• TreeHaus Line-up At Body & Soul Announced

    Curated by HomeBeat, a wonderfully eclectic line-up for this year’s Treehaus stage at Body & Soul 2015 has been announced. With Leftfield, Super Furry Animals, Goat and many more set to play the annual festival – taking place from June 19-21 at Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath – the following acts will play TreeHaus, a self-proclaimed “place of darkness, a place of light, a temple to beauty, a mansion to madness”: Ghosts, Buffalo Woman, Little Xs For Eyes, I Have a Tribe, Hare Squead, SlowPlaceLikeHome, Hilary Woods, My Tribe Your Tribe, Idiot Songs, Planet Parade, Participant, Carriages, Nubus, Margie Lewis, Signa, Somadrone, Lyttet,…

  • Villagers Irish Tour

    Our writers and photographers report back from three of Villagers’ hugely successful dates across Ireland, including shows at Dublin’s Olympia, Cork Opera House and Belfast’s Mandela Hall. Saturday: Opera House, Cork w/ Gavin Glass Photos by Brid O’Donovan May 23rd, 2015 will forever be remembered as a landmark in Irish history, a momentously happy day, as the passage of the marriage referendum finally allows two people that love each other to marry and be recognised as equal citizens of our young, progressive nation. The eyes of the world are upon us, and they are smiling warmly as word filters around the world. The…

  • The Cribs w/ September Girls @ Limelight 2, Belfast

    With their reverb-soaked garage-rock sound, September Girls (below) take to the stage at Belfast’s Limelight 2 tonight an hour after the doors open. The long wait for the opening act doesn’t make much difference as the capacity in dark room is barely touched, and with a mere thirty-odd people watching them on, the band start their set. With The Cribs gear arranged behind them, the Dublin band seem to make the stage appear even smaller than what it usually is. Swaying about for most of the set, they focus on a clean and crisp live sound, translating almost identically from their recorded material. As…

  • Watch: BAILER – Call Off The Unknown

    One of the strongest heavy single releases from an Irish act this year so far, Cork metalcore quartet BAILER have unveiled the video for their vehement new single, ‘Call Off The Unknown’. Reminiscent of Ire Works-era Dillinger Escape Plan and Reuben’s more abrasive efforts, the track – recorded and mixed by Aidan Cunningam of Murdock – bursts out of the traps without the slightest hint of hesitation, cuing two and a half minutes of relentless and rabid riffage. Truth be told, we’ve listened to it five times on repeat already. BAILER band will release their debut EP later in the year. Grab a…

  • Stream: Cut Once – Forget About The World

    One of our featured Inbound acts in our May magazine, Dublin duo Michael Heffernan and Aisling Browne AKA Cut Once have released their second single, ‘Let’s Forget About The World’. Clocking in at over just over four minutes in the length, the tracks is a stripped-back, hook-filled effort taken from their debut EP, Institution, suggesting some serious potential for the fast-rising pair.

  • EP Stream: Craft Work – 3 Songs

    A more abstracted and sample-heavy affair when paired against the comparatively more linear jazz-punk experimentalism of his band, Robocobra Quartet, Belfast-based musician and producer Chris Ryan AKA Craft Work has unveiled 3 Songs, a triptych of hip-hop-leaning tracks featuring samples from the likes of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Olivier Messiaen and Steve Reich.  Whilst parallels can be drawn to Ryan’s Beat-like lyricism in the aforementioned quartet (who play our Tuesday Throwdown at Belfast’s Lavery’s tomorrow night, don’t you know?), there is a distinctive open-ended sense of freedom to the release that lends to its all-too-brief charm and appeal. 3 Songs by Craft Work

  • Swans w/ Okkyung Lee @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    Writing about Swans is a curious, almost impossible thing. With their three-decade long pursuit of summoning fleeting encounters with ecstasy, induced by masterfully orchestrated swathes of crushing noise, incantation and repetition, they are the living, breathing definition of a band whose seismic might and majesty can only truly be heeded live. A year to the month on from the release of their critically-devoured thirteenth studio opus, To Be Kind, Michael Gira and co. roll into Belfast tonight a towering and potent force to be reckoned with. Expectations simply couldn’t be higher. Immediately silencing the room with a flicker of the…

  • Dott’s USA Tour Diary: Part 3

    In the third and final installment of Dott’s US Tour Diary the gang head to the Low Country for the last leg of their tour. They have a whale of a time in Savannah and Charleston before finishing off their time in the US with a visit to their friend Andrew in Atlanta. Read Part One and Two of the Dott’s Tour Diary  March 30: Hang Fire, Savannah, Georgia With very cloudy heads from an over-night flight we landed in Atlanta and met our driver for the next few days Taylor. Taylor turned out to be one of the best things (of…

  • Front of House: Blue Monkey PR

    In the latest installment of Front of House, Mike McGrath Bryan chats to Blue Monkey PR agent Darren Johnston about his background in the industry, its role within a burgeoning Cork music scene and how others can get involved in the music PR industry in the current climate. Photos by Melanie Mullan. Hi Darren, could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got involved with Blue Monkey? Well, I’ve worked within the music scene in Cork for the last 10 years both in bands as a musician and supporting bands through various means and I’ve been involved with…

  • Stream: Sleep Thieves – Sparks (Haüer Remix)

    Eight months on from the release of his (inter)stellar debut EP, Esperbyte, Dublin electro producer John Rooney AKA Haüer has unveiled his remix of Sleep Thieves‘ ‘Sparks’, the b-side to the latter’s latest single, ‘You Want The Night’. A synth-drenched masterstroke, the remix is a retro-futuristic, electro-disco re-imaging of ridiculously danceable proportions, re-igniting our excitement for new Haüer material later in the year. Haüer and Extra Fox support Sleep Thieves at Dublin’s Grand Social tonight (Thursday, May 21) Photos by Loreana Rushe.