STAND
Gig Seeker Pro

STAND

Dublin, Leinster, Ireland | SELF

Dublin, Leinster, Ireland | SELF
Band Alternative Rock

Calendar

Music

Press


"Jeff Miers Review - 2010"

STAND

A great song is one thing. A great band is another. Loving a song is diving into a one-night stand, a fling, a bit of mindless self-indulgence. Falling for a band is entering into a love affair.
One-night stands are fun, and anyone who denies as much is a liar. They make you forget yourself for a while, lose your burden in someone else for a bit. Eventually, you wake up and deal with the image in the glass on your own, though. Beard scruff, whiskey breath, red eyes and all. Right now, so many tell us that it's all about the song, that democratic gangs of musicians joined as bands are not as important as the unjustly inflated personality of the walking-ego-with-the-microphone. With this has come the cry of a bloodthirsty mob heralding the death of the album. It's not the big picture that matters, but the quick snapshot. Forget it and move on. Buy the single on iTunes, and sod the rest of the record. I mean, really - who has the time to care? From the beginning, Dublin four piece STAND was a band, and one that knew well the difference between a fling and the real thing. Four musicians that come across as limbs on the same body. They seem to transcend themselves, to have arrived already living in the heady air most spend a lifetime trying to locate, getting lost on the way because they've confused the map for the road. Hearing the band's majestic, broad, flailing gesture of a sound is to feel oneself in the presence of something bigger than the four men making that sound. - Buffalo News


"City News- Rochester Nov 06"

Remember Gang Of Four? No? Well you're gonna remember Stand. The band churns out that type of melodic rock that spans tastes and tolerances. It's nice when a band can effect you emotionally as well as physically. Stand is pensive and thoughtful, but in such a way as not to dull the kick. It's rock 'n' roll, after all. Consider yourself lucky to be able to catch this group from Dublin rock a little joint like Johnny's. Perhaps this is a new era where bands like Stand are able to harness or recreate a wondrously large expanse of music and still have it recline comfortably in venues of various sizes. The show you catch in a pub or club will be the same you catch in the arena. And trust me this is where these Irishmen are headed. In the meanby catch 'em in town when they play Saturday, November 4, at Johnny's, 1382 Culver Road, 224-0990, at 9 p.m., free.
- Frank De Blase


"Irish Voice- New York City- Nov 06"

They Stand and Deliver
By Mike Farragher
THERE’S nothing light about Travel Light, the excellent new CD from Stand.A sonically dense record, it is a pitch perfect mélange of tight hooks, engaging studio textures and infectious percussion.
“We wanted to create something totally different from what we were in the past,” says Neill Eurelle, one of two lead singers who co-fronts the Manhattan based band, during a recent chat with the Irish Voice. “We wanted to do something fresh. We have two lead singers. We wanted to do a pop alternative eclectic mix, and I think we succeeded.”
I’ll say! Travel Light begins with “Carousel,” a pensive track with fuzzy percussion and tentative piano tinkling that takes the band in darker territory.
“We just wanted to please ourselves,” says Eurelle. “We wanted to create new textures with sound, make it more interesting. Rhythm was so important. If people were tapping their feet, that’s all we wanted. We wanted a sound that really grabbed people.”
“A hammer on the spine/spinning carousels/ water into wine/waking up the child you tried to hide,” sings Eurelle. The track has the same gloomy atmospherics you’d expect to hear on a Radiohead album.
Stand formed on the streets and schoolyards of Dublin in 1998. They spent the first two years together writing songs and performing continuously in clubs throughout Ireland and Europe, and amassed an increasingly devoted following.
Their first release, Correspondent, landed on the Irish charts with two Top 10 songs and garnered sales of over 20,000 copies sold. In mid-1999, having built a loyal fan base in their native Ireland, Stand played a sold-out show to 1,200 fans at Vicar Street in Dublin and departed for America shortly thereafter.
“We had a fair amount of success in Ireland when we started in 1998,” explains Eurelle. “We had an opportunity to go to CMJ and SXSW.
“We came over in 1999 and we decided that this was the place to go. We launched in Ireland and then came over again for good. We decided to come over here full time. Any band that wants to be successful needs to be in America. There is music press, people, lawyers, anything to do. We go home two-three times a year and play a lot of Europe festivals to keep our name out overseas, but we really love living here.”
The album is seeing the light of day this week, but there have been tracks released to Irish radio that are amassing a nice buzz for the band. One of them is “Dressed to Kill,” a dance track that is built around a funky bass line and irresistible hook that the Edge would give his eyetooth to create.
“Dressed to Kill” is going over really well in Ireland,” says Eurelle. “We have PR people working for us and they’ve had a lot of success with it. It’s a taste for our Irish audience until the album comes out.”
Stand also enjoys the benefit of some nice buzz north of the city, according to Eurelle.
“We played in Syracuse and Buffalo and have a fairly decent fan base up there,” he says. “We played some club shows and played in New York City. The stuff is going down phenomenally well. We have some of the old songs that we play if it fits alongside the new stuff we’re playing.”
“Low Culture” is another electro-goth track with a vicious new wave heart pumping behind the drum kit.
“It is a dark lyrical song,” explains Eurelle. “We like that, but we could never come up with the music to suit it. We did a number of demo sessions and every time we went into the studio, we had trouble with it. We did 10 demos, one was poppy, which was ridiculous.
“We found this fuzzy sounding keyboard, with this buzzy, fat sound, and our guitarist was working on it. All we used from the original was the lyrics and some chord progressions. We were thrilled when we finally nailed it. It was the first thing we wrote, and everything else followed suit.”
One of the standout tracks on the disc is “Who Made You Jesus,” a cynical look at political theater. “Who made your throne/ who’s writing your speeches/who’s directing your souls/just a smile to the camera/demonstrate control,” they sing.
Interspersed with these lyrics are sound bites from “Dubya” saying things like, “You talk about war, you talk about peace,” leaving little guesswork as to where the song is aimed.
“(Jesus) for us was the first thing we wrote that is in any way political; it’s our feeling as foreigners,” says Eurelle. “We are looking at America from the outside looking in.
“The media controls this nation so much over here. BBC News was doing far better coverage of 9/11 than the coverage we got here. That was something that affected us—-the difference between living in Europe and living in America.
“There are samples and snippets of Bush in there. We’re not doing this to make anyone look stupid, we just wanted to communicate our view of things as outsiders.”
Travel Light is available exclusively on the band’s website, www.standland. com, prior to a wider release in record shops next year. You can also check out myspace.com/ standland.
To check out a live airing of the album, catch the band during a pair of gigs at Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge on November 24 and 25.
- Mike Farragher


"The Irish Examiner -Los Angeles- Nov 06"

Wednesday November 8, 2006

The New York-Irish band Stand comes to L.A.

Stand have been building a huge base of support in New York and now head for the West Coast
By James Bartlett
Stand have been building up a huge fan base in New York for years, and now they are finally playing their first concerts in Los Angeles at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood on Nov 14 and in the Afterknit Lounge two days later on Nov 16.
They have just finished their fourth album "Travel Light", and are bringing it to the West Coast to see how it enjoys the sunshine - after all, recording began in a springtime blizzard - prior to it's release. Produced by confessed studio junkie Walsh with help from Hit Factory NY chief engineer Michael McCoy, they started by saying "slan" (goodbye) to layering, and out popped their strongest songs to date.
They're a million miles from being an Irish drinking song band, as Jeff Miers of the Buffalo News noted after seeing them live: "...the shades and drama of the Smiths and the tunefulness of Coldplay run through a decidedly heavy guitar meat grinder. They generate feverish excitement, both on the concert stage and in the recording studio." Imagine the writing of Neil Finn mixed with the wide-open spaces of Pink Floyd, and you have bait that should reel in some new Los Angelinos.
All of the band members are from Tallaght, Dublin: stand up lead singer and bass player Neil Eurelle, lead singer/songwriter and guitarist David Walsh, guitarist Alan Doyle and drummer/songwriter Carl Dowling. We spoke to Eurell and Walsh about their early years and their upcoming trip to California:
"Starting out as a band with no instruments, that was pretty funny. Also, it didn't take us long to realize we were not to be the skilled footballers (soccer players) we idolized on TV, so as soon as our hormones started to act up we desperately tried to figure out another way to get attention from the females. "A rock 'n roll band?"
"Bingo, Carl!" We started playing together in our parent's garage, and when we got two top 10 hits in Ireland from our second album "Correspondent" it just escalated from there."
They spent the first two years writing songs and performing continuously in clubs throughout Ireland and Europe and in mid-1999, having built a loyal fan base in their native Ireland, Stand played a sold-out show to 1200 fans at Vicar Street in Dublin and departed for America a year or so after.
Now, years later, Stand are making their first trip to Los Angeles in the wake of being voted best band on the NACA college circuit once again - but why has it been so long in coming?
"We spent our time building a fan base organically, starting from the east coast (which is the closest American soil from home) and slowly but surely working the "westward expansion". We have built a substantial base of friends and fans in L.A., and that sparked the initial demand for Stand on the west coast!"
They have high hopes for L.A., even though it's miles away from their home turf:
"We believe L.A. will have more of an eclectic and mellow atmosphere. NYC is a vortex - you just feel like you're constantly walking at an extremely fast pace, for no reason. We're not sure if that comparison will be deemed true, but we're looking forward to exploring new territory."
The boys try to go home to Ireland as often as they can between tours - usually four or five times a year - and they are hoping that the trip to Southern California will bring more fans on board:
"We plan to continue what we've been doing at 110%. We have a great team of people we're surrounded by who support us, whole-heartedly. We will continue to aggressively tour and promote our new album for the next few months, and then begin work on our next one. We are firm believers in building ourselves locally, nationally and internationally as a grass roots band who have, and will strive to maintain, lasting loyal fans. That's our most important goal."
For more information on the band, visit: standland.com
- James Bartlett


"Buffalo Rising-Buffalo- Nov 06"

I know, I know, Friday is one of those days that sneaks up on you when EVERYTHING is happening at once. I know. However, despite everything else I've written this week I'm telling you, this the place to be.

I found Stand by happy accident, doing my "let's go see the cute Irish band" drill, but after hearing them for the first time, I haven't missed a show since. Originally from Dublin, where they joined up in the late '90s, the band's reputation, audience and touring endurance all grew to massive proportions until they finally played a sold-out, 1200 show at Vicars Street in 2000. After that, says drummer and songwriter Carl Dowling, "We decided to move to the States because there really wasn't much for us left to accomplish in Ireland." Since then, according to their website, the band literally took New York City one stage at a time, getting rave reviews from club owners and audience members alike, then hit the college circuit playing 5-6 nights a week.



All that energy shows on stage as well as in their tour schedule, and that's what keeps me coming back. The band has tapped into a wellspring of rock that few tap into these days, with all the proper elements to literally get crowds jumping. Alan Doyle's vocals and guitar can bring tears to the eyes on the minor chords, and when the full band kicks in, it makes you wish you were driving a fast classic car down a winding road in the fall. It takes you places. Bassist Neil Eurelle is so deeply in the music while on stage that you can't help but go with him, not just listening but taking the songs into your heart. No one instrument dominates this group; it's a well-balanced blend where lyrics and melody are not forgotten; David Walsh's guitar solos combine with Carl's driving beats to make for a rich, full sound that carries from stages as intimate as New World Records to the throngs at Thursdays in the Square. Their newest tunes, if anything, only increase the power which will, I'm sure, be making them a national hit shortly.

Stand also found the love in Buffalo, recording a great deal of their newest album at ChameleonWest Studios and hitting venues from the Union Bar to Nietzsche's to the Town Ballroom. Buffalo welcomes them back for one of the first stops on their next national tour, promoting the new album at an instore performance at New World Records at 4pm, then heading over to the main gig at Mohawk Place at 9pm. Opening for them is another favorite, the Jealous Gods, in an all-too rare appearance, featuring Jeff Meirs and Dave Hill, making for a show that really shouldn't be missed.

- Gabrielle Bouliane


"Editor's Pick - Smother.net"

Dublin’s Stand have already landed hard with their “Correspondent” album that did great across the pond but didn’t make as much of a dent overseas. Strike any theory of sophomore curses because “Transmissions” is just freakin’ huge. With soaring harmonies and gorgeous production, this is a band that won’t get labeled pub rock and will easily shake the less thoughtful comparisons to other British and Irish acts. It’s fresher than when Coldplay landed and isn’t as megalomaniac as U2. It’s just gushing gritty alternative pop-rock with tremendous vocal and guitar departments.

- smother.net


"Rock quartet Stand, Ireland's loss, is New York's gain"

In "New York," U2's bittersweet ode to the Big Apple, Bono sings: "The Irish been coming here for years/feel like they own the place."
He's got a point; one needn't brave Martin Scorcese's "Gangs of New York" to catch the drift. Driven by famine, the Irish left home by the boatload a century back, heading for what must have been an idealized vision of a brave new world on Manhattan. What waited was more cold, hard truth than milk and honey.

Stand, an Irish quartet, left home in 2000 with its eyes on the prize New York might have tucked away in its pockets.

The band ended up in the Bronx and began slugging it out with the plethora of groups - homegrown, relocated, imported - scampering through New York's saturated original music scene.

By now, New York is home - or at least as close to a home as this ever-touring ensemble is likely to get.

Stand's "never-ending tour" brings the band to Nietzsche's, 248 Allen St., at 10:30 tonight for a show with Nancy's Candy and McCarthyizm.

School chums Neil Eurelle (bass and vocals), Alan Doyle (guitar and vocals), Carl Dowling (drums) and David Walsh (guitar and keyboards) had gone about as far as they could in their native Dublin.

Two singles from the band's debut effort, "Correspondent," made the Top 40 in 1999. Gigs got bigger, the fan base grew, press coverage was considerable. But soon, there was nowhere left for the band to go.

New York has warmed to the band, as the recently released "Live at Arlene's Grocery" album makes plain. For bands dedicated to going the indie route, there is little choice but to gig constantly, assemble the odd periodic showcase to impress the major-label types and keep the proverbial nose to the grindstone.

It's surprising that Stand hasn't been picked up yet, but then again, this is a gimmickless band; strong, passionate and deeply melodic rock with shades of the drama of the Smiths and the tunefulness of Coldplay run through a decidedly guitar-heavy meat grinder. Sadly, that might actually hurt the band.

The twin vocals of Eurelle and Doyle are Stand's ace in the hole. Each delivers robust, deeply invested performances, but it is when they join together - as on the undeniably catchy "Little Sweet Lucifer" or the relentless, churning "Sleeping on Our Feet" - that Stand stands above so much of its competition. This is a big, joyful sound.

Will Stand find the pot of gold the band left Ireland in search of? Who knows? The bigger question, of course, remains: Is there even a pot of gold to be had anymore? One doubts it.

The real action seems to be happening underground at the moment, and that's where you'll find me tonight, soaking up the scenery in Nietzsche's and reveling in music made for the joy of the experience.




- Buffalo News - Jeff Miers


"Stand-Hotpress 15 Mar 2007"

On the evidence of Stand’s fourth album proper, these Bronx-based Dubliners really haven’t been standing around. Rather, years of slogging it Stateside have gradually smoothed off their rougher edges, and they’re now coming on in lyrical leaps and musical bounds.

Produced by keyboardist David Walsh, this offering is more melodically textured and far less guitar-based than 2004’s Transmissions. From the edgy and haunting opener ‘Carousel’, it’s obvious that Stand are now hitting their prime.

Alan Doyle and Neil Eurelle still share vocal duties, their hugely contrasting styles working well both together and apart (most effectively on the tuneful ‘Days Gone’). Carl Dowling’s percussion provides an always inventive backbeat, while Walsh’s keyboards add the spacey sparkle. Although the catchy ‘Dressed To Kill’ is their obvious radio shot, this isn’t just another collection of pop-rock songs from a bunch of lads with nothing to say. There’s a real maturity and depth here, hitherto only hinted at.

There’s balls, too. ‘Who Made You Jesus?’ takes a serious pop at George W. Bush. It’s one thing slagging off Shrub when you’re Europe-based, but when you’re an Irish band living and working in New York City, it’s a very brave and divisive move to sing of the US President, “Who made you Jesus?/And who made your throne?/Who’s writing your speeches?/Directing your shows?” Just in case anyone misses the point, they’ve actually sampled Dubya nasally proclaiming, “When we’re talking about war, we’re really talking about peace.”

This is obviously a band with a conscience. On the striking ballad ‘My Theory’, Eurelle sings, “I’ve a theory about the birds/I’ve a theory about the bees/Our careless exploitation/Of the oceans and the seas/It’s ignorance surrounded by muscle and by greed/You spend your life not knowing the mouth you feed.”

While there’s much light to be found here, it’s thankfully not the frothy kind. Stand may Travel Light, but they mostly fly first class.

Olaf Tyaransen
Rating: 8 / 10
- Olaf Tyaransen


"Hamptons.Com- Stand Is Not Your Father’s Irish Band"

I don’t know about you but I think one of three things when I hear the phrase “Irish Band.” U2. Jumpy, lyrical, pop. Or music to drink green beer by on St. Patty’s Day possibly accompanied by a fiddle (The band, not the green beer.). Honorable mention goes to House Of Pain, the seminal Irish rappers who brought us the anthem, Jump Around, filled with machine gun lines like “I got more lyrics than a bible’s got psalms.”


The Stand - not your typical Irish band.
So when I heard that The Stand was an “Irish Band” come to America to make their way, I thought I had to pick from one of the standard multiple choices. It seems that the real choice is “None Of The Above.”

After playing to sold out shows in Ireland, The Stand decided that they needed to tackle a larger audience. In American, they found venues galore and with their families in tow they packed up and moved to the Bronx, renting apartments sight unseen! After a series of misfortunes that included traveling to Florida gigs in a van with no A/C or side windows, arriving for a show near Lake Erie for the first time then wondering if they had just overshot their original destination and driven all the way to the Pacific Coast, The Stand found their groove in the United States.

Neil Eurelle takes on bass and vocal duties shared with Alan Doyle also on vocals and guitar. Carl Doeling provides the backing on drums and David Walsh rounds them out nicely with guitar and keyboards. What works best on their fourth album, Travel Light, are the contrasted vocals of Neil and Alan along with the sometimes melodic, sometimes discordant textures that stretch the point between pop, ballad and an eclectic mix of dance, synth and industrial styles.

Travel Light is not only the name of their latest release but it must be the band’s mantra because they are on a constant rotation of live performances that takes them from Michigan to West Virginia and back to Brooklyn. Then they take a quick hop back to their homeland for a few weeks returning to the States to eventually end up with a gig at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

In fact, most of the latest album was recorded partly in Buffalo at Chameleon West Studio and wound up completed in Kentucky’s St. Claire Recordings. It shows in the variety of influences and sounds. This album is reminiscent of something from the second British invasion of alterna-pop from The Stone Roses, and Catherine Wheel or later incarnations like Oasis along with shades of Pink Floyd and The Verve.

The album starts off with the haunting, Carousel, where the trading vocals seem influenced both by Morrissey and Sting. Then they pump into heavy industrial phase on Low Culture. The high energy continues with the peppy rhythm of what is one of my favorite tracks, Days Gone.

White Elephants is a gentle ballad that really highlights the sensitive soul at the core of The Stand. Then Who Made You Jesus takes a left turn. This song is a refreshing and obvious commentary current politics. They layer the snippets of sound bites with a distorted vocal; a lyrical Op Ed piece that is spot on.

Dressed To Kill, goes back to the upbeat pop and is one of the few obvious radio tracks. The drama of Everything You Do Is Right, Time Flies and My Theory really show the band’s heart and soul: Dramatic composition in the vein of Pink Floyd.

In between is Slave To The Weekend where in the first line they let a little of their Irish through with the opening line, “Top of the morning. Bottoms up.” Another social commentary, this time they speak to the busy, high energy, multitasking, lifestyle that I imagine they have encountered in their time living in America, particularly New York City. The album ends with the Travel Light. A slow artful compositional piece that I imagine is the final bit of advice from these former Dubliners now entrenched in American culture.

Although it seems that The Stand have produced something akin to a concept album — recorded while traveling between downtrodden yet dynamic and artsy Buffalo to the hustle and bustle of New York City to the bright skies of Kentucky — it seems to me that they still have much more in them as they look at the world from the inside of America but with Irish eyes. (Pun intended, thank you.)

For the most part, Travel Light is a solid outing, but it comes off a little disjointed and unpolished at times. Perhaps this is the nature of recording while on the road and it becomes a trade-off between dynamic energy and fluid overall structure. That being said, the boys from Dublin have an intelligent, artistic style that will not stop at Travel Light and I look forward to seeing them perform live. It seems to me that they will provide everything they promise on the live stage that they deliver on the album and more.

The Stand will enjoy some airplay on local radio stations like WBAB and WEHM in the upcoming weeks and then stop by The Stephen Talkhouse on May 5th at 7pm.

Check out their site at www.standland.com for details on the band, news and upcoming shows - Hamptons.com - March 14th, 2007


Discography

100,000 ways to harvest hope - 2010
Travel Light- Album 2007
Transmissions - Album 2005

Photos

Bio

STAND hail from the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. The band was formed in 1998 by four schoolmates who began gigging at school assemblies and then into the clubs of the city. In 1999 having built a healthy following in Ireland, the song “Questions” from their debut LP went Top 10 on the Irish national charts.

Armed with cash saved from gigs and a box of records, the band went to America to play South By Southwest in Austin, Texas in 2001. Awed by the prospect of limitless venues, they returned to the US that same year on a one-way ticket.

With no shortage of gumption to match their talent, the band took an apartment in the Bronx, bought a used van and proceeded to knock on all the stage doors of New York City. Soon thereafter, they hit the endless American highway in all the comfort that a used tradesman’s van offers.

After the better part of a decade using New York as a home base the band released three more studio albums, garnered praise from local and national press, played many festivals, embarked on coast-to-coast tours of the U.S. and were seen by over 250,000 people.

“The bottom line was that we were on our own,” explains Neil, “and we needed to generate money to fund the vehicle we were running – gear, studio time, mixing, mastering and not least important, feeding five people. We were selling everything but the spare tire from the back of the van. The record execs that followed us were all in hiding, watching their business vaporize as ours took steps forward.”

The band relocated back to Ireland to re-connect with family and recuperate from the pressures of near constant gigging. ”We knew how to play. Taking some time to recuperate, take stock & plan the next record,” according to singer Alan Doyle, “was as important as anything at that point.”

After 6 months of downtime, the band found themselves in the same room again for all the right reasons. Stand began the writing process for the songs that would become their latest LP “100,000 Ways to Harvest Hope”.

“Everyone had good songs coming out individually,” according to Doyle, “but we needed to be together to put life to them. Let’s face it- we are a band. That’s what we do.”

The band returned to the U.S. to record the album in the Buffalo, NY studio owned by the Goo Goo Dolls, who befriended the band on a trip through that town in 2006. They tracked 10 songs in 9 days. ”Trust me, when you are scraping the money to pay for everything on your own, you go in ready. It’s live in the studio, with an overdub here and there. There’s energy on it,” claims guitarist David Walsh, “and I’m not sure that we’ve ever captured that energy before on a recording.”

The album was produced by Marc Swersky and mixed by renowned Mix Engineer Mark Needham (Chris Isaak, The Killers, Fleetwood Mac). “Swersky sent me the track from his first day in the studio with them, and I was blown away. No pun intended, these guys stand out to me as a breath of fresh rock and roll air in what is a very crowded field.”