10 SCENE: FRIDAY AUGUST 19 2011

It’s so easyTHE eagerly awaited new LaFaro album will be available for pre-order next week. I advise you all to get up at 12.01am onMonday morning, go forth to Smalltownamerica.co.uk and firesome money in their direction via your preferred electronicmeans, because it’s a beast.Easy Meat weighs in at a hefty 18 tracks, although six of theseare brief interstitial skits which basically involve a bit of fartingabout with snatches of covertly recorded dialogue, improvisedjingles and other field recordings.Such deliciously uncommercial conduct underlines exactly whyLaFaro should be cherished in an era when most new musiccomes swaddled in synchronisation-orientated market researchdriven bullcrap.Look at that promo pic. Does that look like a band who lieawake at night salivating over the prospect of having one oftheir songs used for a deodorant advert or featured in a popularteen drama?Nah, LaFaro are more likely to be holding out to write thesoundtrack for the next Yellow Fever Productions gorefest – ormaybe a slaughterhouse themed porno.Easy Meat easily crushes its self-titledpredecessor in terms of sheerheaviousity. The weighty southern friedriffage of the advance title track singleand online teaser Meat Wagon’sBleach-era Nirvana meets Future ofThe Left Catchphrase referencingcharms will have offered early clues tothis, but opener Full Tilt is as metal asLaFaro have ever sounded.It’s a thundering pummel of heads-downguitar, bass and drums that makes auldTuppeny Nudger sound positively twee bycomparison. No wonder they’ve just beenfeatured in Terrorizer.It’s not that LaFaro have gone thrash oranything, but most of the songs on Easy Meatare so unabashedly tuff that it’s practically a declaration of waron anyone who considers themselves to cool to headbang.Sucking Diesel, Wingers and Chips and the delightfully namedBoke (sic – they mean Boak, obviously) practically bludgeontheir way out of your speakers, veering from a cacophonoussub-glam stomp, through one-and-a-half minutes of Jesus Lizardstyled caustic punk rock to a relentless barrage of Queens ofThe Stone Age meets Black Flag boogying.It’s not all face melters though. The looser-limbed Have a WordWith Yourself offers listeners a little breathing room with its hi-hat powered grooves (things still get fairly crunchy towards theend, mind), while Settle Petal successfully ditches the strippinghowls and crushing distortion in favour of a moodier, art-rockvibe.The skittering skronk of Off The Chart harks back to the LaFaroof old, with the band happy to just cruise along in a heavygroove, while the catchy up-tempo alternative rock of Slide Onis as close as the band come to delivering a radio friendly unitshifter – though obviously the spooky wee middle-eight wouldhave to be chopped out for the single edit. Can’t be scaring thelisteners, now.The album closes on a pleasantly downbeat note with theappropriately titled Maudlin, an acoustic number which showsoff mainman Johnny Black’s talent for bare bones acousticguitar laments. See, he does have a soul after all.LaFaro will shortly be announcing a run of Irish dates basedaround the physical release of this fine record in early October.By that stage, they may well have found a full-time replacementfor recently retired bassist Herb Magee, for whom Easy Meatrepresents a glorious last stand. Could you be his replacement?While you’re practicing for your audition, get yr pre-order sortedand get down to the Hideout in Warrenpoint tomorrow nightwhere you can see the band headline a bill propped up byGascan Ruckus, Abandcalledboy and The Lizard Queens.See ‘em up close and personal while you still can, because thebig time (and indeed hell itself) surely awaits for LaFaro. Easy?It’s a pure gift.

DAVID ROY d.roy@irishnews.com

NOISEANNOYS

JOHN KEARNS

MUSICSCENE

One love

BLOODYMARVELLOUS:LaFaro stalk theirprey.

EXPECT X Factor favourites One Direction to have a huge hit with their debutsingle What Makes You Beautiful.The record is totally catchy, perfectly produced andcleverly targeted at their ever-growing fanbase. There isa major buzz with 1D right now and the band areinspiring the same sort of adoring, fervent andsometimes crazy teenage girl fan intensity that TakeThat, Boyzone and Westlife whipped up back in theday.The network of devotees has already been trackingtheir every move, painting banners, making their ownT-shirts, camping outside Citybeat and screamingthe place down at every slight mention of any bandmember’s name. Remember, the guys who were puttogether by the X Factor judges are not even out ofthe wrapper yet!They are undoubtedly going to be the biggestBritish pop phenomenon in years.Better get used to it – this will not be going away anytime soon...

Well goodPaul Weller is back with a brand new tune calledStarlite and wow is he in a poppy mood!This is the most commercial record Weller hasknocked out since the days of The Style Council –a real surprise.When i saw the flippant spelling of the title Ithought he might be in a cheery mood, but theModfather has really got his Wham on with thisone!So has Weller gone all Savage Garden on us? Notquite, but he is about as far away from The Jamand most of his solo material as it is possible to be.The only possible further step in fact would havebeen for him to record a rap album with 50 Centand Daniel O’Donnell. Complete with dreamysynth sounds and electronic clap percussion,Starlite really is a feelgood pop song and it actuallyis one of his best efforts in years. I love it!

DANNY from The Script tells me that life as the leadsinger in one of the world’s biggest bands is definitely allthat it’s cracked up to be.“It’s wonderful the way things have just kept getting

better and better for us over the pastcouple of years – I mean, I really couldn’thave asked for more,” says the jovialfrontman.“When you get into a band you kind ofhope that one day you might get played onthe radio or even sell out the local pub butto reach where we are now is just superb.”The Script are incredibly popular in theUS; drive across that country and you canbet your life you’ll hear one of the band’ssongs pop up in every state on every FMradio station.“I think being Irish has really helped usover there, you know. I think theAmericans still love an Irish brogue. Infact, sometimes I think they would behappy if we just talked rather than sang!

“Seriously, though, America has taken to us in a big wayand because it’s such a huge territory with so many bandsfighting for room on the radio it’s a major achievement forus and one that makes us very proud.”Danny also cites being Irish as the main reason that theband members still have their feet firmly on the groundwhen I ask him if the air they are breathing now is a littlerarefied.“I think maybe if we were from somewhere else we mightbe starting to get a bit full of ourselves,” he laughs. “InIreland, north or south, if you start thinking you’re a bigstar there will always be someone only too happy to tellyou to get over yourself and give you a few choice wordsof advice, if you know what I mean! We are still the samepeople we were when we got into it. We love what we do

and it’s all about the music. Sure there are financialbenefits, but there is nothing else I would rather do thanwrite songs and perform. We really do feel blessed.”

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Return of the JedI spent half an hour with Jedward the other day. What avery relaxed and utterly normal 30 minutes that was.Those two are just so laid back and are never remotelyirritating, bothersome or overtalkative. Their album is goingto be so huge and they are nowofficially more musicallyimportant than The Beatles.Right... Edward, can you pleasepass me my laptop now and Ishall continue to write thecolumn ? Thanks.I’m in a room with Jedwardright now – it is like beingtrapped in a lift with a thousandwasps. Please help...

The band who can’t be moved