• Video Premiere: THUMPER – Lonesome Freak

    With their collective Christmas tree still up, Dublin noise-pop band THUMPER have re-emerged at the very tail-end of the year with Stephen Patrick Allen’s video for their single ‘Lonesome Freak’. Featuring footage from some of the band’s favourite live gigs of 2016, including Other Voices, Electric Picnic, KnockanStockan, Whelan’s and more, it captures precisely the kind of thing that you’ll get if you pop along to the band’s show with Otherkin at Whelan’s tomorrow (New Year’s Eve) night. Have a first peek at the video below.

  • Watch: This Ain’t No Disco Episode 1

    A new Irish alternative music program hosted by the tireless Donal Dineen, This Ain’t No Disco couldn’t have come at a better time. Directed by Myles O’Reilly of Arbutus Yarns, the show – which marries music, visuals, discussion and collaboration over 45 minutes – is produced with no budget or sponsorship, and is “powered only out of passion, musicians and crew who worked […] voluntarily.” Titled “Being In A New Place”, the first installment – unveiled on Christmas Eve – takes that implicit manifesto and runs with it in exceptional fashion. Featuring performances from Radie Peat of Lynched, Patrick Kelleher, Emmet Kirwan…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2016 (#49-1)

    Well, there we have it: twelve months, innumerable tracks, and – despite the mild trauma it has incurred having to do it all over again – our top 100 Irish tracks of the year. It wasn’t easy but we got there, y’know? Go here for #100-75 and here for #74-50. Your move, 2017. 49. Roisin Murphy – Ten Miles High 48. Ships – Around This World 47. Jealous of the Birds – Tonight I Feel Like Kafka 46. R51 – Elephant 45. Hiva Oa – Seskinore mk ll (part 1) by Hiva Oa 44. Galants – Evergreen 43. Saint Sister…

  • Our Krypton Son: The Bridge of Early Sorrows

    Set to release the video for his single ‘Relics’ on Monday (which you can preview below) Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son returns with a Kafkaesque tale for the latest installment of his Thin Air column.   One morning I awoke to find I’d transformed into a gigantic animated turtle. I lay in bed, upended on my flat, brown coloured shell – which was two-dimensional and, having presumably been drawn by some celestial cartoonist (one clearly on a budget), lacking in any detail whatsoever. I stared terrified at the ceiling, unable to turn my body over. I immediately…

  • Inbound: Hiva Oa

    Despite having released a debut album and EP back in 2012 while based in Edinburgh, Hiva Oa had gone pretty quiet until recently. As it turns out, a relocation back home to Ireland was on the cards for core members Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy, not to mention a change in direction. Where that previous work traded on a sparse, minimal folk sound mainly built around guitar and cello with occasional forays into loops and effects, their aptly titled new EP mk2 (part 1) sees those electronics completely take over their sound, with single ‘A Great Height’ perfectly juxtaposing sinister…

  • Stream: Switzerland – Starting Out

    On the cusp of releasing their debut album, Long Gone, via Popical Island in January, Dublin quartet Switzerland have resurfaced with its lead single, ‘Starting Out’. Conjuring the likes of R.E.M. and The Byrds and The Cars in unison (as stated in the press release – absolutely spot on, we reckon), the track is a crisply-produced, wonderfully earworming effort hinting at special things for their full-length. According to the band, the single is “about finding your way in a new place and about making the most of what you have.” Hear, hear. We have this one on repeat. Dig below and keep an…

  • Premiere: Strength NIA – 1956 Olympics

    Their first single as Strength NIA, ‘1956 Olympics’ by the Derry band formerly known as Strength is a song inspired by ‘Creggan Shops‘ by Australian band The Shifters. Rory Moore, frontman from Strength NIA, said, “None of the Shifters have ever been to Derry or Northern Ireland for that matter but I believe they have written one of the finest Northern Irish songs to date. Our song is a response to the ‘Creggan Shops’ as I’m originally from Creggan and I felt compelled to write it after hearing this cynical pop gem.” Strength NIA will release their debut album next September. With all…

  • Annual Irish Festive Single Round-up

    Let’s face it: it takes a veritable sleigh-full of brass to release a festive single in this day and age. Thankfully, though, we’re blessed with a handful of homegrown artists that know how to do it and do it right. So, from now until Saturday, December 24, we’re going to update this very post with every single festive single of note from a small medley of inspirited Irish artists. To kick us off, we have Aghagallon’s Ciaran Lavery, Derry’s Our Krypton Son, Belfast’s Rory Nellis and Die Hexen, Kilrea’s Robyn G Shiels and Dublin’s No Monster Club. Ciaran Lavery – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas…

  • Stream: No Monster Club – Start The Carvery

    Having released both I Feel Magic back in February (one of our favourite Irish records of the year, no less) and their Where Did You Get That Milkshake? EP in October, it’s safe to say Dublin indie maestros par excellence No Monster Club have earned some end-of-year downtime. But before reaching for the crackers and sherry, Bobby Aherne and co. have offered us a little yuletide parting gift in the form of ‘Start The Carvery’, a wonderfully (and typically) virulent slice of festive song from the Popical Island bunch. Check that out below and hit up the band’s episode of New Jersey musical webseries Do…