Articles by Bobby Aherne
Good Shoes – No Hope, No Future
The clichéd concept of the “difficult second album” has become so outdated that the phrase is now usually employed within reviews to simultaneously be refuted by the contrary evidence on display. It’s possible that a young band’s awareness of the syndrome has resulted in it becoming avoidable, as has been recently displayed on work…
Peter Doherty, The Academy, Dublin
It must have been scientifically proven – at some stage – that music always sounds better as a shared, communal experience. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be obviously missed this particular academic journal, granting only one lonely (but lovely) State correspondent access to critique and document tonight’s show.
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Vampire Weekend’s superb 2008 debut album may have been that year’s most divisive record, but it could also have been the year’s most unifying. Despite soundtracking dozens of movies and adverts – and hence achieving mass popularity – the band’s 34-minute pop opus proved strong enough to withstand been broken up into brief looping…
Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind EP
A couple of minutes into the opening song on Animal Collective’s new EP, Panda Bear interrupts the thoughts of his bandmate Avey Tare to self-consciously wonder aloud “how does a band turn into such a thing?”. Having first made their mark upon the world just after the dawn of the millennium with the unreal-sounding…
Jay Reatard – Whelan’s, Dublin
A man from Memphis plods onto the Whelan’s stage. Attached to his stout frame is a Gibson Flying-V guitar. Hailing from a city predominantly affiliated with the blues, he aims a plectrum at an instrument which has been adopted by purveyors of kitschy hair metal.
The ensuing racket may well extract some of the…
Daniel Johnston – Is And Always Was
The beauty of Daniel Johnston’s famed early work resides in the way in which the atmosphere reflected and imbued the involved emotion. He sung about being lonely, and – with just one organ and one voice on the recordings – he sure sounded it. He sung about being misunderstood, and – with a chillingly…
Clues Interview
Canada’s reign of indie supremacy over this decade began in 2001 with the infectiously fun synth-pop of a little band called The Unicorns. After imploding following the release of their landmark album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, two members of the mythical group founded and released three albums with Islands. Meanwhile,…
One Day International – Blackbird
(Independent Records)
No matter how thoroughly State scours the minimal promo artwork of the debut release from this Irish/Oz combo, there’s still no sign of three words which we assume must be missing from the record’s title: “Original Cast Recording”. For this is a CD candidly stuffed with…
Jape – Ritual
During the lengthy period of anticipation for the release of Richie Egan’s third album, Jape has built up a massive live following and quite a reputation as ‘the act most likely to’, with music fans eager to hear his near-fabled set of new songs. Finally immortalised outside of the live show’s party-zone, a closer…
