Tuesday 29 May 2012

PAPER CLIP MAY 30th



Niall Cuddy, aka VITA music, is a Cork based musician and artist. His most recent musical creation ‘Oh The Beautiful Bovine’ is a mad collection of genres, thrown into the Hobgoblin’s hat and pulled out in turns by the various members of the Finn Family Moomin troll as soundtracks to their pen and ink world. Vita’s voice can switch from Tom Waits rough to something like Brit Pop in an instant, delivering lyrics that are an intense smoke of Beefheart’esque poetry, obscure, secretive and full of dark imagery, a perfect storytelling medium that slots into the atmospheric and sometimes horrorfull (Wonder Bore) musical arrangements. Each song sneakily blends into the next, sometimes halting arrestingly before raging into Wilco style guitar riffs as in the tune Ray Davies Sais, a glorious po-going stomp of a song which wouldn’t sound out of place on any independent gangster movie soundtrack. From punk to chill out room synth, from Tijuana Brass silliness, to Beck style deviance, Vita’s mind is an interesting and truly eclectic, experimental place.
Another Cork based artist Stuart Wilde, delivers a joyous crunchy guitar, gypsy fiddled assault on his album Black Crow. The top-hatted troubadour sings songs set in a gothic landscape of old post apocalyptic coffee houses and river banks. You can almost follow a story through a day of an other world life, set in a purple and brown animated land, the main characters, a crow and a boy and girl dressed in suit tails and faded victorian linen. Digging In The Pit is undeniably a Nick Cave sounding track, but holds its own lyrically and musically with an intense plodding rhythm and bleak imagery and songs like Hot Damn display a raunchy, dirty side to the music. Stuart Wilde has a definite sound which ties all the songs on the album together nicely and Wilde’s voice is a hearty, sure, thing, with a tiny edge of uncertainty, making it sound like he could fly off into a maniacal screech at any moment, the world of his creation sucking him into its dark river water forever, with the Black Crow of the title track watching, laughing his revenge. 
Both of these performers can be seen at The Medicine Sessions on June 14th, where they will perform their stories and create their universes for all.
LINKS THIS WEEK.
Vita’s album Oh The Beautiful Bovine and his back catalogue, can be downloaded at: 
http://vita.bandcamp.com/album/oh-the-beautiful-bovine

Stuart Wilde’s Black Crow can be purchased from €8 at : http://stuartwilde.bandcamp.com/


The Medicine Sessions is a once monthly original music and spoken word event, held upstairs in The Red House bar, Lismore. For more information visit and ‘like’ us at:
www.facebook.com/themedicinesessions next sessions June 14th. 

Sunday 13 May 2012

SUMMER MEDICINE SUPREMO

May 10th. Despite a bank holiday weekend the week before, Lismoreons hurled themselves from their homes again to create a packed out Sessions, with shoulder to shoulder sitting, standing and lingering in the doorway to feast on the spectacle that was created by our performers this month. Myself and The Ronald swamped Lismore with posters in the week leading up and the evidence of word of mouth promotion has started to creep in, which is just fantastic. There were a good few familiar faces and I was delighted to see a good amount of the local 'younger' population of Lismore, which is hugely rewarding!


Niamh Murphy, aka Foxglove, opened the night to a hushed crowd and mesmerized everyone with her beautifully arranged piano pieces and stunning vocals. It was an absolute delight to witness a female singer songwriter deliver songs with substance and original, brilliantly phrased lyrics. Her soon to be launched EP 'Crazy At The Helm' will be performed at Triskell arts centre at the end of the month and she will be together with her band Foxglove. I, for one, will be trying to organize a little trip to be there.




Unfortunately our poet this month had to cancel at the last minute due to a back injury, no sweat though, luckily for us The Medicine room has its fair share of talent merchants and it added a nice unpredictability to the night having an extended 'open floor', which exposed us to the delights of Joe Power, who rendered a Percy French creation and a Tom Waits piece, in true eclectic tradition. The floor was also filled momentarily by a local children's author Mr Murphy, who recited two poems, including a dreaded (but delightful) Haiku about a ham sangedge. Then there was the fella in a stripy hat, who was entertaining in his own nightmare of one pint too many, an out of tune guitar and the loss of words, however, he really did show some glimmers of real talent that I'd love to see properly some time. 










After a brisk change over, during which the bucket was passed, Daniel Valle and Ross Gillanders of Horsemen Pass By, revved up their pedals and blinking boxes and launched into their set from their soon to be released album. I overheard one fella in the audience say to his friend how he had seen the lads at Citog in Galway and that "they are rad"... who knew that the slang of old was groovy again!.. at least, I presume that 'rad' has the same meaning as it ever had! Anyway, They were fucking great! Myself and the Ronald have a bit of a penchant for Spaghetti Western soundtracks and old sic-fi, so watching these guys was like a heavenly exposure. I love the idea of live soundtracks and the guys played with fantastic energy and timing, hooking everyone's imagination and admiration.



Yet again, all the performers were brilliant to meet and thankfully helped each other soundcheck, as we had a loan of someone else's, slightly more complex PA, with even more switch things on than usual. Everything sounded amazing, everyone left full up and light headed and healed. One of my favourite things is to look at the faces in the crowd. Some are familiar, some are new, all were delighted. My job, for another month, has been done.














Tuesday 1 May 2012

DUNGARVAN OBSERVER Wed May 2nd


Yet again, time since last month has whipped past at an incredible pace, bringing with it the promise of another fantastic line up for The Medicine Sessions on Thursday May 10th. May’s line up includes some of the finest emerging and emerged original talent in the Country and will include beautiful voice, music, imagery and words!

FOXGLOVE, is the creation of Niamh Murphy a singer songwriter incorporating lush arrangements to her songs which her easy, Celtic tinged voice delivers with genuine talent. Foxglove have been gigging almost constantly around Ireland leading up to the release of their EP, ‘Crazy At The Helm’. Hotpress short listed their song ‘Land’s End’ as one of only a few out of thousands to make an up and coming shortlist and another song ‘Winter’ has appeared on an Irish compilation CD. Niamh’s set will be well worth the journey to see in the intimate surroundings of The Medicine Room.

HORSEMEN PASS BY. Live guitar, vocals and keyboards, coupled with digital beats and projected visuals will leave the audience members stunned. This band create an all encompassing experience that you won’t find easily very often. Their set will include creations from their up-coming new album. Witnessing this band is highly recommended no matter what genre of music you sway to, as this will be a chance to discover something truly original.

STEPHEN MURRAY will be our spoken word artist of the month and promises to be an act well worth hearing. His book ‘House Of Bees’ was released to much acclaim by Salmon Poetry Press in 2011. A typical review reads; “House Of Bees announces the arrival of a brilliant and unique voice into the realm of the contemporary Irish poetry scene.” Stephen’s poetry is deeply personal and full of dark wit and is delivered in passionate, rhythmical style. Last year he cycled across America to read in coffee houses and poetry venues from his book and now works as director of InspireIreland, a job which sees him travelling the country to inspire and promote poetry to Ireland’s youth. 


And some sneaky peeks for Medicine followers.