• Before Midnight

    July 9, 2013 - By 

    Love is hard. These three simple words form the basis for many a Meg Ryan, Kathrine Heigl and Jennifer Aniston film. The process of meeting the one you will eventually spend your life with should be arduous and rife with high-larious circumstance. One of you will overreact to a character revelation before the great big “John Cusack with a boombox and some sweet ass Peter Gabriel” moment arrives and makes everything right. Never forget, love is hard. Except it’s really not. Love is finding joy with being with someone almost entirely without care. Love is actually quite simple, it’s the…

  • Lemuria – The Distance Is So Big

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    Given the mercurial nature of Lemuria’s sound, the fact that the group take their name from a mythical lost island continent seems somewhat apt. This third full-length sees the trio as difficult to pin down as their eponymous land mass, kicking off with a brief choral swell before opener proper ‘Brilliant Dancer’ shuffles into view. The twanging first few bars are pure slacker indie, but the track suddenly takes off on an unexpectedly raucous tangent, its skewed rhythm at first appearing utterly at odds with the effervescent pop melodies being played out on the surface. No sooner have you sussed…

  • Video exclusive: Empty Lungs – ‘Until The Day We Die’

    July 9, 2013 - By 

    Taken from their Stand Up EP, we have an exclusive preview of Belfast punk band Empty Lungs new single ‘Until The Day We Die’. Comprised of footage shot at the band’s EP launch show, the video was shot by Caught In The Headlight Productions. The video will be officially released on Thursday, July 11. After playing NSX Festival in Dundalk on August, the band will embark on a Scottish tour: August 14 – Sound Magic Studios, Ayr August 15 – Nice’N’Sleazy, Glasgow August 16 – Green Rooms, Perth August 17 – Tam’s Bar, Buckhaven (Matinee) August 17 – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh (Club Night) August 18 – 20 Rocks, Dundee   Details of a forthcoming European…

  • Festival Mixtape: Glasgowbury 2013

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    An annual celebration of local musical talent like no other, Glasgowbury Festival returns to the Sperrin mountains this year with arguably its finest line-up to date. Headlined by the globetrotting, genre-defining The Answer, And So I Watch You From Afar and The Japanese Popstars, there is an absolute wealth of homegrown talent littered throughout this year’s line-up – a two-day event for the first time in its thirteen year history. Excited as we are about this year’s showcase, we’ve put together a fifteen-song Spotify playlist featuring songs from some of the finest acts playing this year’s festival – everyone from cello-wielding songstress…

  • Cut The Transmission line-up announced

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Future of the Left and Fighting With Wire are amongst the acts set to play Cut The Transmission festival in Derry on September 28. Named after the Fighting With Wire track of the same name, the one-day event will mark the Derry-based, Cahir O’Doherty-fronted band’s last ever live show. With more acts yet to be announced, check out the full line-up via the poster below. Tickets – priced at £20.00 – are available to purchase from the Millenium Forum.

  • Stream: I Break Horses – Denial

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    Swedish duo Maria Lindén and Fredrick Balck AKA I Break Horses are streaming a new track, ‘Denial’, via Soundcloud. Following on from their 2011 debut album Hearts, the two -piece are currently in the process of recorded its full-length follow-up, set for release via Bella Union in the Autumn. Stream ‘Denial’ – a three and a half minute dose of delectable analogue-synth and drum machines-led electro-pop – below.

  • Stream: Kowalski – Sunroom

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    Bangor-based indie-pop foursome Kowalski have released a stream of their single, ‘Sunroom’. Taken from the band’s long-awaited debut album For The Love Of Letting Go, it is a suitably scintillating burst of sun-kissed electro-pop from the quartet who released their debut EP – Are You Noisy Sunshine State? – back in 2006. For The Love of Letting Go will be released on July 15 Stream ‘Sunroom’ via Soundcloud below.

  • Watch: Franz Ferdinand – Right Action

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    Scottish four-piece Franz Ferdinand have unveiled the video to their new single, ‘Right Action’. Taken from the band’s first album in four years – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action – the video was directed by Jonas Odell, the man behind the band’s video for ‘Take Me Out‘. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action will be released via the ever-reliable Domino. Watch the video for ‘Right Action’ below.

  • Post-Glastonbury Blues: A Diary

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    I’m writing this from my bitter pit of despair. Post-Glastonbury Blues will one day be a recognised as a legitimate illness and I know that there are 180,000 people feeling as horrific as I am today. Our beautiful festival has ended and the reality of the 9-5 has sunk in. Strangers don’t high five you on the way to the loo, there’s no warm cider on the canteen menu and I’m pretty sure my boss will frown upon me standing on my desk and screaming “I LOVE YOU GLASTONBURY” every so often. 2013 was to be different from other years…

  • Surfer Blood – Pythons

    July 8, 2013 - By 

    It’s fair to say that amongst most people of a certain age you’d struggle to find anyone who doesn’t, or didn’t at one time love Teenage Fanclub, Pavement or Weezer. That combination of Ric Ocasek guitar, sweeter than sweet melodies and chunky fuzzy distortion is the perfect mixture for the music fan who loves the power and energy of punk but needs that wonderful hook to drag them in. When done right, you end up with Bandwagonesque, Slanted and Enchanted or The Blue Album, albums so good that cries of heresy instantly follow any sort of critical dissent.  But when…