Episode Notes

Episode 36 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead by The Jimmy Cake released in 2002 on Pilatus Records.

On episode 35 I was joined by Carol Keogh to chat about the band she formed with Donal O’Mahony and Diarmuid MacDiarmada - The Tycho Brahe. It makes sense that Episode 36 should focus on the other band that Diarmuid was in at the time, The Jimmy Cake.

So, for this episode I’m joined by three members, Dara Higgins, and brothers Diarmuid MacDiarmada and John Dermody, to discuss the band’s second album, Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead.

We chat about their first band together, Das Madman, the formation of The Jimmy Cake, the recording of their debut album Brains and it’s follow-up Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead. How nine (and then ten members) of a band handle the composition of songs. Dublin’s music scene in the early 00s. Our conversation takes in a discussion about the realities of trying to break a band, with ten members, outside of Ireland and support for the Arts in Ireland.

The Jimmy Cake were formed by members of late-90s Dublin band Das Madman. They re-merged in July 2000 and played their first gig on 26 July in Eamonn Doran’s in Temple Bar.

 This is Dara’s account of the gig

“Someone spoke to Vin about Das Madman playing the show. We’d been dormant for some time at this stage, not even rehearsing, although the idea of getting back together had been mooted, to nil response. Vinny wanted to sound like “what Rowland S. Howard really wanted the Birthday Party to sound like.” As it turned out, this was not to be.

For the laugh, we agreed to do this gig. As there would be no consensus on what old songs to play, we decided to completely rewrite the set. It was also agreed, in slate-wiping-clean fashion, to change the name and timbre of the band. And so our filthy past was laid to rest beneath the laurels and bouquets of our new found identity.

The songs were written quickly. We had 2 weeks or less between getting back together and playing this show. We rehearsed in Simon’s front room, he claimed it to be acoustically conducive, much like a tiny, damp addled cathedral. (The truth was simply his refusal to leave his hovel). At this time we had very little agenda other than that we, on the whole, couldn’t be bothered with the past no more.

We were quite proud of our performance, although vicious feedback brought on by the soundman’s mobile phone could have been avoided. He then disappeared to add insult to insult. The crowd of thirty or forty people there seemed to like it. We handed out recipes for Jimmy Cake and got drunk. It was a good night.”

This edited extract is taken from Dara’s Jimmy Cake ‘Tour Diary’

A year later, on 13 July, 2001 The Jimmy Cake launched Brains their debut album with a gig in Whelan’s. Reviewing Brains for The Irish Times, Leagues O’Toole wrote that:

“Despite the multitude of cooks, the broth tastes damn fine. It’s all in the clarity, space, impeccable time-keeping and slow building momentum, allowing the melodies to breathe enhancing the anticipation of the music’s unpredictable paths.”

Before Brains was released a split 7” (with Damien Frost) appeared as part of the Road-Relish 7” series. The band had already moved on from the Brains material and the song they contributed to this 7” was ‘The Opposite of Addiction’. They revisited this song and a new version of it would open their second album.

In the meantime ‘This Used to be the Future’, the opening track from Brains, was used to close out a Kicking Against... Nuggets From The Irish Overground, a compilation released on Independent Records in the summer of 2002. The compilation also features David Kitt, The Frames, Jape, The Redneck Manifesto, Decal, The Last Post and others and is a great snapshot of the independent music scene in Dublin at the time.

Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead is a nosier, louder album than it’s predecessor, a consequence of the band turning their instruments up at gigs to try and hear themselves above the din of chattering audiences. Since then the band has released three more full length albums: Spectre & Crown (2008), Master (2015) and Tough Love (2017).

Currently The Jimmy Cake are on a hiatus.

For Further Listening/Reading:

Dublin Gone, Everybody Dead and the rest of the band’s discography can be purchased on Bandcamp: