• First Acts Announced for Inaugural Canalaphonic Festival

    March 30, 2015 - By 

    The first string of acts have been unveiled for the inaugural Canalaphonic festival in Dublin’s Portobello and Rathmines. Set to take place across May 8-9, the first confirmed acts to play the showcase are Carriages, Maria Somerville, Steve Young and the Union, The Hot Sprockets, Gavin Glass and the Holy Shakers, Sinead White, The Stomptown Brass Band, Nick Kelly, Corner Boy, Featuring X, Rudytrixx, Mother Mooch, Cave Ghosts, The North Sea and Jem Mitchell. More acts are to be announced. Curated by Abner Browns Barbershop, Canalaphonic proclaims itself to be “Dublin’s biggest showcase of independent Irish music.” Bold words but if this opening announcement…

  • Longitude Unveils Day-By-Day Line-up, New Additions

    March 27, 2015 - By 

    With less than four months to go, the day-by-day line-up for this year’s Longitude festival has been revealed. Set to take place across the weekend of Friday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19, the annual Marlay Park festival will see Hozier, Alt-J and The Chemical Brothers headline each night respectively. The likes of Caribou, James Blake, The Vaccines, Wild Beasts and Jungle all make support high up the bill. As well as the day-by-day announcement and with more acts yet to be announced, 11 new acts have also been added to the bill: Nick Mulvey, Raury, Drenge, Petite Noir, The Bohicas, Wyvern…

  • Stream: Girls Names – Zero Triptych

    March 26, 2015 - By 

    Having released a teaser a couple of weeks back, Girls Names have re-emerged with eleven-minute post-punk odyssey in three parts, ‘Zero Triptych’. Set for 12″ release via Tough Love, the track – bearing an expansive, evolving sound a million miles from the surf-pop of their 2011 debut album, Dead To Me – is inspired by the band’s discovery of the Group Zero art movement, a group of artists founded by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. Speaking to the Fader, the Cathal Cully-fronted band said: “[This] is our ode to the masters of light and shade – Mack, Piene and Uecker aka…

  • Stream: Fight Like Apes – Pretty Keen On Centerfolds

    March 26, 2015 - By 

    Having first reared its head as a demo back in early 2013, Fight Like Apes have unveiled ‘Pretty Keen on Centerfolds’, the first single from their eagerly-anticipated third studio album. Bursting with the band’s immediately recognisable, ridiculously catchy synth-pop shtick, it’s a hugely promising first release from the MayKay-fronted quartet’s as-of-yet untitled new album, set for release this year.The album will be released fives on from the Andy Gill-produced The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner. Stream ‘Pretty Keen on Centrefolds’ below. Single artwork by Loreana Rushe. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/197601133″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Oh Earth (Live in The Pepper Canister Church, Dublin)

    March 25, 2015 - By 

    Having spent the last week driving home their impossibly distinctive brand of experimental pop at SXSW, Dublin experimental five-piece Meltybrains? will play a special Thin Air show at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 alongside the equally unmissable Blue Whale. Sitting on the fence about attending? Relieve your behind by watching Bob Gallagher’s live video of ‘Oh Earth’ by Meltybrains?, filmed at Dublin’s wonderful Pepper Canister Church in February. Go here for the Facebook event for the Belfast show.  

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Austria

    March 25, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year on from released the exquisite Leafy Stiletto – one of our Irish albums of 2014 no less – Dublin’s Paddy Hanna has returned in something of a new guise with ‘Austria’, a jangle-pop mini-masterstroke evoking the likes of Morrissey, The Divine Comedy and Elvis Costello. There’s also a vague hint of Joe Dolan in there too but we’ll pretend we didn’t hear that. Or will we? Anyway, we’re very fond of ‘Austria’ and wouldn’t even remotely kick up a fuss if Hanna deciding to dander down this sonic path for an eon and an age. Paired with a b-side,…

  • Boiler Room set for Belfast’s AVA Festival

    March 24, 2015 - By 

    Set to take place as part of the inaugural AVA Festival, legendary underground music showcase Boiler Room will make its Belfast debut in the very capable company of Bicep, Space Dimension Controller, John Daly (who performs live), Timmy Stewart and Schmutz. A fine line-up of homegrown electronic talent for a highly-anticipated event, we’re sure you’ll agree. Go here for more information about AVA Festival, including where to buy tickets and all the usual.

  • EP Premiere: R51 – Pillow Talk

    March 23, 2015 - By 

    Belfast-based quintet R51 have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Having cultivated a perfectly pulverizing live show and an effects-laden, shoegaze-tinged noise-pop craft that continues to surprise and intrigue, the Melyssa Shannon-fronted quartet will launch their debut EP, Pillow Talk, at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Wednesday night (April 25). In his review of the EP for the Thin Air, Will Murphy said, “Each one of the songs has something to recommend, be it the Sigur Ros vibe permeating throughout the EP closer, ‘Seaweed’, the spaced out verses on ‘I Hate That Too’ or the monstrously huge chorus on ‘Pillow…

  • Belfast Film Festival Programme Launch

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    Set to take place in venues across the city from April 16-26, the programme for the 15th Belfast Film Festival has been announced. As is very much its custom, the festival has an extraordinarily diverse line-up up its sleeve this year, with categories boasting categories including New Cinema, Altered States & Twisted Corners, Northern Irish Independents/Shorts, as well as Opening & Closing films I Am Belfast, Shooting For Socrates and The Survivalist. Check out the full programme and buy tickets at the Belfast Film Festival website here.