I have been listening almost exclusively to Whipping Boy of late. They formed in Dublin in the late eighties, went on to release probably the best Irish album ever with Heartworm, before falling apart amidst record company squabbles in 1998. Their debut release was Submarine in 1992. It was a low key release and I even recently read a review of Heartworm in which the reviewer noted that he/she had been unable to track down a copy of Submarine to listen to!
Submarine, thanks to the internet is now pretty readily available if one has the patience to search for it. It is by no means a perfect album, the production is weak at points but it is also a strong indicator of a band with potential and has it's share of great moments. The influence of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine is present in the shifts between wonderful shoegazing guitars to Fearghal McKee's vocals which become almost hypnotic at points.
Sushi meanders from the beautiful soft opening riff to a noisy loud song by the end.
Favourite Sister is an absolutely wonderful shoe gaze song bringing to mind all that was great about bands like Galaxie 500 and My Bloody Valentine.
Submarine reached only a moderate audience mainly due to it being released on a very small label and the lower production values. While the album may not have sold well the bands live performances began to raise their profile. The gigs were known for being intense and all consuming with McKee cutting himself with glass at some gigs. Submarine began to generate some much deserved critical acclaim and a record deal with Colombia was arranged.
Colombia oversaw the 1995 release of Heartworm. Every once in a while I will come across an album that I fall completely in love with and Heartworm has turned out to be one of those few albums that I just cannot get enough of and can spend hours just listening to it and thinking about it. McKee's vocals and lyrics are absolutely sensational on this album. It simply blows an other 'confessional' album out of the water. Without ever descending to being mawkish. Nearly every line has a purpose and conveys a clear feeling.
It all blends together wonderfully to form a complex but perfectly interwoven tapestry of McKee's fears and hopes. The opening song Twinkle is a fantastic opener and was also released as a minor hit single. The verses are backed by a melodic guitar riff and lighter instrumentals all around. As it hits the chorus the music and vocals jump up a few notches resulting in what is really just some fucking fantastic noise.
The biggest song on the album was quite probably We Don't Need Nobody Else. It opens with a hint of 1992 R.E.M and McKee begins to sing. Initially he does little more than talk and the lyrics are clearly audible and your focus is drawn to them.
'In the morning I am a recluse, lost in memories, ideas, situations and convulsions, I am never in and I can't remember, They built portholes for Bono so he could sit and look out across the bay and sing about mountains, maybe'
I absolutely love the lyrics throughout this song, the intimate nature of the delivery always drags me right into the words. The picture of the singer being lost in the morning ties in with the fact that he apparently wrote his best when heavily hungover. As he finishes speaking the verse the music picks up and the distortion kicks in you could be up and headbanging in no time at all.
The second verse deals with an incident of the protagonist hitting his girlfriend or wife for the first time. 'I hit you for the first time today........ 'You wouldn't let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not'..........'Silence and you started to cry, that really hurt you said, Yeah?, And you thought you knew me'. As soon as the word me has been uttered the music again takes off for the chorus, the change in tempo is pretty intense and the chorus truly does sweep you up.
What really blows me away about Whipping Boy more than anything else is that across 3 albums which is by no means a massive amount of songs they manage to sound like more brilliant bands than I can think of. I have definitely heard little snatches and thought; The Killers, Joy Division, Arcade Fire, U2, My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500, Velvet Underground, The Smiths, Doves, R.E.M or Sonic Youth. I don't mean to trivialise them as some sort of mad concoction of the above just their music is incredibly varied. Not varied in the here's a straight up rock version and a techno remix but a sort of subtle range of varieties. I've probably listened to it all a little bit much.
The final Whipping Boy release was a self titled album in 2000 on the Low Rent label. The album had been recorded almost two years previously but the release was delayed. It shows a development from Heartworm and it maybe lacks the raw emotional power of that seminal album.
The fourth track Mutton is one of my favourites. It is like a cross between a Blur song and The Clash's hit Lost In The Supermarket.
The other highlight is Ghost Of Elvis. It is a quieter slightly more stripped back track than most of their songs. There are two lines at the end of the first verse that are brilliantly witty and cutting that have really made me love this song. 'Read it in the papers, love the company, the attitude, the videos, the ideas, Love the money, the law suits, the cheap jokes, the honesty of sleaze'. A shot at the record labels or just a sarcastic take on a job interview, who knows?
Unfortunately youtube has let me down in a big way and I cannot find a recording of Ghost Of Elvis. That's a bit of a bum note to end on, sorry. It is probably worth your while going and acquiring the three Whipping Boy albums. For a big journey through an album, fantastic noise, poignant lyrics and sheer emotion any of the three will do the trick for you.
Peace
What really blows me away about Whipping Boy more than anything else is that across 3 albums which is by no means a massive amount of songs they manage to sound like more brilliant bands than I can think of. I have definitely heard little snatches and thought; The Killers, Joy Division, Arcade Fire, U2, My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500, Velvet Underground, The Smiths, Doves, R.E.M or Sonic Youth. I don't mean to trivialise them as some sort of mad concoction of the above just their music is incredibly varied. Not varied in the here's a straight up rock version and a techno remix but a sort of subtle range of varieties. I've probably listened to it all a little bit much.
The final Whipping Boy release was a self titled album in 2000 on the Low Rent label. The album had been recorded almost two years previously but the release was delayed. It shows a development from Heartworm and it maybe lacks the raw emotional power of that seminal album.
The fourth track Mutton is one of my favourites. It is like a cross between a Blur song and The Clash's hit Lost In The Supermarket.
The other highlight is Ghost Of Elvis. It is a quieter slightly more stripped back track than most of their songs. There are two lines at the end of the first verse that are brilliantly witty and cutting that have really made me love this song. 'Read it in the papers, love the company, the attitude, the videos, the ideas, Love the money, the law suits, the cheap jokes, the honesty of sleaze'. A shot at the record labels or just a sarcastic take on a job interview, who knows?
Unfortunately youtube has let me down in a big way and I cannot find a recording of Ghost Of Elvis. That's a bit of a bum note to end on, sorry. It is probably worth your while going and acquiring the three Whipping Boy albums. For a big journey through an album, fantastic noise, poignant lyrics and sheer emotion any of the three will do the trick for you.
Peace
