sizzling sonic smorgasbord in sunny stradbally style shocker

Nice use of sibilance in the title if I do say so myself. You might be wondering why Gary Numan and Canice Kenealy from Engine
Alley are pictured here. Then again, you might not care a jot. I was trawling the internet this evening and I came across this photo of Gary Numan at last years Electric Picnic festival. I thought to myself, he reminds me of someone. It then clicked. It's an old-looking Canice from Engine Alley, kind of, but not really. Most of you will not be familiar with Engine Alley, a band whose star shone briefly in the early nineties. I liked these guys when they were doing their stuff and had the pleasure of seeing them play a few times and even supported them one time (hazy memories, rockn'roll and all that). I still have their album on cassette somewhere. As is the way with practically every band in Ireland from that era, they disappeared into oblivion, or so I thought. After some more searching I found out that they played at last years Kilkenny Arts Festival. Well done Engine Alley. Keep chasing the buzz.

That was meant to bring me on to the subject of this years Electric Picnic and in a roundabout way it has. The initial line-up for the festival was released today and from where I'm typing it looks just fine. Over the previous festivals I've managed to see about ten acts actually play on the main stages as I'm usually wandering around gawking. Here's a flavour of this years festival:



Beastie Boys - lunacy from the US threesome, the best thing to come out of the states since Bo, Luke and Daisy Duke. Iggy Pop & The Stooges - skinny frontman who took far too many drugs but still looks great. Magic Numbers - heavy harmonies from a heavy boned band. Bjork - Icelandic nutjob. Jarvis Cocker - top buzzer. Jesus and the Mary Chain - poodle fringes for the nostalgic. LCD Sound System - I hope this is good. Primal Scream - See Iggy Pop & The Stooges. Soul II Soul - bass driven soul music that Irish people can't dance to, super. Def Leppard - what the bleedin fuck is going on here?????. Chemical Brothers - obligatory dance behemoth to end one of the evenings on the main stage, thirty-somethings can rave too you know. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - this project is a bit too up its own arse but who knows what they'll be like? Sonic Youth - Brilliant.


Here's Infamy by Engine Alley. The video was uploaded to YouTube by the Irish director and screenwriter, Shimmy Marcus. So that's what screenwriters get up to in their spare time! Enjoy.