IT has become increasingly obvious to some people in the music business that surrounding yourself with a permanent set of working musicians, whether friends or not, is a necessary evil.
This is why David Donohue has dispensed with the concept of "the band". He has, however, decided to use the trappings of a band name, ostensibly for the recognition factor alone. He and his mercurial band of musician mates are called The Floors, and they have recently released a new mini album, Superbe (Dead Elvis). Don't look at the gig guides for a rash of live shows, though, for The Floors have no intention of playing support gigs on wet Monday nights to bands no one has ever heard of. Which is fine, for that is what star crossed teenagers do. David isn't one of those.
Donohue's musical background dates back to the early 1980s when, in his native Carlow (where he now lives after having spent time in New York following a career in multi media) he was in a band called Tension. Carlow wasn't the time nor the place, however, for burgeoning multi media stars intent on working with select members of New York's art music scene (including John Zorn and Laurie Anderson), so David left. Music journalism paved the way for film making, another ambition that was realised when his documentary, Put The Blood In The Music - a film on New York's left of centre music participants - was hailed as a resounding success.
"I was in New York around the late 1980s, and that whole scene, the bands that I liked a lot - the Downtown crowd - really affected me," he tells me. "Lou Reed and John Cale are obviously people that I have immense respect for. If I had to have influences, they'd be the ones I'd like." In the meantime, he continued writing and recording songs with friends from Carlow and beyond, including Maria McKee. The Floors' debut album Truths And Distortions (Setanta) was acclaimed left, right, and - not to put too fine a point on it - centre.
And so to the new record. Superbe by name if not by nature, the eight track album nevertheless stands heads and shoulders above the normal 1996 Irish rock album release. It features Donohue's penchant for a cheeky experimentalism that lampoons Bono, parodies Nirvana and The Beatles and uses a 1986 spoken word exercise in very naughty Queen's English from No Wave "poet" Lydia Lunch - the excellent No Excuses. There's also a guest spot from Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo, who recites a story poem, The Bee, that imagines a scarifying scenario of receiving a phone call while lost in the centre of a storm of bees.
EP of the week is from Belfast based Babyshakur. Released today, First Time (Project Rype), is guitar fuelled heaven with a few neat twists in the lyrics department. The band have recently supported Scheer, Schtum and The Bluetones, but if you think you're going to see them soon, forget it - they've just finished a full Irish tour. Releasing a debut EP just as they've finished touring - now that makes sense, doesn't it?
GIGS to keep a beady eye out for over the next few days include Murphy's Live Mix 96 at various venues in Cork. The bands playing tonight are Galway band The Kathleens (The Crannog), The Revenants (Nancy Spains), Mesner (Thirsty Scholar), Revelino (The Crazy Horse), The Prayer Boat (Western Star) and Watercress (Half Moon Club). The other safe bet is in Dublin tomorrow night at The Mean Fiddler, where one of the original and best cow punk bands, Jason & The Scorchers, will undoubtedly be proving to people that there is more to country music than line dancing and hat acts. Also, don't forget what could be the weirdest gig of the year - next Tuesday (19th) those two madcap Situationists of Pop, Bill Drummond and Mark Manning, aka KLF, are "performing" Bad Wisdom (whatever that is) at Whelans. You have been warned.
