Moriarty

Show Description

"A real troupe of modern bohemian gypsies, their concerts are like happenings. Free, innocent and magnificent, like music should always be." - Paul Lester for the Guardian.co.uk

Moriarty are not your average indie-rock band or streamlined electro-pop unit, even if the presence of "drilling machines" makes it sound as though they're going to break into some sort of Einsturzende Neubaten-style industrial rock-fest at any moment (or fix your teeth). With members of French, American, Swiss and Vietnamese parentage, based in several cities around the globe, they're a ramshackle olde world acoustic outfit with a theatrical bent and a tendency to dress like 1930s Prohibition outlaws who make a mess of sound that takes in folk, country, blues, jazz and cabaret. Their first UK release – they've already established a huge following in France, where their debut album, Gee Whiz But This is a Lonesome Town, sold 70,000 copies and was certified Gold – is a single called Jimmy and it sounds like it was recorded around the turn of the last century, all jaunty bluegrass guitar, wistful harmonica and lyrics about roaming buffalo. Meanwhile, Rosemary Moriarty's pure, clear folkish tones, reminiscent of Joan Baez, make her seem as though she's spent the last few years in the blue ridge mountains of Virginia, on the trail of the lonesome pine.

Moriarty, who take their name from Jack Kerouac's lead character in On the Road, may sound like they travel between gigs in a horse and cart, but it's not all sepia-tinged snapshots of the Old West. They do live in the modern world. They recently appeared alongside Morrissey, Babyshambles and My Bloody Valentine at Benicassim, they share their record label, Naive, with France's First Lady Carla Bruni and there's a reference in one of their songs to a dominatrix (the last two facts are unconnected, by the way). They've even done a cover version of Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence, and if that sounds weird, look at some of the strange places they've played gigs in the past year alone: a mental institution, a prison, a transatlantic ship, a ruined castle in Tuscany, the streets of Paris, and a night train. But then, by all accounts, Moriarty are quite into the surreal and believe in "animism": the idea that some objects, animals and plants, as well as humans, have a soul, be it a squeaking floorboard, a hotel bell, or a whisk. They're also into Lewis Carroll, which makes sense, or rather nonsense. Depending on your taste, Moriarty will either be a musical wonderland, or some kind of hell on earth.

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