Two Nice Catholic Boys
Two Nice Catholic Boys formed in the Spring of 2020 as a collaborative music project between writer and illustrator Ruairí McCann and writer and filmmaker Maximilien Luc Proctor, both co-editors of the film and music website Ultra Dogme.
The band was formed and continues to grow as an act of friendship; fueled by the desire to make music that is ‘catholic’, in the egalitarian sense of the word. Their music pointedly and playfully wavers at the border between genres, combining rock and pop songwriting with an experimental approach to texture, structure and the inclusion of found sound bound together through the happy accidents of improvisation and the precision of laptop-based editing.
After self-releasing two albums in 2022, Two Nice Catholic Boys make their label debut with Three Cheers for the Distant Observer. Influenced by Loren Connors (from whose 2009 album with Jim O’Rourke the band found their name) this release finds the band exploring a minimalist sound and a semi-improvised approach within the productive limits of short, song-like structures. The results are four instrumental arrangements which oscillate between chance and control, evoking moments of intimacy, confusion and clarity—dimensions of the real world alongside an imaginative one.
"Evoking moments of intimacy, confusion and clarity, it’s an M.O. that sits front and centre on the EP’s lead track, ‘Never Wonder’. Like a long-lost early Kranky release by way of Basinski circa Melancholia, the instrumental hits like a sweet threnody for uniquely uncertain times. Here, oscillating synth spectres and the peal of sunken bells stick to soft tape hiss like dandelion spores on a cardigan." - The Thin Air
In October 2026, Two Nice Catholic Boys released their latest EP, Fallen from a Nest of Clouds. This short but substantive suite of songs was slowly put together over a period of two years with Max and Ruairí meticulously stitching together spur of the moment improvisations and field recordings with experimental sound design. The coterie of elements and textures include Max's brash and lush guitar work and Ruairí's manipulated, found instrumentation, including bird whistles and a music box, among many other sounds, possibilities and windows to the world.
"Warm as anything, it’s Ry Cooder meditations meeting something dug out from the back of the Drag City office – all Gastr Del Sol expanse, Grubbsian guitar psalms and a deep, hedgerow twang – with a Merlin archive layered over the top. I know for a fact that at least one half of the band is a keen user of the bird-identifying app, the world’s greatest app in fact, and you may not be surprised." - The Thin Air
Fallen from a Nest of Clouds is out now on CD and digital download and is streaming via Two Nice Catholic Boys on Bandcamp and Subvert.