Weren't Stoats some of the bad guys in "The Wind And The Willows"?

I went to see LPX's album launch gig last Saturday. I've not had a chance to listen to Leigh's album yet and I'll get something up about it later in the week hopefully but today I want to write about one of the support bands.

Stoat have been around for seemingly forever and all three members are into their 30's at this point but it was only a couple of years ago that they finally managed to get their debut album Future Come And Get Me recorded and released. It's an odd blend of pop songs, sea shantys and noisy indie (if Modest Mouse ever plays a gig on their own here these guys would be the perfect opener) which I really liked when I heard it but it's probably been a year since I took it off shelf it was on.

Saturday was the first time I'd seen them play since I reviewed their album launch for Cluas a couple of years ago. I liked them that first time but on Saturday it finally clicked with me just how good their songs are. I was sitting there watching them (the dancing didn't really start until La Galaxie came on and even then I didn't partake) and on almost every song they played there was something about it that made me think "that's really fucking good".

I've taken the unusual step of uploading a pair of Stoat songs here. They're the 2 songs from the album that I most enjoyed during the gig and though they both illustrate just how good their songwriting is and share a few common traits which I really like (the fact that they're sung in an unmistakeably Irish accent complete with "our" phrasing and vocabulary being the most obvious thing) but it's very different elements on each that really gets me interested. The first song "Nobody In Heaven" I just love the lyric for it, it starts of with a bluesy riff which runs through most of the song but at the end in comes a Dubliners style choir which sounds more like a drunken singalong than any conventional set of pop harmonies.

The second song "Oh Happy Day", which closes the album, is a slow builder but there's a moment just before the 2:10 mark where the song goes off in a different direction completely and it just kills me.

Stoat gig infrequently but they are taking part in this year's Hard Working Class Heros festival at the end of September and if you're going then they're definitely one to check out.

MP3: Stoat - Nobody In Heaven from Future Come And Get Me.
MP3: Stoat - Oh Happy Day from Future Come And Get Me.