Episode Notes

Episode nine of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focuses on Chicks Dig Scars by Wormhole.

Wormhole were a three-piece from Ringsend in Dublin and in 1994 released Chicks Dig Scars, their debut album, on Dead Elvis Records. Wormhole were Graham Blackmore and twins Anto and Dave Carroll. Graham played guitar and sang, Dave played the drums and sang, and Anto played the bass guitar.

In episode eight I featured Revelino’s debut album which was also released in 1994. Two Dublin bands who both recorded their debut albums in the same year - two of the strongest albums of that year. Where Revelino dealt in classic guitar power-pop, Wormhole on the other hand were influenced by underground bands from the US and UK. They were noisy and experimental, to paraphrase the band’s press adverts - this wasn’t Hi-Fi or Lo-Fi, this was No-Fi.

Wormhole’s story is intertwined with the story of Dead Elvis Records, Fuse studio and the Dublin underground scene of the mid-90s. Dead Elvis was formed by Eamonn and Seán Óg Crudden, Eamonn Doyle and Marc Carolan. Dead Elvis and Fuse were run out of premises on Parnell St. Marc recorded and produced Chicks Dig Scars in the basement studio the lads had built and the album was released on their Dead Elvis label. It was pressed on CD and sold for £5. At the time this was revolutionary and inspired bands all over the country.

A compilation has just been issued titled, The Wormholes - You Never See The Stars When It Rains 1994-99 (Allchival Records, 2021). The record was in the planning stages when Dave suffered a stroke, was diagnosed with cancer and died three months later on the fourth of June 2019. He was 49.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Dave Carroll.

For Further Reading/Listening:

To Here Knows When column in The Goo on Chicks Dig Scars…

Feature on The Wormholes’ Parijuana for the Irish Examiner…

"If Jubilee Allstars were the Replacements and In Motion the Byrds, The Wormholes were The Stooges." Niall Crumlish

The above quote - mentioned in the episode - is taken from Niall Crumlish’s sleevenotes to the new anthology. They are available to read on The Blackpool Sentinel blog: The Wormholes: Tilting at Transcendence.

Stephen Rennicks is one of the five guests on this episode. Along with Niall, Stephen also wrote sleevenotes for the anthology. Stephen curates the Abstract Analogue Facebook Community page. Abstract Analogue, as he describes it, “began as a website in 2014 as a space for me to write about music and archive old interviews etc. This page will connect to those articles and expand on them. If you enjoy discovering overlooked music you will like this page.” Stephen also blogs at the Abstract Analogue Tumblr page and if you enjoyed this episode then his Wormhole longread is essential reading.

The Dead Elvis Archive Tumblr blog is an, “Archive of a Dublin based record label which existed between 1994 and 1999. This blog is intended as a means to compile tracks from label releases, recordings by friends of the label, demos by bands associated with the label and relevant photos and video material.”

The video for ‘Bee Mee’ that’s mentioned in the episode is below. It was directed by Hugh McCabe and aptly the footage was, “shot in the Grand Canal where it empties into the Liffey at Ringsend”.

and finally…

The great Fanning Sessions blog has archived Wormhole's 1994 session for the Dave Fanning Show. It can be heard here.