There was a time when Simple Kid (a.k.a. Irish-born one-man-army Ciaran MacFeely) cooked his craft like Fatboy Slim, taking sounds and running ‘em through a laptop, splicing and remixing — except Fatboy’s a sampler and Ciaran the Kid’s a player. But Simple is as simple does, and he left the cut-and-pastiche with his first album, 1; on his second album, 2 (see, simple!), released abroad last year and finally hitting these shores in August via Yep Roc, MacFeely plays it relatively straight, with a Beck-ish brew of banjos, slide guitars, harmonicas, and sun-drenched slacker melodies. Grab “Lil’ King Kong” for the case in point.
But Simple Kid is more than just a trans-Atlantic banjo man with a devil’s haircut, so give “Seratonin” a shake for a taste of the full Simple Kid platter, fairly described by NME as “Radiohead meets DJ Shadow.”
2 will be out in the US this August on Yep Roc, and New Yorkers can catch him live during a three night residency (8/15-17) at Mo Pitkins. No more States dates for now, but we’ll keep ya posted.
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Yussssss, I love SK!
As a player, sounds like he’s a sampler – that “Lil King Kong” riff is “Traveling Riverside Blues” (as least as played by Zeppelin).
saw this yesterday on the tripwire. it is great to have him back! he looks like a hippy though.
8/18 at Union Hall in Brooklyn
Finally! I e-mailed Stereogum about two years ago about this guy. I even sent a copy of Staring at the Sun from the first album. Better late than never. Cracking artist.