Remaining in Limerick throughout the existence of Giveamanakick, the duo were declared "the best hard-rock band in the country" by rock critic Eamon Sweeney and received the approval of Hot Press, No Disco's Leagues O'Toole and Fight Like Apes.
[5] In 2002, the duo released a split single with Mr. Creosote titled "Darko Filopovic", a song which would later feature as the final track on their debut album.
[17] In 2003, there were reports that the duo's debut album, titled Is it ok to be loud, Jesus?, would be released on a label called Larry Gogan Records but this later emerged to be a joke published by a fledgling Foggy Notions.
[17] It received two out of five stars in a review by RTÉ's Tom Grealis who wrote, "this is what happens when rawness comes without any real sense of purpose".
[7] The Hot Press reviewer said listening to the album was "something akin to being battered round the head with a plank of wood for half an hour" but, nonetheless, "bloody fantastic".
[8] Phil Udell's Hot Press review gave the album 4.5 out of five stars, saying it "gives you that much sought after visceral thrill" and that the duo "wrote it, recorded it, fucked off.
[13] Stephen Ryan has said in several interviews that their early Sunday morning performance at Electric Picnic in 2006 was "one to remember" with so many festival-goers coming to view them.
[9][19] He described the performance as a" bit of a blur" as they "pretty dumbfounded by the reaction" and the idea of "playing with some of our musical heroes such as Dinosaur Jr. and Deftones was a dream come through [sic]".
[4] Ryan claimed that Welcome to the Cusp was the album which "most accurately represents what the Giveamanakick sound actually is" and described the songs as "possibly the most structurally challenging ones so far".
[17][39] They wrote self-described pop songs, where "Keith hits his drums really hard and I [Steve Ryan] like my guitars turned up very loud but we do this with a pop sensibility",[2] and employed techniques such as using gas masks to distort their vocals when playing live, performing with streamers and encouraging their audience to disorientate themselves by clapping their own ears.
[11][40] They lived in Limerick throughout their existence, citing a positive music scene, the humour and the hurling as being some of their reasons for liking their home city.