Kids, eh? With the their talents and their successful careers. JOE takes a look at the highlights of the career of brilliant Irish band The Strypes. We’re not jealous in any way, we swear.
By Eoghan Doherty
Say hello to Evan Walsh, Pete O’Hanlon, Ross Farrelly and Josh McClorey. They’re waving.
They’re four guys who, aged between 15 and 17, are probably waaaay more talented than you ever were when you were that age. While you were most likely out the back corner of your local park snorting strawberry sherberts with your ‘bike gang,’ these lads are instead taking the music world by storm, both here at home in Ireland and further afield in other countries that aren’t Ireland.
Damn you talented teenagers *shakes fist angrily.*
But we can’t stay mad at The Strypes, they’re just too godamn good at what they do. And what they do is write absolutely infectious, foot-tapping, head-nodding, sitting-in-your-chair-dancing music.
In terms of being a band these guys are brand-spanking new. Never mind that, in terms of being alive, these guys are brand-spanking new. Formed back in 2011, the four rhythm and blues-lovin’ lads are the best thing to come out of Cavan since, well, ever it seems. After appearing on The Late Late Toy Show a few years back, The Strypes grew in popularity by being, of all things, an absolutely brilliant band to go and hear live. A revolutionary move. Oh, and they’ve recently bad-mouthed One Direction which is always sits well with us here at JOE.
Just have a listen to them performing Bo Diddley’s ‘You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover’ and you’ll be a Belieber in no time.
Shit. Wrong act.
People may say horrible things like “but they sound just like The Beatles,” but that is undoubtedly the LEAST insulting thing you could ever say to any band with aspirations of doing great and wonderful musical things, especially a band who count the Fab Foursome, as well as The Yardbirds, Dr. Feelgood and The Rolling Stones, among their greatest influences.
With their ‘derivative’ sound, these four young lads have quite obviously been sent here in a time machine to be the salvation of a generation of (musically-speaking) lost kids who are probably more obsessed with their Tamagotchis and their Pogs. Those things are still popular, right?
Thankfully for us and our ears though, The Strypes have been brilliantly influenced by genius artists from the 1960s and 70s, rather than somebody like Will.I.Am from 2013, a man who has been ripping off Will.I.Am from 2011, who’s been ripping off some fella called Will.I.Am from 2009 who was making terrible music in the first place.
We here at JOE aren’t the only fans of the band though, and the lads can count Noel Gallagher among their famous buddies as you can see here:
High-profile fans also include Elton John and, for a time, the band were signed to his label. They’ve since moved on and signed for Mercury Records but here’s the Rocket Man himself chatting to some boy called Dave Grohl about how “unbelievable” the band actually are (about 4 min 30 secs in).
The Strypes have most recently been winning praise for their brilliant performance of ‘Blue Collar Jane’ on Jools Holland just a few weeks back. But why listen to me waffle on about them, check out the performance here, it’s goosebumps stuff:
As the band continue to grow in stature, they’ve been announced to play the John Peel stage at Glastonbury later this year and it’s brilliant to hear that musically, things have now come full circle as The Strypes are currently working with highly-acclaimed former Beatles producer, Chris Thomas.
Only good can come of this. In the meantime, JOE wishes the Cavan-crooners the best of luck for the future.
Pesky kids.
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