The Main Bit

Last night’s (13 April) second GoldenPlec Select on In Colour on RTÉ’s 2XM featured GP mag co-editor James Hendicott talking in-depth on Donegal’s manic celtic punk/ sea shanty/ The Fall inspired rebels The Pox Men, and their self-titled debut album (listen to the album here)

The segment features chat on Celtic punk’s odd status in Ireland, and where The Pox Men’s messy yet compelling style fits into the scene.

Presenter Darren Cleary and James delve into The Pox Men’s summery Christmas antics, their pirate-style vocals, the origins of that name and what’s so intriguing about all this bog-focused weirdness.

You can listen back in full here.

This Week’s Other Highlights:

Here are some other highlights from the past two weeks of James’ inbox:

Elm – A soaring, atmospheric Dublin-based indie band who kindly gave us a preview of their soon to be released EP, recording using their prize from Guinness Amplify and with the assistance of Snow Patrol drummer Johnny Quinn. They use cello to decorate the more desolate corners of their sound, lending a timeless quality amid some mighty impressive toned-down vocals. We’re particularly taken with ‘Amends’ from the up and coming EP, but you’ll have to make do with ‘Concentrate’ until they release that to the outside world…

Zack Boone Sticking with this week’s modest theme of slightly left-field sounds (go check out The Pox Men’s Christmas song!), Zack Boone’s album ‘Somewhere Beyond’ is one of the odder yet more memorable submissions that landed this week. Urgent, shiver-inducing bleeps mash with acoustic guitar and spoken word whispers introduce the singer, with a jazz-leaning vocal taking over come choruses. Slightly more conventional styles take over later in the album, and you never quite step away from a sense that you’re listening to something that’s mentally all-encompassing. It’s strong and affecting to the point of somewhat repressive, but this is certainly music that will make you feel. Zack featured on the recent movie ‘Patrick’s Day’, and while he’s definitely not an artist for everyone, he’s well worth a gander.

Kingdom of Crows If you listen back to the first episode of GoldenPlec Select, two weeks ago, you’ll hear Kingdom Of Crow’s cover of Blondie’s ‘Call Me’ play right after we finish talking. Presenter Darren and I sat there and talked about what a wonderful cover it is for almost the duration. Perhaps the band sensed our affection, as it landed in my inbox the next day. It’s driftwood slow, the vocals are outstanding and it walks that ‘same same but different’ line of decent cover songs exceptionally. In fact, it took me a good thirty seconds to recognise what Kingdom of Crows were covering. Dare I say they’re like Evanescence if they were very, very good on this track? I dig this in a big way. Album to follow later this year:

James will be appearing on In Colour every two weeks, with the next review due to take place on the 8pm show on Monday 27 April.

To submit music for review on the show email track links and a bio to james@goldenplec.com. We will listen to it all, but cannot realistically reply to or provide feedback on every submission. As we’ll be talking extensively about a single record, we can only consider albums and EPs to feature on GoldenPlec Select, not individual tracks, though we will include individual tracks in the submission highlights. Please do not send large attachments as they’ll end up being blocked by our web server. We look forward to hearing from as many bands as possible!