• Irish Tracks of the Week – 15th March

    With not a single St. Paddy’s-angled misfire among them, today sees essential new albums from Blue Whale and HAVVK, Fight Like Apes covering a Sinéad O’Connor classic in aid of Palestine, stellar new tracks by Garrett Laurie, Ciaran Lavery and more Blue Whale – Last Immediate Images Fight Like Apes – Black Boys on Mopeds Garrett Laurie – No Warning Ciaran Lavery – Honeybun HAVVK – To Fall Asleep To Fall Asleep by HAVVK Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin – Siren Spring Siren Spring by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin The Guilteens – The Boat

  • Pixies at 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    One afternoon in 2016, I necked an industrial vat of coffee and proceeded to make the case for the Quietus that, when all is said and done and hyped and re-issued, ad infinitum, Trompe le Monde was Pixies 1.0 at their most downright irresistible. Marking their shapeshifting, space-obsessed last hurrah before combusting two years after its release in 1993, it’s spent the last three decades astride its predecessor, Bossanova, as a genre-mangling snapshot of the band being indie rock’s OG mentalists par excellence.  Eight years on, I’m more sure than ever that, for all their relative dearth of Kim Deal, it’s…

  • Lankum Scoop 2023 Choice Music Prize

    Lankum have just won this year’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize for False Lankum. As time has shown us, there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion at the annual awards but Lankum’s fourth full-length taking this year’s Best Album prize is unlikely to be a shock to many. Released via Rough Trade back in March last year, the John “Spud” Murphy-produced triumph firmly cemented the Dublin quartet’s status as a singular force in forward-leaping experimental folk. Among the plaudits the album has released over the last twelve months include a Mercury Prize nod, five stars from the Guardian and…

  • Bonnie “Prince” Billy Announces Irish Tour

    Bonnie “Prince” Billy has announced a six-date Irish tour for August. The Louisville artist – aka Will Oldham – will play a string of relatively intimate shows in Clonakilty, Cork, Limerick and Galway, before two dates in Dublin at the National Concert Hall and Whelan’s respectively. Check out the full details via the rather lovely poster below. Presented by Foggy Notions, the shows will see Oldham supported by Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary. Tickets go on sale for all venues this Friday, March 8 at 10am.

  • Track-by-Track: Chalk – Conditions II

    Ahead of what looks primed to be a breakthrough year for the fast-rising electronic/noise rock Belfast trio, Chalk vocalist and producer Ross Cullen takes us on a track-by-track tour of the diverse influence and inspiration behind their brand new EP, Conditions II The Gate Conditions II by Chalk ‘The Gate’ is all about pressure and the pressures of being in a band. It began with a drum and bass loop I found on Splice alongside some 1/16 notes from a preset called Demented Percussion on Logic. Combining those two sounds set up the energy of the track fairly quickly. There’s a…

  • Monday Mixtape: Pissed Jeans

    It’s early days but if Pennsylvanian hardcore heroes Pissed Jeans didn’t just return with one of the records of the year in Half Divorced, recorded sound – I’m afraid to report – is officially over. Released on Friday, it doubles as the band’s first album in seven years and delivers a dozen sludge-punk face rippers that rank right up there with their very best. Good luck finding fucked-off finesse more compelling than this in 2024. Which is to say we seriously wouldn’t advise that you pass on the band’s show in Dublin next month. Taking over Whelan’s main room on…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 1st March

    Have at the very best Irish tracks and albums out today – and from the final week in February just gone – from Chalk feat. Fears, Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra, M(h)aol, Connor McCann, THEE U.F.O., Oisin Leech, Danny Carroll and more M(h)aol – Pursuit Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra – Problem Child Reevah – Golden Danny Carroll – I Am The Cheese I Am The Cheese by Danny Carroll Oisin Leech – One Hill Further THEE U.F.O – Bursting Egos Chalk feat. Fears – Bliss Connor McCann – Ever The Dreamer Shark School – 411

  • Output Announces 2024 Return

    The first details of Output Belfast’s 2024 return have been announced. Having teamed up with AVA for last year’s outing, Ireland’s biggest one-day music conference is back to its usual format for this year – all while celebrating Sound of Belfast’s 10th birthday. On the morning and afternoon of Thursday, November 12, music industry leaders from across the globe will descend upon the MAC and the Oh Yeah Music Centre to speak on an array of panels. As with previous years, it’s set to be an unmissable programme full of networking opportunities for the local music community to meet industry…

  • A Band Apart: An Interview With Gilla Band

    Next year marks a mind-melting decade since we hosted two sold-out headliners by Gilla Band at Belfast’s Bar Sub. Coming off the back of a trouncing set in support of Slint at the Limelight – and their second EP The Early Years – the shows confirmed the arrival of a blitzing force in forward-pushing noise rock. Three genre-defining LPs, a two-year hiatus, one name change, and heaps of well-earned international recognition later, the Dara Kiely-fronted four-piece are on the cusp of a thrilling new era. Ahead of their long-awaited return to Belfast next week, we chat to guitarist Alan Duggan…

  • Mohammed Sufkhan at the Record Room

    Off the back of the release of his incredible debut album, I Am Kurdish, Mohammed Sufkhan has announced a show at the Record Room. The Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player, whose beatific craft has won him a legion of new fans in recent times, will play an intimate show at the Limerick venue, based in the Commerical, on Thursday, 28th March. Currently based in Leitrim, Sufkhan relocated to Ireland in late 2016 and has spent the last seven years largely playing at private parties and concerts in the community, as well as weddings and events for Kurdish and Syrian communities…