Rebel Yell

If proof was needed that the Cork music scene is alive and thumping, we got it in April of this year when, after 16 months of uncertainty, Leeside institution Plugd Records reopened its doors.

“We’ve been shifting quite a bit of house music this morning,” laughs Albert Twomey from the new Plugd store at the Triskel Christchurch. “I don’t know if people listen to house in the morning, but there you go!”
Twomey certainly paints a brighter picture than the one we’re used to getting from independent record stores. “We have good days and bad days,” he admits, “but all businesses have to work harder to keep going and we’re just part of that. We just have to do our job and get the right stock in. But it’s actually going very, very well. In general, it’s been very busy.”
Despite recent financial woes with Plugd, Twomey is happy to sing Cork’s praises, especially when it comes to live music.
“There’s gigs on every week,” he says, “I was out three nights over the weekend, it’s a very lively scene. There’s a lot of free shows as well catering to people’s spending habits. Cork is really buzzing, and there’s bands popping up all over the place.”
One of the most exciting artists to be born out of Cork’s fertile indie scene is electronic whiz Toby Kaar, whose jaw-dropping live show and irresistible dance and hip hop beats have made him one of Ireland’s hottest new properties.
“Compared to other places in Ireland, Cork has a very different attitude to music,” he tells me. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s put on just because people like the music and it’s not so much about making money. Lots of the things that are good to go to are either free or they’re just covering their costs. There is definitely an attitude of people who want to do something, and do it well.
‘There’s a kind of camaraderie around Cork with people going to gigs and people supporting each other, lots of the musical scenes have kind of diverged. And because it’s so small, you get to know a lot of people who are enthusiastic about music, which was really encouraging for me at the start.”
As well as providing a wonderful platform for emerging artists, Cork will attract some of the biggest artists on the planet over the next few months (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Elton John to name but three) – Cork X Southwest, Indiependence, The Cork Midsummer Festival and Live At The Marquee are just some of the summer’s highlights, along with longstanding festivals celebrating jazz, choral and folk music.
“It’s kind of strange to see the specific tastes that have developed in Cork,” Kaar muses. “I guess that happens in different cities, like Galway’s got a big thing for hip hop and Dublin’s got a huge thing for lots of things, but in Cork there’s a big house scene and there’s also that big experimental scene. There’s lots of different pockets of stuff that you wouldn’t expect in a city of that size and I think that’s something that sets Cork apart. People are a lot more certain of what they like, they’re more confident in what they like.”
Twomey is quick to agree; “The reason I was delighted to move to Cork is because the people are into different things, they’re not closed-minded. They’re adventurous about punk rock and jazz, and the folks that come into the shop are quite eclectic. You see a lot of the same faces at different shows and there’s a wide spectrum of stuff that’s happening, so that can only be a healthy thing.”

Plugd Records is now open at the Triskel Christchurch. Plugd recommends Jóhann Jóhannsson at the Triskel Christchurch on July 31. Toby Kaar supports Gold Panda on their Irish tour in Auntie Annies, Belfast (June 8), The Roisin Dubh (9), The Pavilion, Cork (10) and The Workman’s Club, Dublin (11).