• Watch: September Girls – Green Eyed

    One of the highlights from their recently-recently debut album, Cursing The Sea, Dublin noise-pop band September Girls have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Green Eyed’. The track – inspired by the call-and-response vocal style of Look In My Diary by Reparata and the dreams – the song is about being in a relationship with someone who is untrustworthy, and feeling trapped. Win tickets to see September Girls in Belfast’s Menagerie Bar on Saturday, September 1 here. Watch the video – directed by the band’s guitarist, Jessie Ward, and shot in an evening in September Girls’ basement rehearsal space…

  • Watch: Future Islands – Seasons (Waiting On You)

    Baltimore synthpop outfit Future Islands have released a video for ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’, a cut from their forthcoming album Singles. Directed by longtime collaborator Jay Buim, the video features lots of typical cowboy imagery – as well as actual cowboys – and certainly taps into singer Sam Herring’s admission that the song is “…about love, letting go, learning from your mistakes and always feeling that pull….as time goes by and seasons change.” Elsewhere, the band’s trademark waves of pensive electronic sounds shine through, whilst time seems to have softened Herring’s signature rasping vocals – but that seems somehow fitting…

  • Q&A: Girl Band

    Dublin-based quartet Girl Band have made a hell of a lot of noise in a short space of time. From last year’s gloriously curdling racket of a Blawan cover, ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’,  the band have been riding on a fresh wave of attention which has not only rekindled interest in their 2012 EP, France 98, but has also created something of a hypestorm around their latest single, ‘Lawman’. What’s particularly refreshing is that said hype seems to be justified – the aforementioned single is a six-minute beast of a thing; all dread-inducing basslines and frenetic percussion.…

  • Watch: Fox Jaw – Kerosene

    Coinciding with downsizing their name from Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters, Limerick band Fox Jaw have unveiled the video to their punchy new single, ‘Kerosene’. Released on February 28, the single – taken from the five-piece’s forthcoming album, Ghost’s Parade – is propelled by a strutting alt-rock groove and raspy vocal delivery that combine to excavate wonderfully malevolent undercurrents. Watch the video – directed by Shane Serrano from the band – below.

  • Warpaint – Warpaint

    With Warpaint taking three years to produce the follow up to their 2010 debut The Fool, and allegedly drawing inspiration from a desert recording session somewhere in the vicinity of The Joshua Tree, the history of popular music would suggest that any lingering doubts about the accessibility of their self-titled second album may not be entirely misplaced. And while the output is not as experimental as its recording process and subsequent promotion may suggest, if The Fool was slightly detached, on first listen Warpaint emotes the kind of welcome usually reserved for the most reticent of hermitages. Delve deeper however…

  • Q&A: Hornets

    Ahead of the release of their forthcoming new EP, No Faith, we chat to Sib, vocalist/bassist from Belfast punk metal band Hornets about the writing and recording of the release, recently expanding to a four-piece and what the next few months hold in store for the band. Photos by David Timlin. You’re set to release your latest EP in the coming weeks. How was the song writing process for these songs and what can we expect to hear? Yes, our new EP, No Faith, is to be released on the 31st March. The song writing process for the EP was much…

  • Ten Reasons Why You Should Love Iron Maiden

    Whether you like it or not, Iron Maiden are one of the most successful British bands of the last 35 years, ignoring traditional methods of support to stay at the top of the pack. They’ve (fairly) consistently managed to stay ahead of their peers, and even after all this time, still manage to pull out a few surprises. They’re going to be spending a large portion of 2014 on the road, effectively laying rest to their 80s legacy in a series of epic gigs all across Europe. But for those of us who’ve never appreciated the unique charms of the…