The Goo 1
Niall McGuirk FEB '25 PUNK February starts intere
stingly with Johnny Moped playing Lost Lane on the 7th with Molly Vulpyne opening up proceedings. Johnny Moped is one man and his band. His band at one stage featured Chrissie Hynde, from the Pretenders, and Captain Sensible, from the Damned. The Captain still makes appearances in the band when his schedule allows. They have brought out two albums in recent times, as well as a 7” called ‘Lockdown Blues’. Their sound is still very much in that original pub rock blues punk sound. He’s not quite Charlie Harper but this 71 year old knows how to rock. Also playing the same night in The Grand Social are the Messthetics who feature Joe Lally and Brendan Canty from Fugazi as the rhythm section of this avant-garde jazz fusion sound. They recently collaborated with jazz saxophonist James Bandon Lewis to take the songs from guitarist Pirog’s more prog inspired way to a jazzy feeling where anything can happen. Lewis is touring with them so this promises to be an evening to revel in. The Hope Collective, of which I am part of, recently published a fanzine called ‘Punks Listen’, complementing the book of the same name which came out 12 months previously. The zine is a collection of stories written by people about their favourite records. We launched the zine in Little Whelans and our next venture is a series of Panel shows in the same venue over the next four months. The purpose of these is to help document our scene and capture and create oral histories. The first is on Monday Feb 10th with Pete Holidai and some former Radiators. Pete has just released some new music so he will be talking about the present as well as the past. We need to capture and keep these as this is history and grounds for reflection. Frank Turner is playing in the Academy on Feb 16 with The Meffs and Ben Brown. I saw The Meffs at Rebellion last year and the 2-piece create a massive sound with strong stage presence. Fair play to Frank Turner for pushing and promoting such a band. The Sleveens are in the Workman’s on Feb 28th with Soft on Crime opening up for them. Formerly known as the Stef & The Sleveens the Tennessee band still have the mighty Stef singing with them but have narrowed it down to just the band name. It’s garage punk rock’n’roll and they may come across with a sneaky name but there will be no sneaking away from a good night with this. Look out for Haywire on March 13th, 999 and The Lee Harvey’s in April and Conflict in May. Unfortunately the Los Fastidios gig is not happening. Some songs discovered over a quiet Christmas period Pete Holidai - On The Jukebox In The Corner - Pilgrim Sounds Pete may be better known for his sojourn in the Radiators, Light A Big Fire and Trouble Pilgrims but his Pilgrim Sounds studios is helping many on the outskirts of Dublin’s music scene. He has always been an outsider in the business and this new music is a nod to the Glam Rock days he was so fond of before punk rock put an attitude and a spring into his step. This is the first song from his forthcoming Electric Jukebox album and the platform shoes and parallel trousers will be out in style for this release For Closure - Heavy Mourning - Mindpower records. LA power pop quintet For Closure return with solid pop rock songs with a power punk tempo. These are well crafted intelligent pieces along the lines of Superchunk or maybe even Samiam. The Family Hood Nextperience - To The Hilt - DC-Jam It has all your classic ska components, a big line up and a beat to make you dance. Trulio Disgracias adds a toaster voice to proceedings with former fishbone bassist Norwood Fisher glueing it all together with drums from Social Distortions Derek O’Brien. It’s a glorious mush mash of an anthem which had us skanking along after a pretty big Christmas Dinner. Left Circles - Nothing Is One Thing - Miserable Neighbour Records. Left Circles is Brian Plutas baby. The songs are all his compositions, put together and arranged solely for this project. All told it has a nod to 90’s poppier alternative rock sounds but throws in some cool sci-fi sound effects. 37