• Watch: Villagers – Hot Scary Summer

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    The second single to be released from his forthcoming third studio album, Darling Arithmetic, Conor O’Brien AKA Villagers is streaming the exquisite ‘Hot Scary Summer’. An outright highlight from the album – released via Domino on April 13 – the track is one features instrumentation written and recorded exclusively by O’Brien in the loft of a converted farmhouse that he lives in in Malahide. Pre-order the album here. Go here to check out Villagers’ forthcoming tour dates and watch the video for ‘Hot Scary Summer’ below.

  • First acts announced for Indiependence 2015

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Ash, Mark Lanegan Band, The Dandy Warhols and Jape are amongst the first ten acts announced to play this year’s Indiependence Festival. Set to return to Deer Farm in Mitchelstown, Cork, across the weekend of July 31 to August 2, the festival will also see performances from Gavin James, Admiral Fellow, Little Hours, The North Sea, Wyvern Lingo and The Flaws. Go here to buy tickets to the festival.

  • Watch: No Monster Club – The Loneliest Master

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Featuring Bobby Aherne from the band tackling the most fearsome of extreme sports – thumb wrestling – Dublin’s No Monster Club have unveiled the video for ‘The Loneliest Master’. Featuring a support cast comprised of Owen Colgan (Buzz from Hardy Bucks) and a host of local comedians and musicians on Popical Island, the video was created by Giles Brody and Conor O’Toole. ‘The Loneliest Master’ is taken from People Are Weird, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar this Saturday evening. Stream/buy it here and read our review of it here.

  • Helen Keen: It Is Rocket Science! @ Black Box, Belfast

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    The next installment of Friday Salons at Belfast’s Black Box on Friday, March 20 will see Helen Keen present It’s Rocket Science!, a low budget, highly original look at the history and future of space travel. Featuring Space Nazis, Satanists and Aeronautical Engineers, the factually accurate and funny show – “featuring all the enormity of the universe, without any of the boring bits” – will take you on a whistlestop tour around the Great Brains who put monkeys, ladies, dogs and gentlemen into orbit. This live show has so far launched three award-winning, critically acclaimed series for BBC Radio 4. The…

  • Stream: Orchid Collective – Figure It Out

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Conjuring the likes of Midlake, The Antlers (and in its most dusky passages, The Twilight Sad), Dublin’s Orchid Collective have released their debut single, ‘Figure It Out’. Disentangling over five minutes of delay-laden atmosphere, the song – mixed by Stephen Dunne and mastered by Richard Dowling – is a subtly anthemic first gambit from a band whose reputation on the live front grows in stature by the week. The band officially released ‘Figure It Out’, with supported from We Raise Bears and Joey Gavin, at Dublin’s Whelan’s on Thursday night (February 12). Stream the track below.

  • Label Mixtape #003: 4AD

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    A label based on aesthetic principles, 4AD has spent over 30 years being everything you think it is not. Initially founded by Ivo Watts Russell in 1980 as a vehicle to release music by bands at the centre of the nascent goth scene, the label quickly established a style and format that would lead to it becoming one of the most iconic record labels of the 80s.With records clad in immaculate Vaughn Oliver sleeves, the label originally specialised in floaty, gothic ambience, before encompassing world music, dance music, and – perhaps most significantly – the cutting edge of the US…

  • Track Record: Brian Kelly (So Cow)

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record we head to the little blue house in Galway to hang out with Brian Kelly  from So Cow to chat about the records that influence his daily life. Photos by Sean McCormack Disclaimer: These are not my ten favourite albums of all time, though I’d say four of them would be on that list. These are the ten records I play most when cooking, sweeping or pottering about. They are the go-tos. I have about 180 LPs on my shelves, or Two Ikeas worth, as is the official measurement. About 100 or these are honest-to-goodness purchases made…