• BBC Biggest Weekend @ Titanic Slipways, Belfast – Friday

    The first signs of 6 Music’s leg of the Biggest Weekender have been appearing at venues all over Belfast this last week. Gigs, seminars, panels and outside broadcasts cropping up daily, heralding the 2 days at Titanic Slipways. For day 1 of festivities, the city, bathed in uncharacteristically glorious weather, conspires to show off just when everyone happens to be paying attention. As the flow of people moving through the city and over the Lagan grows, a Cup Final atmosphere begins to build, smiles and easy conversation with anyone willing to respond are the order of the day, and in…

  • The Breeders – All Nerve

    J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that the compound noun cellar door was one of the most beautiful words in the English language. I’m not a linguist or etymologist by any stretch, but I’d like put forth a phrase which I think captures the same awe as Tolkien’s… Kim Deal has a new album. Those six little words when drawn together represent a powerful sentiment in the English language. This is the woman who made the Pixies what they were. One of our great songwriters, a person who can captivate, exhilarate and intoxicate with the most impossibly simple chord progressions, has returned.…

  • The Breeders, Orbital, Ash and More Added to BBC’s Biggest Weekend in Belfast

    The final acts to play at BBC’s Biggest Weekend in Belfast across May 25-26 has been announced, and it’s pretty special. Joining the likes of Beck, Courtney Barnett and Manic Street Preachers are The Breeders, First Aid Kit, Goldie, Orbital, Little Dragon, Franz Ferdinand, Young Fathers and Ash. We’re going out on a limb here: this is probably the strongest line-up for a festival in Northern Irish music history. Don’t pass up the chance to get tickets when they go on sale this Monday at 10am.

  • Rescheduled Breeders Date Announced

    Thanks to Hurricane Ophelia’s handiwork back in October, The Breeders had to cancel their highly-anticipated return to Dublin at Vicar Street. A rescheduled date was promised and here we are: unless another act of God prevents it (touch wood) the band will play Vicar Street on Sunday, May 27. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, January 18. Back in November, Kim Deal reveal to Marc Maron that a new album will be released in 2018. Check out the full WTF podcast right here.

  • The Breeders Set For Dublin Return

    Four years on from a memorable show in the same venue, alternative rock legends The Breeders will play Dublin’s Vicar Street on October 16. Having recently been in the studio recording the follow-up to 2008’s Mountain Battles, quartet of Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macperson will stop for the show as part of a forthcoming European tour that kicks off in Glasgow and culminates in Paris. See the full dates below. Tickets for Vicar Street are priced €35 and go on sale this Thursday, July 6 at 9am.

  • The Breeders – Limelight 1, Belfast

    Yesterday, it was announced that indie songstress par excellence Kim Deal had left boundlessly influential Boston band Pixies nine years into their reformation. This evening, she’s in town with her very own Breeders to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album, Last Splash. Nothing short of an alt-rock masterstroke, all but spanning every shade of sub-genre and sentiment, the record crystallised a supremely accomplished brand of sonic slackerdom effectively forged by Deal, her twin sister Kelley, bassist Josphine Wiggs and drummer Jim MacPhearson. As to which fact will warrant the most interest and acknowledgement from tonight’s crowd, only time will reveal.…

  • Kim Deal leaves the Pixies

    Pixies bassist and co-vocalist Kim Deal has announced that she is to leave the legendary Boston band, 9 years after they reunited in 2004. The band posted an announcement on their Facebook page stating: “We are sad to say that Kim Deal has decided to leave the Pixies. We are very proud to have worked with her on and off over the last 25 years. Despite her decision to move on, we will always consider her a member of the Pixies, and her place will always be here for her. We wish her all the best. Black Francis, Joey Santiago…