Aristophanes, Bill Callahan, Peep Show, Jonathan Swift, Microdisney, the Clash, the Stooges, Lenny Bruce, Captain Beefheart, Neutral Milk Hotel, Joy Division, Lou Reed, La Haine, Passengers, Lucian, Patti Smith, Nirvana, Yo La Tengo, the Olivia Tremor Control, Morrissey, George Orwell, Tom Waits, Doug Stanhope, Oasis, Scott Walker, South Park, Bill Hicks, David Bowie, Daniel Johnston, Elliot Murphy, Hein Van Der Gaag, Krzystof Kieslowski, Pavement, Frank Zappa, Jaroslav Hasek, Oscar Wilde, H.L. Mencken, Mikhail Bulgakov, Aldous Huxley, Cotton Mather, Sparklehorse, Cathal Coughlan, Jack Kerouac, MC5, Larry David, Donal McCann, Blur, Jon Stewart, Frog Eyes, the Velvet Underground, Ingmar Bergman, Hunter S Thompson, Beck, William Burroughs, Dr. Strangelove, Ani Di Franco, Richard Pryor, Badly Drawn Boy, Bjork, the New York Dolls, Chris Morris, John Lennon, British Sea Power, Gerry Nobody, Crazy Horse, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Picasso, the Pixies, Roxy Music, François Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, Jarvis Cocker, Talking Heads, Molière, John Gay, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, Leonard Cohen, Jinx Lennon, Grandma, Fela Kuti, Jan Saudek, James Joyce, Keith Moss, Monty Python, Woody Allen, Mose Allison, Stephen Colbert, Sonic Youth, Robotnik, Evelyn Waugh, Iwona Stefanczuk, Kioumars Saberi Foumani, Contemporary Noise Quintet, Aesop, A Camp, Network, the Hat, Peter Cook, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut ..and so on
Sounds Like
"Pleasantly offhand & schizophrenic rock and roll mixes with unimposing electronica & unconventional lyrics. 'Readers Wives' is all about hundreds of agreeable melodies, inventive instrumentation & a glad concentration on the up beat, which most of the current crop of singer songwriters seem to avoid.
Racous electronic trickery introduces many tracks before succumbing to tunes of a more traditional format, albeit warped by Niall James Holohan's wonderfully singular world view.
Those who know Niall from his acoustic 'dark prince of pop' days know that he's very capable of producing a perfect tune that sums up the artist as one who is humorous, touching & always intriguing. As a writer, Niall seeks to make people laugh at themselves & appreciate really important, moral jokes.
His talent, also, at distracting deliciously emotional noises from guitars means that the Wives sound like a 1950's scrap in Whelan's!!
Although you never know what to expect from Niall James Holohan, what you do know, is that it will always be great!
Hello mySpace-d out friends. My name's Niall James Holohan. I'm the main man behind Dublin band Reader's Wives. No longer need you surf the internet looking at crappy stage managed bands full of girls with fake tits, guys with fake moans and truly awful, thoroughly manufactured scenester haircuts who'd do anything to have their shockwave haircuts & painted nails pictured in NME. We're not trendy. We're not 17. There's only one reason this band are here. We love music. It's like medicine to us.
For those of you who've met me, virtually, just now, I've been writing since I was a kid, since I didn't know what else to do, playing music & writing tunes since I was about 14 & a professional musician since about 2004.
MUSIC
Every time I've taken a knock in my life, music has been there, to keep me going, frighten away the fear, lift me back on my feet & give me back my faith in the future. It's no accident that I do this for a living. Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the Velvet Underground, Bitches Brew or Neutral Milk Hotel?
STAND UP COMEDY
I'm also a fan of the best of stand-up comedians & political satirists like Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart & Doug Stanhope. Not just funny guys, but guys who can handle social criticism & rage with humour. People who, when things get absurd, can laugh instead of despair. I suppose, it is as a result of my love for music & this kind of stand-up that, as a Reader's Wife, I'm devoted to expressing that which demands to be said and on which it is impossible to be silent, through music. I have more ideas in a rhyming couplet than most people have on their entire album. I'll take the Pepsi challenge with anyone on that ..
'THE DARK PRINCE OF POP'
In the past few years, I've been your typical self conscious solo writer / performer, spending many lonely nights in various rented rooms in South Dublin trying to figure out what I wanted to contribute. In an effort to find my voice (and balance), I wrote & recorded some 20 lo-fi releases under the name Niall James Holohan (the dark prince of pop). They're rough around the edges but if you like that kind of DIY thing, there's alot of good stuff in there, should you have a few hours free to flick through the 1000 or more songs on your choice of mp3 player. I'll let you know where you can get the entire Niall James Holohan (the dark prince of pop) mp3 collection, tentatively entitled 'the Death of the Album', pretty soon.
THE "KISS ME, I'M IRISH" TOUR
After 2 years of solo touring through most of Europe & a sizeable section of the U.S. I decided, in 2006 that it was time to stand still for a second & make a full on debut album that I could offer as a calling card. You know, to kickstart whatever it is I've been preparing for all these years & to promote a live show & live dates that were gathering pace. It was recorded through the summer & autumn of 2006 & completed in April of this year.
THE DEBUT ALBUM
Reader’s Wives debut album was released to critical accalim in Ireland on the 29th of March 2008. We have since been touring around Europe extensively, making friends and fans everywhere we've gone. We have also been sure to return to Dublin, whenever possible and will continue to do so no matter where we decide to base ourselves in 2009.
FAITH IN THE FUTURE
The debut album, for good or ill, is a blueprint for what I'd like to do, going forward, which is to make the kind of music that couldn't have been made, 10, 20 or 40 years ago. A record, that's of it's time with a track list that reads like the best kind of stand up-comics' set list. If you're aware of any subject that's previously been deemed unsuitable for song, let me know & I'll have a crack at writing a song about it for you. The sort of sounds I have in mind is what you might call Americana, for Europe, it's materials, subjects & targets relate to Europena history, folklore & European geography & my songwriting ingenuity, for what it's worth, hinges, I think, on both agreeable melody & topical lyrics that arn't afraid of making concession to humour, dark or otherwise. I often present myself as an artiste-bohemian, always an air of weariness, even though I will more often do so to parody the role. Not everyone gets that joke but then not everyone gets most jokes that are worth telling, so, you know, you keep moving.
Getting out on the road & playing live again, across Europe, this past year has been so rewarding & the people & places we've been lucky enough to see will inform our second record, which willl be recorded in 2009. Our touring has also brought us further friends in the business side of the live music world. Across Europe, as in Dublin and I imagine anywhere else, we've seen so many artists who are stuck in the 20th Century mindset of simply trying to make it look like they're interested in what their friends & fans have to say & we've realised another strength we posess. We're different. We stand out because we really do respect & listen to any friend of fan we're lucky enough to meet & make. You'll notice all our biographies and press material are written, stubbornly, in the first person because we’re an independent band who are proud of the work we do to promote ourselves. I think it would silly, in 2009 to hide behind the usual kind of third person reportage style that is part of the old world of pomp, hot air & posturing all artists should be trying to do away with once and for all anyway.
Thankfully, the old music industry is crumbling. Games are moving to the front of what used to be record shops & recording has moved out of studios and into homes. You can make a record at home now for, what? A couple of grand? If all this means the death of celebrity & of huge stars making crap records, that would be fine by me. When I attended South X South West in Texas in 2004, the big promise of digital technology was that, in breaking the old way music was put out there, it would free independent artists like us to find our friends wherever they felt like engaging in our music. Slowly, thats happening. All the while, the live music boom continues apace, with escalating concert attendances and more acts than ever on the road. Not just that, but all the signs indicate that the live scene is about to get livelier still and that’s music to our ears ‘cause that’s what we’re all about. Simply playing for growing number of people who are interested in hearing us. Reader’s Wives has never been, and never will be about a clique of people. We belong to whoever likes us & we’ll show up to play for those people wherever they’ll have us.
What's more encouraging is that now, for the first time, business people are having to summon the humanity and passion that artists and music lovers have always had in order not to be removed from the equation entirely. Artists and music lovers have an opportunity now to take the corporate edge out of both pursuits. And as someone who considers himself as both an artist, and a music lover, I'm excited about the future. Bring it on!
Like the man below said. We're all alive at the same time. Don't forget it. Let's make it fun. I hope you're well & to hear from you / see you soon
WHAT'S UP and THANKS FOR LISTENING!!!!! BMV Presents the "GRIMEY GROOVE" EP on MELODIC RECORDS OUT NOW WORLDWIDE!- Jay Robinson-A Little Tune "BMV's BIG TUNE GANGSTA REMIX!" , The BANG BOOM POW EP, and RUDEBOY FIDGET FUNK EP OUT NOW TOO!!! Go GET EM AND BANG EM!!!!
Be sure to check my blog to DOWNLOAD MY FREE DIRTY ELECTRO REMIX OF DA RUMPSHAKER!!, and check the player for all my upcoming DIrty Bassy Choons and releases on all Download sites Worldwide! ONE LOVE!!! BMV
Excuse this out of the blue comment and yes it’s one of those ‘all about us’ ones, but just wanted to let you know, we’re having our EP launch tomorrow (Friday 16th Oct) at the Crane Lane theatre here in Cork. It’s free to everyone and be great if by chance you happen to be in the Cork area and wanted to drop in!
Michael Brunnock will be performing with his Irish Band "Little Palace" November 5th 8pm Whelans, Dublin November 7th 9pm Headfort Arms, Kells, Co. Meath November 12th 8pm The Backroom, Navan, Co. Meath Little Palace will be releasing their New Single "Beekeeper" from their latest album Invitation Time. We all hope to see you there. Keep Music Alive go hear a show.
Hey, This Sunday we are having our biggest sale ever! "The 50% off sale" Starts 12pm. ends @ 4pm. Thanks for letting us post this and supporting local music!
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