Day 394
Massage: the band of Alex Naidus, the ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart now based in Los Angeles, sounds really good. I’ve recommend it in the past of course. Well, now there is a 12 song album that you can preorder. It is coming out on vinyl on June 25th. We can preview the opening track, “Half a Feeling”, which sounds terrific!
Fine.: one of my favourite bands as of late wsa this duo formed by Liam James Marsh and Alice Kat. I’ve previously praised their singles, so today I will praise their album “I’m Glad It’s Over Now”, that you can find on Bandcamp. These are 11 songs of beautiful jangle pop. You’ll get hooked immediately.
The Armoires: now we head to Burbank, California, to discover this pop band that sounds really good! They have just released an album called “Incognito” that has 18 songs! All of them are online to preview on Bandcamp but you can also buy it on CD thanks to Big Stir Records.
Nuevos Dolores: now to Madrid, to check out another album, the 2nd album actually by Nuevos Dolores. They have titled it “Nuevos Dolores II”. Not the most creative name perhaps, but what matters here are the songs. The Zaragoza one-man project by Jorge Castejón recorded 8 folky indiepop songs, with great melodies and lovely arrangements.
Peach Garden: and we end this week’s new sounds, new music, reviews, with the song “Sunset Drive” by this Moscow four-piece. The song is a lovely slice of dreampop/shoegae, and one wonders what’s going on in Russia with shoegaze. Is it a big scene? Are people connected? When the pandemic is over will they have shoegaze festivals? I am just very curious.
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Today we head to Ireland, to the town of Sligo to discover this band with an interesting name, The Boy The Boy.
I was in Ireland a few years ago but only visited Dublin. I really want to go back and discover more of the country. The time I was there was truly fantastic. I didn’t know much of Sligo but I’m checking out now on Wikipedia. Looks like a nice place to go! Sligo Abbey looks like a place I would really enjoy.
Sligo, meaning ‘abounding in shells’, is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the second largest urban centre in the West of Ireland, with only Galway being larger. The Sligo Borough District constitutes 61% (38,581) of the county’s population of 63,000.
Anyhow… back to what you came here for, discovering a new band. The Boy The Boy only released one 7″ and it was self-released in 1989 I believe. It had two songs on it, “.38 Jackson Mississippi” on the A side and “Prizefighter” on thee B side. Both songs were recorded in Sulan Studios in Cork and the producer and engineer was Dennis Herlihy.
There is a small insert in the 7″ (I’m looking at Discogs, I just discovered the band and I don’t own yet the record, would love to do soon!) that has the credits for these recordings but no band members names! We only see two musicians here, Sean O’Neill who did vocals and Niall Macken who played piano. Both are listed as guest musicians. I believe both of them were from the Cork band Burning Embers.
Aside from this release the band appeared on a compilation CD in 2015. This compilation was called “Sligo Rocks” and included 10 songs from different bands in the area. It was released by Sound Records (SUN CD53) and the band contributed “.38 Jackson Mississippi”.
I wonder about the name of the song. The city of Jackson is the capital of the state of Mississippi. What about the .38?
Irishrock.org, that great website with lots of info about Irish bands, have some more information. Here it tells us that the band was active from 1988 to 1991 and the band was formed by:
Fran Healy on vocals
Shane Boyce on guitars
Finn Corrigan on keyboards and guitar
Martin Harte on bass
Enda McGoldrick on drums
Sadly it also mentions that Finn Corrigan has passed away in 2002.
It seems the core of the band was previously in a band called Sid & the Stonecrushers. It was when Martin Harte joined the band, replacing the previous bassist, that the band went under the name The Boy The Boy. Then in 1988 Martin Harte would leave the band to be replaced by Darrell Rainey. That year the band participated in the band contest by Carling/Hot Press and were runners-up. Then in 1989 they were finalists again.
In 1988-1989 it seems they were a lot in London. Maybe they relocated there? In 1991 the band recorded a live album titled “The Contact Centre” which hasn’t been released to this day. It was recorded live at the Youth Contact Centre. That same year they disbanded.
The website also tells us about other bands the members had been in. Martin Harte had been in Absolute Zero, Diesel Heart and Indian. Shane Boyce in State of Mind and Dorian Remains. Finn Corrigan in Auto Da Fe and Strong are Lonely. Darrell Rainey on Lemon Aftermath, Restless Natives and Sack.
If you want to listen some of these bands, and the two songs by The Boy The Boy you can find them in this Soundcloud. I believe the venue Hennigans is the one who uploaded the songs. There was a Hennigan’s Bar Reunion back on May 19th 2012 where a feew bands from Sligo played.
The great blog The Fanning Sessions has shared some stuff by the band. For example a rare song called “The Devil & the Deep Blue Sea“. Where did this demo come from? What other recordings are on that same demo tape? Would be great to know!
And that’s it for today. Some good info about The Boy The Boy. I hope we learn more and find out ore, especially about if they have more demos, and also about that unreleased live album! Would be great to hear it some day!
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