One can imagine the discussion among Sean, Eddie, Cian and Conor to choose the name for their band. After rejecting every version of "Bear + _____" and "____ + Bear" as already taken, they moved on to names that they hoped signified the quality of their work. Best Band You'll Ever Hear didn't fit on the kick drum, the second vote-getter had been claimed by one of the member's younger sister for her band, and the rights to the third choice were lost in a poker game to an armless man called "Fingers". So the young Dubliners (no, that name had already been used by some Yanks) settled on The #1s. [Editor's Note: Scott's research file shows no sources for any of the statements in this opening paragraph. We suspect he may have been drinking. Again. However, he is very feisty, so we'll just add this disclaimer after he posts and goes to sleep.]
So, how does the name fit? Pretty well, thank you. Their music is energetic power pop and garage pop with punk pace and plenty of hooks. I don't know whether their song "Sharon Shouldn't" will ever be number 1, but it certainly deserves plenty of play. And you have to admire a band whose video budget only covered interior shots of the corner market. I don't know whether any of you need an explanation of the key lyric "Lisa says she can't, but Sharon shouldn't", but I'm not going to do the job.
Interested? You should be. "Sharon Shouldn't" is an adrenaline-soaked power pop blast worthy of The Undertones, but with a lot more pop in the chorus. By the way, it is available from Sorry State Records in the US and Alien Snatch Records in the Old World.
And rest assured that The #1s have more quality songs in their catalog. Click on the Soundcloud link below, and you'll have five more delightful tracks. But let me do some of the work for you and provide two of them --
Soundcloud
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Sorry State Records
Alien Snatch Records
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ReplyDelete#1 indeed. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteGo Irish!