Just who are The Irony Board & why have we not heard of them before? Information about the band is quite scarce, but we do know that they had a song featured on one of Firestation Records legendary “The Sound Of Leamington Spa” series (Volume 7), which in itself automatically gives them some street cred., as Firestation Records are certainly one of the purveyors of great taste in this modern era. We also know that a published novel, “Capturing The Wry”, was written about the band, this book written by John Hartley (aka Johny Nocash) chronicles the crazy and fascinating story of the trials and tribulations of his unsigned band The Irony Board. That book, which is highly recommended, was endorsed by Merric Davidson (editor of Toppermost.co.uk) and Steve Williamson (EIO40 kingpin), and several members of the Trash Can Sinatras, making this story even more intriguing. Initial copies of the book were accompanied by a free bonus CD, of studio recordings, of the tracks featured within the book. That however is just the tip of the iceberg.
This brings us to the release of, “Unfinished Business” by The Irony Board, as we dig deeper into this mysterious 90’s indie band and unearth more of their wonderful music. They have been described, at the time, by renowned music journalist Martin Aston, as “bittersweet, naive, hook-lined, captivating, unpretentious, clever – but not clever-clever – and deserving of more widespread attention”. And we couldn’t agree more, which is why we are releasing this fine collection of songs. To give you an idea of what the music sounds like, here are a few comparisons, although none of these are completely accurate, they give you a sense of some possible influences or maybe traces of sounds that I heard on repeated listening of these songs: Television Personalities, The Wedding Present, The June Brides, The Razercuts, Trash Can Sinatras, some of the Sarah Records bands like The Orchids, The Field Mice, 14 Iced Bears and possibly a few others.
A few more pieces to the puzzle that I will add, is that John Hartley, has also written a book “Who’s He? an A-Z of The Trash Can Sinatras” and has released music as a solo artist and under the guise of several other bands on the Broken Down Lorry label – please check out their page on Bandcamp here – www.brokendownrecords.bandcamp.com/
We are very proud to release this album and hope it finds a home in your ears and heart as it has in ours. Please Enjoy “Unfinished Business” by The Irony Board!
“Unfinished Business” is available as a CD (Beauty 046) directly from our site and a few select online distributers.
Order your copy now:
Unfinished Business by The Irony Board
Beauty 046
NOW AVAILABLE on CD ONLY! Digital Copy Coming Soon.
$12.00 CDN