IT has all changed since I were a lad: back then metal meant poodle haircuts, dodgy leather trousers, very long, tonguewaddling guitar solos and lyrics that ranged from very bad to the just plain stoopid. Pick up a copy of the definitive "metal" mag Kerrang! these days, however, and you'll see bands like Ash, Green Day and Placebo (God bless em) on the front cover. At the risk of sounding like a documentary, it was the Seattle sound, and in particular Nirvana, who grabbed metal by the lapels of its ill fitting denim jacket and proceeded to punch some sense into its dumb, macho head.
Admittedly more than a point could be made for Husker Du and Pixies and their respective roles in the de stupidifying of metal, but it was Cobain and Co who threw out the cheesey metal poses and replaced them with healthy doses of punk rock music. Bye bye Aerosmith, hello Skunk Anansie.
In a local sort of way, Therapy? were the first Irish band to fuse together the metal/punk genres to come up with something quite awesome - but down in Kilkenny something strange was brewing in the early 1990s with the advent of not one but two metal/rock bands who were both signed up by major labels and tipped for very big things indeed. The My Little Funhouse (now known as Tripswitch) story you know; Kerbdog, though, are a different kettle of drum altogether.
Starting off as a covers band, playing Sonic Youth and Husker Du, they signed on the dotted line with Mercury (part of the Polygram empire) once they started writing their own material. Their eponymously titled debut album and the mini hit single Dummy Crusher didn't exactly sell trillions of records, but did well enough to garner the band a lot of favourable notices. Now back with a new album, On The Turn, we met them beside the swimming pool of the Kilkenny Hilton.
New album, new vibe? "Sort of," they reply as one. "First of all we've slimmed down the line up; we're now a three piece, and just on the metal thing, we've never considered ourselves a metal band - all our influences are what would be known as alternative American bands, although we do like Stiff Little Fingers and The Pistols as well."
Big enough delay between the albums - what happened? "Basically we toured and toured the first album and didn't finish until the summer of 1994, and we had no new songs because back then didn't write while we were on the road - so it was a case of sitting down and writing the songs." Producer? "We had thought about Steve Albini, but we went for Garth in the end. The producer on our first album also did Nirvana's Bleach album, but we want somebody different for this, and Garth has worked with people like Rage Against The Machine, Jesus Lizard and The Melvins".
Three singles have already been released from On The Turn (JJ's Song, the brilliant Sally and Mexican Wave) and the band is happy enough with their just completed two month UK tour, where they won over many new fans with their new line up and their new sound. There's an Irish tour taking place in May with dates all over the country (venues to be confirmed very soon), but meanwhile you can get a listen to On The Turn on a listening post near you.
OVER to the jacuzzi in the Waterford Sheraton, and we find that this most pleasant of places has lost the run of itself altogether and is about to stage a Weekender type of vibe with funk, jungle, acid jazz and trip hop all putting in an appearance over the weekend of April 10th-13th. The headlining act is the James Taylor Quartet (silly people out there should be advised that they have nothing to do with the hippie singer songwriter of the same name) and Goldie's Metalheadz bunch will be staging some drum'n'bass in the shape of Grooverider and there's also be Audioweb, Kris Needs, Claude Young and the Afro Celt sound system. Venues range from The Roxy to The Junction, over 5,000 people are expected to make the journey down and tickets for all shows are now available at usual outlets.
THE IMRO tour is up and running again, with 50 bands playing 12 nationwide dates over the next few weeks. Always a big A&R attraction, the tour kicks off in Whelans next Wednesday with The Marbles (who are very good), Stand, This Certain Kind and Rojam ... Next week: the return of Kraftwerk.
