Though these Dubliners somewhat amusingly claim to merge rock (or rather, whatever wimpy music silly Irish people erroneously classify as rock) with “hip hop lyrical flow,” their self-titled Phonogenic catapulted up to No. 19 on the Heatseekers chart last week; the £6.99 iTunes price listed on their MySpace page was presumably not a major factor, but every little thing counts. Clearly they are following in Celtic soul-brother footsteps previously laid down by Thin Lizzy and Black 47 and House of Pain and people like that. “Think U2 versus Timbaland, Van Morrison remixed by Teddy Riley,” their bio on MySpace says, and their fans contribute comments written in cryptic Dublin hip-hop lingo: “Alri lads wats d story??,” goes one. “Was doin me business midterm test d oda day nd der was a question on break-even analises r sumfin nd wen i just saw breakeven ur song was n me head n i cudn concintrate, twas gas, i distracted nearly every1 else 2, am auctaly listening ta breakeven now lol!”
The band’s page also links to a video on YouTube that’s “no longer available in [my] country,” which would seem to defeat its promotional purpose. But the site does have a live video for “We Cry” that features the obviously very polite lads on a rooftop, with the drummer beating on a wooden box between his legs; pretty sure the Violent Femmes used to do stuff like that. And whaddaya know… the song sounds exactly like Everlast! Well-meaning over-weeningness about a “poor girl living in a rich world” until she gets pregnant, and another woman who’s got an “ambition to become a politician,” the better to change this man’s man’s man’s world–and you can tell the baseball-capped-and-polo-shirted singer with his hands in his pockets the whole time thinks of himself as very intense and emotional. Which presumably is why “together we cry.”
The Script [MySpace]
“We Cry” [YouTube]
That isn’t “Dublin hip-hop lingo”, no not at all. That is Bebo-talk, or Bebo speak, after the social website Bebo that most Irish teenagers use. They all use that style of writting, and sadly you can hear some kids talking like that on the buses to and from the city centre in Dublin.
Please don’t use this band as an example of what passes for Rock in Ireland, or even hip-hop. A lot of the Irish bands that seem to make it “famous” these days are utter crap, are mainly come from the horror-ific Dublin “rock” scene, and as soon as they make it big all develop major Bono-sized egos (JJ72 anyone?).
The best bands in Ireland, as always, are the ones you’ll never hear unless you stumble across them by accident, through a friend, or end up on their myspace pages (even there you’ll see loads of examples of Bebo speak). There are loads of great bands around, but unless they are based in Dublin they have very little chance of doing anything outside of their own area.
I need a drink and a fist fight to recuperate the loss of manhood that came from watching this drivel.
@JohnOO: Are they gettin’ good reactions with their Bebo talk?
@JohnOO: Yeah, it doesn’t sound like hip hop lingo, more just like a standard Dublin line: “Alri lads wats d story?” translates to “Alright lads, what’s the story?” a very common phrase.
This relates more to Maroon 5 than anyone else. I could only wish it sounded more like Stereo MCs. I lived in Dublin for almost a year, the only bands I really liked there was Rodrigo y Gabriela (stumbled on them doing an in store at Tower for their first self released disc) and some instrumental band whose name escapes me but was in the vein of similiar British bands making waves at the same time (01-02: Godspeed You Black Emperor, etc.). Everyone else was either boring “indie” music or heavy metal, which I never liked.
@Cos: God Is An Astronaut?
I don’t quite get the Everlast comparison in the original post but yeah.
@natepatrin:
Who do you mean, the kids using Bebo?
@JohnOO: Sorry — I saw a wide-open opportunity to quote Television’s “See No Evil” and, regardless of consequence, I took it.
@Lax Danja House: I think it was the Redneck Manifesto, or something similar, now that I think about it.
@Cos: Oh excellent choice 8)
@natepatrin:
Ah! Far too clever for me to grasp in my current braindead state.
Ooooooooooooh hoodly hoodly ho…tank me Lucky Charms!
them irish, they love their mothers
@Cos: Maybe it was the Jimmy Cake? The best band that no one has ever heard of…