Vitamins | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 17, 2014 | |||
Genre | Indie rock, Folk rock | |||
Length | 30:38 | |||
Music for Dead Birds chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Ptolemaic Terrascope | Positive [1] |
GoldenPlec | Mixed [2] |
Vitamins is the third studio album by Irish anti-folk band Music for Dead Birds. [3]
The album was recorded in one weekend at Data Studios, County Kerry, with recording engineer Tadgh Healy. [4] The album was released on 17 April 2014 as both a Pay what you want digital download and a limited edition CD run of 100 copies. [5] Lead track The Farmer's Corn was broadcast by 2fm in Ireland [6] and 2SER in Australia. [7] A music video was produced for the track Magic Witch which received national media attention for its dark content. [8]
Writing for Ptolemaic Terrascope , Simon Lewis said that "The sudden stop/starts, so beloved of Seattle residents, do sometimes get a little wearing, but it's never less than intriguing listening, and the good songs have their own chutzpah." In a review for GoldenPlec , Danny Kilmartin opined "“Vitamins” does have its moments. Its major flaw, however, is its inconsistency and lack of cohesion."
All songs written by Jimmy Monaghan.
The Bevis Frond is an English rock band formed in 1986 in Walthamstow, London, England. The band is fronted by Nick Saloman and has recorded many singles and albums on various independent labels.
Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, known professionally as Vitamin C, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress. She began her career as an Ivory soap baby and child actress, appearing in John Waters' film Hairspray (1988), and continued to appear in minor roles in films before starting the alternative rock band Eve's Plum in 1991.
Blink are a pop rock band from Ireland. Noted for their melancholy humour, they have released four albums since their inception in the early 1990s.
Wipers was a punk rock band formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1977 by guitarist and vocalist Greg Sage, along with drummer Sam Henry and bassist Dave Koupal. The group's tight song structure and use of heavy distortion were hailed as extremely influential by numerous critics and musicians. They are also considered to be the first Pacific Northwest punk band.
Glen James Hansard is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten of the Irish Album Charts. In the 2000s, he was one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season before releasing his debut solo album, Rhythm and Repose, in 2012. His 2015 second album Didn't He Ramble was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.
Terrastock is a music festival organised periodically by Phil McMullen, formerly editor of the Ptolemaic Terrascope and since 2005 the publisher of the Terrascope Online website. The event typically features independent bands playing psychedelic rock. It has been held on six occasions in the USA and once in London, UK.
Wallis Bird is an Irish musician, living in Berlin since 2012. As of February 2023, she has released six studio albums, including Architect in 2014 and Home in 2016.
"In Your Eyes" is a love ballad recorded by Irish singer Niamh Kavanagh written and composed by Jimmy Walsh. It represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 held in Millstreet, winning the contest.
The Walls are an Irish rock band. They were formed in 1998 by two ex-members of The Stunning – brothers Steve and Joe Wall. Their debut album Hi-Lo was released in 2000 and included the singles "Bone Deep", "Something's Wrong" and "Some Kind of a Girl". The Walls supported U2 at their second show in Slane Castle in 2001. A number of songs from Hi-Lo featured in movies: Goldfish Memory, On the Edge, and Dead Bodies. In 2002 they released the single "To the Bright and Shining Sun", which was used on an Irish TV commercial and reached number 11 in the Irish Singles Chart. The subsequent album New Dawn Breaking (2005) included "To the Bright and Shining Sun" and three other singles: "Drowning Pool", "Passing Through" and "Black and Blue". The 2013 movie Begin Again starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo features "Drowning Pool" over the opening credits. The first track on the album "Open Road" proved a favourite with Nic Harcourt on his KCRW show Morning Becomes Eclectic and he invited the band to play a session on the show in 2006. They played SXSW in Austin, Texas, a few days beforehand. The following year the band travelled to Australia and played their first shows there, opening up for Crowded House on the latter's first reunion gigs. The Walls opened the shows in Sydney and Melbourne and also performed their own gigs in both of those cities. The band's third album Stop the Lights was released in 2012. In March 2013, the band played their first shows in Russia and performed live on the Evening Urgant show. They returned the following year.
Nickolas Laurien, known professionally as Nick Nicely, is an English singer-songwriter who records psychedelic and electronic music. He is best known for his 1982 single "Hilly Fields (1892)". Nicely released only one other record in the early 1980s, the single "D.C.T. Dreams", before retreating from the music industry. The influence of "Hilly Fields" has been noted on Bevis Frond, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Wyatt, and XTC's psychedelic alter egos the Dukes of Stratosphear, as well as the hypnagogic pop movement of the 2000s.
Eimear Mary Rose Quinn is an Irish singer and composer. She is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 with the song "The Voice". Since then she has toured and performed extensively internationally and has released four albums of her work, the most recent being Ériu, recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and released in 2020.
Jimmy Monaghan is an Irish musician from Belmullet, Ireland. He has released music as a solo artist, and as a member of the anti-folk band Music for Dead Birds.
Music for Dead Birds are an anti-folk band from Galway and County Mayo, Ireland. Its members are Jimmy Monaghan and Dónal Walsh (drums).
The Linus Pauling Quartet was an American psychedelic rock group which specializes in a specific subgenre known as "Texas Psych", but frequently dabbles also in garage rock, stoner rock, punk rock, and heavy metal at various points throughout their discography. The LP4 was formed in 1994 by veterans of various local groups from the Houston and Clear Lake areas of Texas. Born of the same musical cauldron that birthed such renowned Texas Psych favorites as The Mike Gunn, Dry Nod, and Schlong Weasel, bands which also included later members of Charalambides and Dunlavy, the LP4 got off the ground when guitarist Ramon Medina and bassist Stephen Finley recruited drummer Larry Liska and singer/guitarist Clinton Heider and the quartet began writing and recording songs for their first album, Immortal Chinese Classics Music, released in 1995 on their own Worship Guitars label. The album surprisingly earned considerable attention beyond their native Houston, garnering notable reviews in several music magazines such as Q Music, Factsheet Five, Alternative Press, Crohinga Well, and Ptolemaic Terrascope, and featured "The Linus Theme" and "Hamburger Girl", two songs which came to define the band's early years, and which the LP4 revisited many times throughout their career.
Lisa Lambe is an Irish singer, actress, songwriter and folklorist.
Ryan Sheridan is an Irish singer, songwriter and guitarist from County Monaghan.
Pearse McGloughlin is a songwriter and artist from Sligo, Ireland. He has released five studio albums; Busy Whisper (2009), In Movement (2012) and Idiot Songs (2013) which was a concept album based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot' in collaboration with composer Justin Grounds. McGloughlin draws on literary and philosophical influences in his work. His aesthetic is described as atmospheric or ethereal. McGloughlin released 'The Soft Animal' in 2016 under the artist name of 'Nocturnes'. ‘The Rest’ was released in 2020.
The Pope's Sister is the second studio album by Irish anti-folk band Music for Dead Birds.
Hearken to the Witches Rune is a studio album by the English folk music duo Dave and Toni Arthur, recorded in 1970 and released by Trailer Records. It features English folk music with a focus on uncanny and magical elements. Ahead of making the album, the Arthurs held discussions with the Wiccan leader Alex Sanders and were invited to Wiccan coven meetings. The title comes from Doreen Valiente's poem "The Witches' Chant". The album has not been rereleased and has developed a cult following.
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