Agents Of Pocket Change

By Joe Kavanagh

During the relatively fallow years that Irish rock endured, in an international sense, between the early 90s and the present, one of the most repeated accusations leveled at Irish acts has been that they sounded "too Irish", a phrase that is tantamount to an insult unless you are an Irish trad band.

Excluding such notable trailblazers as My Bloody Valentine, Therapy?, Ash and a handful of others, there really wasn't a whole lot to cheer about in a commercial or creative sense, as the majority of original Irish rock acts appeared to subscribe to a particular style of music that seemed overly inspired by early-U2.

In fact, it is basically possible to draw a direct line from The Fountainhead through Something Happens, straight to The Frames, without any real divergence in sound.

In many cases, bands were inspired to follow U2's line in the ultimately vain hope that they would emulate their success, while in others it was the fact that labels spent much of the time searching for the "next U2", cultivating knock-off copies of a true original, which only served to perpetuate the myth that contemporary Irish bands are only capable of creating one "sound".

Those acts who genuinely attempted to make something different found themselves marginalized, unwanted by Irish radio and operating with little or no encouragement in the Irish music establishment.

It is no coincidence that bands like My Bloody Valentine and Snow Patrol, Therapy? and Ash succeeded in the UK long before they achieved any kind of success in Ireland.

Quite simply, had they remained in Ireland, they would have undoubtedly failed, the victim of a doctor that keeps prescribing the same medicine to a patient even as it is obviously killing them.

Then, to add insult to injury, some journalists and people in the Irish music media had the audacity to wonder aloud why all Irish rock music was beginning to sound the same.

The initial and most damaging effect of this pseudo-policy was the fact that it inspired a whole generation of Irish kids picking up instruments to emulate a sound that was neither imaginative nor effective.

Every action, as Newton informed us, has an equal reaction and opposite reaction and the results of this resistance are now, thankfully, percolating through to the surface of the Irish music industry.

Initially, the unconventional lived exclusively on the underground circuit, as the country experienced a thriving punk/hardcore scene in the early noughties, while bands like Dudley Corporation and other similar souls, showed innovation, craftiness and flair.

As the decade has progressed, the threads linking Irish acts have become more disparate by the month as bands like Republic of Loose (Soul), Oppenheimer (Electro), Hoarsebox (indie-jazz) and a multitude of others take on different sonic paths without ever getting bogged down in pretension.

Heck, things have become so diverse that we even have a self-styled (and excellent) act from Waterford, named Ilya K, who traffic in a brand of music that they refer to as "psychedelic pikey rock".

GPO is the brainchild of Dublin musician, Paddy Hanna, who, by his own account, spent the early part of this decade hanging around musicians, absorbing myriad of musical influences.

In June of last year, Hanna decided to form his own band and called upon multi-instrumentalist, Bronwyn, and drummer, Peter, who follow the long-held tradition in music of only using a single name.

Initially, the band also comprised of Maykay and Pockets, members of fellow Dublin act, Fight Like Apes, although the two were forced to leave GPO when their own band saw their workload swell dramatically as the year drew to a close.

Initially, all five members decamped to a rural setting where they set about making music that shrugged conventions, embraced the unorthodox and was bereft of any definitive aim.

Under such free guidelines, the band set about translating songs that Hanna had been working on for several years, finally settling upon a sound that they accurately describe as "the love-child of Pavement and Liza Minnelli".

Within months, the band began playing live, where their self-described "camp-energy" and sense of pageantry soon saw them making a name on the Irish underground scene.

In January, GPO climbed into the full glare of the public spotlight with the release of their highly-acclaimed, Odd Socks EP, coming in at barely over six minutes long, the record provides three tracks of slightly twisted, quirky pop that would be at home in a set by Modest Mouse.

The accompanying video to the title track, a superbly imaginative effort, featuring paper cut-outs of the members, only served as further evidence that the band is brimming with ideas and the will to pull them off.

Since its release, GPO has continued to soar on the Irish scene with appearances on the "Best of IMRO Showcase," several tours of the country and their inclusion at several of the summer festivals, confirming them as one of the most exciting acts in the country.

Plans are already afoot to release the EP in the US later this year and the band has also added their first overseas tour dates in places like the UK and Germany.

While it's true that their off-kilter, catchy tunes, zany manner and liveliness, have managed to generate intrigue in abundance, Hanna has also shown a propensity for throwing out statements that make Noel Gallagher sound like a shrinking violet.

Recently, the front man was quoted as comparing GPO to Brazilian footballer, Juninho, during his spell with premiership soccer team, Middlesbrough.

Given the fact that Juninho was considered to be by far the most talented player on an ordinary team, Hanna's inference quite clearly asserts that GPO stand head and shoulders above any of their Irish peers.

As Shakespeare pointed out in The Twelfth Night, there are three ways of attaining greatness but going around declaring yourself to be great is not one of those ways, no matter how many times you say it and particularly when you have a total of four songs in the public domain. He might do well to heed the old adage that "only whales that spout get harpooned."

Whatever your opinion on GPO, there is little doubt they provide further evidence of a fundamental change in Ireland's musical landscape and make no mistake, it is a change for the better indeed.

After a long night with only the occasional lonely, twinkling star emitting any light, it finally appears that the last couple of years offer conclusive proof that contemporary Irish music has woken up to a bright new day. With any luck, the industry and public will soon realize this too because while the music has changed; unfortunately the apparatus has not.