Sting of the hill
That ridiculously pleasant summer might be over, but there are still some lingering wasps floating about looking for trouble, and they’ve a handy lip for humans.
Translated to normal talk, that means the hugely influential Leeside punk poetry powerhouse, Wasps vs Humans (WvHs), aka Linda and Carl Antony Plover, are about ready to sting Cork with a brand new album.
Sidenote: whenever I hear about this amazing husband and wife duo and their rebellious, truth-saturated endeavours, I can’t help but remember the time, while studying journalism, that gentleman Carl was sound enough to meet some clammy classmates and I in the Triskel to perform a poem for us for one of our projects. I was on sound duties. It was all going so well – until I looked down at the zoom and realised I had neglected to hit ‘record’. Carl was mid-flow. If you’ve never seen Carl in mid-flow, then you’ll know that stopping him is a bit like reluctantly strangling a unicorn… SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! (I’ve destroyed something unique and beautiful). But being the legend and artists that he is, he just reset and belted it out again. It was amazing. My classmates and I were truly moved. And, I had pressed ‘record’ this time!
Anyway, their new album, ‘The Day Homo Sapiens Destroyed the Earth’, is having its Leeside launch on 3 October from 4pm at the Crane Lane on Phoenix Street.
It’s a highly anticipated new album launch, but it also marks the band's first-ever vinyl release, in partnership with Dublin distributors, Anthem Vinyl.
Initially a solo project, punk poet/drummer Carl Antony Plover has opened for the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Whipping Boy, and Mark E Smith's The Fall. He has released an album and single with '80s avant-garde band 4,000,000 Telephones, earning critical acclaim in the UK national press and airplay on BBC Radio 1's John Peel Show.
Since joining forces with musician wife Linda Plover in 2024, WvHs have continued to expand their sound, while their live performances have grown ever more intense. Electronic beats fuse with distorted guitars; poems are screamed straight into your face, alongside post-punk hooks ensuring every performance is as confrontational as it is uncompromising and raw.
Recorded between Dublin and Cork, the new album is the culmination of two years of gigging and capturing the raw energy of the live show: an anarchic mix of drums, bodhrán, whistles, punk poetry, songs and beats.
Described by Linda and Carl as a “sonic assault”, the duo’s brand of electronic punk-folk energy tackles disappointment, inner-city crime, a fame-obsessed culture, and social decay, with a huge dollop of desperation, balanced by equal measures of anger and wit, creating a darkly humorous soundtrack to modern life.
WvHs will be joined by Dublin-based musician THEWLIS, named after renowned English actor, David Thewlis.
Tickets for WvHs new album launch at Crane Lane are now available via eventbrite.ie.