• Recap: Hello Skinny, Dig, Survival Knife, etc.

    September 9, 2013 - By 

    This week’s installment of Recap – our weekly look back at the best songs released the week previous – is arguably our most diverse collection to date. Featuring three Irish acts of varying stature and attack, and a new track by a band that describe themselves as… wait for it… “post-music”. More Than Conquerors – Try-Antlers Ahead of the release of their debut album next month, Northern Irish four-piece More Than Conquerors released new tracks, ‘Jaw’ and ‘Try-Antlers’, on Wednesday afternoon. My favourite of the two is the latter – a brilliantly brooding distillation of the band’s increasingly inimitable alt-rock shtick. Dig –…

  • Video exclusive: FOG – Paranoids

    September 9, 2013 - By 

    Belfast-based rock band FOG (otherwise curiously known as Friends of Granleese) have unveiled the Sarah McGlinchey-directed video to their new single, ‘Paranoids’ – and we have an exclusive first look. The track – recorded at Omagh’s Outland Studios in June – will feature on the band’s forthcoming debut album Hollow & The Grace, due for release in late October. The track is also available to download via Soundcloud here. Check out the video below.

  • Trans-Europe Express #2: Austria

    September 9, 2013 - By 

    Austria is a country steeped in rich musical tradition. A couple of hundred years ago it was arguably the very centre of the music world, producing a veritable conveyor belt of classical composers who, to this day, are household names: Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Mahler, and not one but five Strauss maestros, amongst a lengthy list of others. It’s a history that Austria is rightly proud of, and classical music still has a special place in the nation’s heart. But it is just that. History. Music has undergone countless reinventions since Johannes Brahms last conducted an orchestra at Vienna’s Musikverein, and…

  • Watch: Blue Whale – Was

    September 9, 2013 - By 

    Belfast jazz-punk quartet Blue Whale have released the video for ‘Was’, the lead single from their forthcoming self-titled EP. Crated by Stuart Sloan, the video splices footage of the band performing the track with an array of contorted, skittering, warped images. The band’s self-titled EP will be releaesd on 7″ vinyl on Friday, September 20 at Culture Night Belfast, when the band will be performing a “rooftop tour” in the City Centre from 4-8pm followed by their EP launch party in St. Anne’s Car Park at 10pm. Watch the video for ‘Was’ Below.

  • Drenge – Drenge

    September 9, 2013 - By 

    As introductions to the national consciousness go, it was truly surreal. Amid alleged underhand shenanigans over candidate selection, Labour election co-ordinator Tom Watson publicly fell on his sword via an open letter to his party leader, Ed Miliband; a missive which suggested that public servants would be much improved by attending Glastonbury and specifically recommending that those reading listen to Drenge. Quite how young brothers Eoin and Rory Loveless felt about their role in this political suicide is moot; no publicity is bad publicity, it’s said, and any band capable of bringing about spontaneous abdication in our beloved leaders is…

  • The Way Way Back

    September 8, 2013 - By 

    I shouldn’t like The Way Way Back as much as I do. On the surface, it seems like such a typical Sundance movie. It’s a coming of age story based around an awkward adolescent male who goes on a slightly quirky trip with his dysfunctional family. Along the way, the family will undergo stress that might break them up, the boy will meet a “too cool for school” mentor figure who brings this young boy out of his shell and eventually the boy shall become a man and the film will end on an optimistic, if somewhat bittersweet, note. Wash,…

  • Jimmy Eat World

    September 8, 2013 - By 

    Our photographer, the ever upstanding Liam Kielt caught American rock/emo heroes Jimmy Eat World play Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Saturday, September 7. People were there, they played ‘The Middle’ at the very end and fun was had. Check out his photos from the show below.

  • God Is An Astronaut – Origins

    September 8, 2013 - By 

    As God Is An Astronaut pull from one of Irish rock’s best-kept secrets to an institution in their own right, like many bands in their situation, they run the risk of depending on more of the same to retain the attentions of an ever-more unfocused audience, usually in search of the next shiny thing. With seventh album Origins, it’s heartening to see that this is far from the case with the Glen of the Downs-based outfit, expanding their sound and artistic horizons as a five-piece, and dialing back on a lot of the now much-imitated post-rock tropes that have defined…

  • Watch: Axis Of – The World’s Oldest Computer

    September 6, 2013 - By 

    As part of their “Sharing St. Kilda” Day – and ahead of their performance at the fourth annual Tweed Fest tomorrow – North Coast three-piece Axis Of have unveiled the video to their new single, ‘The World’s Oldest Computer’. For all of today, the Ewen Friers-fronted band have asked the fans to the spread the word about all things Axis Of via social media and other platforms. Earlier today, they announced details of a forthcoming thirty-two date tour. See below for the dates. September 7: Ballymoney – Tweedfest 11: Dublin – Workmans w/ Jetplane Landing 12: Dublin – Tower Records…

  • EP Stream: The Last Generation – Torann

    September 6, 2013 - By 

    Having come on serious leaps and bounds over the last few months to establish themselves as one of the most promising rock acts in the country, Mid-Ulster four-piece The Last Generation have unveiled their new four-track EP, Torann. Displaying a more progressive, decidedly metal-influenced sound, the four-track follow-up to last year’s Revelation EP is the band’s first release with new drummer Conchobhar Ó Dochartaigh, also of Mid-Ulster acid-prog band The Institute*. The Last Generation hold their hometown launch of the EP tonight (Friday, September 6) at Draperstown’s soon to be sadly-missed Cellar Bar. The EP will see its Belfast launch…