Gilla Band, an Irish post-punk and noise rock band, have released a new single named "Red Polo Neck," which can be found on their latest album "Most Normal."
In addition to Dara Kiely on vocals, Alan Duggan on guitar, Daniel Fox on bass, and Adam Faulkner on drums formed the band in 2011.
The first song, "In My Head," was released in 2012, and was followed by "You're a Dog," which helped them gain a loyal live audience in both Ireland and the United Kingdom.
After the success of the track, the band released the live EP France 98 through Any Other City, which they had produced themselves.
After that, in April of 2013, Gilla Band played a few of shows in the UK after recording a cover of "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?" by techno musician Blawan, which helped them gain notoriety and new fans.
Gilla Band, formerly known as Girl Band, signed to Rough Trade Records in December 2014 after releasing a series of limited 7" singles on Any Other City records throughout the year.
Founder of the record company Geoff Travis watched them perform multiple times and wanted to "enable what [the band] was doing [at the time] on a greater scale," leading to the recording contract.
They let Gilla Band have complete creative freedom and let them manufacture their own records. The band's self-produced debut album, Holding Hands With Jamie, was released via Rough Trade in September 2015.
Gilla Band's first single in four years, "Shoulderblades," came out in June of 2019.
After "Going Norway" in August of 2019, a second single named "Going Elsewhere" was released.
Singles from the band's September 27th, 2018 album release via Rough Trade, titled The Talkies.
The unconventional use of effects-laden guitars, abstract stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and stylistic borrowings from techno and industrial music give the album its repetitious and experimental feel.
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The album has been called noise rock and post-punk, and its dark, unsettling tone has been praised by critics.
A name change from Girl Band to Gilla Band was announced in November 2021. The group claimed that their old name "may have been fostering a culture of non-inclusivity" and that they changed it because it was "misgendered."
The first album of the band was positively welcomed by critics. "This Irish four-piece yells at you from the very start, an unbroken series of thumping, smashing tracks peppered with distorted, imagistic lyrics," the Guardian raved.
Kiely's vocal performance "certainly sounds convincing," Rolling Stone said. But he doesn't seem to be too self-conscious about it either, more like a guy who has made a strange point of pride out of his fish-belly skin and concave abs than someone who is hiding in shame. The band was compared by Rolling Stone to Nick Cave's Birthday Party and Liars.
When asked about the bands they are likened to, drummer Adam Faulkner remarked, "most of the bands we get compared to are ones we don't actually listen to." The group cites Bad Brains, James Chance and the Contortions, Neu!, and The Chemical Brothers among its musical inspirations.
Gilla Band has produced a number of singles and EPs, as well as the critically acclaimed album Holding Hands with Jamie (2015) and, following a hiatus in 2016–2017 due to health difficulties, the techno and glam infused The Talkies (2017). (2019).
