• Track Record: Tape Waves

    April 17, 2015 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record, we hang out with Kim and Jarod from South Carolina based dream pop band Tape Waves as they select their favourite records from Beach House to Brian Wilson. Photos by Jen Stevens. Kim Mary Timony – Mountains This is one of the first LPs I ever bought. I bought it my first year of college. I had been listening to Helium all through High School and when I got this album I felt like it was such a transition for Mary Timony. There are more simple songs with pianos and keyboards, and less guitars. Helium always sounded magical…

  • Premiere: Swimmers – Body Ahernia

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    A week on from the release of stellar debut track, ‘Lose Myself’, Dublin band Swimmers have given us an exclusive first look at the video for its equally impressive follow-up, ‘Body Ahernia’. According to Niall Jackson from the band, it is “a track about getting death out of the way in order to enjoy living. The sooner we all die the sooner we can stop worrying about it, so I died a few years ago and have had a ball since. The title track is a tribute to the late Bobby Aherne who isn’t dead at all but rather instilling a very…

  • Bookmark: Bennie & Davey (little xs for eyes)

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    In this installment of Bookmark, we hang out with Bennie Reilly and Davey Moor from little xs for eyes to discuss some of their collective and personal favourite books.  Photos by Abigail Denniston. Gary Shteyngart – Super Sad True Love Story Davey: Our protagonist, Lenny Abramov, loves books.  He loves all kinda other antiquated old stuff too.  In our western reality he might be what we understand as a hipster, but in the (very) near future of this 2010 novel, he is a fish thoroughly out of water.  The young woman he loves, Eunice Park – a recent graduate with…

  • Insert Coin: Benny Smiles

    April 17, 2015 - By 

    In our second installment of Insert Coin, Eoghain Meakin chats to Ross Fortune AKA Benny Smiles about being featured in the Hotline Miami 2 video game soundtrack and the major influence games have on his music. Photos by Aaron Corr. Mr. Ross Fortune is a busy man these days. When not racking up a no.1 single as a member of Vann Music he fills the rest of his time as the electronic solo artist and producer Benny Smiles. As the latter he’s accumulated a strong following and critical response to his achingly pretty, synthy, sparkling musical output. It is also as Benny…

  • Premiere: Robocobra Quartet – Wicker Bar

    April 14, 2015 - By 

    Set for release on April 21, Bomber by Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet captures a band whose brilliantly burgeoning sound gets more engrossing and self-assured with each release. Following on the heels of agog lead single ”80-88′, the brief but burrowing ‘Wicker Bar’ is a more inward-looking, abstracted affair, the band’s drummer/vocalist Chris Ryan meditating on backwashed thoughts and distant scenes, relaying beat-inflected stylings over dancing sax and a floating, spectral vocal ensemble courtesy of Patrick Gardiner. Sub-titled “four songs about three people, two novels, a failed assassination attempt and a volunteer-run community arts space” the EP was recorded by Ryan at Belfast’s Start Together…

  • DIY Dublin: The Big Bang

    April 20, 2015 - By 

    In this installment of DIY Dublin, Loreana Rushe chats to John Hendrick, the owner and proprietor of The Big Bang in Dundrum shopping centre about what it’s like to run a successful comic book store. Hi John! First off, can you tell us about how you got into comic books? What appeals to you so much about them? That was actually my Mom’s fault. She used to get them for all of us growing up as kids to encourage us to read, from there it sort of, kind of escalated to being my favourite thing ever. I still read books,…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (13/4)

    April 13, 2015 - By 

    There are so many events happening this week in Belfast and across Ireland so please get out there and support them, writes Mary Stevens. We’re travelling from Cork, to Limerick and back to Belfast for this weeks outlook, seeing a huge variety of art practices. This week also saw the Dublin Launch of the Irish National Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale.  Sean Lynch will present Adventure: Capital  in the Irish pavillion. The Biennale will open to the public on the 9th May and continue into November. Much more information to follow in the coming months… Blue House Gallery –…

  • Deep Down South: Birthday Record Store Day, Rumblings on Barrack St and YES to Equality

    April 12, 2015 - By 

    Hooray for Record Store Day! The one day of the year specifically designed for doing what we all love to do, crate-diving and generally enjoying our local oases of good taste. In Cork City, that only means one thing for so many of us, and that’s a visit to long-standing institution PLUGD Records. This weekend, as well as Record Store Day, there’ll be birthday celebrations ahoy for the greatest record shop in the world as it celebrates four years in its present home, the Triskel Arts Centre, operating upstairs in the city’s artistic flagship after being temporarily homeless, and even…

  • Making the Parlour TV

    April 13, 2015 - By 

    We go behind the scenes with the crew of Dublin independent TV series The Parlour TV and discuss what exactly goes into directing and producing a weekly show. Words by Mike McGrath Bryan. Photos by Isabel Thomas. Hi Guys! Can you tell us a bit about yourselves?  John Breslin (Director/Camera): I’ve been making community television and doing bits and pieces on music related videos for years now, I also play drums in a few bands..,. so The Parlour is a fairly natural environment for me to be working in at the moment. Barry Lennon (Producer/Location Manager): I have been involved…

  • Psych-Rock Revolution: Ireland and Beyond

    April 16, 2015 - By 

    When you consider Ireland’s rich history of iconic rock bands, those of a psych-rock persuasion don’t feature heavily on the list. Bands labelled as psychedelic were emerging in the US and Britain as early as the 1960’s. At the beginning it was defined by experimental songwriting, mind-altering drug culture, and a penchtant for flamboyant silk shirts. Tracing its roots back to the 1960’s you find bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds, Jimmi Hendrix, The Doors, Soft Machine, Sly and the Family Stone and The Grateful Dead. Although Ireland could not be seen as a psych-rock hub, it has…