• Watch: Villagers – Courage

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    Having received its premiere on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6Music show this morning, Villagers have unveiled the video for their new single ‘Courage’. Taken from the band’s forthcoming third album, Darling Arithmetic, the track is a typically exquisite effort from Conor O’Brien and co., beautifully propelled in its harmonic simplicity and lyrical incisiveness. According to the band’s YouTube page, Darling Arithmetic was “written, recorded, produced and mixed by O’Brien at home – the loft of a converted farmhouse that he shares in the coastal town of Malahide to the north of Dublin – revealing a single-minded artist at the peak of…

  • Monday Mixtape: Sam Coomes (Quasi)

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    Best known as frontman of quintessential American indie rock band Quasi, Sam Coomes is our latest willing subject in the often indispensable, always mind-bogglingly tasteful Monday Mixtape. Twenty years into the game, ex-husband and wife duo Coomes (Donner Party, Heatmiser, etc) and Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Wild Flag, etc) AKA Quasi are the living, breathing definition of indie rock royalty. Formed in Portland in 1993, the duo’s uniquely infectious, incomparably insightful brand of indie rock has spanned nine studio albums and countless EPs worth of material. Featuring everyone from Serge Gainsbourg to Iggy Pop, Coomes’ mixtape is a sublime, ten-track…

  • AVA Festival Belfast Announced

    January 30, 2015 - By 

    A brand new music festival and conference celebrating and showcasing electronic audio-visuals arts in Northern Ireland, AVA Festival will make its inaugural outing at Belfast’s T13 on Saturday, May 30. Up productions has teamed up with a range of Belfast locals including Matthew McBriar and Andrew Ferguson (Bicep, pictured), Oisin O’Brien (Guerilla Shout) and others to produce the festival a one day-&-night grassroots showcase and conference celebrating the strong current of electronic music and digital visual arts that has emerged from Northern Ireland. Merging an old industrial warehouse-come-skate park (T13) with both established and emerging Electronic Music Producers, DJs and Visual Artists, this…

  • Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    Arguably one of the most exciting and idiosyncratic Irish indie-rock bands of a generation, Belfast-based three-piece Hot Cops are teetering on the brink of some great things in 2015. Released immediately off the back of their stellar double-single ‘Origami/Novelty’, the band’s new four-track EP, #1 Babes, coyly, often cryptically renders instability, heartbreak, and the human condition in first-rate, wanderlust-tinged lo-fi glory. Positively bursting at the seams with fuzzed-out tangents, earworming refrains and masterfully nonchalant hooks, the Carl Eccles-fronted threesome’s cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. At the root of that is…

  • Forbidden Fruit Announce First Acts

    January 28, 2015 - By 

    With Longitude announcing their first string of acts last week, Forbidden Fruit have followed suit with a very tidy announcement featuring some electronic and hip-hop heavyweights. Set to feature 70 acts over five stages, the festival at Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham –  taking place on the June Bank Holiday weekend, May 39-31 – will see the likes of Run The Jewels (above), Fatboy Slim and Wu-Tang Clan perform. Matador, Ejeca, Joey Badass, Bakermat, Earl Sweatshirt, Booka Shade, Dusky, Mr Scruff and Cyril Hahn will also feature in the festival’s fifth outing. Go to the Facebook event page for Forbidden Fruit 2015 for…

  • Premiere: Darling – It’s Just One Look

    January 28, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of its release on Friday, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first look at the video for ‘It’s Just One Look’ by Dublin duo Gary Harding and James McGuire AKA Darling. Directed by Michael Kelly, the video is a wonderfully retro affair, capturing the band and their rousing alt-pop to a tee. In fact, their exuberance is perfectly tangible. The song is the follow-up to the band’s equally impressive 2014 singles ‘Echoes’ and ‘Sail Away’ and will feature on their new EP, also set for release on Friday. Pre-order it here. Darling launch the EP at Dublin’s Sugar Club on Saturday night.…

  • EP Download: Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    January 26, 2015 - By 

    Few young bands excel at their respective genre as convincingly as Belfast-based indie-rock trio Hot Cops. Set to play our Independent Venue Week show at Oh Yeah Centre on Friday night, the band have just unveiled their new release, #1 Babes, a four-track EP of cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems that instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. The EP was recorded by the band’s bassist Nathan Rodgers and mixed/mastered by Chris Ryan. Stream/download it (for free, if you so like) via Bandcamp below. #1 Babes by Hot Cops

  • ASIWYFA Announce Fourth Album Details, European Tour

    January 26, 2015 - By 

    Globetrotting North Coast quartet And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of their forthcoming fourth studio album. Set for release via Sargent House on May 4, Heirs is the follow-up to the band’s third album All Hail Bright Futures, released back in 2013. The album will be the first featuring material written by guitarist Niall Kennedy, who replaced founding member Tony Wright back in 2011. The band have also announced an extensive European Tour to coincide with the album release. Check out the artwork for Heirs above and read our exclusive fature-length interview with the band in the first…

  • Monday Mixtape: Claire Miskimmin (Girls Names/Cruising)

    January 26, 2015 - By 

    Following on from Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery and And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist Niall Kennedy, the latest willing subject of Monday Mixtape is Claire Miskimmin ofGirls Namesand Cruising. Traversing U.S goth rock pioneers Christian Death, Melbourne garage punk five-piece Total Control, Detroit post-punk quartet Protomartyr and more, the ten-track playlist is a half-hour sojourn of wonderfully doom-laden proportions. Cruising play Belfast’s Menagerie on March 14 as part of Sunglasses After Dark. Claire Miskimmin DJs at her night, Bad Vibes, at Belfast’s Woodworkers every second Thursday night. If you like what you hear below, make sure to hit it up this…

  • Stream: The North Sea – Drinking Alone

    January 25, 2015 - By 

    A song “about escape and times of thought and reflection”, Dublin five-piece The North Sea have released arguably their strongest single effort to day, ‘Drinking Alone’. The second single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album the song is a sublimed-composed slice of alt-pop “exploring themes of alienation and separation between a couple, realising there love has waned or changed”. The band have also announced a five-date Irish tour, taking place across February and March: February 22: Crane Lane, Cork February 25: Cobblestone Joes, Limerick March 5: Voodoo, Belfast March 6: Whelans, Dublin March 19: Roisin Dubh, Galway ‘Drinking Alone’ will be released on…