• Music For A New Revolution set for Derry-Londonderry

    August 22, 2013 - By 

    Some of the most accomplished political and topic songwriters from across Ireland and UK will embark upon Derry next week for the inaugural Music For A New Revolution festival. Curated by local singer-songwriter Paddy Nash, the three day event will focus on artists singing about issues “we face as a society and explore the impact that music can have on our political systems” and will opened by musician and activist Billy Bragg (above) at a headline performance at the Nerve Centre on Friday August 30. Over the following two nights Paddy Nash & The Happy Enchiladas will perform The Glassworks on…

  • Watch: Kowalski – Let’s Start Over

    August 23, 2013 - By 

    Bangor indie-pop quartet Kowalski have unveiled the lyric video to their sun-kissed new single, ‘Let’s Start Over’. Despite three-quarters of the band no longer living in Northern Ireland, the video – directed by Ross McConaghy – was filmed on location of the band’s scenic hometown. The track itself is taking from the band’s recently-released full-length debut album For The Love of Letting Go. The band’s show as part of this year’s Open House festival is our Gig of the Week. Go here for more information. In the meantime, check out the video below.

  • Pre-murmurings: REM and Chronic Town

    August 22, 2013 - By 

    Some records become bigger than the music contained on them. The infamous Exile on Main St. sessions are more mythologised and discussed than the music they produced. Chinese Democracy will always be better remembered for its protracted development than for its songs. REM’s debut release, Chronic Town, brings its own baggage to the table: the birth of college-rock as we know it. The record that breathed new life into the electric guitar as a creative instrument in an era awash with New Wave synths. A reputation for being enigmatic and inscrutable, with secrets hidden in every groove. The stories surrounding…

  • Watch: VerseChorusVerse – Our Truth Could Be Their Lie (Live)

    August 22, 2013 - By 

    Taken from his forthcoming debut album, Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse has unveiled a live, full-band video of his track ‘Our Truth Could Be Their Lie’. Filmed by Bandwith, the video was recorded live at Graham House Studios by Phil D’Alton and Walter Da Goon of alt-folk band Master & Dog. It is the first of four videos to be released from the session. Watch the video below.

  • Stream: The Dismemberment Plan – Invisible

    August 22, 2013 - By 

    Washington D.C. indie rock quartet The Dismemberment Plan are streaming the second track to be taken from their forthcoming fifth album, Uncanny Valley. Twelve years on from the release of their last studio album – 2001’s superb Change – the Travis Morrison-fronted band called it quits in 2003 only to reform in 2011 for a string of dates. Uncanny Valley will be released via Partisan Records on October 14. Check out the recently-released ‘Waiting’ here. Stream the band’s new track via Soundcloud below.

  • Classic album: REM – Murmur

    August 21, 2013 - By 

    Before major label deals and stadium-conquering, mandolin-led ballads were a mere glint in the eyes of Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry, there were four men in the college town of Athens. Four men playing music destined to repeat in the Walkman headphones of alienated teens before ‘alienated teens’ became a marketing tool. Case in point: this very writer discovered Murmur at the age of 16 amongst a select few picks from R.E.M. enthusiastically presented before my eyes by a great friend and diehard aficionado. While Automatic For The People impressed my mother, Monster riffed well enough…

  • ASIWYFA, LaFaro and more added to Cut The Transmission bill

    August 21, 2013 - By 

    North Coast post-rock quartet And So I Watch You From Afar and Belfast-based riffmasters LaFaro are amongst several new acts added to the already mighty bill for the Fighting With Wire-curated Cut The Transmission festival on Saturday, September 28. Taking place at The Venue in Derry, Droids, The Wood Burning Savages, Little Hooks and Making Monsters also join the line-up, already featuring headliners Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, Future Of The Left, Fighting With Wire, More Than Conquerors and Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun. Tickets for the event are priced at £20.00 and are available to buy from The Millenium Forum. Have…

  • Stendhal Festival 2013

    August 21, 2013 - By 

    Celebrating its third birthday in fine fashion at the weekend, Stendhal Festival of Art 2013 provided some stellar photo opportunities for our photographer Ciara Mc Mullan. With Pocket Billiards, Dead Presidents and Duke Special (above) standing out across the two-day, multi-stage, family-friendly event, next year’s festival cannot come soon enough. Check out Ciara’s photos below.

  • Gig of the week: Documenta @ Titantic Slipway

    August 20, 2013 - By 

    Our first ever gig of the week (initially “wig of the geek” but we daren’t get too backward, eh?)  is Belfast-based drone pop outfit Documenta at the Titanic Slipway on Friday, August 23. Organised in association with Belfast Film Festival, the Joe Greene-fronted band – set to release their third full-length effort in the coming months – will perform a singularly scenic set before  Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey is screened, 40 feet below sea level. Not yourself gig-going jaunt down to Voodoo, is it? Tickets for the show – available here – are priced at £10. Doors are…

  • REM: The First Cut is The Deepest – True Love Never Dies

    August 20, 2013 - By 

    I have always had the theory that one doesn’t always just ‘discover’ bands. Often it can be a two-way street, that a band can come along and ‘get’ you at the right time and place and it is such a seismic event, that one will never recover or forget about it. The Smiths came to me shortly after my father died. A family friend took me to see them in concert and that was ‘IT’. I dedicated my teen years to them and in return, their musical output was, in a weird way, a comfort. Some of the subtleties of…