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Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club ‘The Beautiful Untrue’
The New studio album from ‘Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club’ entitled: ‘The Beautiful Untrue’ is scheduled to be released in Ireland on April the 24th.
Produced by Jerry Fish
Recorded by Dick Meaney
(The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine)
Mixed by Phil Hayes (The Cake Sale, Bell X1)
‘The Beautiful Untrue’ will be released on Jerry’s record label The Mudbug Club and distributed by RMG Chart Entertainment. The album features some extraordinary guest vocal performances from two of Ireland's up and coming female singers Imelda May and Carol Keogh.
The first Single to be taken from ‘The Beautiful Untrue’ entitled ‘Back to Before’ will be released to radio mid March and available on itunes as a download only single. |
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HOT PRESS (VOL:33 ISSUE:7):
Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club ~ The Beautiful Untrue (The Mudbug Club)
Six years is way beyond an eternity in Rock ‘n’ Roll, and yes, it has been that long since the release of Be Yourself. Just as well that Jerry Fish sups from a well that is sunk way beneath the topsoil of pop. Once he left the constraints of the four piece rock format, he found a whole universe of music suddenly become a tangible and touchable prospect: New Orleans Jazz, Brazilian funk. Noir soundtracks, all manner of odd mondo scenes and black mambo jive. An Emotional Fish used to cover Tom’s ‘Raindogs’, The Mudbug Club might reject it as too obvious.
On that note, the opening ‘The Hole In The Boat’ is a swampy seafood-fed shuffle with Ribot-like guitar and zombie cardship vocal from Mr. Fish. Jim Jarmusch would pawn his brothel creepers for the rights. Even more exotic is the single ‘Back To Before’, a delicate waltz around the ballroom of lost romance that’s stitched with singing saws, pedal steel and tinkertoy piano, while Fish’s latest dancing partner Carol Keogh contributes a truly remarkable turn somewhere between Patsy Cline and Mary Margaret O’Hara. One expects Lewis Carroll to pop his head through the curtains inquiring after a certain miss Liddell. Another duet, ‘Hell Or Heaven Sent’ featuring Imelda May, takes the form of a sweltering motel chronicle halfway between Howie Gelb and Barry Gifford, while ‘Rogue Melody’ is a slow C&W sway with Mariachi brass and a welcome reprise from Ms Keogh. Elsewhere on tunes like ‘It Takes Balls To Be A Butterfly’ (nice title), Mr. Fish swaggers in a Willy Deville way that suggests he really needs a Hollywood agent. The jury’s still out on whether his force of personality and the immaculate cut of the band compensate for the odd wanting song (time will tell how ‘Baby You Are In Or You’re Out’ wears with repeated plays.) but such misgivings are rare. The closing ‘Where The Sun Don’t Shine’ and instrumental closing tune deserve to accompany the end credits of some arthouse masterpiece. The Beautiful Untrue is one of those records that raises the cool in the room without breaking a sweat.
****
Peter Murphy / Hot Press
Key Track: The Hole In The Boat
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THE TICKET / THE IRISH TIMES
The Beautiful Untrue ****
On MySpace, Jerry Fish, aka Gerard Whelan, lists his influences as “Beat poetry, dog, bone and sailor stories, Tom Waits, Dean Martin, Dr John, Jacques Brel, Ray Charles, One Mint Julep, Mingus, Ellington”, and his sound as “indie lounge lizard schmooze, mariachi swampadelica”. He ticks all those eclectic boxes. What he doesn’t say is that The Beautiful Untrue builds imaginatively on his debut, and that his Mudbug world of comic-cut theatre feels more attractive with each track. From the gorgeous artwork to the measured playing of Conor Brady and the singing of Whelan and guests Imelda May and Carol Keogh, this is guaranteed to put a smile on troubled faces. Indeed, The Hole in the Boat makes some kind of beautiful out of bleak. www.jerry-fish.com
Download tracks : The Hole in the Boat, Summer of Love
Joe Breen / The Irish Times - The Ticket |
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| Photos by Lili Forberg |
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New Biography - Coming Soon |
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What do you get when you cross Tom Waits with a Circus Showband, when you mix Jacques Brel with Mink DeVille, when you lock Dr John, Dean Martin and The Fun Lovin’ Criminals in the same room?
The answer, my friends, is Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club, the most eclectic bunch of musical chameleons ever to share a stage, all guided by the beatific gaze of chief Mudbug, Mr. Jerry Fish himself.
Their debut album, Be Yourself, described as ‘a vibrant mash of lounge lizard schmooze and mariachi passion’ |
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Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club ‘Be Yourself’
As close to a perfect, summer
afternoon, sitting in a hammock with an ice cold
beer CD as you are probably going to find. The
reference points are Lou Reed in the vocals, Mink
de Ville in the Latin backing, the tiniest hints
of arpeggio strings from The Blue Nile, great New
Orleans horns, wonderful backing vocals from the
likes of Damien Rice and a host of others...
Beg, borrow or steal a copy and then dig the hammock
out and wait for the sun to return. Bliss.
© Jon
Webster |
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My God, this is a great record. Imagine
the Fun Lovin’ Criminals bumping into Tom Waits in
an obscure jazz bar somewhere in Mexico and you’re
still not close to doing justice to Be Yourself, an album
which bucks the zietgiest with so much enthusiasm you just
have to love it.
Highlights are the second track Upside Down, which
sounds like Bob Dylan popped into the studio for
a guest vocal while sporting a sombrero, and the
Bacharach-like (no really) True Friends.
When you hear a record as discordant with the music
scene as Be Yourself it’s easy to assume that
it’s been recorded with the author’s
tongue planted hard in his cheek but that misses
the point here. Yes, the smiles come aplenty and
witty lyrics are definitely Mr. Fish’s currency
of choice, but these songs have been so well crafted
that they deserve more than a casual, amused listen.
With spring on the way, here’s the first record
that deserves to soundtrack your summer.
Playmusic Magazine (UK)
The arrangements are full of lovely little
touches: flourishes of Spanish guitar, bursts of swinging horns. It’s
like Tom Waits in a good mood, or maybe Leonard Cohen doing
Dean Martin backed by an Irish showband. There are a lot of
obvious influences, but the Mudbug Club embrace them in such
good spirit it is impossible not to be carried along by their
enthusiasm.
Neil McCormick / The Telegraph
(UK)
...from the infectious swing of ‘My
Friend Jim’ to the sweet melancholia of ‘True
Friends’, the addictive swagger of ‘Upside Down’ to
the emotional honesty of the title track, this is a record
that’s as warm as an open fire: an album to cherish
for many years to come.
‘Be Yourself’ has achieved double platinum
status in The Mudbug Club’s native Ireland.
The debut single ‘True Friends’ was chosen
by Vodafone to spearhead a TV ad campaign, and became
a massive hit single into the bargain. Indeed, ‘True
Friends’ was the only independent Irish single
to feature in the Irish Christmas Top 20; when it
nestled at number 15 in the national charts, and
went on to spend over three months in the Irish Top
20. The follow up single, ‘Upside Down’ cemented
The Mudbug Club’s reputation as one of the
finest new acts in the country.
Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club were nominated for
two Meteor Music Awards, Ireland’s biggest
annual musical awards ceremony, where they were up
for ‘Best Album’ and bizarrely, ‘Best
Roots & Country Artist’. Somewhat ironically,
they won the latter award, much to the bemusement
of Jerry: “At the time, I thought it was a
bit hokey to win the Roots and Country Award, but
now, in hindsight, I can see where they were coming
from, and since there was no award in a ‘Swampadelic’, ‘Best
Swamp Crooner’ or ‘Circus Band’ category ‘Best
Roots & Country Artist’ was surely the
next best thing”.
The ever-expanding Mudbug Club Troupe released ‘Be yourself’ in
the UK and busily toured the length and breadth of
Ireland and the UK including Sell-out shows at Dublin’s
famous Olympia Theatre, The Ambassador and Vicar
St. as well as jubilant performances at many of the
UK & Irelands summer festivals, ‘Fruitstock’, ‘V Festival’, ‘The
Isle of Wight’, ‘T in the Park’, ‘Oxegen’.
In 2004 The Mudbug Club were invited to Glastonbury
to play all three days of the festival and were widely
hailed as one of the hits of the entire weekend,
they returned to Glastonbury in 2005 and 2007 to deliver yet
more storming sets to the assembled masses.
‘Showbiz Nostalgia’
Jerry Fish is the alter ego of
singer Gerard Whelan who through the 1990’s
was the main creative force in An Emotional Fish,
the Irish rock band who released one of the most
successful debut Irish albums ever.
An Emotional Fish were courted and signed to
Atlantic Records by the labels legendary founder
the late, great and much loved Ahmet Ertugen.
The band released three albums, their eponymous
debut, produced by Tim Palmer, which featured
the massive hit single ‘Celebrate’,
in 1990; ‘Junk Puppets’ produced
by Alan Moulder, Dave Stewart, and Clive Langer
in 1993; and the independently released ‘Sloper’ in
1995. In between, they managed to tour the world
many times, sharing stages with the likes of
Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode,
The Velvet Underground and U2.
However, when An Emotional Fish’ last and
most critically acclaimed album, the fabulous
Sloper, saw the band end up in a legal dispute
with a record label, the Fish became disillusioned
with this business they call show, dropped out,
and turned their fins to something completely
different.
Jerry indulged in another passion,
restoring old motorcycles. He then upped sticks
and travelled to India and Nepal, where he fell head over
heels in love. However, it wasn’t until the
birth of his daughter, Ella Joy, that The Mudbug
Club’s bandleader felt he had to follow his
heart and return to the other thing he loves most
in the world, music.
Jerry set up his own independent
record label and set about recording ‘Be
Yourself’ and with a little help from his
friends, a veritable who’s who from the Irish music
industry, including Damien Rice, Anuna, Maria Doyle
Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher, Josie Doherty, and
an international brass section. With the album ‘Be
Yourself’ Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club were born. The
rest, as they say, is history…
“I wanted to record an album
that sounded like a Tarantino soundtrack,” Jerry
explains. This, he has most certainly achieved,
and then some.
‘Trivia’
Jerry Fish is the presenter of Philip King’s
music television programme ‘Other Voices
II’ broadcast by RTE, featuring ‘The
Handsome Family’ ‘Simple Kid’ ‘Paddy
Casey’ ‘Gemma Hayes’ ‘Glen
Hansard’ ‘Christy Moore’ and
many more. |
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Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club
'Live at The Spiegeltent - Floating on the River Liffey'
Recorded at the ‘Palaise de
Glase’ Spiegeltent in Dublin, as part of
the Dublin Fringe Festival… is a live album
and bonus DVD featuring two previously unreleased
songs ‘Wake up Call’ and ‘So
in Love’
‘The Mudbug Club as a band
is designed to evolve… so it was important
to me to capture The Mudbug Club before it changes… and
when I heard ‘The Spiegeltent’ was
coming to town, I couldn’t think of a better
venue to bring my circus to.’
Jerry decided to commit ‘The
Mudbug Club’ to film. ‘Live at The
Spiegeltent’ is directed by Maurice Linnane.
Jerry met Maurice while touring with U2 during
the Zooropa tour (the two share the same
birthday, in the same year, in the same hospital…spooky). |
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