STEVE MACKAY.

We met Steve through our association with Mike Watt.

An actual underground music legend.

We’ve recorded two albums with Steve as well as appearing on his 2011 album – ‘Sometimes Like This I Talk’.

In the summer of 2010 we toured Ireland with Steve as our Sax player.

Here’s a bio –

The pioneering saxman for such diverse projects as The Stooges, Violent Femmes, Snakefinger, Commander Cody, and The Radon Ensemble, Steve Mackay now unleashes his third solo album.  This collection of songs – captured in five countries and with a cast of 30 conspirators – represents the most comprehensive collection of Mackay’s composed works.  For the last decade, Mackay has relentlessly criss-crossed the States, Europe and the world, bringing his unique musical vision to stage.  His projects have included joining forces with jazz-core unit Zu, fronting his own band The Radon Ensemble, uniting with his first crew, Carnal Kitchen and bar band Third Thursday, collaborating with underground illuminaries like the Dirtbombs, Ovo, Smegma, Laundryroom Squelchers, Amps For Christ and Mike Watt, and sharing the spotlight with Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees Iggy & The Stooges.

MIKE WATT.

Mike Watt need no introduction.

We met Watt when ESTEL opened for him sometime in 2005.

We’ve recorded two albums with him and he contributed a poem for ‘The Bones of Something’.

A great supporter of the band and a great man.

Here’s a bio –

Michael David Watt (born , 1957 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is an American bass guitarist, singer and songwriter.

 

He is best-known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and fIREHOSE; as of 2003, he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen projects.

 

Though Watt has not had much mainstream success or visibility, he is often cited as a key figure in the development of American alternative rock: the Red Hot Chili Peppers dedicated their hugely successful Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) to him. On November 1 2008, Watt received the Bass Player Magazine lifetime achievement award, presented by Flea.

ADRIAN CROWLEY.

Adrian Crowley was one of the first people to collaborate with ESTEL. He recorded a vocal for the track  ‘Electric Eels’ on ‘A Guide in Time of Great Danger’. He later went on to re – record this track [ With Bushie drumming] for one of his own albums.

Here’s the official blurb on the man –

Adrian Crowley is an Irish singer-songwriter (born 1979). Crowley is a native of Barna, County Galway, but he lives in Dublin. He released his first album, “”A Strange Kind”, in 1999.

His music sounds like “a heartbroken steam engine whistling Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ as set to music by Leonard Cohen. (Not my own words, I’ll have you know)”, as Crowley wrote on his MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/adriancrowley).

“Crowley’s music is steeped in the popular folk tradition of the 1970s, calling to mind storytelling songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake with a strong, often central emphasis on lyrics.” (Allmusic: Dave Donnelly)

In 2007 Crowley worked with bassist/producer Stephen Shannon to record the album ‘Long Distance Swimmer’, which was nominated for the Choice Music Prize in 2008. He released ‘Season of the Sparks’ in April 2009. The songs on this album were recorded around the same time as ‘Long Distance Swimmer’. In May 2009 he collaborated with James Yorkston and released ‘The Invaders Salute Captain America’, which is a tribute to underground U.S. songwriter Daniel Johnston.

COMPILATIONS / OTHER RELEASED APPEARANCES.

‘Tupelo Tapes– Vitaminic.ie- Best of Independent Ireland‘ [2001]

‘Lazybird All- Stars Live CD Compilation Volume One.’ [2001]

‘Glaive Records UK Compilation‘ [2002]

‘Ballroom of Romance No.5 Compilation‘ [2002]

‘Lazybird Live, Improvised and Studio Selections Volume Two and Three. [2002]

‘Foggy Notions Magazine Compilation.’ [2003]

‘Unfit for Consumption Compilation’ [2003]

‘Grassroots Gathering Compilation’ [2008]

‘Ballroom of Romance No. 73 Compilation’ [2008]

‘Sometimes Like This I talk’ -Steve Mackay album. [2011]

‘BAD ACID’  Compilation  – DVD and Audio Last issue (Features Sarah Sheil cover art). [2010]

‘Music from time and space Vol. 41’ – Eclipsed magazine compilation. [2011]

NO FI, LO FI, HI FI.

[Cassette Tape – Quarter Inch Collective 002 – April 2011]

Printed on Cassette Tape in a run of 150.

PRESS RELEASE –

On April 9^th, legendary scions of the Dublin alternative scene, Estel, are releasing No Fi, Lo Fi Hi Fi, a collection of various rare and previously unheard tracks from their eclectic 12-year career. The album will cherry pick 14 tracks that highlight the band’s passionate diversity and uncompromising vision. No Fi, Lo Fi, Hi Fi will be released on a limited run of 150 cassettes and will be available to download from Bandcamp.

One of Dean Van Nguyen’ s ‘Three key cassette releases on Irish labels’

Read the whole piece here –

http://deanvannguyen.tumblr.com/post/5197950591

 

Listen to it here-