GRANARY

INSIDE BENNY'S HEAD by Benny's Head

Granary Theatre |Saturday 14th Feb| 8pm

€10

Fresh on the heels of the release of their third album 'Words & Such', Benny’s Head play the Granary Theatre, Cork on February 14th 2009 at 8 pm. (021) 4904275 €10

Benny’s Head revolves around the songwriting partnership of Cormac O'Connor and Frank West.  The current line up of the live band features:

George Hanover ( Snatch Comedy), Gary Cotter( Naildrivers/ Underworld/4b2's) and Ian Walsh ( Naildrivers/ Silvia Saint).

The live show incorporates images and video from the world of Benny’s Head.  The inside cast out in the form of songs, images, characters. Engaging, we hope. Various, we can ensure. A full onstage, in the flesh Home Entertainment System.

REVIEW OF ' WORDS AND SUCH' BENNYS HEAD

IRISH EXAMINER 17/01/09

4 STARS ****

Benny’s Head is a partnership between Cormac O'Connor, a sound designer for theatre and film whose credits include Corcadorca's Disco Pigs, and musician and lyricist Frank West.

‘Words and Such’ was recorded and produced by Benny’s Head themselves, yet it says much for the seriousness of their endeavor that they have had it mastered by the award winning Bob Katz in Orlando, Florida.

‘Words and Such’ is evidence of a decidedly left field approach to music making. Benny’s Head may well be a lush pop ensemble, but close attention to the lyrics reveals there is an admirable weirdness at work here. The very first track ‘Those Pre Emo Boys’ describes a sorry bunch absorbed in  'their clownish ridiculous lust'.

Things get stranger thereafter, never more so than on the track ‘Harry Dean Stanton’, which name- checks both the grizzled character actor and the jazz musician Birgit Uhler. Somehow Jessie Kennedy's guest vocal on the outro adds a pleasant sheen to what is otherwise as surreal a pop song as one might wish for.

If there is a philosophy at work, on Words and Such it is probably best summed up in ‘The Art Of Never Arriving’, on which the narrator muses on " the way you dream, the way you drive/The way you take the roads that never arrive".

Benny's journey to date has, one suspects, been just as dreamy and circuitous, but it would surely spoil the ride if they were actually to fetch up at anything as banal as a destination.

Marc O'Sullivan

Hear it now: www.bennyshead.com

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