audioglory

I wrote a column which featured a write-up of this years Choice Awards for START magazine (as is shown in last post). However, the article had to edited quite heavily due to my writing faar too much. Verbal masturbation one might call it.

 

Anyway, here’s the whole article in it’s full length and girth. In all it’s (audio)glory:

 

The fourth annual ‘Choice Music Prize’ took place this March 4^th at Dublin’s Vicar St venue and I was fortunate enough to be there. The award sets out to find the best Irish album released in a given year but I would raise my eyebrows aggressively at that claim as I look through the list of past winners. However, the nominees for the 2008 prize were very strong indeed. These were  Jape with their album ‘Ritual’, Fight Like Apes with ‘Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion’, The Script with ‘The Script’, Mick Flannery’s ‘White Lies’, R.S.A.G’s ‘Organic Sampler’, Halfset’s ‘Another Way of Being There’ ,Oppenheimer’s ‘Take the Whole Mid-Range and Boost it’, Messiah J & the Expert’s ‘From the Word Go’, David Holmes’ ‘The Holy Pictures’, Lisa Hannigan’s – ‘Sea Sew’. It began quite early and we were informed that unfortunately, Lisa Hannigan, Oppenheimer, David Holmes and The Script would not be able to perform as they were not in the country. Danny from the Script was there however, casting a watchful eye over the proceedings. Then the real action began.

After an introduction by the MC Alison Curtis, a video interview with Richie Egan, the guy behind Jape, began. Egan writes all the songs but on stage, there is a full band. From the interview, he seemed like a lovely guy who was just genuinely having a good time and enjoying doing what he loved. You may know Richie Egan from the Irish instrumental band ‘The Redneck Manifesto’ which he plays bass in, if you don’t, I would urge you to check them out. They’re a fantastic band. I didn’t know what to expect from Jape live as I’ve never seen them before, but the performance that night was largely forgettable. It didn’t help that I didn’t recognise the songs they were playing or that they were first up. It’s strange because the next day I told this to a friend and he said he had been blown away by Jape when he saw them live. They weren’t bad or anything, just a little boring. The songs were quite good though and Richie Egan slinks around the stage very well. They played three songs; ‘Christopher and Anthony’, ‘Graveyard’ and ‘Strike Me Down’. I would like to see them again though, purely based on the fact people I have spoken to have said that Jape are really great live, just perhaps, not on that night.

Next up were Messiah J & The Expert, a Dublin based hip-hop group. Now, usually, if I heard the words ‘Dublin based hip-hop’, I would recoil in horror. But, as I was there, I wasn’t going to walk out was I? It was the same routine again, there was a short video interviewing the band, and then they took to the stage. The beginning of the performance was plagued with sound problems and the female guest vocalist couldn’t be heard at all. I really enjoyed watching the band as a whole though. Messiah J, the tall bald front-man, pranced about the stage with a great energy, if not quite camply (If that’s even a word?). It was great to watch. The Expert, the other half of the band, played the synth and made some beautiful hand gestures while he rapped. All in all, while I’m not the biggest fan of the music, they put on a great show and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Mick Flannery was next. The video interview portrayed him as an extremely intense guy. I like intense and appreciate people who take their music seriously. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, another Damien Rice figure? But I knew from listening to his music that it had a lot more of a bluegrass or country feel than a typical singer/songwriter. I also couldn’t help notice the uncanny resemblance which the drummer held to the legendary Nick Cave. He really was ‘the spit of him’, to speak colloquially. I thought Mick Flannery and his band performed really well. They had a lot of instruments up there which was quite refreshing as the bands that preceded him were quite electronically based. I’m a sucker for a violin too so when there was one of them on stage, I was always going to be enthusiastic.

Halfset were a band who I had never even heard off before. To be brutally honest, I was expecting another boring upbeat indie band with guitar, bass, synth and drums, which are plaguing modern music with their unimaginative 3 minute pop rock songs. However, I was dreadfully mistaken. Instead, they were pretty great. It was post-rock (Mogwai-esque) with brooding, classical piano drifting in and out. It was really soothing and I loved it. I could tell that many people there didn’t really get it at all. It’s not exactly the sort of music which provokes an instantaneous response, instead requiring the listener to work for their enjoyment. It is well worth the effort. The videos they used were great too, if not mildly pretentious. The first one was a ladybird roaming around some leaves, it was quite peaceful and fit the music well. The second was a slideshow of some pretty funny and some poignant signs that you see outside churches in, what I assume, was America. The last one was a video in which a creature was meandering around a bed. It was cool, I’d recommend watching all of the videos. They’re on Halfset’s myspace page.  Overall, I’d say I enjoyed their music the most based solely on the performances.

The south-east’s very own R.S.A.G was next to perform. And, I’m not sure whether it was the fact that people were a lot drunker at this stage, or down to the music itself, most likely, a bit of both, but he got a huge applause as he took to the stage. When he started pounding the drums, it was quite mesmerizing, and he really does pound the drums. I don’t know what it is, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and by the looks of things, neither could anyone else. It was a great show. It was pretty difficult to hear the vocals, but that didn’t matter as it was really all about the spectacle. The backing video displayed the other instruments being played by silhouetted figures. The flurry of hands and power of the performance made it an exciting display. Plus, there was plenty of dreamy cowbell action. What more could you want?  It was definitely the best live display of the night.

Then came the last act of the evening, Fight Like Apes. Now, I have only heard their music on myspace, I haven’t got the album. I never really liked their music, but I did like that they covered McLusky’s ‘Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues’ which is a great song. I’ve always said that I wished I was into them because they play so many gigs around the place but unfortunately, I’m not. I had heard they were great live though, so I was actually looking forward to seeing them play. The bassist is a very tall guy with a very good afro. However, I think that’s really the only thing I like about the band. The music is sickeningly bright. It’s far too bouncy for me. Also, there is a real sense of ‘’Hey, look at us! We’re great live, what’ll we do next!?”.  The synth/keyboard player just did ‘crazy’ things on a whim and it all looked very forced. The crowd wasn’t great and the lead singer made a few sarcastic jibes like how it was such a huge shame that they only had one more song to play. It didn’t help that I really didn’t like the lead singer’s voice either. It sounded like a ‘darker’ Avril Lavigne. On the whole, it’s safe to say I won’t be checking out their album in the near future.

The nominees who couldn’t make it just had a music video of theirs shown. To be honest, when the videos were playing most people just went to bar or started chatting. It was a bit ridiculous to think that people would actually watch so many videos. You could barely make out what people were saying on them anyway. I was disappointed not to see Lisa Hannigan as I would have liked to see her live. Oh, and of course I was extremely dismayed to hear the Script wouldn’t be performing for me to fawn over. When all the bands had finished playing, there was very little waiting before the winner, Jape, was announced. When Jape, i.e. Richie Egan, came on to give his speech, he seemed very surprised to have won. He exclaimed that ‘this month’s rent will be paid for’. He seemed like a very nice, genuine guy and ended his speech with ‘’it’s better to be a sinking ship than a rat jumping off one’’.

All in all, it was a really great evening. There was some great music, a good atmosphere and the Script didn’t win. What more could a boy ask for?

Tags:   article · choice music awards · Jape · RSAG · START MagazineNo Comments