HOT PRESS
Nov 24 1999
Interview by Eamonn Sweeney

ALBUM:    HORSE TAX / TITUS AND JUNO IN THE SUBURBS

… In the final gasps of 1999 their original home label is renovated and ready again to open for business. Dead Elvis (and a hunk of Lisa-Marie) is re-launched, rejuvenated, fighting fit and ready for the simultaneous launch of The Wormholes Parijuana - Four Years In Captivity and Alan Lambert’s The Man Who Cycled To The Moon.
   The Wormholes are delighted with results of over four years of recording and writing.
   “We feel we have a better record, even though it’s going to piss off a lot of people!” explains Dave Carroll of The Wormholes. “It’s a privilege that someone believes in it enough to put it out. We did the Roadrunner thing and got a wad of money out of it and spent it. No regrets on that, and if an opportunity like that presented itself again, I’m sure we’d do the exact same! Like if K-Tel want to bang out a record then go ahead!”
   The other instalment to this triumph of genuine music over corporate slop is the album by Alan Lambert. The Man Who Cycled To The Moon was made on a four-track, with a collection of classical records and a toy keyboard with a four second sampling facility also included. Hence, there are guest appearances by Noam Chomsky, Groucho Marx and Red and Stimpy. While Alan’s LP is a separate release, Lambert describes himself as “a ghost within the whole Dead Elvis thing!”
   “I met Eamonn and Wormhole at a studio in 147 Parnell Street that I was using. One of the tracks on Chicks Dig Scars was recorded in my room, which I love because I can hear the ambience of my room on the record. Over the years I have loved playing with them. We are very, very different but strangely similar. Dave and Anto gave me a load of Captain Beefheart and Faust to listen to, and I feel such a connection with that even though my trip is a bit more classical.
   The Dead Elvis launch night in Eamonn Doran’s last week featured an impromptu live collaboration between the artists.
   “I don’t think anyone knows this, but we didn’t even have chords or riffs planned. Even in a jam you have some kind of structure. This was just amazing, and some of it sounded like we had written and rehearsed it. I’m just sorry that we didn’t record it. It was the first time I’ve ever played live and I was terrified!”

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