Folie à Deux (with Sarah)

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *42

Folie À Deux (with Sarah) *42

Tunes from Queens of the Stone Age, The Stone Roses and Foals as well as HudMo and Zach Hill.

New ones from Le Galaxie (who are launching their new E.P. ‘Fade 2 Forever’ on the 14th in The Button Factory and We Arrive Alive (that launched their new E.P. on the Folie à Deux (with Sarah) Tumblr this week). Also, more Irish tunes in the form of Logikparty, Ghosts, Reid and Kool Thing.

Health and Young Legionnaire (my little ode to Canada Day and the 4th of July) ;).

Have a listen!!

Track Listing

Queens of the Stone Age - Turning on the Screw

We Arrive Alive - A Lethal Black Ooze

Foals - Tron

Ghosts - The Night Out

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

Hudson Mohawke - Come Get It

Zach Hill - The Primitives Talk

Young Legionnaire - Nova Scotia

Health - USA Boys

Kool Thing - The Sign

Logikparty - Quantum Leap (Pitiless Censor Mix)

Reid - Miami

Le Galaxie (feat Elaine Mai) - Love System

WE ARRIVE ALIVE - E.P. EXCLUSIVE - TRACK 2

W E    A R R I V E    A L I V E   //  ’ A    L E T H A L    B L A C K    O O Z E ’  (Track 2) 

M Y  F R I E N D  ,  T H E  B O M B M A K E R    E.  P.

I N T E R V I E W (Part 2)

Being that your music sounds to be extremely emotive, can you explain to me the story behind ‘A Lethal Black Ooze’? 

Neil : This song was written pretty quickly I think. We started jamming something out and i was in the mood for playing something in a weird tuning so i began playing palm muted drop C# chords in a metal-y way. I remember getting a few filthys from Andy, but Ben was defo on the buzz. Michael was messing around on the keyboard as well with a borderline bogey effect but he got the DD-7 going and started playing some nice arpeggios. Thumbs up Michael. The song just naturally started formulating from then on. Ben plays a really nice melody towards the end of the song which repeats over and over getting more intense, which I think came out really well on the recording. He used an unholy amount of pedals for that one including a pulse-synth (which I would never trust myself with) so fair play Ben! Adam got a really cool rhythm going with the bass drum and rim shot on the snare which carries the song to the climax smashing cymbals in tandem with Ben’s guitar line. Andy’s always on form so there’s no need to praise his alternate lines ;) After writing this one I started writing a lot more in open tunings like in ‘You, Me, and the Wall’ and a Spies song we wrote the week after called “Distant Shorelines”. 

There’s definitely more freedom to fill the space with guitars in WAA so I think when you have 3 of them the 3rd one can afford to do something a bit weird (that’s how I justify it anyway, I think if I did this sort of lark in any other band I’d get the boot).

It probably sounds like this stuff was calculated but it was just what we started playing in the jam and it worked. I loved writing this one the most out of all the tracks on the ep, just cause it’s simple and effective… and I get to play in drop C#. Haven’t played this one live in a while so I look forward to doing it at the next show. Maybe we’ll play it in Kilkenny for the RSAG gig on the 21st… 

As for the name I remember Andy getting really excited about the song after writing it and saying “Can we call this one A Lethal Black Ooze?”. There was no objections, so it stuck!

Adam : I can’t. This song never had a story for me. I think the song came from a need to write something new and a bit different from what we had previously written. Neil had only recently joined the band when we wrote this and I think that was the biggest influence over why it came about. He was having fun trying weird turnings on the guitar and that opened it up in a new way. Michael ended up playing only keyboard on it which meant there was no bass and that made it very…lacking almost until we got into the studio with it and Liam helped us transform it into something huge and monstrous. My favorite part in it now is that high gritty synth line that comes in at the end which is actually Bens guitar line run through (and I quote Daniel Fox on this) a ‘Gimp load’ of effects. Not really a story.

Ben : A jam that went horribly wrong.  Andy came up with the name cuz he loved the visual it inspired

Michael : A Lethal Black Ooze first oozed its way into life when I was messing around with a cool keyboard effect at a jam and we all liked it. At the time, Andrew was going nuts with his new e-bow and he came up with a haunting line to go with mine. He’d also just bagged himself a Muk in Pokemon Red, so that’s where he came up with the name. The crunchy second part of the tune was the filthy child of Neil’s musical wallowing in the depths of drop-C. As deep and emo as the tune appears, the only real contributors to its forging were Pokemon and whichever nasty sounds we could strangle out of our instruments.

Andrew : I guess we ran into ALBO when Michael was messing around on the piano.. I could be wrong but I remember him coming up with that first line you hear at the start and I was messing around with an E bow at the time and then blah blah blah we came up with a song. I don’t know if it’s really about anything - The name A Lethal Black Ooze comes from when I managed to catch a Grimer in Pokemon Red, waited feckin ages for it as well.

Check Back Tomorrow for Track 3 :   Z O M B I E S … 

WE ARRIVE ALIVE - E.P. EXCLUSIVE

 W E  A R R I V E  A L I V E // M Y   F R I E N D , T H E   B O M B M A K E R

We Arrive Alive’s music is a constant surprise. Movement between slow / fast / run / fall / run. Their conversational instruments speak in constant battle or harmony, depending on how you care to interpret them. Their music is nothing short of filmic. With the release of their second E.P. ‘My Friend, The Bombmaker’ - the five strong group present another collection of songs that are, in equal measure, devastating and beautiful. Shapeshifters - they are anything you want them to be. 

The title track of the E.P. is called M Y  F R I E N D , T H E  B O M B M A K E R - and the perfect introduction to a witheringly good quartet of songs. We will be presenting a new track here each day for the rest of the week. Enjoy.

We Arrive Alive are : Neil Dexter, Adam Faulkner, Ben Healy, Michael Naude & Andrew McGurk.

Cover Photo Credit : Niamh Forbes 

I N T E R V I E W  w i t h  W E   A R R I V E   A L I V E   (part 1)

What is the meaning behind the name ‘We Arrive Alive’?

Neil : No idea ask Andy.

Adam : I don’t believe there is one. We were having a hard time choosing a new name    and this was the only one that most of us liked.

Ben : The initial plan was to form a road-safety-jingles-band

Michael : It was originally the final line in a piece of verse Andrew wrote to be spoken during the quiet interlude during our song “Walls”. In the end we scrapped the verse but liked the phrase “We Arrive Alive”, and we’d been juggling abour four different names so it was an easy way to just pick one. 

Andrew : Someone’s going to mention a road safety sign on this one. Our first song “Walls” initially had a really faint, underlying poem in it during one of the more chilled out parts of the song. I don’t know if the lads will remember this or not and sadly I can’t remember the other lines of the poem now but the last line of it before a giant dynamic jump was “…we arrive alive” - So that’s where the name came from anyway…

What is the meaning behind the name ‘My Friend the Bombmaker’ for the EP?

Neil : Let’s just say Michael reads a lot of Stephen Leather…

Adam : t’s the same as the first song on the EP and I think we chose that because we felt is was right. The meaning behind that name came from the way it was put together. It was originally called A-Bomb (as in atomic) because we had these two song ideas  that we couldn’t really expand but we wanted a new song for a gig that was coming up so we rammed the two ideas together to have a song and, by sheer luck, it worked!

Ben : it felt right to name the EP after My Friend the Bombmaker as we felt it was such a ‘tour de force’

Michael : The name was actually intended for the title track, not the EP itself. I came up with it because I like the weirdness of the idea. “My Friend the ____ ” seems to me like the title to a children’s book, so it’s a bit of a shock when the next word is so violent. We then arranged the tunes to tell a story, if you like, wherein the bombmaker is introduced and unleashed his fury, ooze and flames consume the place, followed by zombies and nuclear fallout and whatnot, and then everything fades to a desolate peace. Fill in the details however you like.

Andrew : Michael came up with the name so i’m not actually sure what he had in mind but I personally think it’s just a great visual.

What is currently your favorite Album / Song?

Neil : Santana – Abraxas

Adam : My first proper album for sure, Live and Dangerous by Thin Lizzy. My favourite song changes weekly, at the moment it’s somewhere between Wasting time by Booka Shade, Recurring by Bonobo and Alter Ego by Tame Impala

Ben : In Utero - Nirvana

Michael : Album: Radiohead - Hail to the Theif

Song: Explosions in the Sky - Catasrophe and the Cure

Andrew : At the moment i’m listening to loads of In Utero by Nirvana, Very Ape is great for getting energy to wake up in the mornings. Such a badass tune. 

CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR TRACK TWO ‘DACHAU’… 

Kid Karate - ‘Feral’ from ‘Night Terrors’

Propulsive, savage and insistant, Kid Karates’ tracks are consistently emphatic and caustic - an onslaught to the senses. This is where their strength lies, and last week saw the Dublin duo drop a new track off their long awaited debut album, ‘Night Terrors’ and it is as vigorous as you all have been hoping for.

‘Feral’ is the name of the first release, and debuted coupled with a suitably dapper photoshoot commissioned by the good people at Farah Vintage - fitting seeing as the brand has, since the 1980s, defined itself as the ‘must have label amongst savvy hipsters, including the mods, skins, sticksmen, and rocker-billys’ - you can have a look at the shoot HERE.

Also, in conjunction with the ‘Genre Free’ night that ran in the Button Factory a few weeks ago, there was an accompanying mixtape release that features two other previously unreleased tracks from Kid Karate - ‘Louder’ and ‘Wet’ … both crackers that are making their way up my ‘most played’ list with a certain degree of speed… They are both up for free download on the Kid Karate soundcloud and you can also check out the Genre Free Mixtape here on the HotPress website.

Also, you can check out more of their tunes HERE on soundcloud.

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *37

The newest installment of Folie à Deux is up …

Checking out the Forbidden Fruit line up with tunes from Bear in Heaven, New Order, Actress, Com Truise, Factory Floor, White Collar Boy, Bloody Beetroots and Holy Fuck. 

As well as a new one from KaraKara, off his new EP ‘Not Another EP’ and two from the Funeral Suits - who’s album ‘Lily of the Valley’ launches next week in Ireland - which a gig in Whelans on Thursday the 7th (details HERE), and an in-store at Tower Records tonight (June 1) !

Track Listings

KaraKara - First and a Half Base

Bear In Heaven - Ultimate Satisfaction (The Field Remix)

Holy Fuck - Dr. Dr E

New Order - Ceremony

Kool Thing - Light Games (Reid Remix)

Actress - Ivy May Gilpin

Com Truise - Colorvision

Factory Floor - Two Different Ways

White Collar Boy - Long Walk Home (feat. Gemma Dunlovely) 

The Bloody Beetroots - Cornelius 

The Funeral Suits - Machines Too

The Funeral Suits - I Still Love The High 

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *36

This weeks’ Folie à Deux (with Sarah) is up ! 

Tunes from Toy and Shabazz Palaces - who both played Dublin recently. Some Suuns, Dntel, Have a Nice Life and Young Magic…

Remixes from The Hood Internet, Signal Path and Teen Daze.

Irish Artists Lorem Ipsum, Kid Karate and Come On, Live Long.

Listen ! 

Track Listings

Toy - Clock Chime 

Three Trapped Tigers - Blood and Biscuits

The Hood Internet - Shutterbug in Miami (Big Boi & Foals)

Lorem Ipsum - Hold It Against Me (Britney Spears Cover)

Shabazz Palaces - Youology

Young Magic - Night In The Ocean 

Cults - Go Outside (Signal Path Remix)

Come On Live Long - Elephants and Time

Dntel - To A Fault (feat. Grizzly Bear)

Have a Nice Life - The Icon and The Axe 

Twin Sister - All Around and Away We Go (Teen Daze Remix)

Suuns - PVC

Kid Karate - Wet

Kid Karate - Louder

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *34

This weeks’ Folie à Deux is up ! 

Tunes featuring from some of the acts that are playing at this weekends’ Camden Crawl Dublin, including We Are Scientists, KWES, PolarBear and ASIWYFA… Tickets are only €40 for the weekend (Fri / Sat) or €25 per single night. All the details and booking information is here.

Also, tracks from StayOkay!, We Arrive Alive (who playing the Twisted Pepper last Saturday, which you can read about here) and Friend? - damn, I love Friend?.

Also, for no particular reason, Yeasayer, Team Sleep, badBadnotGood and This Town Needs Guns.

Finally, a track off the new Silversun Pickups album, Neck of the Woods, which you can stream here if you like what you hear.

Have a listen !  

Track Listings

Yeasayer - Ambling Alp 

KWES - Little Boy and Fat Man

And So I Watched You From Afar - Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate

Polarbear - RepeaT

We Are Scientists - Great Escape (The Silence Remix)

BadbadnotGod - Limit to Your Love (Feist Cover) 

StayOkay! - Llittle Voice

We Arrive Alive - Save Me From the Morning 

Friend? - Dan2 and the Black and Purple Dream Jeans

This Town Needs Guns - Adventure, Stamina & Anger

Silversun Pickups - Make Believe 

The newest installment of Folie à Deux (with Sarah) is now up here…!

Loads of music, including tunes from Casiokids, Breton,Eatenbybears, Death Grips, Russian Circles, Sounds of System Breakdown, Lemonada and Factory Floor!

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *30

Last weeks  Folie à Deux (with Sarah) is now up…!

Tunes from Aphex Twin (roar), Not Squares ( in the Button Factory tonight!!), Battles, Phantogram, We Cut Corners (in Whelanslive Sat night - woop!) The Funeral Suits, Sbtrkt, Sleigh Bells and loads more.

‘No Yammer, None of the Time’

Have a listen!