The first question you want to ask - but shouldn't ask - an Irish band which has just been signed to a major label is "what are you going to do when you've been dropped?" There is a fair amount of empirical evidence. Let's bring on the latest kids on the multinational block, Juniper - wash them and bring them to my interview tent, please.
From the rock'n'roll killing fields of Kildare, the five-piece emerged in 1994, all swagger and poise, with aims to go higher than the sun. Rather sensibly, they concentrated on building up a local fan base, dipped into a few "new band" competitions, got the obligatory support slots at The Mean Fiddler and Whelan's and brought out an EP, Manna, on their own label two years ago. With product in hand, they dared approach the major labels - and Polygram Ireland was the first to bite. Paul Noonan, drummer and vocalist (Black Lace, Eagles, Genesis alert) takes up the fable: "the five of us went to school together and then ended up living together in a sort of Monkees way and that's how it all started. We started building up a local fan base, then did a few supports and then we ended up with a sort of residency in the Da Club where someone from Polygram saw us, and then we got signed".
The first single, called Weatherman, is released this very day and the band celebrates the occasion by playing Dublin's Red Box tonight. A bit big for a band starting off, drummer person? "Not at all," replies Paul. "The tickets were sold to people on our mailing list, people who have been following the band since more or less since day one, and we've managed to get 700 of them down to the gig tonight." Given Juniper's sort of sound - modern guitar rock - it must be pretty impossible not to end up trying to sound like Radiohead, seeing as they have conquered all before them and have provided the template for contemporary guitar rock bands? "If everyone wanted to sound like Radiohead it would be a pretty dull world," says Paul. "Obviously we like them, but we like Portishead and Polly Harvey also. There are three songwriters in the band, so we get a diversity of sound across - and generally there is quite a dark and baroque feel to the music."
The lead track on the single, Weatherman, is an impressive debut by anybody's standards, displaying as it does a firm grasp of indie rock sensibilities, but it could do with a hook or two - as in, if you can't whistle it, leave it on the studio floor. The other two songs on the single, Little Susie and Rage, are further evidence of real potential here - the former is all dark and broody with an insistent melody (hurrah for melodies!) while the latter is a darn good workout indeed. More Spiritualised than Radiohead, if you ask me; but go along tonight and make your own mind up. Remember their name: they're good.
Juniper play The Red Box tonight (doors 9 p.m.) The Weatherman single is on the Polygram label.
There's a whole slew of good Irish stuff out at the moment: ex-Microdisney head, Sean O'Hagan, and his High Llamas are back with a new album, Cold And Bouncy (on V2 records). More about this and Sean's mad encounter with Brian Wilson next week/or the week after. Meanwhile the ace Derry band Cuckoo have re-released their excellent Non Sequitur single, seeing as they're now signed to mighty Geffen records. . . It's a bit spooky listening to the new Whiskeytown album, Strangers Almanac (on Universal) because they sound just like The Replacements (particularly on track three). Whiskeytown describe themselves as "a rock'n'roll band that sounds like country" and they acknowledge their influences by describing their sound as The Replacements and Husker Du crossed with Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Which is good enough for me any day . . . Lord Julian of Cope plays The Olympia tonight (late show), while Primal Scream warm up for their Galway date with a gig in the same venue next Wednesday . . . The exceptionally talented Mark Eitzel (American Music Club, friends with REM etc;) returns to play Whelan's on February 12th but tickets are going really, really quickly. His new album, fetchingly titled Caught In A Trap And I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much (Baby) is well worth a go on your local listening post.
