Telefís, the groundbreaking collaboration between two Irish iconoclasts – acclaimed producer Garret “Jacknife” Lee (U2, REM, The Killers) and revered singer/lyricist Cathal Coughlan – have revealed their new single “The Carthaginians”, alongside an accompanying music video.
The song is taken from their upcoming album 'a Dó' (set to arrive on October 7th). Pre-order your copy here.
"The Carthaginians" and it's a tribute to Irish showbands of the '60s and '70s. The tribute video was directed by Jacknife Lee featuring footage of early U2, Virgin Prunes, Cathal Coughlan & Microdisney and Nun Attax.
Jacknife Lee explains..."When Cathal and I started conversations about what the themes for our second album “a Dó” might be, we kept coming back to the peculiarly Irish phenomenon of the 'showband’, and certainly not in the dismissive way our teenage selves might have approached it but with a curiosity and excitement. Entertainment and community were important to us as teenagers in the late '70s and the '80s and all the bands featured in the video, from the Miami Showband to Nun Attax were born of this, and have more in common with each other than not. When Cathal and I were starting out the thought of us having similar goals and impulses as the regal showband or dickie rock would’ve made us laugh and maybe throw a punch, but now not so. There is a straight line through us all. The post-punk artists featured in the video (as well as the touring showbands) could only have been products of Ireland and we wanted to celebrate the oddness of it all. So we invent ed a showband and called them “The Carthaginians”. The song explores what it’s like to be in a band, the relationship with the audience, the internal dialogues, the branding, the town hopping, the dashed hopes, and the ridiculous fantasies”.
Take a listen below.
Tags: Telefís
