An ever-shifting smorgasmobord of self-designated beautiful people and bitter, disgruntled social outcasts (these not being mutually exclusive)
Influences
YOUR CHILDREN, mostly in a bad way.
Or, more effusively; vaguely pretentious but also designed to awaken some sense of the named in the reader...and alphabetised for neatness & obscurity (this is but a fluid and merely representative list; one aspires, zenlike, to the condition of a sponge):
action [ak-shuhn] v 1. to achieve (stated) goal, to get (usually specified) ball over the line, to avoid kicking to touch. Usage note: one need never bother learning verbs again, as they can all be elegantly replaced with an "action" + noun combination e.g. action the eating of dinner, action the waking from sleep, etc.
Allianz Direct for employing obviously psychopathic individuals as advertising frontpeople
Bach for being so magisterial and combining such technical mastery with such endlessly life-affirming music
Bacharach for introducing such wonderfully inventive chord and time changes to popular music, cloaked in the guise of reliable suaveness
Beatles for the synergy (as evinced by the subsequent solo careers) but mostly for trying anything...oh and the tunes too I suppose
Beckett for demonstrating the importance of focussing on the fundamentals of one's "vision" and dispensing with everything else
Beethoven for finding so many completely unrelated ways in which to be a genius, for the mindbendingly complete reinvention that was his late period, for the monstrous and bizarre Missa Solemnis and utterly mindboggling Op.111, but most of all for his personality...strong, intelligent, warm, joyous, sad, sometimes nasty, but always strong
Don Conroy...explanation unnecessary
Fair City for showing how nonsense can truly lead to the greatest joy
Gaudí for (although I can't claim to know anything about architecture) the breathtaking marriage of crystalline purity to such gnarled wildness
Hitchcock for (although not being my favourite director, in fact I don't think I have one) making deliberate technical innovations always serve the overall point of the movie
Mahler for the intellect and the sentimentality and the horror and the irony
Mussorgsky for showing that ugly can be beautiful...it helps to remember this when facing the mirror first thing in the morning
Nabokov for the delivery of black humour with such devastatingly eloquent style
Puccini for making one's heart swell (if a little guiltily) with the tunes
Wilson for (in his couple of anni mirabiles, at least) such relentlessly original chord changes and tunes that skipped and shimmied unpredictably around said changes
First off, should you wish to be kept abreast of the ever-inexhaustible supply of exciting Michael Knight-related news and exotic happenings and sexual misunderstandings and gigs and the like, then do email us at michaelknight@yesboyicecream.com and we will relate all.
Michael Knight are a Berlin/Dublin-based indie pop band. A mutually parasitic but sadly inescapable marriage of the stylish black humour of Vladimir Nabokov and the sophisticated pop sensibilities of Burt Bacharach, sung deadpan and upholstered with tinkly pianos, loud guitars and sweeping strings.
Our new album I'm Not Entirely Clear How I Ended Up Like This is hitting the shops RIGHT ABOUT NOW, but if you prefer to avoid people and the potential for collecting germs, you can always have it DELIVERED by clicking on this button, this button here:
"So much that is original and unusual about away-from-the-mainstream music-making informs this second album from Richard Murphy and his collective: a sleeve like a tattered, secondhand book; lyrics presented in play-script form; a sprawling opening track of Swingle-Singers-on-the-lash vocal ravings; the threat that beneath the formal, chamber-pop structures, chaos lurks and dissonance hums; the primacy of the artistic vision, with nothing sweetening or diluting its purpose. Deluded misanthropists, defeated idealists, becalmed lovers, materialistic arrivistes and vengeful exes people the “11 Tableaux”, with Murphy’s laconic singing and Bacharachian progressions just about joining the dots. Pretty odd, but rather fine." The Sunday Times
"I'm not entirely clear why Richie Murphy isn't already a huge star in his own country...From the post-modern sleaze of 'Coronation Street' to the ironic triumph of the title track, Murphy's theatrical wit and daring sense of melody puts him on a footing with the likes of Stephen Merritt, Neil Hannon and even Noel Coward. A truly victorious album." State Magazine
Our previous album Youth Is Wasted On The Young can be obtained by clicking here
"Why Michael Knight aren't already huge is both baffling and beguiling; but there lies a persisting talent for songwriting within; sooner or later these songs will be discovered and consequently as eulogised as that hairy buffoon and his silly talking car are. I may as well say it in advance, then; I told you so." www.soundsxp.com
"Quirky and idiosyncratic, Youth Is Wasted On The Young is a singular debut. Full of harmonic vocals, swirling melodies and odd chord progressions, it's a complex yet accessible pop record" Hot Press
"There's a sophistication about Youth Is Wasted On The Young that's not found in many debuts, so redress the indignity of this album's criminal disregard and pick it up now" www.entertainment.ie
"Michael Knight's Richie Murphy is a writer of supremely beautiful songs which have a heart, a soul, a wry sense of humour and none of that upsetting necessity to make every lyrical couplet rhyme." In Dublin
"...completely bowled over by "Waves To The Shore" with its gorgeous guitar tone and boy/girl vocal melodies...This is quite a lovely debut from this band, from the (mostly) fantastic songs to the attractive children's book-ish artwork. Nice!" www.indiepages.com
"This is the worst album I've heard all year" Mick Hucknall
How do. How's she cuttin'? By which I mean, how is teh album doing?
If you feel like it I stuck up some new recordings of songs we did in the album session in Electrical Audio. None of the songs are mastered yet and there are a couple of tweaks here and there to be done but I thought I"d stick em up so you could get a listen before the album is released.
I"m gonna rotate the songs on an as unyet decided basis (weekly, biweekly, triweekly even??) and include songs that didn"t make the final cut. Watch out for them...
The songs up now are There You Stand, This Is How We Play and Home.
This Sunday July 27th! OPEN MIC L.J. FOX at Madame Claude Lübbener Str. 19, Berlin-Kreuzberg this time hosted by sibsi Everyone can play up to 3 SONGS. Sign up at 8pm.
Oh, just in case you haven't heard about it yet, I'm asking with all courteous kindness, please allow me to utter this personal recommendation of mine: There's this lovely summer open air at Schokoladen. Today and tomorrow. I think it already starts in the afternoon. Best from the quiet green heart of Germany, Kathrin
Thank's for acceptin'! Also thank's for the lyrics! (As my Swedish self I have had grave hearing problems, which now have been gracefully eliminated.) Very nice, very beautiful, very somber! You could definitely had chosen a worse source of inspiration than our dear V. Nabokov!!
From the horseback, Pat "Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin" Highmountain
wow! your so wonderful! thank you so much for considering me as a friend, i hope all is well, stay warm and full of love. -heather "its lovely to meet you angeles!"-elliot smith =)
Hi Mickael! I was just passing on your page to listen to your songs... How are you? What's up? Are you proud of your new album and how are your concerts going in Dublin and elsewhere?
I was going to follow the lead of most of the other comment-leavers and post some spam. But instead I thought I'd give it a miss.
I would like to say, though, that the new songs sound great. Especially "Victory Is Mine" which you now call "I Don't Know etc...", a favourite of mine. I don't know the tecnical terminology, but horns make it good.
See you on the 3rd. As in I'll be watching you. Not in that way though...
