It spawned several more successful singles, including "Break" which achieved notoriety in South Africa where a radio station banned it following complaints regarding its allegedly explicit lyrics.

Having earned the admiration of several musicians, including members of Snow Patrol and U2, as well as Sinéad O'Connor—with whom they recorded, released and performed a duet at the 2008 Meteor Awards—the band have had their music played on radio stations in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

[5] Experiencing what he termed "a huge metaphysical overturning of my value system", Pyro had developed a fascination with musicians such as James Brown and The Rolling Stones, or "the stuff your Dad likes".

Following the departure of guitarist Emmet Cole (who wrote the song "Black Bread") and bassist Mark Dennehey "To Texas and Ringsend," respectively, Johnny Pyro and Rock Coma split.

[5] Benjamin Loose studied theology in Trinity College Dublin before performing in a country band with Mick Pyro.

[7] The single "Girl I'm Gonna Fuck You Up", released in late 2003, was largely ignored by daytime radio in Ireland, with Mick Pyro commenting in an early Hot Press interview: "We were never going to be the type of band that Larry Gogan or Ian Dempsey would play anyway, regardless of the lyric".

[10][11] The band's debut album, This is the Tomb of the Juice, was partially recorded in the ten days studio time they had won in the aforementioned competition.

[23] Vol IV: Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil was released in May 2008,[35] featuring contributions from Sinéad O'Connor, rapper Styles P and hip hoppers Millionaire Boyz.

[37] Republic of Loose were one of several acts to perform cover versions at a show in The Academy titled "Inspirations", held in honour of the actor Paul Newman's Irish charity in February 2009.

[52] In June 2009, the band were part of a collaboration of musicians calling themselves The Troublemakers who recorded a cover version of the Horslips song "Trouble with a Capital T" for charity.

[53][54][55] The band performed on the Heineken Green Spheres Stage at Oxegen 2009 before supporting U2 during one of their U2 360° Tour concert dates at Croke Park in July 2009.

[64][65] The album, recorded in Baltimore, "blends a myriad of influences -- from plastic soul to the sort of 'big hair' rock of the 80s", according to Irish Independent reviewer John Meagher.

[67] Republic of Loose's genre has been defined by various sources as blues,[20] funk,[68] metal,[3] R'n'B,[69] pop,[20] rock[20] and soul.

[71] Paul Lester, writing in British newspaper The Guardian in July 2007, described Republic of Loose as an "Irish OutKast" to be filed next to Danny Wilson, Hall & Oates and N.E.R.D and least likely to be compared to The Pogues.

[72] John Meagher, writing in the Irish Independent in April 2008, said the band were "out of step entirely with prevailing trends [...] almost like they stopped listening to music after hearing the young Prince and early Dexys Midnight Runners".

[38] When writing a piece on The Script in August 2008, Brian Boyd of The Irish Times claimed that they were "as un-Irish sounding as The Republic of Loose [sic]".

[73] Internationally, they have established fan bases in London and New York City and have achieved regular airplay on Los Angeles radio in the United States,[20] as well as France, Indonesia and the Philippines.

From "Vol IV: Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil" From "Bounce At the Devil" Non-album singles Republic of Loose's second album Aaagh!

was nominated for the Choice Music Prize, an award won by The Divine Comedy for the album Victory for the Comic Muse.

[90] In addition to this, they have performed at both the 2006 and 2008 awards ceremonies, the latter of which involved a duet with Sinéad O'Connor on the Curtis Mayfield song "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue".