The Thrills are an Irish indie rock band, formed in 2001 in Dublin. The band is made up of lead vocalist Conor Deasy, guitarist Daniel Ryan, guitarist and bass player Pádraic McMahon, pianist Kevin Horan and drummer Ben Carrigan. Their big break came with their debut album, So Much for the City , which became an Irish number one. The band's sound has been described as "sun-drenched, inspired by classic American pop of the late '60s and early '70s". [1]

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History

The Thrills were formed in the Dublin suburb of Blackrock in the mid-'90s, when neighbors Conor Deasy and Daniel Ryan formed the Cheating Housewives with Gonzaga College classmates Ben Carrigan, Kevin Horan, and Padraic McMahon. In 2001, they changed their name and became The Thrills . The band began writing and demoing material with a view to securing a record deal, which they soon did with local label Supremo Recordings, home of Chicks. ^[2]

The band members took a summer holiday in Santa Cruz^{[disambiguation needed]} where they wrote several of the tracks for their debut album, So Much for the City such as "One Horse Town". In late 2002, The Thrills signed with Virgin Records, attracted by the promise of artistic freedom and the label's decision to allow them to record their debut record in Hollywood with producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air). Their debut album was released in 2003, debuting at #1 in Ireland, #3 in the UK and going platinum in both the UK and Irish Album Charts. ^[3] The album was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Prize but lost to Dizzee Rascal's 'Boy in da Corner'. ^[4]

Released in September 2004, Let's Bottle Bohemia was again recorded in L.A., this time with Dave Sardy and featuring orchestration by Van Dyke Parks and a guest mandolin performance by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. The album enjoyed similar success to the band's debut, entering the charts at number one in Ireland and number nine in the U.K - largely on the back of the single "Whatever Happened To Corey Haim?". The band often cites Neil Young and the Beach Boys as its main inspirations. The band took part in the Band Aid 20 charity assemble in 2004. The band took an extended break after their second album, in an effort to evolve their sound. Teenager was originally recorded in New York in 2006, but didn't meet the band's standards. New material was written, including the single and opening track "Midnight Choir", and at R.E.M.'s suggestion, the five relocated to a renovated morgue in inner-city Vancouver to re-record the album with Tony Hoffer ^[5]. Teenager was released in Ireland on 22 July 2007 and Central Europe on 25 July 2007. Reviewed as 'less polished and more aggressive than either of its predecessors', it failed to light up the British and Irish charts, selling just 600 copies in Ireland its first week.

The band were dropped by EMI in 2008 after the poor performance of their Teenager album, which only charted at #48 in the UK . ^[6]

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	UK	IRE [7]	BEL [8]	FRA	ITA [9]	NED	NOR	SWE	USA Billboard Heatseekers [10]	USA Billboard Top 200
2003	So Much for the City	3	1	—	100	47	75	28	23	14	—
2004	Let's Bottle Bohemia	9	1	79	183	—	85	—	—	6	152
2007	Teenager	48	24 [11]	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

EPs

Year	Title
2007	The Thrills Bite Size

Singles

Year	Single	UK	IRE [12]	NED [13]	Album
2002	Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)	—	—	—	So Much for the City
2003	One Horse Town Big Sur Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far) (Re-Issue) Don't Steal Our Sun	18 17 33 45	7 9 17 38	— 55 — —	So Much for the City
2004	Whatever Happened To Corey Haim? Not for All the Love in the World	22 39	17 38	— —	Let's Bottle Bohemia
2005	The Irish Keep Gate-crashing	48	44	—	Let's Bottle Bohemia
2007	Nothing Changes Around Here The Midnight Choir	40 —	— —	— —	Teenager

Other contributions

• WFUV: City Folk Live VII (2004) - "Santa Cruz"
• Music from the OC: Mix 2 (2004, Warner Bros./Wea) - "Big Sur"
• Eklektikos Live (2005) - "Say it Ain't So"
• The Acoustic Album (2006, Virgin) - "Santa Cruz"

In media

"Big Sur" from So Much for the City features in commercials on French television, for the Midi-Pyrénées tourism center.

"One Horse Town" from So Much for the City was used as the title music for the second and third series of the BBC sketch comedy series Tittybangbang , and is currently featuring in commercials for Volvo.

Adam Brody, who played Seth Cohen on The O.C. , is a fan of The Thrills. Their music featured in two episodes of The O.C. including a guest appearance by the band members themselves on the second season episode "The Ex-Factor", where they played "Saturday Night", "Not For All the Love in the World" and "The Curse of Comfort".

"Big Sur" appears on the soundtrack and compilation album, Music from the OC: Mix 2 .

"There's Joy to Be Found/The Boy Who Caught All the Breaks" featured in the 17 October 2007 episode of Private Practice .

References

1. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/thrills_ireland_/artist.jhtml
2. http://www.livedaily.com/artists/2196.html
3. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=256
4. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/murcurytechnics.htm
5. The Thrills Awaken Inner Adolescence with 'The Midnight Choir'
6. Lauria, Peter and Garrity, Brian (15 January 2008). ''Hands' Pink Slips, The New York Post, Retrieved on 2 July 2008.
7. British Hit Singles & Albums
8. http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=The+Thrills&titel=Let's+Bottle+Bohemia&cat=a
9. http://acharts.us/album/16366
10. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0pfwxql5ld6e~T5
11. http://acharts.us/album/27066
12. http://acharts.us/song/1117
13. http://dutchcharts.nl/search.asp?search=the+thrills&cat=s