Folie à Deux (with Sarah)

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’… 

Folie à Deux (With Sarah) *40

On this weeks Folie à Deux show, for all those heading to Body&Soul, tunes from SertOne, M83, Django Django & Gold Panda.

Some sweet-as-hell remixes from BretonLABS, Francophilippe and  The Bloody Beetroots.

New ones from Silversun Pickups and Stay+.

As well as music from Jamie T, Sleigh Bells, Gorillaz and Caged Animals!

Track Listings 

Jamie T - Castro Dies

Local Natives - Who Knows, Who Cares (BretonLABS Remix)

Sleigh Bells - Treats

Glorie - Full Circle

Django Django - Default

Gold Panda - Back Home

SertOne - Envious

Wu Tang Clan - Stomp da Roach (Bloody Beetroots mix)

Gorillaz feat. Andre 3000 - DoYaThing

Stay+ - Gaurdian

Silversun Pickups - Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)

Caged Animals - Somebody To Use

The XX - Heart Skipped a Beat (Francophilippe Remix)

Maps and Atlases - Living Decoration (BretonLABS Remix)

M83 - Kim and Jessie

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!

Ghost Estates ‘October’ Single Launch (w. White Collar Boy, Bouts & The North Sea)

Ghost Estates - October Single Launch In Review

Support from White Collar Boy, Bouts & The North Sea.

The Grand Social

White Collar Boy

White Collar Boy had the dubious honor of kicking off the night on friday to a sparse enough, still trying to get home from work and leg it to the pub crowd on Friday night, but they did so in style. Mark Cummins and Gavin White are the twosome that make up White Collar Boy, and they have been a recurring act on bills all around town in the past few months, with their melodious electronic synth noisiness hitting the mark with punters and critics alike.  Tonight was no different, the gathering crowd bounced along to the pairs’ quick fire half hour set,  through their catalogue of layered, electronic songs, which range from shoegazey (damn i hate that term, even if it is accurate), to syncopated house beats, to full on electronic goodness. The final song “Another Way” in particular was great, all noises and cant-help-but-dance-around beats, ending with a massive wave of distorted noise that literally enveloped everyone in the crowd like a wave of smoke. Mmmmm, distortion. Debut E.P., Solar Midnight, is on the White Collar Bandcamp for free download, but a brand new as-yet-untitled E.P. is also due to be released as a 12”  Vinyl on Record Store Day, April 21. The next couple months sees the duo do a few dates around the rest of the country as well, so keep your eyes peeled.

Bouts

Bouts were the second band to hit the stage and i was anxious to catch them, having only recently realized that their self-titled E.P. is, in fact, really fucking great. (I had had a cursory listen a few months ago, and for shame, had not given it its due). Onstage the four piece are just as tight as their recordings, and they have a nice bit of banter on stage too - always a winner. As a point of musical reference, their sound is a sort of distillation of all the best elements of 90s rock, Weezer meets Soundgarden meets Nirvana, if you will. They played all the lyrically oriented songs on their E.P., including my own personal favorite “We Tried”, as well as knocking out a new song, albeit with I’m-not-sure-we’re-gonna-get-this-right half smiles on all their faces, and it was great to see a band who’s live deliverance of their music diverge slightly from the recordings, keeps it interesting and fresh for both the audience and band. The final song of the night, was notable for its awesomely distorted guitars betwixt with jangles from a bell thing, and elicited a few excited classic rock poses from the bassist, and simultaneous guitar swings at the end of the set. Bouts 7” vinyl has just been pressed, and all you folks out there can get your hands on it very soon, if you’re not so impatient that you just go straight to their bandcamp to check them out!

The North Sea

Despite being a fairly longstanding partner of Ghost Estates at previous shows, this was in fact my first time to see The North Sea (how? I have no idea), but it was great to finally catch the quintet in action. Live, it feels like there are loads of them on stage - i counted about 4 times to make sure there was only five (definitely five, final answer) and they make a lot of noise. Guitar driven, vocal heavy narratives are what these boys do, and do well. “I’ve Seen Everything Now” is a little belter of a tune, that starts with a vulnerable-feeling single guitar line, but escalates quickly to incorporate every instrument onstage as a backdrop to singer Eoin Kenny’s vocals, with some lovely harmonies that for some reason brought a comparison to SquareHead to my mind. If you didn’t catch them this time round, you can head down to Sweeny’s Friday March 3rd, where they will be sharing a stage with The Debutantes, Girl Band and Dot. Alternitively, you can jump on the internet, google The North Sea, and find them on “about page 50, after all the stuff about the ACTUAL North Sea” - their words, not mine! The North Sea are releasing their debut E.P. in April which you can buy if you’re “feeling fond” - god, these Dublin collolquiisms get me every time - but for now you can have a sneak peek at the track “Decay” on their Breaking Tunes page, which was recorded with Ghost Estates own Dan Doherty.

Ghost Estates

You know its a seriously special night when a paisley shirt and trousers  come out to play (Dan Doherty), and it was the launch of Ghost Estates third single “October”, so the outfit was bang on to be fair. The hitherto low key crowd practically launched themselves at the stage as the lads bounced on, clearly in cracking form, and energetic as ever throughout their set. Kicking off with “Winter’s Day”, I was immediately reminded of how much i like these guys live. They are all foot-stomping, wild-eyed ferociousness on stage, the sweat pouring off of them being a testament to that fact! They stormed though their set, highlights being, of course, the epic, building explosion of a song that is “October”, the synthy gorgeousness of “Paris” with its great historical vocal sample, alongside what was to be their closer, “Pop Song”, save for the fact that the insistent crowd chanted for one more tune, to which the boys obliged with a second rendition of the song of the night “October”.,  much to the bouncers dismay, seeing as they were hurriedly setting about clearing the place out for Noel Gallagher’s after party - damn you Noel Gallagher. The second go-round of the launches namesake song riled the crowd into a bit of a frenzy, with singer Dan bounding out into the audience, a consummate showman. 

It was a super launch, with a great buzz between all the bands that were playing on the night. And if the amount of Ghost Estates be-decked punters were anything to go by, damn successful.