Of punks and poetry

Dublin band Fontaines DC wear their literary influences on their sleeve and their music reflects the darkness they see lurking beneath our have-it-all, social media-obsessed society, writes Michael Lanigan

Fontaines DC: ‘There’s a real joy to this moment. We’ve no distraction or job getting in the way’

Anyone who pays attention to the cyclical nature of history can probably see that we’re currently into an amped up version of the 1980s. It’s that moment when people begin to reaffirm their faith in the economy with clichéd remarks such as “the boom times are back”.

Maybe that’s why a post-punk band like Fontaines DC has resonated so much in the past few months. Driven by a dense wall of sound on ...