In this special installment of AAA (Access All Areas) we hop on tour with London alt-folk trio Bear’s Den as they took in the Workman’s Club in Dublin and Voodoo in Belfast with support from Rukhsana Merrise last weekend. View both full galleries of their tour below, filled to the brim with photos by Shaun Neary and Sara Marsden. The Workman’s Club in Dublin by Shaun Neary Voodoo in Belfast by Sara Marsden
In the latest installment of Cork Heads, Brid O’Donovan chats to Cathy O’ Donoghue, owner of Turquoise Flamingo, a vintage clothing and accessories online store and blog. She also co-runs Oh Me, Oh My DIY creative workshops in secret locations. The Things you do as a Child. Arts and crafts with my mum I suppose. We lived out in the country and we had no neighbours. I have one sister who didn’t come along until I was five so she wasn’t fun until I was eight or nine. I was a bit of a tomboy but I was girly too.…
Tim O’Donovan – one half of synth pop duo Buffalo Woman and a long time DJ based in Dublin – shares his favourite records from Prince to Jean Michel Jarre. Photos by Aaron Corr. Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain I never saw the movie the first time round. But the music was just too powerful to ignore. All the songs are so different and have such a personality of their own, but they still all sound like Prince. I love the fact that ‘When Doves Cry’ has no bass in it. I love the fact that Purple Rain was…
Damien Chazelle’s testosterone-pumping Whiplash, released last month, is a musical coming-of-age story with the form of a boxing movie; never more so than in a pivotal ‘training montage’ in which the young hero, the talented but arrogant jazz drummer Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller), works to regain his lost first-stringer position. In a move obviously designed to provoke the music student, band conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), who rules his classroom with equal parts terror and humiliation, has replaced the ambitious Andrew with a drummer of lesser ability. Andrew channels his frustration and rage into a gruelling, cymbal-smashing practice session, applying…
Cork City has been a fuse waiting to be lit. All this time, exciting, inimitable, indomitable people, have been creating, and facilitating, providing space, trying, and failing, learning, and improving, and resolving to do better. Coming together, helping each other. This weekend was a light to that fuse. The Quarter Block Party didn’t just meet or even exceed expectations, it utterly transcended them. A huge and varied multimedia programme, spanning music, art, theatre, discussion and good vibes, it delivered on all fronts. There’ll be a review with all the details and critique either tomorrow or Wednesday, and your writer will…
In the latest installment of Rave New World, the impossibly heedful, ineffably excellent Antoin Lindsay & Aidan Hanratty delve into best new electronic tracks and mixes of the week, as well as various unmissable upcoming nights and releases. Gigs Ken & Ryu – EP Launch Party at The Menagerie, Belfast Friday, February 6 James McConville AKA Ken & Ryu is launching his Fantasy Ink EP at The Menagerie tonight alongside Defcon, Jamie Nelson and Paul McCarthy. I reviewed the EP on these very pages and the party should be equally as enjoyable. AL Twitch Present Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea at The Mandela…
Donal O’Luanaigh (or Chief to those of you who know him well) is one of the ‘chief’ lighting technicians at Vicar Street in Dublin. We discuss his work and how he bring light to all your favourite bands on stage. Photos by Shaun Neary. Hi Donal! Can you tell us about yourself? Hi! I’m Donal, 32 years old from Dublin, I work as a freelance lighting designer/engineer/technician/crew, delete where applicable. ‘Lampy’ is probably the most commonly used term. You’re most likely to find me in Vicar Street but there’s no job too big or small. How did you get your nickname…
Every once and a while you stumble across a voice that just stops you in your tracks. A self-proclaimed “devotional” artist, Dublin’s David Blaney AKA Cat Palace falls firmly within that bracket. Placed somewhere between The Blue Nile, Talk Talk, REM and Bonnie Prince Billy, his unaffected, ache-laced vocals and stripped-back acoustic liturgies forge to concoct something bordering on the mystical. Featuring singles ‘Cage’ and ‘Hear Me Lord’, as well as three other tracks, his debut EP commands, broods and sates in fine fashion, capturing an Irish singer-songwriter doing something very singular indeed. Cat Palace is released at Dublin’s Bello Bar on Saturday…
In the latest installment of Track Record, we chat to Eddie Kiely of FIFA Records in Cork about his seriously impressive and enviable record collection. “I have to say I would find it nearly impossible to pick my favourite 10 records, so this is not a top ten, so what I have done here as well as picking records I like is that I’ve also picked records that mean a lot to me personally.” Photos by Melanie Mullan. Crime & the City Solution – The Bride Ship From my love of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and the Mute label…
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” Helen KellerTo be honest I’ve always been a bit of a DIY girl, and I definitely don’t mean that in the flat-packed Ikea furniture kind of way. I’m talking about the reality of making our own opportunities as artists and continuing to create despite the limited resources and awkward obstacles that may be thrown our paths along the way.I was lucky. When I was starting out with dreams of being an actress, I fell in with a really great group of very talented people who had just set up…