The Radioactive Grandma (Johno Leader, Peter Donohue & Ben McCarthy) are an original alternative indie acoustic rock band from Co.Cavan, Ireland- originally hailing from Peterborough, (Cambridgeshire) UK, and Dublin Ireland.
They have their own style of original energetic acoustic driven alternative pop/rock music using nothing more than 2 guitars and a box.
From opener "The Game" to choppy closer "The Walls Have Ears"; The Radioactive Grandma deliver songs using sparse instrumentation but with heaps of passion and ability. With brilliant stand out tracks like 'The Game' (has echoes of Bon Iver and The Travelling band, which by all means is a fine testament to this Irish outfit) to 'The Walls Have Ears' - the vocal harmonies quickly become the major hooks.
They have their own style of original energetic acoustic driven alternative pop/rock music using nothing more than 2 guitars and a box.
From opener "The Game" to choppy closer "The Walls Have Ears"; The Radioactive Grandma deliver songs using sparse instrumentation but with heaps of passion and ability. With brilliant stand out tracks like 'The Game' (has echoes of Bon Iver and The Travelling band, which by all means is a fine testament to this Irish outfit) to 'The Walls Have Ears' - the vocal harmonies quickly become the major hooks.
Midway through and coming to the end, the album keeps a steady solid flow with each track becoming an extension of the one before.
What The Radioactive Grandma sound like is the result of a chance meeting between Editors & The Frank & Walters, who hang out and decide to have one big acoustic jamming session. So for what it is: It's a stellar acoustic effort with very basic minimal instrumentation and production, that after a few listens begs for the repeat button on its stand out tracks. I do feel though, that it could've been a stellar-great-magnificent-who-the-hell-are-this-band!?- album, if it wasn't for the sparse production and overzealous repetition due to the 'two guitars and box' situation. (And if they left out that snappy cajun from some of the tracks- the album might have flowed better for me. It just got too much half way through).
From track 2 to 5, Instrumentally speaking, the band rely too much on quick pro quo starts to the songs with snap shot muted guitar strum or bass note intros for most of the songs. In each case; the chord progression is implied with a non varied simplified structure comprising a combination of quickly strummed chords, single notes and palm muting. A bit of a change would have benefited and prevented the listener from drifting off. Percussion wise, I would have liked to hear some standard drumming in place, as opposed to the cajun throughout the whole record, which again gets very repetitive. (Literally most of the songs have the exact same intro; which gets immediately samey). For instance; I am a fan of Ryan Sheridan but what I don't like about his work is that is starts to get that 'Samey' feel to it. There is a slight case of it here. Having said that; it does work tremendously well with certain aspects of the record, such as the song highlighted at the beginning.
Overall the album is a fine testament to what a couple of lads can do on what appears to have been a shoe string budget record, that might have been great had a high end production been within reach. So for what it is; it's got 2 or 3 stand out tracks that would appeal to the repeat button. I'd recommend you take a listen.
Download 'Another Wasted Line' for free here.
Check out the album here. Or listen below.
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