was one of those who loved them; so much so that I agreed to manage them. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew they needed help.

Over the course of two years, we experienced a lot of ups and downs. The highs were great – a gig in front of 4,000 pagan metal fans in Mannheim, Germany, who began the set in indifference, and finished it howling for more, was a memorable evening. It was also the evening the band were courted by five record labels and were in the nice position of having a choice. The lows were low – a lazy shit London label turning up ten minutes after a gig that the band went to considerable expense to play (guy was lucky not to be killed by Ed). I suppose the key word is ‘experiences’.

There was a great feeling of togetherness (that includes Sandra O’Mahony, who made the band sound absolutely amazing live) and though trouble never felt too far away, some kind of ‘drive on’ attitude meant that no-one really cared and we bounced back (or bounced off!) any knocks that came our way.

It’s great to see ’30 Minutes’ on this list – it was a refreshing album during a good period for Irish music. A worldwide publishing deal allowed the band record a follow-up that never saw the light of day (though interestingly, it is available on Spotify from the German label who were set to release it). I guess each member would have his best and worst moments, and each probably a different reason why they finally broke up without releasing the second album. They were a great band, and it makes me more happy that I can call them friends.”

An uncredited reviewer said this about the album on Entertainment.ie:

We know bands take umbridge (sic) at being compared to others but, when the counterpart in question happens to be the Pixies, it’s not such a bad thing. Barry McGough (sic) bears more than a resemblance to Frank Black – vocally I hasten to add. Mc Gough’s a whippet that has the range to screech, cajole and lull you within the one sitting. This Cork band’s debut album to me possesses a ‘Come On Pilgrim’ feel. Tracks such as ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘In Bed With You’ are reminiscent of ‘The Holiday Song’ and ‘Caribou’, while the fantastically simple ‘Phone Number’ has a more Beastie Boys’ ‘Heart Attack Man’ mixed with the Violent Femmes angle. In other words, The Rulers have the ability to move you one minute and then crack you up the next; they don’t take themselves too seriously. I hate to churn out the phrase “there’s something for everyone” but in this case it happens to be apt. In 30 Minutes We Destroy The Earth doesn’t disappoint.

Barry McAuliffe from Rulers of the Planet sent us a few thoughts:

“It was mental being in Rulers of the Planet. For an album that started as a laugh, it turned into an album that ended up taking us on the most mad journey. Being in the band was being like in the Rocky Horror show. From jumping out moving trains in Poland, starting a riot in Temple Bar, playing squats to massive venues and festivals, drummer getting glassed live on stage, signing deals in Europe. But most of all we created a bond in that band that will never leave. I think if you asked any of us we would not change one thing………it was meant to be that way and we were lucky boys to experience that life.

It’s funny when I listen back to this album. My god, we were pretty angry at the world then. But looking back at where we all were in our lives then it makes perfect sense. We all hated our jobs, all drank way too much and were looking for a excuse to get out of the 9-5.

When we started out with this album we hoped it would get us around Ireland, maybe. Little did we know that it would end taking us around Europe; playing some classic shit holes to amazing festivals. To be honest we got the most out of that album and there is no way we could write another one like it. People ask me if I have any regrets about that band and I can’t say I have one. It was the best and worst of times, if you know what I mean. The best thing about the making of an album, besides from the music, is the charcters you meet, the friends you make and the adventure you go on. Music is the most addictive drug I have ever taken! I loved the Rulers of the Planet, in fact I always will!”

15. Microdisney – Crooked mile (Virgin, 1987)

This was something of a landmark in Irish pop music history, Microdisney’s move to a major label. A Microdisney fansite, bubblyworld.com, gives this fine analysis of the album.

‘Crooked Mile’ saw Microdisney finally entering the big time with their first release on a major label. The LP is a very strong collection of songs with much more specific subject matter than had previously been the case. Unfortunately, whether due to the producer, too little pressure, or the boys unable to resist playing with their new toys, the LP is crucified by its production.

go and ask your friend the hack
he’s putting straight the record track
here comes the sun, ’til black is black

Here’s the great ‘Town to town’, with apologies for the poor sound quality.

14. Stump – A fierce pancake (Ensign, 1988)

“In August 1988, at the tender age of 15, I can remember reading an NME Material World questionnaire with Stump. I recognised some of the names mentioned in the piece but was completely flummoxed by most of them. Stump’s list of their favourite musicians included names like: Devo; Séan O’Riada; Patsy Cline; George Gershwin and Kevin Coyne. The band’s reading matter included: Flann O’Brien; Wilhelm Reich (the two writers that A Fierce Pancake was dedicated to); Knut Hamsin; Watchmen, 2000AD; Seamus Heaney; Charles Bukowski and Milan Kundera.

Stump were always more than just Beefheart copyists, here were some seriously turned-on guys! I like to think that if you fused all of those disparate musical and literary influences together out would pop the four members of Stump (Mick and Kev Hopper in Garda uniforms) with Mick screaming: “Lights! Camel! Action!” Kev Hopper’s interest in sampling led the band to work with producer Holgar Hiller in Berlin’s legendary Hansa studios. Stephen Street was on engineer duties. Back in London, John Robie produced ‘Charlton Heston’ and Hugh Jones mixed the whole thing. A Fierce Pancake’ has some serious names in its credits! You put those names with a band at the top of its game and the final product shines. In a word, it’s brilliant.

I first met Mick in the early 1990’s when his post-Stump band Bernard played The Village, the long-forgotten venue under Sir Henrys on South Main Street. It was one of my first nights DJing so I got to stay back and have a late pint with the band. Mick was a gent and patiently answered all of my fanboy questions. I remember we had a chat about the making of the ‘Charlton Heston’ video. I wanted to know where all the frogs had come from (I did say that this was fanboy stuff) and Mick was happy to indulge me. These memories come back to me whenever I pull out ‘A Fierce Pancake’. – it’s a record I don’t play too often, I’m paranoid about overplaying the good ones.”

Paul McDermott, Dublin City FM (www.dublincity.ie)

13. Rest – Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame (Out On A Limb Records, 2004)

Rest released Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame in 2004 on the back of a huge buzz, culminating with a triumphant and packed show at the UCC LMS final in Nancy Spain’s in 2003 (if memory serves!). Check out the crushing ‘To Learn’. The sound of a band about to really hit their stride.

Their label biog says this about the band:

Rest are an instrumental rock group from Cork, Ireland. The group’s sound has evolved over the course of their existence to incorporate elements of progressive rock, tech-metal, post-rock, doom, black metal and math rock. The group’s sound is characterised by intricate harmonised riffs, complex drum patterns, unconventional song structures, a heavy emphasis on dynamics and alternating time signatures.

Ambitious types then, you’d think. Rest’s Graham Lynch adds to that impression here, as well as (rightly) paying tribute to the supportive influence of their label Out on a Limb:

“There was a lot of wine consumed and plenty of midnight strolls down to the beach. I remember a huge amount of time was spent idly rocking in hammocks and there was some swimming in the wild seas of the Atlantic. We even indulged our interest in horticulture, in between drinking a very potent home-brewed whiskey and eating our body weight in sushi. And somewhere in the midst of all this we got an album recorded. It was a good week.

But, Burning in Water Drowning in Flame was basically four young-fellas with no real idea what they were doing armed with cheap instruments and a collection of songs written over a period of two years in two of the members parents’ basement. It’s a pretty naïve / innocent record in that sense.

We were slaves to our influences – like most people are at that age I guess – but we were discovering so much great music then and we were like sponges. It seemed like every week there was a new favorite band with each member of the group. It comes across in the record I think.

There’s the post-rock thing which is probably the prevailing influence on the album – we were into GodspeedYou! Black Emperor, Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in a big way then – but we also loved the likes of Isis and Neurosis, At-The-Drive-In, math-rock acts like Faraquet, Dischord Records and a lot of electronic and hip-hop acts. And if we came up with something we liked on the back of listening to all this new music, well, it didn’t really matter if it didn’t fit in easily with everything else we were doing.

We’d try to find a way to make it work. In that regard we definitely had ideas above our stations, both in terms of raw ability and our budget – so it was maybe a little clumsy in its execution at times.

But it was definitely an important stepping stone for us – we learned a lot from doing that record, both in terms of writing and recording, and it definitely helped get us out there in front of more people and on stage with some acts we really admired. It also helped having Out On A Limb Records when it came to actually releasing the album; help they are still generously providing to this day.

Finally, I have to ask, did everyone else who contributed to this list hear their own words in the voice of Kevin Arnold of the Wonder Years when reading them back, or was that just me?” (It was just you Graham! – Ed.)

12. The Frank & Walters – Grand Parade (Setanta, 1997)

There is no-one featured on this Top 50 as many times as The Frank & Walters, which is both a testament to the quality and longevity of the band. Five years had passed since Trains, Boats and Planes and The Franks had been busy. Decamping to London, The Franks toured and played with most of the best indie bands of the era (giving a break to a youthful Radiohead at one point) and generally having a rollercoaster of a time in London and around Europe. Five years seems a long time between records, but we suspect the time flew for the band and before they knew it, it was 1997 and Grand Parade was finally released on Setanta. It proved a smash for them in the UK and as far away as Japan, ensuring the band’s legacy and delivering more classics such as ‘How Can I Exist?’ and ‘Indian Ocean’.

11. Rory Gallagher – Tattoo (Polydor, 1973)

“Returning quickly to the studio in the summer of 1973 with his Blueprint line-up, Rory was in a prolific and confident mood. Rehearsals for the album began at a rowing club in Cork city, which allowed Rory to develop the musical arrangements of his material at a leisurely, relaxed pace.

‘Tattoo’d Lady’ describes the fairground life style that had appealed to Rory since childhood and lyrically, he draws parallels between travelling entertainers and his own profession.

Rory was born, with a touch of irony, at The Rock Hospital, Ballyshannon. Rory rocked literally all of his life and this ‘Cradle Rock’ is a rockin’ R&B cut that displays his exciting bottleneck style in full flight.

’20:20 Vision’ features Rory on acoustic and highlights his fondness for Davy Graham’s acoustic style.

‘They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore’ has a real cool jazz feel which is underscored with unison guitar and piano and some brilliant harmonics.

‘Livin’ Like A Trucker’ was written at a time when the band were increasing their touring activity in America, this number could have been a tour anthem, during his career Rory racked up over thirty long U.S. tours.

Gerry, Rod, Lou and Rory really lock in on ‘Sleep On A Clothes Line’ which has shades of a riff Rory could have written for Taste.

‘Who’s That Coming’ starts with Rory playing his acoustic dobro in slide mode, the riff blends into Rory playing electric slide empahsizing Rory’s ability to play different blues styles from Delta to Chicago blues.

‘A Million Miles Away’ became one of the most loved numbers in Rory’s repertoire, it showcases the deep, introverted side of his emotions.

‘Admit It’ has a real jack hammer riff and is the perfect vehicle for a stinging Rory solo, Lou Martin lays down some great piano on this rock number.

‘Tuscon, Arizona’ by Link Wray (a then Polydor stable mate) is a colourful, laid back country track featuring some captivating lap-steel guitar.

‘Just A Little Bit’ came from an Irish Tour after-hours jam session, the track gives an insight into the affinity and good humour that existed between Rory and his sidemen.”

- Donal Gallagher, as reprinted from rockasteria.blogspot.ie

Related

• Top 50 Cork Albums – a P.S. (1)
• Cork’s Top 50 Albums 10-1 (13)
• Top 50 Cork Albums Poll (3)
• Cork’s Top 50 Albums: 30 – 21 (2)
• Cork’s Top 50 Albums: 40-31 (2)