Siren MUSIC the
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College Tribune | October 14th 2008
Atomically correct Nicholas Appleby, lead singer and guitarist with unsigned garage rock band The Mighty Atomics, chats to Heather Landy about influences, the Irish gigging scene and how 60’s music is making a comeback The Irish scene is currently pulsating with an assortment of unsigned acts gigging relentlessly in the hope of clinching a record deal, or at least gaining notoriety on the music scene. One band who have emerged in recent months among the current crop are the Mighty Atomics, a Dublin based unsigned band who infuse garage rock with energy and raw drive to create music that unwittingly sends the audience into a nostalgic frenzy. Their music certainly sounds like it was transported from the 60’s heyday of the Beatles and Velvet Underground, but is it really an ode to the 60’s in a musical sense? Nicholas explains; “It is the kind of music we like to play. We don’t dig on electronica and that sort of crap. We just like it plain and simple, wear your heart on your sleeve, if you know what I mean.” The band possesses a definitive edge over the hordes of the unsigned competition; not many acts would boast such unusual influences as the Mighty Atomics. “Our biggest influence is the Sonics, a band from the mid-1960’s hailing from Washington. They played with a consciously raw and wild sound. They would be considered antipop. They created the blueprint for pop-rock.” Boasting such edgy influences would definitely intrigue those with a taste for garage rock, which has in the last couple of years enjoyed a revival: The White Stripes and The Strokes, along with some lesser known bands such as Von Bondies and The Detroit Cobras, spring to mind. Garage rock was seen by some as one of the underground music genres of the 1960’s and had a certain level of cool attached to its sound. From the Yardbirds to The Wailers, garage rock slowly began to emerge as a more raw and passionate substitute to the soul and pop music of the day. The next logical step for an unsigned band is to get in the recording studio, to produce a single or EP. Nicholas laughs; “We have a few bits of recording equipment in our back garden which we have been messing around with. We haven’t gotten into a studio yet but maybe that is something to
think about for the future but for the moment we are concentrating on playing loads and loads of gigs because that is where we feel our sound really is. We are a live band and we feel that it is the best way to get our message across.” For a band of only six months they have done pretty well for themselves: The Mighty Atomics have played at the King Kong Club in Pravda as part of the annual battle of the bands contest and have gigged extensively around the vicinity of Dublin and Wicklow. Last week they played Eamonn Doran’s with a number of other unsigned acts, and soon they will play Whelan’s. Nicholas muses, “It is quite intimidating to be playing in Whelan’s so soon in our short career. We have only been around for six months; it all seems a bit mad but hopefully it will all go down well!” The Mighty Atomics are a band primarily comprised of students. We all need to know how a band can juggle work with play. “I wouldn’t call it juggling. I would call it dropping your studies and concentrating on your music. We wouldn’t be very good jugglers. We practically have no hours in college so we practice twice a week no problem.” It is always interesting to learn how a band goes from being a dream to a reality. “A friend of mine was putting on a gig for the charity Suas and he asked us to put on a gig. Conor [drummer] I knew from playing in another band, Chris was our keyboardist but he has left us now, and Maurice [bass] I knew from a friend of a friend, so it’s now currently just the three of us. It was all a spur of the moment. We had only been together for two weeks before our first gig.” So are we to expect the Mighty Atomics to embark into the serious realm of music or are they purely just playing for a love of music? “We all love to play but it is early in the game to be saying that, but it is always a dream. Anyone who has a guitar has a dream of playing on MTV and that sort of crap. Our main goal primarily is to be playing loads of gigs.” Catch the Mighty Atomics before they explode.
» The Mighty Atomics play Whelan’s on October 18th www.myspace.com/ themightyatomics
ELECTRI EXTRAV Stephen Shannon, production master, technical wizard and founder member of Halfset, finds time to discuss the finer points of their long-awaited second album with Sebastian Clare and The Mailmen
The Dublin Electronic Arts Festival is now in its seventh year, and during the forthcoming October Bank Holiday weekend it will be taking over Dublin. Following on the Asian theme of last year, DEAF is bigger and broader in its ambitions and scope. Between Thursday the 23rd and Sunday the 26th of this month, DEAF will be hosting a total of 52 events throughout the city; from bigger venues, like Vicar Street and Whelan’s, through to the small independent galleries. DEAF is not going to let you avoid it. DEAF represents everything that is great in Irish and International electronic arts. The growth over the past two to three years of independent Irish promoters and music collectives means that the audience for electronic arts has grown exponentially. The diversity of sounds, basis for experimentation, and general willingness of the ipod generation to listen to music which is never going to hit the charts has grown along with it. This smorgasbord of ingredients make this sort of festival viable, both in terms of feasibility and the wide range and quality of acts on show. With so many acts, giving this festival the fullest consideration is a fool’s errand; it is almost impossible to give a digestible preview that covers every morsel of the feast. Instead, here we will pick out a few acts and explain just why people need to get involved. These will inevitably concern the bigger gigs but there will be free events, talks and demonstrations going on everywhere all weekend.
Thursday 27th: NURSE WITH WOUND AND STEPHEN O’MALLEY, ANDREW’S LANE, €22.50 Nurse With Wound are true legends. They have been around in various guises since 1978, with the only constant being Steven Stapleton. Members have included Jim O’Rourke, Stereolab and many more. There are now over 40 fulllength Nurse With Wound titles. Stapleton’s eclectic tastes in art, film and music are often reflected in the broad and often unpredictable and unlikely music of Nurse With Wound - the output of which draws directly on nearly every musical genre imaginable, yet consistently retains a distinctive and recognisable Nurse With Wound ‘sound’. Another reason for checking this out is that with the ticket you get free entry into another gig that is on afterwards in ALT, featuring Mad
EP, Ebola and Ed Devane. As we’ve come to expect from Kaboogie and Foggy Notions, this line-up hints at an eclectic night mixing electronica, dubstep, glitch and whatever else the artists can find.
Friday 25th: M83 AND CHANNEL ONE, VICAR STREET, €23 M83 released the brilliant Saturdays=Youth this year, and is now set to further establish his name through his appearance at DEAF allied with the recent announcement of his supporting slot for the Kings Of Leon European tour this autumn/ winter. M83 channels Blade Runner styled synths over exquisite production, creating something both beautiful and playful at the same time. Support act Channel One are definitely a band to keep an eye out for in the coming months as they finalise their first album. Employing a mixture of electronics and live instrumentation, Channel One have been wowing audiences across the world - including the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) - for a few years now.
Saturday 26th: SYNTH EASTWOOD PRESENT CYCLES, MEETING HOUSE SQUARE, €0 Rapidly gathering fame for their audio/visual/ technological explorations, this will be the sixth Synth Eastwood extravaganza since their inception in May 2006. Synth Eastwood are a group who collect pieces from a range of disciplines under specific categories and organise shows to display them. But this isn’t an art show - this is a gig with a focus on interactivity and versatility. The visual pieces will be accompanied by the Synth Eastwood band and other guests.
Sunday 27th: DEAF CLOSING PARTY, €35 Where can you begin with this one? What the creators have basically done is build a festival