The Urges – Irish Band Of The Week

Fresh from their performance on the Salty Dog stage at EP, this week’s Irish Band of the Week is The Urges. Describing themselves as ‘five men, their names are not important now, but what is, is the sound that those five men create’, their style of gritty, primitive, garage rock was something that quickly caught the attention of the music scene here in Dublin. However, with the release of their first track, ‘(Around &) Around’, they soon came to the attention of international music producers and promoters, and it wasn’t long before these five nameless men were suddenly very much named- touring America, Europe, and even further afield.

After the release of their well-received album, ‘Psych Ward’, in 2008 the band’s curious combination of garage rock with more psychedelic sounds of metal caught the attention of Steve Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records label. Since then, they have worked their way out of the garage and onto one of the most prolific stages at EP. Their sound progressed, incorporating much more rock ‘n’ roll, and soul into their sound. They even managed to work string and brass arrangements into their music, whilst keeping their love of garage at heart. This evolution of the band is something that must be witnessed on stage as their sound is not music is not limited to their amps, it creeps into their light, film, and visuals; the entire stage is transformed into performance art.

Check out their track ‘Passing us by’ to hear the subtleties of their sound, it’s melodious but also eerily haunting. The vocals are sombre, there’s a worldly-wise essence to them that almost draw similarities between The Urges and The Zombies.

There’s an underlying passion to their performance, the beat, the rhythm, the lyrics are all marks of a band that are more concerned about producing slick sounds rather than just fame-hungry – and look at them now, rocking out at Electric Picnic.