For over a decade now, American outfit Sunburned Hand Of The Man have been trading in a fine line of psychedelic experimental rock, and they bring all that to Limerick for one night only this Wednesday (June 25).

Sunburned formed in 1997 from the ashes of the charmingly-titled Boston psych-punk mob Shit Spangled Banner, a band which Sunburned founder John Moloney once said was “conceived as a cross between The Melvins and Sonic Youth”.

Since then, Sunburned… have continuously skirted convention and expectations with a serious of sporadic releases on a variety of labels that have blurs the lines between drone, free jazz, folk, and noise rock; and with an expansive line-up that regularly changes from tour to tour, and record to record.
 
Ahead of their rare Limerick appearance, Moloney along with the more sardonic Ron Schneiderman spoke to the Limerick Independent. Touring as a five-piece currently, SHOTM also currently include Sarah O’Shea, Paul Labrecque and Rob Thomas in their live line-up.

A handful of shows on the tour, but not including the Limerick one, are going to be totally electronic-based, but does is nothing unusual, with John pointing out “we've been doing electronics shows since day one.”

One such release was ‘Fire Escape’, which was produced by Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. “Just like anyone who may be present, Kieran has a unique set of tools that take the chilli to new systems within the old grand system. I think his chilli is animal safe too,” quips Ron Schneiderman.

For a band that rotates so much, perhaps collaboration is the key to keeping things fresh – 2007 also saw the release of ‘The Blazed Game’ as Sunburned Circle, where they combined their powers with Finnish kraut-inclined act Circle (who coincidentally have also played Baker Place).

Ron explains how it came about: “Both bands happened to be in the same place at the same time, and open and ready to open it up; a completely fun and beautiful scene.” That particular release came out on Conspiracy Records, just one of a number of outlets there have been for SHOTM releases, including the Thurston Moore-operated Ecstatic Peace, Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound, and the band’s own label Manhand, including many others.

 “It is our vehicle for our artwork to reach the people who'd like to look at it without going through some sort of waiting process. The waiting around is what birthed the label in the first place. I wanted our music to be in our own hands and then passed to you like a gift,” says Moloney of Manhand.