• Watch: Rhinos – Rhino

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Formed in Belfast in September last year, garage rock duo Paul Currie and Laura Totten AKA Rhinos have really made a name for themselves following a handful of live shows these last couple of months. Counting the likes of Minor Threat, The Melvins and Andy Kaufman as influences, the pair have both played in a variety of local bands down the years, including T.A.R.T., Sinch, Hammer Bat, Buzzkill and others. Stripped back and launching straight for the jugular, Rhinos’ jagged garage-rock blitzkrieg is impressively captured on their debut single, ‘Rhino’. A call-and-response call to arms, the track was recorded by Clark Philips at the Joe…

  • Electric Picnic 2014

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Hands down the country’s premier boutique music, culture and arts festival, Electric Picnic, will return this summer, headlined by trip-hop legends Portishead, rejuvenated U.S. hip-hop duo Outkast and Beck. Taking place at Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois from Friday, August 29 to Sunday, August 31, the likes of Chic, Mogwai, Slowdive, St. Vincent and Blondie have also been confirmed to play the annual festival, which celebrates its eleventh anniversary this year. Beginning as a one-day event in 2004, Electric Picnic expanded to a weekend-long festival within a year. Tickets for the festival are now available – starting from 90.00 for a Sunday day ticket – are available via the…

  • Watch: A Plastic Rose – Autumn Eases You Into The Dark

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to ‘Someone’s Daughter’, Nottingham-based alt-rock quartet A Plastic Rosehave revealed the video to their new single, ‘Autumn Eases You Into The Dark’. Directed by David Louis Lankester, the video was shot at the Irish band’s practice space at J.T. Soar, Nottingham. The single itself – recorded with Chris Coulter (who plays guitar in Jamie Lenman’s band and works with Arcane Roots) at Stakeout Studios in London – will be released via DiDimau and Third Bar on Friday, June 30. It will also feature on the band’s forthcoming new album, Flickering Light of an Inner War. A Plastic Rose will…

  • Watch: Tied To Machines – Tampa Bay Mutiny

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    In what might well prove to be their curtain call, Belfast-based hardcore punk band Tied To Machines have unleashed the bloodthirsty ‘Tampa Bay Mutiny’. Accompanying by a wonderfully hypnotic video by Andrew Wilson, featuring spliced archive footage, the two-minute track bursts rabid from the traps, culminating in a skull-crushing second half that instantly necessitates a second or third listen. Recorded by Rocky O’Reilly at Belfast’s Start Together Studios, the track can be streamed/purchased here. Watch the video for ‘Tampa Bay Mutiny’ below.  

  • Headliners announced for Sunflowerfest 2014

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    Kicking off in exactly three months time, the two headliners for this year’s Sunflowerfest have been announced at Belfast’s Sunflower Bar. Taking place across the weekend of August 22-25, English dance act The Orb and Co. Down rock quartet The Answer (pictured) were revealed as this year’s headliners, set to perform on the Friday and Saturday night respectively. With the rest of the line-up yet to be announced, tickets for the festival are currently available to buy via the official Sunflowerfest website.

  • Watch: Elastic Sleep – Leave You

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    Taken from their debut EP, Cork dream pop band Elastic Sleep have unveiled the decidedly phantasmal video for its eponymous single, ‘Leave You’. Directed by Emmet O’ Brien for Thinking Cog productions in conjunction with Limbo, the murky, psychedelic video really captures the track’s stalking, woozy tangents. Comprised of hazy projections and leering silhouettes, it features Muireann Levis and co. performing the track as if on some subconscious stage; a recess of the band’s collective mind. Leave You was released FIFA Records and Big Tea Records on 10″ white vinyl with a digital download code. Purchase it here and stream three tracks from the five-track release: Elastic Sleep have…

  • Gig(s) of the week: La Dispute, Cloud Nothings, Hospitality

    May 21, 2014 - By 

    With summer festival announcements dropping left, right and center, the proverbial purse strings are undoubtedly a little tighter than usual for most of us. That said, as ever, there’s just some one-off shows on the horizon that fall directly under the downright “unmissable” category. Here’s our picks of a handful of gigs happening across the country over the next few days that we think warrant popping along to. Cloud Nothings, Princess – The Button Factory, Dublin, May 24 With the April release of their third studio album, Here and Nowhere Else, Ohio indie rock three-piece Cloud Nothings  (pictured) all but confirmed their status as…

  • Interview: Malibu Shark Attack!

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    Almost a year to the month since our introductory piece with the duo, transatlantic indie-rap band Malibu Shark Attack! are set to release their self-titled debut album tomorrow, Friday, May 23. Comprised of Belfast musician/producer Rocky O’Reilly and American rapper Tribe One, the pair have delivered a fun, imaginative and consistently impressive thirteen-track album kickstarted with their debut split single ‘Monsters Under Your Bed’/‘Internal Organs’. Ahead of the official launch of the album at McHughs, Belfast, tomorrow night, we talk to Rocky about songwriting via the internet, touring the album live and what the future holds in store for one of music’s more interesting…

  • Tanglewood 2014 Line-up Announced

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Garage-blues due The Bonnevilles, alt-rock trio Abandcalledboyand folk duo New Ancestors are amongst the acts announced to play this year’s Tanglewood Festival. Returning to Newry’s Narrow Water Castle on for the fourth running on July 4 and 5, the festival will also feature performances from the likes of Ports (Little Bear), Mere Moths, Gascan Ruckus, Podracer and a band called – wait for it – The Scrotes. A “varied” assemblage of acts on offer it is. Check out the line-up poster below and hit up the Tanglewood website soon to buy tickets.  

  • Stream: Master & Dog – Follow You

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Having released its lead single, ‘Candlelight’, back in February, Belfast-based alt-folk four-piece Master & Dog are streaming a second track from their sublime new EP, Things You Should Know. Clocking in at just over five minutes, we had this to say about the song, titled ‘Follow You’, in our review here: “With its opening, Mogwai-like triptych of solitary, echoing piano chords – evoking the ineffable melancholia of ‘Bye’ by Elliott Smith and ‘Sing’ by Blur – ‘Follow Me’ boasts, upon first listen, the alchemical structure of a straightforward dancefloor single. There’s the Dm-C-F descending chord progression, the line “I think I’m in love for the first time” and the unravelling, stripped-back…