#386
Oh Boland - Take Me Back To Mutton Island
Monday 28th November, 2016
They say:“Mutton Island is a tiny landmass off the coast of Galway city, affixed to the coastline by a causeway, home to Galway's only sewage treatment facility.
Take Me Back To Mutton Island was probably a Sunday night declamation to the toilet bowl. Take me back to the earth or sea. Chlorinate me. Purge me.
It's perfectly possible that that's actually not what the songs about at all but that breakdown probably reads better than "I was bored and hungover and put a nonsense splurge to a Nerves riff and called it a tune...". The lyrics were more than likely written to sound good and fit the melody. I haven't had to talk about any of my songs before so lets pretend they weren't.
Anyway, I had the riff then threw the chorus on the end and took it to Simon(drums/vocals) who laid the choogle down and wrote a bass part which Eanna(bass) in turn swung in his own direction. Some songs come in a complete arrangement, but most are pulled apart by the group in rehearsals..
We recorded it along with 9 other tracks for our LP "Spilt Milk" over Halloween weekend 2014 with our good friend Mark Chester(No Monster Club/Ginnels) in a cottage in rural Galway. The emphasis was on capturing the clumsy excitement of a good live performance, we bashed 'em out quickly with minimal overdubs in two days.
Soundwise, we're a regurgitation of 60's girl group pop melodies, Flying Nun jangle, country goof, 70's power pop muscle flung around in a confused punk inflected spasm. Bands we listen to include The Clean, Big Star, Real Kids, Yo La Tengo, 13th Floor Elevators and The Replacements."
We say: “Fuzzy-headed anthem about escaping from rubbish city life to Ireland's wild west. Rain-lashed horizons never sound so inviting.
The tune lurches along with some style and then erupts into a soaring guitar line that has the lyricism of Dinosaur Jr."
'Take Me Back To Mutton Island' is from Oh Boland's latest LP 'Spilt Milk', available to buy now via Volar Records. The band is expected to tour in February - keep an eye on their Facebook page for live dates.
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