Wall of Mouths

*Raises hand/horns*

Hi folks,
hope everyone’s good. I’ve just set up an Irish Thorriors chapter for the band Valient Thorr on Facebook. It’d be ever so lovely if you could sign up as they’re all kinds of good. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=157791407578979&v=wall&ref=ts

If you haven’t heard Valient Thorr yet here’s what Therapy? had to say about the boys from Venus

“I will be picking up the Valient Thorr newbie, all of us were completely slayed by the show. It was like watching The Dictators/Black Flag/Thin Lizzy and Ornette Coleman all jamming at once,” Andy Cairns

“The VT gig we played with them was pretty amazing, i didn’t know much of their stuff but they ripped that festival a new one, super energetic gig and very cool guys to boot.” Michael McKeegan

It’s a good title for a live album. Shame I couldn’t get over to the London gigs

Hi folks, hope everyone’s keeping good.

I’ve posted up a small excerpt from an interview I did with Michael recently. If you’re interested in the status of the new live album, then read on…
http://edwinmcfee.wordpress.com/

Interesting hints here… http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/atl/news_specific345304.shtml

This is happening this Monday night!

You get extra beer if you turn up in a Therapy? tshirt!

Balls, just noticed that the site originally had two German shows listed for July 30/31, which meant Therapy? would play Sonisphere on Aug 1 and now I see it’s changed to one German show on July 30, Knebworth on July 31 and another German show on Aug 1. As I can only make Aug 1 it looks like I’ll be missing out on this one then. For shame!

Looks like they’re doing the same night as Maiden too (August 1).

speaking of Hot Press, here’s some photies from the signing- http://www.hotpress.com/photos/photo.php?id=5717083

yup, it’ll run until July 31. will have some photos up before the end of the week (or if someone else already has some then fire away!).

Hi folks,
just giving everyone a head’s up about the Anti Exhibition in Belfast that features (among others) Therapy?
I’ll post up a few pics in a couple of days for people who don’t live in the country, but in the meantime here’s the press release and a piece I wrote on the band that accompanied the T? section.
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Anti
Belfast is often portrayed as a city of two opposing cultures, but throughout the recent history many have chosen to align themselves with a third. The often bleak setting young people in Belfast found themselves in meant that many, feeling no affinity with either of the traditional tribes, through themselves enthusiastically into the music scene. And if that scene embodied a rejection of the status quo, a resounding two fingers to the establishment, then all the better.

Anti is about documenting this part of our culture, ensuring that when people look at the cultural history of Belfast they get more than two tribes.

We asked you to send your answers in on a postcard (both literal postcards and digitally, through forums and networking sites) to let us know what iconic people/places/events/times symbolised Belfast’s alternative heritage for you. Everyone was then invited to debate these symbols and we got together to decide 10-12 iconic subjects for this exhibition.

The list of Belfast’s icons was never going to be exhaustive. We felt it was important to acknowledge the multifaceted web of people, places, things and events that went together to help form this alternative culture. This isn’t about nicely mounted pictures in a white-walled gallery either; this installation is designed to present Belfast’s icons in the quotidian, gritty reality in which they existed. We’ve mounted your icons on toilet walls, so that you can look, praise and defame them at your leisure.
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…And here’s the piece I wrote on the band…

“I was 13 when Therapy? first burst onto the mainstream boasting short sharp shocks for the masses. The year was 1993 and at that point in history cock rock was still very much in vogue, but these three short haired blokes from mid-Ulster bucked all conventions with glee, irrevocably snaring millions of jaded metalheads under their spell in an instant. While their peers pranced and preened during their endless guitar solos (snore), Therapy? gave us three minute slices of lunacy served up with a side order of perverted punk rock bravado. Needless to say, I was in love the first moment I heard the opening chords of ‘Opal Mantra.’
While I found the skewed guitar solos and oddly named tracks jarring at first, I knew that this was where the future of rock music lay and I wanted in on it too. So, ever the comic fanboy, I sold old copies of Thor, Captain America and others, bought a busted up bass and amp and formed a band in a bid to ape their sinister, but utterly perfect pop songs. I wasn’t the only one either. You see Therapy? gave hope to a generation of NI musicians that it can be done. You really can boot down the doors of convention and “make it” on your own terms. Best of all, the boys (Andy Cairns, Michael McKeegan and Fyfe Ewing) actually cared about homegrown acts too and took the likes of Joyrider and Ash under their wing, giving them their first crack at fame and helped kick-start a resurgence in local music not seen since the seventies.
These days I firmly believe that without Therapy? leading the charge in the early nineties, NI’s music scene would be a very different place indeed. Perhaps what is most exciting is that they’re still continuing to kick ass and take names to this very day, making some of the best music of their career. A few years ago I got the band’s mirrored question marks from their ‘Infernal Love’ album tattooed on my arm and it’s a permanent reminder that regardless of what the cynics say-music can really change your life forever. Twenty years on and the Church of Noise’s sermons are as loud and proud as they ever were and I for one wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Edwin McFee is a music journalist and writes for NME, Hot Press and AU.
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Yeah T? blew the roof off alright. nice to meet Udo from Accept backstage too.

Hi folks,
here’s the full transcript of the recent 3page AU interview that ran in issue 55

http://edwinmcfee.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/the-band-that-tried-to … le-itself/

getting the bus down to dublin in an hour or two. well excited!

Here’s a link to Friday’s Belfast Telegraph lead feature by way of my blog http://edwinmcfee.wordpress.com/

huge fuck-off AU interview/review/photo shoot out next week too.

Carrie is of course being modest.

she secretly wants to one day be chosen for Colleen’s Real Women on ITV2

*crosses fingers*

some pics from the signing by the “fit photographer” are up here folks http://blog.carriedavenport.com/

how did i get one?

i’m a music journalist.

that really sucks that someone had the cheek to do that.

what a fuckin wanker. hopefully he’ll be caught.

in slightly brighter news though, i have a copy of the new record myself and without spoiling anything for people, everyone’s in for a treat.

i’ll post a up a review closer to the release date

here’s a review of the new Therapy? record from Issue 12 of Alternative Ulster magazine…

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Therapy? ‘Never Apologise, Never Explain.’

Let’s get one thing straight, shall we? There seems to be this myth that surrounds Therapy? these days that they haven’t released anything decent since Troublegum. This, of course, is absolute balls and is usually the opinion of faceless internet geeks and aging critics. Nevertheless, it’s been a statement that has haunted the band for years.
Never Apologise, Never Explain sees a different kind of Therapy? than we’ve seen before. This time, the riffs are bashed out with a reckless spirit not seen since Babyteeth and Andy in particular seems to revel in the mayhem. It seems as if Therapy? wanted to make a record that would finally make people shut the fuck up and listen.
Rise Up kicks off the record with a squealing riff and insane drumming from Neil Cooper. It’s a powerful song that sees Andy doing his best Spencer Moody impression to a drum and bass back-beat and a wall of feedback. The charmingly titled Die Like A Motherfucker is up next and typically rocks like a bastard. Chock full of nightmarish riffs, jaw-dropping drum-fills and a chorus tailor-made for the mosh-pit, the song sounds like a hymn to broken bones.
The rest of the record rattles along at a break-neck pace pausing only slightly on the sinister Polar Bear. The song slowly builds up to a monstrous climax with Cairns’ guitar leading the charge. Rock You Monkeys follows Polar Bear and comes as a bit of surprise to these ears. The song has a faintly Glam Rock stomp about it and sees Andy referencing T-Rex’s Life’s A Gas before kicking into a glorious tongue in cheek chorus that even Spinal Tap would be ashamed to have written.
Dead has to be the highlight of the album though. The key to a great Therapy? record is finding the right mix of lunacy and sanity. It’s being able to pull off crunching riffs with beautiful melodies and Dead has all this in spades. Quite frankly it’s one of the best songs Therapy? has ever put their name to. This Ship Is Sinking is another highlight as the band explores new territory. It’s a murderous sea shanty that calls to mind the Sultans and Murder City Devils and has absolutely heroic drumming from Neil.
The last two tracks are a joy-ride to the finishing line. Last One To Heaven finishes Never Apologise, Never Explain in a blur of riffs and feedback with Andy telling us “last one to heaven’s a loser.” But it’s not the last ones to the pearly gates that are losers, it’s those who doubted the band in the first place. Never Apologise, Never Explain is a master-class in sonic war-fare. It’s a straight-up, balls to the wall punk rock and roll record that easily matches up to anything the band have released before. When it comes to rock and roll-no one does it quite like Therapy? Record of the year? You can fucking count on it.

Title: rise up!

there’ll be a weighty review of Never Apolgise Never Explain in the next issue of Alternative Ulster (Number 12) for folks from Northern Ireland.

i don’t wanna give anything away-but the record’s a fuckin belter!

hi-
if you email either jonny@altulster.co.uk

or phil@altulster.co.uk

they should be able to keep you a ticket on the door or something.

there are tickets left so i think you should head on up.its gonna be class.-oh aye-and buy a magazine too!

if people can get the time off work-then there’s no reason whatsoever why anyone from ireland can’t make either the dublin or belfast shows if they’re fans of t?
i’m from newry -which is nowhere near either cities but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do :)

yeah so do i.

this gig is gonna fuckin rawk!
then the next night is the belfast gig and launch of alternative ulster magazine!
i can’t wait for both.

just make sure everyone brings photo id with them.
it doesn’t matter what eage you are-the bouncers in the mandela can be total arseholes about this.:)

all i can say at this time is that you’ll love what’s coming up in issue one.

yep-i thought it was a chile saying byebye.
for some reason i have a feeling its andy’s son.

yep i have-i got the date wrong-it’s the 5th and you can buy tickets for the village gig from http://www.ticketmaster.ie

the alternative ulster launch is on 6th june.it’ll be a broad magaizne similar to hot press and sold all over ireland at the moment.the first proper issue is out in june.
i think you’ll all find issue one verrrry interesting.

Bad Karma——-therapy? are “heavily rumoured” to be playing a benifit show in early june for the release of Alternative Ulster magazine…
as they are now confirmed for the Village in dublin on the 6th june, it looks VERY likely…

here’s another reason to piss you off-
i got mine for free…