• Inbound: His New Atlas

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    In this latest installment of Inbound – which looks at some of the more promising acts from across the country – we talk to fast-rising Armagh singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan AKA His New Atlas about the power of cathartic release, his very specific approach to songwriting and his big plans for the next few months. Firstly, can you shed a bit of light on how you came to be a singer-songwriter? I started off in a metal band, oddly enough. I left this as I never felt like it was moving at a pace that fast enough for me. So I got a…

  • Cork Music Trail: Ones to Watch

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    It would seem that MTV have remembered what their (previously-orphaned) acronym stands for, turning their attention away from mouth-breathing reality-show nonsense, and on to music, of all things. With the announcement of the Shepard Fairey-directed Rebel Music calling attention to youth subcultures around the world and the transcendent tunes that soundtrack their lives, the idea hits that the floundering music-channel grandfather has either finally realised the error of its ways and is earnestly trying for relevance, or has just been subject to the law of diminishing returns. Either way, the cable & satellite success story of the 1980s wobbles its way to Cork…

  • Video Premiere: Zaska – Different Light

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    We’re pleased to present the premiere of the new video by eight-piece Dublin supergroup Zaska. Fronted by Max Zaska, the band granted our photographer Tara Thomas behind the scenes access to capture during the shoot. Check out her gallery for more images and watch the video – produced by Stoneface films and directed by Jon Hozier-Byrne – below.

  • Smolder and Scully: The Fall Review

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Your mum’s favourite serial killer is back. At the end of last year’s five-episode run of BBC2’s The Fall, Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) packed in his moonlighting strangling escapades and carted his family onto the next Stenna Line to the Highlands. But you can’t keep a good stalker down, especially when he’s one half of the BBC’s most locally successful and internationally exportable drama for years. In last week’s sophomore opener, he’s back to eyeing up brunettes on the Larne line. In the meantime, creator Allan Cubbit has had to defend the show against claims that it glamourizes female violence,…

  • AAA: Therapy? @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    November 17, 2014 - By 

    In an AAA (Access All Areas) set Shaun Neary shoots Northern Irish alt-rock legends Therapy? before, during and after their spectacular Troublegum set at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Saturday night as part of this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize.

  • Interview: Paul Smith

    November 16, 2014 - By 

    Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith talks to Shannon Delores O’Neill about his new, forward-thinking collaboration with Peter Brewis (Field Music) for their Frozen by Sight album, released today. Frozen by Sight has been described as a “playful departure from [both Peter’s and your] previous groups”. Do you agree? Peter and I have known each other for over a decade but we never got to formally work with each other; we’d watched each other’s bands, shared the same musical ideas and always just thought, “Will we ever get to do something?” We were then lucky enough to get commissioned work by the Festival…

  • ‘First Things First’ Exhibition @ Irish Georgian Society

    November 14, 2014 - By 

    One Strong Arm is a brand new letterpress studio that uses antique wooden and metal type settings to produce beautifully original prints. The new studio, based in Pimlico, Dublin, is the brainchild of Dave Darcy. For the launch of One Strong Arm, Dave teamed up with craftsman Mick Minogue to produce a set of prints that “merge the traditional with the contemporary, through typography and illustration”. The prints pay tribute to the opening lines of some famous works of literature – from the likes of Kafka to Hunter S. Thompson. ‘First Things First’ launched in the Irish Georgian Society last night sponsored…