Articles by James Hendicott
Author of 184 posts.
Five years in writing has seen James ramble and ruminate on the eclectic music that graces his stereo, which still blasts the punk rock he grew up on, alongside a more recent love of anything from indie-shoegaze to folk; electro to soul. James' interview resume features the likes of Manic Street Preachers, Bloc Party, Ash, Tinie Tempah and Basement Jaxx, and he averages over a hundred gigs a year. When he's not musically engaged, James also writes on travel, having made contributions to Lonely Planet and Museyon's Music and Travel guidebook. His favourite place on earth? Glastonbury.
Website:http://www.state.ie
SuperJimenez’s debut album Bang was a long time in the making. After signing to Reekus Records in 2006, the band left after only one single, unhappy with the labels attempts to pigeonhole them. But their newfound freedom quickly took a hit, when guitarist Rhys was deported back to Australia for nine months. Bang… finally came
Nearly 30-years of punked up fury, and Paranoid Visions are every bit as angry as they ever were. The band might be aging, but Beware of the God… is a lyrically-modern punk album, playing off up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge social problems.
-Fritzls Basement’ is a perfect example, bracketed with the haunting repetition of news clippings about the
Experimental foursome Anti-Pop Consortium are often described as -hip-hop meets poetry’. Having met at a New York City poetry slam, an eventful career has seen them produce some extraordinarily inventive music, split up and then reform and go on tour with Radiohead. Beans told State all about it as the band prepare for a visit…
For years Pete Doherty has been the living incarnation of his own lyrics. A drugged-up, incoherent indie talisman producing little of any note and living off dubious past glories. I must admit I had the knives sharpened for this one. Why expect anything other than another epic failure? “-What a waster, what a fucking waster,…
I’ve never been a big fan of instrumental music. Call me short-sighted if you will, but I’ve always found even the most intricate and imaginative of vocal-less acts to be one dimension short of truly compelling. With that in mind, I plugged myself into Belfast four-piece And So I Watch You From Afar‘s debut with…
It’s easy to see where Margaret Healy’s going with Girls, Boys & Clockwork Toys…. Downbeat, melancholy acoustic tracks; Irish accent; middle of a recession’¦ it’s an obvious market. It’s taken 8 years to get this second album on the shelf, and unfortunately, despite a couple of gems, it does little to justify the wait.
When you meet Jason Stollsteimer you get the feeling he could talk music for weeks and never run out of things to say. Love, Hate and Then There’s You, which came out in February, is the Von Bondies‘ third album, and first since the highly acclaimed Pawn Shoppe Heart… hit the shelves in 2004.
In 2007, Sixteen Layers won Dublin’s Bodog battle of the bands. In 2008 they got a record deal, made a splash with single ‘Torch’ and worked with Foo Fighter’s producer Jim Lowe. In 2009 – a full two years after announcing themselves – the four Dubliners finally rolled out an album.
I Am No One…
Maximo Park belong in one of those -how to do something unrealistically quickly’ self-help books. You can just picture them under the title, -how to burn 1000 calories in just one hour’, wedged in between ice climbing at high altitude and running a middle distance race along the North Korean border: dance like Maximo Park,…
-The lynch pin at the heart of Belfast’s extraordinary music scene”¦ -A brain-annihilating barrage of rhythms and rottweilers”¦ -Plucked from the heavens, colossal’. Nine tours and two EPs down, Belfast’s And So I Watch You From Afar certainly have the critics purring. Their new self-titled album is arguably the most anticipated debut of 2009, and…
Fred’s return from an all-conquering Canadian tour has been a long-awaited one, but the Whelan’s crowd don’t mind taking an extra half hour to enjoy the fantastically named Brad Pitt Light Orchestra. All dressed up for the prom, BPLO’s music is a festival of contrast and melodrama. A violin, double bass and megaphone take their…
Take girl-punks the Donnas, add a spattering of Irish charm and a Sex and the City wardrobe and you have a good idea of what to expect from Talulah Does the Hula. On stage the four Dublin girls are all carefully placed flowers, look-at-me attitude and model poses, but musically Talulah Does the Hula never…
When openers Sleep Thieves clamber onto the stage upstairs at Whelan’s there can be no more than a dozen people in attendance, but it doesn’t seem to matter to the Dublin three-piece. Their synth-heavy electro rock is stunningly delicate and naïve at times, showcasing the bands impressive ability to swap roles and instrumentation. Sleep Thieves…
Grand Duchy’s debut album ‘Petit Fours’ is consistently and bizarrely experimental. Opener Come On Over To My House dabbles in soft-core metal and lightly strained lyrics. Standout track Fort Wayne goes for a heavy sixties-pop sound with added Fratellis-style la-la-las. Long Song…‘ heads off on another tangent, with attitude-fuelled girl vocals and old-school synthesizers.
