• Metropolis Announce New Acts, Day by Day Breakdown

    September 10, 2015 - By 

    Set to make its inaugural appearance at Dublin’s RDS across November 7 and 8, the bill for the inaugural Metropolis is something of a statement of intent. With the likes of Chic, The Roots and Jamie XX announced as part of its initial launch back in July, the festival have today revealed several new acts set to perform, as well as the full Day by Day breakdown over the two days and nights. Spread across six rooms, taking in live music, performance, discussions and talks from selected creatives, and installations geared towards transforming the RDS into an audio-visual playground, Hot Chip, Vic Mensa, Le…

  • Watch: Empty Lungs – Medicine

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    With its launch set to take place at Belfast’s iconic Empire Music Hall on Wednesday, October 7, alt-punk quartet Empty Lungs have unveiled the video for their new single ‘Medicine’. Revealing the band’s more saccharine side – and we mean that without any unfavourable connotations  – the Kev Jones-fronted four-piece once more fuse rousing refrains with an earnestness tempered with a keen balance of weight and restraint. Following the single launch at the Empire, the band will also play the following East Coast dates: October 07: Empire Music Hall, Belfast, Ireland October 23: Philadelphia, PA (Empty Lungs Acoustic) October 24: New York, NY October 26:…

  • Ensemble Music Expanding to Record Label

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    Home to the likes of Loah (pictured), Ensemble Ériu, Conor Walsh and more, Dublin’s Ensemble Music have announced that they’re to take the very brave next step in expanding into a record label. With an €8,000 goal in mind, the collective have also wisely launched a Kickstarter campaign in conjunction with the announcement. Speaking about the move, Ensemble said, “We feel that Ireland needs a new independent label with a fresh perspective. One that will support exceptional artists who have a lot of potential but aren’t necessarily seen as commercially viable. We didn’t want to rush into it, waiting for our artists to develop…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery – Shame

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    Having originally featured on his 2013 debut album, Not Nearly Dark, ‘Shame’ by Ciaran Lavery is on the verge of hitting 10 million streams on Spotify – a pretty mindblowing and fully deserved feat for one of the country’s hardest working and most naturally gifted artists. Shot in Dublin by ROC (also responsible for this wondrous thing) the song now has a suitably simple yet perfectly poignant video, once more managing to strike a faultless balance between heartfelt sentiment and droll humour. Ciaran Lavery plays the following UK shows in October. 16 Glasgow Nice N Sleazy 17 Newcastle Upon Tyne The Cluny 2 18 Leeds Games Room, Brudenell Social…

  • Culture Night Belfast 2015

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    Far and away Belfast’s biggest annual celebration of music, art, theatre and everything in between, Culture Night Belfast will make its most happening seventh outing on Friday, September 18. With over 250 free events planned ranging from gigs, trails and tours to talks, demonstrations and screenings, the city’s historic Cathedral Quarter and beyond will be thoroughly transformed into a kaleidoscopic festival from early in the afternoon to late into the night. Keen as we are to be involved once again this year, we’re teaming up with Oh Yeah Music Centre to put on a free, genre-spanning showcase featuring The Wood Burning Savages, Hot Cops,…

  • Watch: PORTS – Gameplay

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    It feels like a lifetime ago that Derry band PORTS went under the moniker Little Bear. Having very much underlined that interim period in the sublime evolution of their rousing indie rock sound, the quartet’s latest single ‘Gameplay’ is a wistful and cunningly layered mini masterstroke, with a perfectly balanced ratio of sleep and release. Check out the band’s forthcoming tour dates and video for the aforementioned single below. September 25: Whelan’s, Dublin September 26: EchoEcho, Derry September 27:  Monroe’s, Galway October 2: Black Box, Belfast October 3: HWCH, Dublin October 4: Cyprus Avenue, Cork

  • Watch: Aaron Shanley – My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    Lisburn singer-songwriter Aaron Shanley has always operated on the periphery of his music-making peers. With a sound traversing perfectly subtle balladry to abrasive anti-folk forays, he will release a new, eight-track album, Metal Alligator, on September 22. A track falling very much and rather brilliantly under the latter descriptor, ‘My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)’ marries scuzzy lo-fi indie rock in the vein of Ty Segall and Sparklehorse with a wall of drone evoking Bardo Pond and early Flying Saucer Attack. In short: a really tidy, very promising taste of things to come from the wanderlust-smitten artist. Check out the suitably…

  • Watch: Malojian – No Alibis

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    One of our favourite Irish singer-songwriters, Stevie Scullion AKA Malojian knocked us for six with his second stdio album, Southlands, back in May. The latest single to be lifted from that, ‘No Alibis’ is a typically Americana-inflected effort from the Lurgan songsmith, conjuring the likes of Elliott Smith, Wilco and – in its more swaggering passages – Tame Impala and T-Rex. Featuring another sublime animated accompaniment by Richard Davis, the track – assumingly named after the Belfast-based bookstore of the same name – was produced by Malojian drummer and Mojo Fury frontman Michael Mormecha. Malojian plays Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on…