Our second Off The Cuff session comes from amazing Canadian band The Most Serene Republic:



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We arrived at Whelans last Wednesday just in time to catch the band's sound check and have a bit of a wander around to look for somewhere nice to shoot. It transpired that Whelans' recent renovations had also covered the backstage area, and hidden up on the third floor was a great little room full of old leather couches and tucked away from the noise of downstairs.

Having decided to play around with the idea of two cameras, we set up a laptop in the corner to record a wide shot on it's web-cam. This would come in handy, as catching all the members of the band in one shot would be tough, even though we were without Keyboardist Ryan & Drummer Tony.

Sound check finished, TMSR made themselves comfortable upstairs- happy with what they considered to be the best sound on the tour so far. After warming up, and cracking open a bottle of Jameson, the band proceeded to give us three spellbinding performances, covering material old and new.

2/a (above) is a performance of Anhoi Polloi, from the spectacular Tour EP Phages.

2/b (below) is a performance of Present of Future End, from TMSR's excellent new album Population:



Part 3 to follow.

An interview with The Most Serene Republic taken during the Off The Cuff session will also be published here soon.

Click to visit The Most Serene Republic on myspace

Big big thanks to Lena Obara, Patrick Guay & Dylan Nolan for all their help.

More videos on the main Off The Cuff Recordings page.

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With the second of two damn fine albums just released The Most Serene Republic visit these shores for an intimate show in Whelans.

You'll be seeing more of them around these parts in the near future but for the time being click on the read more for a run down of the gig.

Cheers to Katy Chan for the snaps,



It really is unusual the small number of patrons who assemble in Whelans to see The Most Serene Republic. Could it be that everybody else is off checking out Joy Zipper and Spiritualized who are playing elsewhere in the city or could it be that there is just too many good gigs on at the moment that people can't handle the mighty dent this inevitably puts on one's wallet. I choose to blame the lack of advertising which is ludicrously poor, so much so that the venue itself does not even display a poster for the band in the window.

It really is a shame that this has happened but those who are lucky to see one of Canada's finest exports are treated to what they themselves refer to as an "intimate VIP gig" where at several points throughout the audience are presented with the oppurtunity to request songs. Little is needed in the way of requesting however as they pretty much lash through all the best stuff from their two albums "Underwater Cinematographer" and the (yet to be released here but available on Itunes) "Population".

Throughout the gig it becomes clear that this is a band of two halfs. There's the out there stream-of conciousness persona as presented by vocalist/trombone player Adrian and there's the more grounded dry wit of Keyboardist Ryan who occasionaly has to interrupt Adrian's rambles so that the next song can commence. The rest of the band fit in comfortably between these two extremes.

Its testament to the dedication of the band that they are able to go on a jaunt such as this whistle stop tour of Ireland and Europe with such a large numbered group as they are and their love of what they do comes through clearly in their stage performance and appears to be unhampered despite the lack of audience in attendance.

So worth checking out? Hell yes. As I said earlier we'll have more from this chappies (and chappettes) around here very shortly but for the time being have a gander at a few of their tunes down below:







The Men Who Live Upstairs


Oh God

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