THE DYKEENIES FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA:
"APART FROM THE MISHAPS, IT WAS GREAT"








They didn't have their drummer. They didn't have their own gear, but in the great Scottish tradition they fought on and did just fine. Here are two brief reports on The Dykeenies' first visit to the states:

SCOTS KICK OFF NME NIGHT SCHEDULE AT WAVE
New Musical Express, March 14, 2008

The Dykeenies kicked off the evening portion of NME at Wave in Austin tonight, using entirely borrowed gear.

"Apart from the mishaps it was great; we had to borrow a lot of gear," Steven Ramsay told NME.com after the show, in what might have been the understatement of the week. Adding ". . .and my guitar strap broke."

The band accumulated enough gear to perform by sending a mass text to their musician friends, including Dan Le Sac who told NME later "they texted everyone who uses laptops, which was pretty silly!"

The Dykeenies played "My Friend Jo," "New Ideas," "Boys Will Be Boys When It Comes To Girls," "Pick You Up," "Stitches," "Clean Up Your Eyes," "Three's A Crowd," and "Waiting For Go."

DYKEENIES' JOHN KERR BANNED FROM SXSW AFTER PUB BRAWL
Exclusive by Beverley Lyons/ Scotlands Daily Record, March 12, 2008

Dykeenies drummer John Kerr has had his hopes of playing America's influential South By Southwest festival dashed because of a pub fight. The rest of the Cumbernauld band jetted out yesterday to Austin, Texas, to perform at the event that has launched the Stateside careers of artists such as Franz Ferdinand and Amy Winehouse.

But John was refused a visa after being fined for breach of the peace following the incident in The Swan in Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, which followed a wedding in May 2007. He pled guilty in January this year and was fined £500. Strict American visa laws prevent people with criminal convictions entering the country. A replacement drummer has been found and John is now kicking his heels at home while his pals live the American dream.

John told the Razz: "I'm not going to America and they will probably not let me back in future. "I am really gutted as I was looking forward to it. I hope it goes well for them at SXSW and I can't wait to continue our UK tour on March 17." Lead vocalist Brian Henderson said: "John didn't qualify for his visa so we had to get in Gordon MacNeil, formerly of The Hussies." Bass player Andy Henderson claims John has one of those faces that always lands him into trouble. Andy said: "On the way in to Amsterdam we stopped at the airport John was warned to behave himself.

"The guy said to John: 'Don't get up to anything'. Everyone else was told to enjoy themselves. It's funny because soon John was being sick outside a coffee shop at 9.30am." John also recently broke his finger after stage-diving at Glasgow's ABC during The Dykeenies' headline gig. He said: "I became the first person to stage dive into a crowd of 1500 and land flat on my face. I broke a finger." The rest of the boys can't wait to impress at SXSW and have three full sets plus two acoustic gigs to perform over three days plus plenty of parties to attend.

On their return on Monday they start their English tour immediately and plan to meet up with John in London. The drummer said: "They will have had 30 hours of flying so I'll resurrect them."

"If it's in your eyes, then it's in your mind/
If it's in your mind, it's in your thoughts/
If it's in your thoughts then it's in your words"
 
First reviews from around the world of
The Dykeenies debut album:
"NOTHING MEANS EVERYTHING"


My usual method of giving a little background history seems a little silly this time around. Everyone at Are You On Something.com seems to be way ahead of me with this band, and the "Meet The Dykeenies" feature article on the band takes care of all the personal details. No, I'm here to cover the music from "Nothing Means Everything," the Dykeenies first full length slab of music.

Whenever I locate any info about this band online, there always seems to be some mention of bands like The Killers and Arctic Monkeys. Not to say that I don't see the parallels, but I think there are a couple of major differences in The Dykeenies sound. First, these songs all have their own distinct personality. I find The Killers to have a very constant tone that runs throughout their material, and their songs have a tendency to flatten out because of it. The Dykeenies have a very diverse blend of tone on display here. Secondly, there is a Pop sensibility to The Dykeenies that is not found in other bands of their kind (dare I say the newest "New Wave" genre?). These songs are all around three minutes in length, with none of them reaching the four minute mark, and they are all laden with hooks big enough to land a whale.

Launching the disc with "The Panic," The Dykeenies seem to jump down your throat with a whiny, a capella vocal that leads into a thrashing that reminded me of The Sex Pistols. But, even though this track is the furthest removed from the rest of the material, it still has the band's stamp on it. The song is a different style, but the band still sounds comfortable and "real" with their performance. And it just so happens that "The Panic" sits back-to-back with the catchiest Pop track on the disc. "Waiting For Go" is a ditty that will infiltrate your head and bang around in there for days on end. It's like some kind of musical masochism, and it doesn't end with "Waiting For Go." The next two tracks, "Stitches" and "Clean Up Your Eyes," remind me of the first time I heard U2. It's not really the music that is similar, but yet it's the chill that I got when I knew I was hearing the "next big thing." These two songs are radio hits, plain and simple. These songs are the voice of a band destined for stardom. It's perfect production quality with the band giving us amazing drum rhythms that roll and rumble sporadically, sharp and intense vocals, with thought provoking lyrics that are poetic and poignant. And, not to single out any one of these talented musicians more than the other, but this drummer is incredible. So many of the rhythms here are complex, but they're never overplayed. Big Country skinsman Mark Brzezicki had a very similar style, and Dykeenies drummer John Kerr is just as good, and just as much fun to listen to. "In And Out," in particular, is a drum clinic.

As the album progresses we start to hear every facet of the band's diverse sound. A song like "Things You Cannot See" might remind you of a late 70's/early 80's Peter Gabriel sound that was a bit deeper and more serious, while "New Ideas" and "In And Out" lean more toward The Clash's brand of fired up, crunchy Pop. You might even here a Police influence on "Symptoms." All of these songs are branded with The Dykeenies musical iron though. Packed with soaring vocals, a big drum sound, hooks galore, and excellent production quality, "Nothing Means Everything" is soon to be a modern day classic. Scott "Dr. Music" Itter

INSTANT CLASSIC!!! This is definitely the best album released this year, probably the best this century. Yes, it's that good. They renewed my faith in indie music which I thought I had lost long time ago. Alp Kartun, Adans, Turkey


THE MUSIC WHIZZES ALONG in a Killers-like tornado of reprised choruses and energetic shouts, with the plaintive angst underneath picked up by the sinister synths. List.co.uk


DELICIOUS! &The Dykeenies opens their debut album with the percussion pelt and frantic&Brian Henderson pushes his vocals to the limit to add paranoia and punch, it will get the attention of listeners from the off. The Dykeenies are certainly more energetic and impassioned than a number of their peers and there is a hardworking and sincere vibe that comes through. It doesn't disappoint&beginning with the superb 'The Panic'&Each track has its own punchy contagious chorus& with past singles 'New Ideas' and 'Stitches' standing out as does live favourite 'Waiting To Go'.

'Lose Ourselves' is a more stripped-down electronic track and is reminiscent of the anthemic nature of The Killers first album, it builds to a brooding drum-laden climax before bursting out the other side in a golden glow befitting the feel-good atmosphere of the album. David Adair

THE DYKEENIES HAVE PRODUCED AN ALBUM WORTHY OF THE PRAISE they have been receiving. "Nothing Means Everything" is worthy of a best new artist nomination, or something similar.

"Nothing Means Everything" starts out with the punchy 'The Panic'&. the album continues with pace and power. 'Waiting For Go' has energy in abundance, new single 'Stitches' is similar to Biffy Clyro's latest work in structure, while 'Lose Ourselves' occasionally verges into new wave synth. Richard Fox

Here is the brand new video
of the album's first single, "Stitches"

Like Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Stitches" provides a flashback into the group's childhoods with its lyric "Still I adore the taste of rain, and the bounce of bone on the ground". It was produced by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers)

The album release tops a whirlwind summer of touring where audience sing-a-longs broke out as the group continued to delight and dazzle audiences througout Scotland. They killed during a magical T In The Park gig and have been featured on the cover of Scotland on Sunday and hit number one on the charts in July with "Clean Up Your Eyes."

July 20, 2007

THE EYES HAVE IT FOR SCOTS GROUP

singles and albums
THE OFFICIAL UK CHARTS COMPANY

Rick Fulton
TOP 10 SCOTS SINGLES
1 (-) The Dykeenies Clean Up Your Eyes
2 (1) Rihanna ft Jay-Z Umbrella
3 (-) Fergie Big Girls Don't Cry
4 (-) Arctic Monkeys Fluorescent

The Dykeenies are:
Brian Henderson (vocals & keys), Alan Henderson (guitar),
Andrew Henderson (bass), Steven Ramsay (guitar) and John Kerr (drums)


Videos:
Clean Up Your Eyes
New Ideas
Waiting For Go


Links:
www.thedykeenies.com
www.myspace.com/gofindthedykeenies
 The Dykeenies at wikipedia.org


Click here for the original areuonsomething feature:
Meet The Dykeenies

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