This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Carol Keogh (The Plague Monkeys, The Tycho Brahe and Autamata ) September 15, 2012
Posted by irishelectionliterature in This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....trackback
This Weekend I’ll be Mostly listening to a number of bands all featuring singer Carol Keogh. The Plague Monkeys, The Tycho Brahe, Tychonaut, The City Fathers and Autamata.
Over the years her music and bands have been described as a mix of the Cocteau Twins, The Sundays with a bit of Kate Bush thrown in. They’re not far wrong but the voice and sound was different to the above.
I was aware of The Plague Monkeys but somehow missed getting into them (possibly as I lived in Cork for a while in the 90s), listening back to them now they were fantastic and another one of those Irish bands that should have been big but really weren’t.
It was a track on the second “Other Voices” record that “Out of The Blue” by The Tycho Brahe (which is below) that bought Carol Keoghs wonderful voice fully to my attention and I ended up buying the bands two albums ‘This Is’ and ‘Love Life’, I also managed to get my hands on a copy of The Plague Monkeys first album ‘Surface Tension’ (which I have since mislaid 
).
The Tycho Brahe changed their name to Tychonaut after finding out that there was already a band out there called The Tycho Brahe. All the while Keogh collaborated with Ken McHugh on his Autamata project which produced three albums. I have their ‘Short Stories’ album which is very good.
Keogh now works with a band called The City Fathers, the Soundcloud link below has a set done by them for Dan Hegartys show in 2FM.
The few times I managed to see her live in Whelans and other venues have been an absolute treat with often tunes from her various bands played. I’m so disgusted that I never got to see The Plague Monkeys live.
On Soundcloud there are a number of sets from Keoghs different bands that are well worth checking out (and better quality sound than youtube).
There’s a biography of Carol Keogh on her website. She is also an accomplished painter and some of her work is viewable here
Tychonaut Website at archive.org
Plague Monkeys Website at archive.org
The Plague Monkeys -Bloomsday
The Tycho Brahe -Out of The Blue
The Plague Monkeys – White Feathers
The Plague Monkeys -Surfacing
The Plague Monkeys -Surfacing
Autamata – Out of This
Autamata – Liberty Bell
Carol Keogh – Into the Blue
Well thank you very delightedly blooming much from me – and my City Fathers. Lovely write up. Will be launching a fundraising campaign to record the album soon. Every bit
Er… As I was saying, every bit of support counts. So thanks again. x Carol
Pleasure, and thanks for commenting Carol.
Was going through albums looking for something to write about this weekend and came upon the Tycho Brae CDs … which led me to find the stuff you have up on Soundcloud which is all fantastic.
Best of luck with the new album.
Some really nice sounds there. Great stuff.