The Irish government has embarked on a massive road-building program to cope with the country’s steep economic expansion. However, a new proposed motorway will plow through some of Ireland’s richest archaeological sites — including the site of Tara, considered by many to be the birthplace of Celtic culture.  Opponents of the plan say Ireland’s government is ignoring lessons learned when other important historical sites were destroyed or damaged. – www.myspace.com/hilloftara or www.tarawatch.org is where you go to find out more and voice your opinion 

Cora Venus Lunny to Host Weekly Save Tara Show at Radio City Dublin’ 

TaraWatch is producing a weekly live music/variety show at Radio City, Dublin’s newest and best live music venue, every Sunday between 8 and 11pm. Each week will feature artists who are opposed to the M3 motorway through the Hill of Tara landscape. The show will be hosted by the Cora Venus Lunny. Established as one of Ireland’s leading classical musicians since her teens, she is active as a soloist and chamber musician on both violin and viola. More from www.tarawatch.org
 

John on the phone......

No John on the phone, I kind of miss him still, don't you

ORGAN ON YOUR RADIO @ RESONANCE 104.4FM - NOW IT'S WEEKLY! - every Sunday night, 10.30pm, one hour of us on the radio. X

The new year long series of ORGAN TV  is on your screens in the UK right now. Every   Wednesday evening, 10.30pm  on the OPEN ACCESS 2 Channel on SKY 173. And now due to the fine response, repeated every Sunday on SKY 883 at 11.30pm.

What's it all about? Simple, just good music, and the art of good video making...  Same musical policy as we've always had with Organ - the labels are just handy signposts, as long as the music and video making has that X factor - expect a healthy eye/earboiling mix of metal, punk, prog, beats, post rock, post punk, post man pat, hardcore, indie, alternative, pronk, whatever..... music and creativity for the open minded 

(and if you think your video should be on then shout in our direction) 

Music TV done ORGAN style 

Coming up in the next few weeks things such as Mastodon, Weapons, Zero Ciper, Cats And Cats And Cats, Liars, Colt, MC Lars, Trencher, High On Fire, Tiger Force, 65Daysofstatic, Spit Like This, Gene Serene, Hafdis Huld, Against Me, Soviettes, Amon Tobin, Deerhoof and who knows who or what.... 

DEMO OF THE WEEK

LADY PROMISE – now I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about when it comes to yer proper rap and yer full on hip-hop. I know only two things about rap: thing one is that I know when something sounds good and thing two is when something doesn’t sound good. Me I’m just a lawnmower mate, you can tell it by the way I walk and I know what I like and I know what I don’t like – I know enough to know when I hear something that’s good for my ears and I can bluff my way through with talk of Overlord X and 14 Days in May and the Mighty JVC Force and this and Rock The Bells and the Dominatrix sleeps tonight and this that and the other. I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Most rap I hear these days sounds kind of cheesy and plastic (and as for the lyrics, oh dear) and ninety percent of it does nothing around these parts, clone-talking small dicked lame horse poop and fashion victim sidekick girls. And then once in a while something comes along that bites down properly and yes yes. Dirt and his PG crew for instance, we love what Dirt and his crew are doing and saying. There’s nothing better than M.I.A live (or on record) and that Gravediggaz gig that time over at The Subterania and flicking over to the Capital Rap Show after Tommy Vance on a Friday night in the early Nineties to clue up on things. Look, I know nothing about this stuff and I’m in no way qualified to talk about it – hang on, what am I on about? There’s only two types of music, good and bad, I’m perfectly qualified to talk about this so sit right up and pay goddamn attention at the back. Now My Space is a fine place to find music, but hey, every time I go there, my in-box is clogged with spam and messages and chancers requesting we check this and that and the other out so much shit, incipid indie bands and shitehawek emo by numbers and, and and oh no not another second division hip-hop raping no name wannabe with a big ego, that makes 47 today and blah blah blah and stop clogging up my box won’t ‘cha... Hang on, stop the boat, stop the bus, stop the keyboard and the flickering and the mouse and turn that right the way up, what did she just say? I may know jack about rap hop but I know when I hear something good and when my ass has been well and truly Jackied and Lady Promise clearly rules. OK I didn’t like the start of the smoochy one that’s third down quite so much but by then The Battle had me well won and ready to yell. What with its fire marshalls playing with matches and that threat to Jackie Chan yo’ ass – Lady P is from New York City and she knows her thing. She’s clearly in total control, she’s the boss, she’s writing it, producing it, rapping it and putting it out there herself, no fashion victim here, no messing, she’s taking no crap and she’s right in there telling people how it really should be – asking questions, demanding answers. Look, I already told you I know Jack about rap but I know when it’s right and there’s the link right there, just go listen to The Battle and see how right we are and how e know exactly what we’re on about and tell Lady P we sent you (or we’ll Jackie Chan your goddamn ass)     www.myspace.com/ladypromise

“I spits fire, produce my own tracks, got my own studio, and I even engineer my own sessions!! Now, whatchu know about dat ?? Ladies get focused! IF you do  not stand for something, YOU will FALL for anything! THE GAME IS NOT READY” Lady Promise 

ALSO CHECK OUT

KYSHERA – Six mildly expansive, satisfying and rather hopeful tracks. Kyshera are from Wales, their musical pizzas are a tasty melodic alternative prog rock set of easy to digest snacks substantial enough to keep you melodic progheads more than nourished and happy. A rather ambitious sound that falls somewhere near an easy to digest hybrid of Rush, Muse, Mars Volta, Jeff Buckley, Mr Big, Radiohead with maybe a hint or two of Zappa and Faith No More/Mr Bungle in that chewy topping, sometimes adventurous seasoning and rather substantial crust. If it sounds like your kind of earfood then off you go and hit the link, they’re rather good at their thing, There’s potential here and the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall and there goes another fairground moment  – www.kyshera.com

GRAHAM BOWERS – A collection of samples and tastes and tracks taken from a whole body of rather warm work that seems to come together under the collective banner of the Red Wharf Trilogy spaced out over three albums. Tastes of three albums then, three rather fine inviting warm electronic ambient atmospheric spiritual experimental albums judging on these tastes  – sculpted art of noise, bold compositions that glide and sooth rather than confront. Spiritual, expansive, as spiritual as those Red Wharf Bay beaches of isle of Anglesey that Graham calls home. Graham Bowes is composing clever minimal textured expansive soundscapes/pieces that really should have the disciples of such things more than impressed – www.red-wharf.com

BLACK JACKSON – Another demo and another three slices of their rather well put together infectious indie pop. A bands who one day soon could be plaguing us to death on daytime indie radio stations – for those of you who like Kaiser Chiefs and such. www.blackjackson.co.uk

CHECHNY AND THE REBELS - Nice dresses, what’s going on here? Kind of fizzing and wound up like a can of pop ready to go off. Like shaking cans of fizzy sticky pop and aiming it at the passing people on the spinning top infested street. Four boys from deepest London and two slices of urgent indie urgent punk urgency and certainly interesting enough to warrant curiosity and an eye or two kept open just in case something develops out of the musical bluster and fluster and the bottled up energy. Little difficult to put a finger on the musical personality right now, we’ll see, it might just be worth sticking around and watching, just in case... www.myspace.com/chechnyandtherebels

THE MONO EFFECT – Now if you like your radio friendly indie rock then the Mono Effect are really really good at it. They have a few twists and turns of their own, they loaded with hooks and they do the Foo Fighters/Feeder thing impressively well. Intelligent, good songs, good everything and if this is your thing they check them out, they’re well worth it – it not really my thing, but then neither are those Foo Feeder types. The Mono Effect are rather good at their chosen thing, four strong songs that would not be out of place all over daytime XFM or evening time Radio One, big respect to them  – www.themonoeffect.com

Last week's demo of the week - FTSE100

Previous demo's of the week STEAL GANDHI / ALL DARK MORNINGS / SHADY BARD / SHILOE / THE RAMPTON RELEASE DATE / BATTLEWITCH / THE FLESH HAPPENING / VESSELS / BLACK JACKSON / INNER RAGE / ALLERGO / BROOKE / CARTRIDGE / PERHAPS CONTRAPTION / THE PROCESS VOID

SICBAY - Suspicious Icons (5440 or Fight!) - It's refined and raw, elegant and untreated rock, the whole so much greater than the sum of its parts.  Sicbay are a three-piece comprised of drums and the core two guitarists of Nick Sakes and Dave Erb: bass parts are included in the guitar writing, making for a weighty but melodically powerful sound.  Their right-there-in-the-room sound is very much in the Shellac/Pixies tradition that trusts the talents of the musicians (or exposes their inadequacies...).  For Sicbay, who have bone-deep talent, it's perfect. 
     Third album Suspicious Icons showcases the new drummer, Greg Schaal but continues the story: there is something special about Sicbay. Hard to say just what does it - honesty, feeling; a combination of riff, lyrics and inflection that carries huge emotional weight. It's heavy, unpolished yet easy to digest, by way of great playing and gruff, compelling vocals... early hardcore Fugazi-ish side by side with The Who...   And a little complication, enough to tease the ear, as in the delicately angular bridges in Lackluster Blooms, hooking up nicely those simple yet hauntingly ambivalent words.  A lot of bands... most bands... attempt obscure symbolism in their writing; usually it's best to avoid the lyric sheet entirely.  Here, they're short, brilliant, grown up nursery rhymes containing their own mystery: The city burns/They finally learned... Can't trust smoke/ From behind the wall ...compact statements , like a good guitar riff.
        Ahh, riffs.  Dry-freeze Nick Sakes and drop him from a height so that he shatters, and every little bit would have a different heartbreakingly classic, goosebump inducing riff running through it.  Dave Erb too, no doubt.  You hear that ability to base songs on strong melodic declarations in Sakes' previous bands The Dazzling Killmen and the often awe-inspiring Colossamite. Where a zillion other bands in similar veins of dark, stripped down American indie/underground rock blend into an interchangeable, competent but ultimately forgettable mass, songs from Sicbay and their relations have this way of getting dug out of the CD collection or hard drive and played for pleasure. Personally, I find the staggering beauty and lost soul dynamics of their first album The Firelit S'Coughs overshadows the following two. Never mind - they continue to stud each song with diamonds, chilling rightness, uplifting anthem fragments (never overdone, ever leaving the ear wanting more).  Inhuman Resources and Tears Of The Siren stand out, the first for its glorious Who-like cross-riffing and the second for being classic Sicbay. 
       The trouble with Sicbay is that they don't quite fit in any pigeonhole, they don't exactly sound like anyone else (a good thing of course, does make thier life difficult though). It takes a moment longer than usual for their music to sink in - let it, this band are a hidden gem, lost somewhere in emo-infested middle America, hopefully reaching appreciative souls one gig, one town at a time. Sicbay are really worth searching out (as are most things of Fiftyfourfourty). www.fiftyfourfortyorfight.com / www.sicbay.com

ALBUM OF THE WEEK 2

THE LOST PATROL BAND – Automatic (Burning Heart) - Wholesome infectious new wave pop that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of those classic Stiff Records compilations (alongside Elvis Costello, Larry Wallis, The Adverts and the rest) from back there around 1979. The Lost Patrol Band are actually some kind of gloriously good Swedish power pop supergroup from right here right now and this is their third album. Fronted by Refused/International Noise Conspiracy man Dennis Lyxzen and loaded with far more hooks than it’s really reasonable for just one band to have – glorious 70’s flavoured New Wave pop for fans of The Knack or Joe Jackson or The Tyler Gang or The Takeways or Magic Michael  - oppppps, we’re back to those classic Stiff albums again, if I was to be stuck on a desert island with only five albums, I’d want two of them to be A Bunch Of Stiffs and Heroes And Cowards and the thing is, pretty much every track on this mighty fine Lost Patrol Band album would not be out of their depth on those classic Stiff albums – that is a massive compliment I’m dishing out here, massive. The Lost Patrol Band clearly have absorbed with massive amounts of love, lots of classic new wave and late 70’s punky power pop and without ever sounding like they are merely aping it all they’ve made an album that’s right on the nail. Excellent songs, excellent hooks, production just right, everything just right. www.burningheart.com

ALSO CHECK OUT

AARON STOUT – Queens Live in Caskets (Monotreme) - He’s kind of doing that delicate open exposed American psychedelic folk thing - that thing that’s kind of Arcade Fire flavoured and maybe if Neil Young was to get a little Bowiefied and a little more fragile around the edges and kind of lo-fi and warm in a Viking Moses kind of way, kind of, if you kind of get my kind of drift. Queens is a slow burner, a fragile natural open album, an acoustic, detailed album that comes alive with its undercurrent of found sound texture and melancholic warmth. An Album that opens the senses and lets your thinking gland breath like you dream you saw a silver space flying in the yellow haze of the sun and travels and stories and typewriter keys that click out stories. Natural and right and easy and if he does sound like anyone else then that just because he happens to naturally be that way rather than any case of him trying to be like anyone else - and that is essentially why this album is son good, the natural honesty and the stories that are in there. American psychedelic folk tales and textured that are well worth investigating and spending a little time getting to know. www.monotremerecords.com

BAT FOR LASHES – Fur And Gold (She Bear) - OK now if I had my lazy hat on then I’d be talking list-like of Bjork and Kate Bush and any other slightly hatstand weirdass left-field  mad as a fish female singer I could roll out. It’s the easy way out, write a list that points you in a vague direction and gives you clue or two and hey I need to get my hat on. I don’t have a lazy hat though so I’d never ever think of doing such a thing. There’s nothing worse than a lazy review. I do like Bat For Lashes, they’re from Brighton and they’re deliciously lush and warm and inviting and ethereal and tender and kind of mysterious and radiant and dark purple and crimson and red and dark blue and Colt and David Lynch and haunting and like some secret night time gathering in the woods where hardly anyone makes a noise and everything is amplified and and and shall we end this sentence now? Children’s whispered choirs and UFOs and pine trees at night and harpsichords that mend broken hearts and reflections and stillness and silk and not saying anything and biting gently and dreaming and sea and night and gentle thunderstorms and time for a full stop now I think. Capital letter, new sentence and more creamy dreamy darkness and still noise and did we see a unicorn? No, no we couldn’t have and standing stones and owls and delicate masks and malevolent delight and ride a white swan in the middle of and where were we? End of Sentence? Yeah, end of sentence and I’m out of coffee today and Bat For Lashes kind of sound like their strange name, kind of... well no, they don’t, they sound nothing like their name. Who are they? If Liars were fronted by a slightly gothy Kate Bushish Bjork type from Brighton and the terrifying world of fairy tales and this is a fine fine fine album - www.batforlashes.co.uk

GEISHA GIRLS – Geisha Girls (No.3) – 80’s sounding scratchy jagged pointy (fluid) punk rock with lots of urgent energy and hints of The Banshees at their early 80’s besr, that and The Damned and Bad Brains (they’ve actually performed a whole set of Bad Brains material as HR’s backing band) and Violent Femmes and early Adam Ants and Specimen and... Geisha Girls are actually three boys from Orange County - it’s a sharp sound, the sound of New Order and X and so many good things. The thing about these things is that the thing is right on the thing and although we’ve just been guilty of name dropping far too many bands in one review (again). Geisha Girls sound rather unique and vitally good  - their energy leaps out of the speakers (and things) in that fractured Joy Division way, very American sounding though, no boring Angloclones, just a fine band with a healthy appreciation of all things good and new wave punk with a little bit to add that’s all of their own. 
www.number3records.com
 
 
 

Last week's album of the week - SQUAREPUSHER / HATEBREED Previous album's of the week - YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE! / OPTIMIST CLUB  / THE MINOR LEAGUES / WHORES WHORES WHORES / THE LOW LOWS / WEAPONS / THE SOUND MOVEMENT / PINK MOUNTAIN / YOU AND THE ATOM BOMB / VIKING MOSES / MOTORHEAD / THE WEEGS / JOHNNY CASH / TRIGGERMAN / FRESHKILLS / THE DEATH SET / ABOUT / DODDODO /

Shit list

1: The woman on the phone at Fed Ex customer service
2: Little Man Tate
3: The Royal Mail’s failure to understand that please don’t bend does not mean bend the vinyl in half and shove it through the letter box rather than knocking
4: The Miami Dolphins 
5: That damn Duracell bunny
6: there is no number six
7: Oyster Card bullies
 

Quite why they were backstage our spy can't quite figure out (alas he/she couldn't make it to the Glasgow District Court him/herself, what with living in London and all, so we’re going on the somewhat sketchy court reports here), but the couple went to use the toilet facilities there, and that's where their run in with McCulloch took place.

Duncan "[We heard] a fierce roaring and threatening language. Then he [McCulloch] was threatening to kick the doors in of the toilets if we didn't get out". Having left the toilet, McCulloch then allegedly grabbed Duncan’s jacket and "pushed and pulled me in a threatening manner".

After a member of the band's entourage intervened Duncan said he then looked for his girlfriend and, when asking said entourage member as to her whereabouts, was told "Don't worry, she'll be all right with Mac". His girlfriend then reappeared seemingly in a state of shock - "she was in a state of stress and in fear and was clutching her head at her right temple" - Duncan then says he realised his girlfriend's head was bleeding because the door McCulloch kicked in had fallen on her.

Said girlfriend explained to the court: "This person was shouting through the cubicle door. I said 'Please just give me a moment', because I was in a vulnerable situation and hadn't finished. I just remember the door hitting in the side of my head because when it came in I was still sitting on the  toilet". 

McCulloch's defence claim that the couple were in the same toilet cubicle prior to the incident (make of that what you will), that McCulloch was, in fact, just trying to escort them out of the dressing room area, and that Selbey was hit by an unlocked toilet door as it swung open, not as it was kicked in. 

The case was adjourned yesterday until 18 Sep when the interview police undertook with McCulloch after the incident will be presented to court.

Meanwhile I had the strangest of dreams about Div Mac being killed in a Paris car crash and the nation breaking out it Princess Di like hysteria and people bringing on dancing horses and Bunnymen sounds being sung by mass crowds in the streets, what could it all mean, smiles as wide as crocodiles and such

ALSO CHECK OUT

THE STEALS – Floodlights EP - Is this an EP or a mini album? they said it was an EP. Six fine substantial rewarding tracks, six very fine tracks - delicate and strong and breathtakingly warm and soulful and melodic and rather haunting and slightly folky in a dreamy creamy misty early morning kind of way. Sultry slowburning blues-rock undertone, laid back slide guitars, mellow creamy blues rock and Jayn Hanna has a powerful angelic voice that really is just perfect – simmering beauty, glowing, warm, mellow and just right. www.thesteals.com

MOLY – Time Out Of My Den (Tenor Vossa) - I don’t know, seems anyone with a mellow moment or two is trying to tell us they’re a post rock band these days, I thought it was about adventure? You know something is turning a little stale around the edges when every other press release claims it’s what the band the release is referring are up to this month – it all sounds a little cynically post-rock by numbers to us. Actually this would have been called a shoegazer thing back at the start of the 90’s - isn’t shoegazing the new black right now or was that last week? Come on, keep your press releases up to date, post-rock is so last Thursday morning. Actually Moly are alright, right now they’re sounding kind of polite Chapterhouse/Slowdive meets Coldplay on a nice polite shinny happy people day – one for for people who are satisfied with it being Sigor Ros-lite and all coffee table shaped and caffeine free like when birds are flying past at the speed of light (in slow motion) and I guess they’d like us to say something like “spacious grandeur” or something like they use themselves in their post-rock infested press release or something – they’re alright, that’s all for now - www.tenorvossa.co.uk
 
 

Last week's single of the week - THE VITAMINS

Previously - THE GRESHAM FLYERS / THE DRESDEN DOLLS / THE ANSWER / DEAD DISCO / THE BLACK TULIPS / METRO RIOTS / PATCHWORK GRACE / TANGAROA / SHRAG / LOSTPROPHETS / STASI / DOLIUM / SERENA-MANEESH / DECORATION / i LIKE TRAINS / THE OXFAM GLAMOUR MODELS / PSAPP / GREENSPACE
 

PAST ISSUES -

ORGAN 174 - 

ORGAN 173 - In print, on paper, got get it.

ORGAN 172 - FTSE100, EMPYREAL DESTROYER, SMILEX, SQUAREPUSHER, HATEBREED, ARDENCY, TOURETTES SYNDROME, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT, THE VITAMINS, THE RESIDENTS, WEDNESDAY 13, JOHN PEEL DAY PLANNED, RIOT COPS GATECRASH FREE PARTY, The INTREPID FOX

ORGAN 171

ORGAN 170 - STEAL GANDHI, ALL DARK MORNINGS, THE AUTHENTICS, OPTIMIST CLUB, ESTRADASPHERE, WOLFGANG BANG, ELECTRONIC, CURSIVE, AGAINST ME, TRANSIT KINGS, TRANSMISSION, DUN 2 DEF, THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS, PHOENIX BODIES, THE DRESDEN DOLLS, THE ANSWER, THOM YORKE....

ORGAN 169

ORGAN 168

ORGAN 167

ORGAN 166 - 

ORGAN 165 - THE FLESH HAPPENING, MOTORHEAD, RUSSIAN CIRCLES ,TERROR, THE HUCKSTERS, TANGAROA, SHARP END FIRST, TOUCHSTONE, And just who is MOIST PAULA?

ORGAN 164 -

ORGAN 163 -

ORGAN 162 -

ORGAN 161 -

ORGAN 160 - 

ORGAN 159 - INNER RAGE, THE GHOSTS, ALPHA DISTRICT, INTEROGATE. ABOUT. DODDODO, DEADSTAR ASSEMBLY, AD AAD AT, ROBIN GUTHRIE, BANG! BANG!, FEU THERESE, CERBERUS SHOAL, HERESY, SERENA-MANEESH, PUNISH THE ATOM, The RampArt Community, GO SPIDERMUM - A gang of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, ORGAN TV will be back for more, ORGAN on your radio 

ORGAN 158 -

ORGAN 157 -

ORGAN 156 -

ORGAN 155 - 

ORGAN 154 - 

ORGAN 153 - 

ORGAN 152 - 

ORGAN 151 - Out in print now, 40 pages 

ORGAN 150 - NEXT LIFE, CRETIN, HAWNAY TROOF, SYMMETRY, GREENSPACE, DRUGDEALER CHEERLEADER, LAST PARTY, ALEX WARD, BURNT, INTENTION, TRACTOR SEX FATALITY, THE DRESDEN DOLLS, PROUDFLESH, THE GHOSTS, SPEED THEORY, EL TOPO, THE CULT WITH NO NAME, THE PROCESS VOID. 

all the past has been deleted (for now)