Easpa Géag - We Are All Destitute

What with burning out on listening to Irish music, horrible equipment failures, crippling addictions to Words With Friends and getting distracted by various experiments with video (more on that later), it’s been absolutely forever since we’ve last uploaded a song.

Well not any more. As usual you can download it for free from Soundcloud.

Samples Used:

1. Rory Gallagher - Going To My Home Town
2. T-Woc - Dubroads
3. Nine Wassies From Bainne - Shop At Fleadhworld
4. Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red
5. Letter From Belgium - Best Left
6. Various Radio Talk Shows And Ads
7. Hunter-Gatherer - Change Of Address
8. Archetype - Chevron
9. Solen - Lord
10. Super Extra Bonus Party - Spanik Sabotage (2Bit Budstep Mix)
11. Tommy Tiernan - 9/11
12. Virgin Prunes - Pagan Lovesong (vibe akimbo)
13. Cian - Torrential

Notes:

This is our attempt at a Dubstep song. Which was much more difficult than we thought, considering we were making it all out of samples. It’s still only a demo, we need to go back and add in some proper dubby reverbs and delays, but that’s something we need to do by hand and it takes FOREVER.

The song title, and artwork, is a reference to We Are All Prostitutes by The Pop Group, quite possibly the greatest Post Punk song ever. It still sounds just as fucked up four decades later. Naturally, Maggie has been swapped out for Charles Haughey.

Naturally.

A word on the “various radio talk shows and ads” segment though. It’s a sample of a much longer sound collage Bomb Cruach created a few years back. It was based around the Cut-Up Technique, an idea put forward by the Beat Poets (notably Gysin and Burroughs). In their early experiments they would cut up various newspaper reports on the same story, and then rearrange them at random, to discover the “true truth” of the issue.

Bomb cut up an ordinary cassette tape, so that it only lasted around 5 minutes. They then spent the next 2 hours or so listening to news reports, talk shows, adverts and end of the dial music stations, recording fragments from each before fast forwarding or rewinding the tape to a different, random, location. When it was finished they had a nonsensical, stream of consciousness distillation of what was going on at that moment in time.

It just so happened that this particular piece was made around 2009, just as the recession was breaking and everyone was panicking and everything was going tits up. It’s quite an interesting, if paranoid and apocalyptic, piece. Maybe we’ll post it a bit later on.

Easpa Géag - Pat Kenny Has A Penis

Another short one this time I’m afraid. It’s not big and it’s not clever, but it made us laugh. Plus, you can’t say he doesn’t deserve it. As usual you can download it for free from Soundcloud and share it among all your friends and family members, also for free.

Samples Used:

• Late Late Show
• Rollerskate Skinny - Swingboat Yawning
• Chris De Burgh - Brazil
• JJ72 - Algeria
• Late Late Show interview with Dave McSavage
• U2 - Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
• 7AR - Everybody Come To Rick’s
• Mr Sunshine - Fire In The Driven Snow
• Pat Kennys Live Line

Notes:

Not much to say about this one really, it’s pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.

Oh! The artwork was made by superimposing a penis into a picture of Pat Kenny holding a cake shaped like an owl. Fly-Leen used the first suitable picture she came across on google, and it wasn’t until after she submitted it that we realised that Ryan was written on one of the testicles. Which only made it funnier in our eyes!

Also, in interesting connections time, Rollerskate Skinny were formed by Kevin Shields’ younger brother, and consensus is split in this group about which is the better Shields band: My Bloody Valentine or Rollerblade Skinny. Any thoughts?

Easpa Géag - Black Is The Colour Of My True Loves Heart

It’s been a week since we put up a new track, so we decided to do something about that. This ones a surprisingly cheery number about ending a relationship.

As usual, soundcloud, free download, share around, blah blah blah. Yiz all know the routine by now.

Samples Used:

1. Joe Dolan - It’s Only Make Believe
2. Shit Robot - Losing My Patience
3. Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club - My Friend Jim
4. Radiators From Space - Faithful Departed
5. Holy Roman Army - Sliding Plates
6. Fight Like Apes - Lend Me Your Face
7. Intermission
8. The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap
9. Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart
10. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
11. Des Kelly & The Capitol - Streets Of Baltimore
12. Virgin Prunes - Baby Turns Blue (directors cut)
13. The Winter Passing - Excuses, Kid
14. Roisín Murphey - Mommas Place
15. Edit/Erase - Choke
16. The Cranberries - Zombie
17. Adebisi Shank - Genki Shank
18. Funky Junction - Palamatoon
19. The Undertones - Jump Boys
20. Catríona O’Sullivan - Want To Love You

Notes:

This was the first track we started working on, way back when. Though the main body of the song has remained more or less the same throughout, it’s been changed so many times it’s hard to keep track of. As a result of this, Countess Markiebeatz’s parents have horrible, Clockwork Orange style seizures whenever they hear the bassline, such is the level of exposure they got.

Excluding the tracks we’ve done that feature a bunch of samples from Movies and TV Shows, this is probably the most amount of samples we’ve used in one go. Towards the end there are 9 different songs playing, all at the same time. Which you have to admit, is kind of impressive, no?

The songs title is a parody of an old folk song called Black Is The Colour Of My True Loves Hair. The first mention of it comes from Appalachia, though it’s believed to be based on an old (probably lost) Scottish folk song. It’s also found an audience outside of Folk music, and entered into several Jazz songbooks. Most notably Nina Simone’s, though Patty Waters version has to be mentioned for sheer mindblowing freakiness.

The artwork is an edit of the promotional poster for Intermission, which is a great film you should go see if you haven’t.

Easpa Géag - Bolshie Dick Revolution

This is just a short stupid song that doesn’t really serve any purpose. It was originally the intro to Disco Pigs, but it was just a bit too long and a bit too much of tangent, so we cut it out and it became it’s own song.

As usual, you can download it for free from soundcloud to share with all your friends, or play very loudly in your car/home entertainments system. We don’t really care, it’s yours to do what you like with.

Samples Used:

• Pat Kenny vs. Legend
• I’ll Eat Your Face - Irritant
• Therapy? - Born Too Soon
• The Pogues - Down in The Ground Where The Dead Men Go
• Hulk - The Sea Is Mute, The Waves Are Hymns
• Dustin And Bob Geldof - Rat Trap
• Enda Kenney vs. John O’Donoghue
• Paul Gogarty vs. Emmet Stag
• Michael Collins

Notes:

We’re not going to try and pass this off as satire or something stupid like that. It’s really just a bunch of people swearing set to music.

The titles an obvious reference to the Bolshevik Revolution. However, we didn’t know Bolshie was an actual derogatory term for people on the far left. We just knew it coz that’s what our Mums used to call us when we were being grumpy.

Also, it’s a terrible pun. We know that, and we’re dreadfully sorry. It was originally going to be called Aggro-Culture, but then we found out Captain Moonlight (an Irish rapper) had a trilogy of albums by the same name*. We may steal a bunch of other peoples music, but not their jokes.

If anyone has a better suggestion for a song title please, for the love of god, let us know! Our ask box is always open.

Also, the picture we’ve used is of Charlie Haughey, who was a giant dick. Doesn’t stop it being hilarious. Never quite found out what the context was though.

* Which are very good and you should totally check them out.

Easpa Géag - Songs About Focail

It’s been a while (well, 2 weeks) since we’ve put up a new track, but here it is! As usual, you can download it, and all the other songs we’ve made available so far, from our soundcloud, for free as well. You should probably do it pretty quickly though, before someone finds them and tries to sue us.

We never set out to make a song so heavily based around bands associated with the Richter Collective (though we admittedly did toy with the idea of deliberately running with it), it just worked out that they put out a lot of bands with a lot of songs that had samples at the right speed. We do quite enjoy the fact that we managed to make a song (almost) entirely out of Punk and Hardcore samples that doesn’t really sound anything like a Punk song though.

Samples Used:

• 16 Hertz - 16 Tonnes
• Sultans Of Ping F.C - Clitus Clark
• Humanzi - Fix The Cracks
• Party Weirdo - Chart Your Cycle
• Cian - Torrential
• BATS - BATS Spelled Backwards Is STAB
• Cap Pas Cap - Said Say It
• Virgin Prunes - Twenty Tens (I’ve Been Smoking All Night)
• Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
• Yer Man - Weird Therapy (acapella)
• LOGIKPARTY - Japanese Flag
• Adebisi Shank - Micromachines
• Dickie Rock And The Miami Showband - Every Step Of The Way
• Redneck Manifesto - Black Apple

Notes:

The song title and artwork, are based on Songs About Fucking by Big Black, who aren’t Irish but you should check them out anyway because they’re fucking amazing! It’s a pretty iconic album cover (and name) and there have been several parodies over the years. Our favourite is Kid606, who went all out and named one of his albums Songs About Fucking Steve Albini, complete with amusing/distressing artwork. It’s really fucking good if you’re into droney analogue stuff.

It’s also a pun on the fact that, unlike most of our other tracks, there isn’t really a message or unifying theme behind it, we just liked the way the samples sounded together. In short, it’s about “fuck all”. Yes, we do still find that joke funny.

Easpa Géag - We Hate You South Dublin Bastards

Yet another preview of what we get up to when not busy writing about stupid shit on the internet. As usual you can download it for free from Soundcloud and share it with anyone you want.

Let’s be honest, we’d be kind of hypocritical if we said otherwise.

Samples Used:

• Leap Year
• Boss Volenti - Deeper Than Deep
• The Revs - You Shine
• Lerosa - Desir
• Pope John Paul II’s Speech In Galway, 1979
• Jape - Christopher And Anthony
• Joe Dolan - Secret Love
• Stump - Buffalo
• The Boomtown Rats - D.U.N.L.A.O.I.R.G.H.E
• Stiff Little Fingers - Closed Groove
• Nine Wassies From Bainne - Connie Bailte
• G Force - Dancing
• Nurse With Wound - Duelling Banjos
• Sounds Of System Breakdown - Reversism
• Scrubs 
• Bell X1 - Rocky Took A Lover (acapella) 

Notes:

The title of the song is a reference to an album by the Cork band Microdisney, which was originally titled We Hate You South African Bastards! but re-released under the name Love Your Enemies the reflect the end of the Apartheid regime. The artwork is based on promotional materials for Between Foxrock And A Hard Place, a play based on the continuing adventures of Ross O’Carroll Kelly.

For those who aren’t familiar with Ireland, Dublin is divided roughly in half by the river Liffey. The general consensus is that those to the North are poor and rough as a badgers arse, while the South is seen as more affluent and pretentious. Neither of these observations are nessicarily true. Ross O’Carroll-Kelly is a fictional character from an ongoing series of satirical books, poking fun at South Dublin (particularly the D4 area) and Ireland in general. It’s both affectionate and scathing, and does for the city what Father Ted did for the countryside.

Interesting Coincidence: Though it was purely accidental, both Nine Wassies From Bainne and Stump feature ex-members of Micro-Disney (the band which preceded their more famous incarnation as Microdisney). Even more interestingly, other Micro-Disney alumni include Cathal Coughlin, who would later form The Fatima Mansions, and Sean O’Hagan, who would find fame with The High Llamas.

What’s most interesting about this, to us anyway, is that how exceptionally awesome all these bands are is in direct proportion to how mind numbingly boring Microdisney were. They have to be one of the only retroactive supergroups ever formed.

Also, Further Trivia: Nine Wassies From Bainne featured the drummer from The Golden Horde. Ireland really is that small and incestuous.

Easpa Géag - Revolution Summer

In honour of the Occupy Dame Street camp being shut down - apparently to make way for the St Patricks Day Parade - we thought now would be an appropriate time to post this track.

As usual you can download it from our soundcloud and share it far and wide.

Samples Used:

• Tommo Kiernan - All Screws Are Bastards
• Ugly Megan - Kathi & Orlando’s Revolution
• Damien Rice - Volcano
• Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy
• Corrs - Summer Sunshine (acapella)
• Enemies - Morse Code
• Colours Move - Typers & Trains
• Fight Like Apes - Snore Bore Whore (album version)
• Van Morrison - It Stoned Me
• You Kiss By The Book - Hands On Water
• Adebisi Shank - Logdrum
• The Nolans - Sexy Music

Notes:

This track was an effort to move away from straight up Hip Hop influenced, beat based stuff, and make a track that sounded like a “proper” song. It was one of the first individual tracks we started working on, right back when this project was first started. It was, for a time, going under the working title of Revolution ‘09 (a reference to The Beatles’ track), which should give you an idea of how long we’ve been working on this project.

The name we went with in the end is taken from the Revolution Summer era of Hardcore music, which formed the blueprint of what would later go on to become known as either Emo or Post-Hardcore, depending on how pedantic you want to be. On a side note, Bomb Cruach and Captain B-Boycott are huge fans of this particular era.

Also, we’ve know the girl Ugly Megan are named for, and we’d just like to take a second to refute that claim. Not only is she an all round lovely, and quite attractive, person, but at least one member of this group has been harbouring a massive girl crush on her for years. So if you happen to be reading this … just sayin’ …

Easpa Géag - Crackberry Toe Jam

Another little taster of what we’re in the process of putting together right now.

You can download this one for free from Soundcloud too if you like. Feel free to reblog and share this with the world, or download it and put it on a CD for all your friends. Do what you like really, there’s not much we can do to stop you even if we wanted to.

Samples Used:

• The Nolans - Attention To Me
• Herv - Portable Music 1.1
• Queen Kong vs. You’re Only Massive - Blackberry Slow Jam
• (retards) - Chinese Girl In My Trunk
• Patrick Kelleher - A Boy Named Suzie Q
• Supernova Scotia - Strozek
• Stiff Little Fingers - White Noise
• Thin Lizzy - Angel From The Coast
• Heathers - Remember When
• That Petrol Emotion - The Bottom Line

Notes:

The (really quite terrible) artwork for this was thrown together by Fly-leen and uses the album artwork from Strawberry Jam by The Animal Collective.

Also, this is probably one of the most complicated editing jobs we’ve done for the album. The list is long (and boring) but involves a bunch of cutting things up, repitching, different delays and reverbs, power downs and panning.

We repeatedly attempted to record the actual Irish Sea for the bridge, but alas it just always sounded shit and would go against our “no original content” policy anyway. Instead, the sound you hear is actually the static at the end of the album version of White Noise by Stiff Little Fingers being played while Bomb Cruach mucked about with the EQ live on their mixer.

Finally, for those of you who don’t speak Irish, the weird little break down at the end is a musical pun on the name of the band. Easpa Géag (poorly) translates as “missing limb”, though it’s more accurately “a lack of limb”.

Disclaimer:

We had a discussion between us about the use of offensive materials, and we decided that we would try and avoid them whenever possible, or at least address the issues involved.

First off, White Noise by Stiff Little Fingers. Though normally we strongly disapprove of Irish people comparing themselves to real life, actual minorities, we think that given the context, this is one of the few occasions it was justified. You are more than welcome to feel differently, we’re not saying we’re correct, just letting you know how we feel on the subject. Just be warned that, if you’ve never heard the song before and want to check it out for yourself, there is some very, very course language and quite a lot of ethnic slurs.

Easpa Géag - Disco Pigs

In between our hectic schedules of “being condescending cunts to foreigners” and “making paddys look bad”, we’re also a band who like to create music. Here’s a taster of what we get up to when we’re alone in our bedrooms.

You can download the track for free from our Soundcloud profile and share it far and wide if you’re in such a mood.

Samples used:

• Irish Jam
• Perez Prado - Guaglione
• Exxon Valdez - Do My Thing
• Nurse With Wound - Cooloorta Moon
• The Chalets - Two Chord Song
• Republic Of Loose - Na Na Na Na Na Na
• Sultans Of Ping F.C - Where’s Me Jumper?
• Father Ted
• Funky Junction - Fireball

It’s probably the straightest remix we’ve done for this album, but fuck it, you’ll get the general idea. We also made this track using the broadest possible definition of Irish, there’s probably more “cheating” done on this track than on the rest of the album combined.

Some Justifications:

Nurse With Wound is (mostly) made up of English musician Steven Stapleton, though as he’s (and this by proxy, NWW) called Ireland his home for quite a while now, as well as referencing Celtic culture repeatedly, we decided to count him as an honorary Irishman.

Similarly, Perez Prado is pretty famously Cuban. He’s also fantastic if you want to do a bit of musical exploration and look into Mambo. However, due to it’s inclusion in a fairly iconic Guinness ad in the early 90’s (yes, we’re all old enough to remember it firsthand) we decided among us that it was sufficiently buried within the average Irish persons mind to, again, count as “culturally Irish”.

Misc Trivia:

Funky Junction only ever recorded one album, one of those dirt cheap, incredibly tacky “cover” albums you could buy in Woolworths. Theirs was ostensibly a tribute to Deep Purple, but featured several songs not even remotely connected to the band.

However, the most notable aspect of the record - aside from how truly dire it is - is that Funky Junction were, in fact, Thin Lizzy, who were in desperate need of the cash. They also recruited some friends from fellow Dublin band Elmer Fudd, who have sadly disappeared into the mists of time, to round out the line up. The organist, “Mojo” Lennox, would later also find fame as a member of Blodwyn Pig, who are awesome if you’re into slightly silly, proggish 70’s Folk Rock.

Also, the song is named after a very good (if quite disturbing) Irish movie, starring Cillian Murphy, which you should check out if you’re into some very frank portrayals of sexual jealously and psychosis. The artwork is taken from the movie poster for The Butcher Boy, yet another very good if (only slightly) less disturbing Irish movie, but alas we don’t know who did the original painting.