• Premiere: Horse – Dragging

    Ahead of their appearance at Cork’s Quarter Block Party next Saturday, sludge/hardcore four-piece Horse, led by ex-members of local hardcore outfits Terriers and Ghost of Medina, have unveiled their taut, tense video for new single ‘Dragging’, premiering here on The Thin Air. A thundering, downcast beast of a tune, its weight and heaviness is accentuated by crisp, polished production from Cork desk stalwart Eamonn Coleman, and accompanied by a blink-and-you’ll miss it procession of performance and found imagery courtesy of director Rob O’Halloran. Sharing the tiny, window-facing stage of North Main Street’s BDSM bar with an eclectic line-out, including Dublin grungers Bitch Falcon, Paddy…

  • Second Quarter Block Party Line-up Announced

    Having made their first announcement back in December, Cork’s Quarter Block Party have revealed a slew of new acts and events set for their 2016 outing from February 5-7. Amongst the new additions is Cathy Walsh’s Running Up That Hill, a celebration of feminism equality and solidarity. Provoked by the #wakingthefeminists movement and inspired by Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’, the people of Cork City will march through the streets and dance together in celebration on North Main Street, the historic spine of the city. Elsewhere, Abigail Conway’s participatory installation Time Lab will ask visitors to “dismantle a wristwatch or clock and reconstruct…

  • Quarter Block Party Launch 2016 Programme

    Having delivered and then some at its inaugural outing earlier this year, Cork’s Quarter Block Party have unveiled the music, pop-up performances and community events that will make up 2016 programme from February 5-7 2016. Presented by Makeshift Ensemble and Southern Hospitality Board, QBP is a three-day music and arts festival on the city’s North and South main street with community at the beating heart of its ethos. With much more to be announced, organisers have revealed that experimental folk-rock band Spooks of the Thireenth Lock, Daniel Knox – long known for darkly distorting traditional American popular song styles resulting in…

  • Make Quarter Block Party 2016 Happen

    Having totally knocked it out of the park in its inaugural outing at the start of the year, Cork’s Quarter Block Party have announced that they aim to return next across the weekend of February 5-7. With the creative community and collaboration very much at the heart of their would-be manifesto, the guys have also launched an Indiegogo campaign in order to help fund and make next year’s QBP twice as memorable and exciting as the first. “What’s in it for me?” you ask? That fuzzy feeling and much more besides. Get involved here and check out our review from Quarter Block Party 2015 here.

  • Track Record: Vinyl Love @ Quarter Block Party

    Brid O’Donovan chatted with Stevie on the Sunday of Quarter Block Party and he was hosting Vinyl Love in Gulpd Cafe.  They were about six hours into a ten hour set of twenty five DJs playing 7 7” records. A few hours earlier the wonderful Siobhan Kane of Young Hearts Run Free chaired a panel discussion titled Life Has Surface Noise. Daragh O Halloran, Peter Twomey, Justin Grounds and Stevie Grainger shared with us their memories of growing up with the records they hooked to their veins. Justin spoke beautifully about how music connects us to our time and Siobhan…

  • Deep Down South: Like Light to a Fuse

    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…