Modern Disgrace from; Dublin 1980 – 190?
Style;
Line up;
Vocals; Des Traynor
Guitar; Ronan O’Hanlon
Bass; ??
Drums; ??<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modern Disgrace had a residency at Toners from July to November 1980 with Ad Lib. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Modern Disgrace from; Dublin 1980 – 190?Style;Line up;Vocals; Des TraynorGuitar; Ronan O’HanlonBass; ??Drums; ?? Modern Disgrace had a residency at Toners from July to November 1980 with Ad Lib.Gig Guide13\/09\/1980 Magnet Bar, Dublin with 19:91 Modern Disgrace were young, energetic, enthusiastic and playing their third gig. I can\u2019t say it was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12523,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2310","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8260,"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2310\/revisions\/8260"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghostown1976.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Gig Guide
13\/09\/1980 Magnet Bar, Dublin with 19:91
Modern Disgrace were young, energetic, enthusiastic and playing their third gig. I can\u2019t say it was a cause for celebration, but beneath the dull pastry of ramonic guitar and vocals prat \u2013 antics lurked some surprisingly good punk pop songs; beaty, melodic little chewns, knowarramean? Modern Disgrace are no disgrace, but where is their place in the universal scheme of things? Is it too early to say or is it too early to tell?
The gap between new and neu is the difference between being modern and being modern for the sake of it, a tightrope of distinction stretched across a grand canyon of Germanic spellings \u2013 new:neu; modern: modern (hip:hype, anyone?). 1991 walk that tightrope and for most part keep their feet, though sometimes wobbling badly.
Where Modern Disgrace are down to basics, counting their fingers and thumbs, 1991 are on another hand and have the upper hand. They are musicians and as a result are able to realize their ideas with much greater accuracy \u2013 they are the most professional and well rehearsed new, young band I have ever seen.
Their sound is built on a very solid, hard, bass\/drums foundation, overlayed with a chiming and imaginative guitar: Joy Division spring to mind, but this is more \u201crock\u201d. Various other suggestions loom: Magazine, D.C. Nien, Echo and the Bunnymen, XTC\u2026.. Dylan?!
The songs are short, semi \u2013 melodic, well \u2013 constructed, often very dynamic. They are also occasionally boring, generally too similar and though lyrics were difficult to make out, they did at times seem to evince a dangerously \u201cholier \u2013 than \u2013 thou\u201d attitude.
The group functions very much as a solid unit, in which vocalist Des \u201cAre you going to say I worked for the Hot Press! Traynor is the focal point: undeniably a solid element of the whole, he also presents the groups most apparent weakness. A frontman he has not yet found the measure of the stage or himself and he tumbles down the hole left by Bono of U2, looking awkward when he is perhaps trying to look vulnerable, silly when he is trying to be strong. Equally, as a vocalist he doesn\u2019t cut, basically because he does not understand his voice: Des can\u2019t sing, but he sometimes works as a non singer, which to a certain extent accounts for the echoes of Magazine, XTC and especially Dylan, but more control and understanding is required, less straining to reach the impossible note.
1991 have made a promising introduction, playing a driving and for the most part cohesive set (discounting two dubiously included Dylanesque country songs!). This is a first report and whether they will sharpen up and straighten out, tomorrow only knows. They deserve your attention. Neil McCormick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n