• Watch: Phantogram – Nothing But Trouble

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Taken from their forthcoming new album, Voices, New York electronic rock duo Josh Carter and Sarah Berthel AKA Phantogram have released their intoxicating new single, ‘Nothing But Trouble’. “Don’t listen to me, I’m nothing but trouble,” Berthel warns on the chorus, an ensnaring electro-pop refrain oddly reminiscent of Eels’ ‘Bus Stop Boxer’. Over the course of four minutes, the track’s fizzling, skittering, synth-driven spell imparts a exceptional nocturnal pulse that promises some great things for the pair’s upcoming second studio album. Voices  is released via Republic on February 18. Check out ‘Nothing But Trouble’ via YouTube below.

  • Watch: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Visiting Myself in Hospital

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    “I’m a tightrope walker over miles of sea/This a frame of mind I’m in will end up killing me.” So goes one of the lines from ‘Visiting Myself in Hospital’ by Limerick experimental three-piece Micháel Keating, Brendan McInerney and Cathal Histon AKA Bleeding Heart Pigeons, a track about the hypothetical ponderings of one of the Columbine killers. Take a step back from the subject matter, the song’s somewhat unexpected no wave-esque outro and the song’s DIY video (below) and you’re left with a wonderfully simple, rather endearing slice of indie/synth-pop. Indeed, as is becoming their custom, Bleeding Heart Pigeons have combined the…

  • Watch: Slomatics – Troglorite

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based doom overlords Slomatics have long been one of our favourite riff-heavy Irish acts. Ten years and a couple of line-up changes into their evolution, the three-piece have just unveiled the video to their latest single, the decidedly crushing ‘Troglorite’ The four-and-a-half minute minute opening track to the band’s forthcoming fourth album, Estron, the creeping, drop-tuned offering evokes the likes of Sleep/early High and Fire and Conan (a band the guys released a split with back in 2011) in equal proportion. Set to be released next month, Estron was recorded and mixed at Belfast’s Start Together Studios and is a concept album…

  • Pixies – EP-2

    January 13, 2014 - By 

    Where were you the first time you heard The Pixies? I remember. I was fourteen years old, in the school hall talking about music with a friend of mine. He gave me his generic MP3 device to hear this strange and wonderful thing he’d just discovered. It was Debaser. There are very few things that can conjure the feeling that came over me when I first heard Kim Deal hammer those F notes into submission. For a brief moment, I seemed to have found everything I was looking for. First love is a thing of wonder. It’s been nearly a…

  • The First Time: Michael Pope (Le Galaxie)

    January 13, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of their extraordinary Belfast show at the Black Box on Friday night (January 10) Joe Laverty met up with Michael Pope from Dublin indie-dance band Le Galaxie to discover the musical firsts of his music making, listening and loving life thus far. He also found time to take the above portrait photograph of the frontman in all his ultra-commanding, disco ball-holding glory. First album you bought? Thriller First single you bought? Kylie Minogue – ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ First live concert/gig? Michael Jackson, Lansdowne Road 1992 First album you properly loved? Achtung Baby   First artist/band to change your…

  • Snowbird – Moon

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Snowbird is a transatlantic duo. Stephanie Dosen, a singer songwriter from Wisconsin, provides vocals over tracks originating from piano sketches by Simon Raymonde. Dosen already responsible for a couple of solo albums has also toured as vocalist with Massive Attack and provided vocals for several songs on The Chemical Brothers‘ 2010 album Further. Raymonde who has run the Bella Union label since 1997 was previously a key member of dream-pop pioneers Cocteau Twins. While the duo’s sound is admirably fleshed out by an impressive indie alumni (Midlake, Lanterns on the Lake and even a couple of Radioheaders) it’s plainly the…

  • Classic Album: Cynic – Focus

    January 10, 2014 - By 

    In 1993, Floridia’s Cynic released their debut full length on the heels of their well received demos. After singer/guitarist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert’s stint in Death (recording and touring the seminal Human album), anticipations were high in the fertile death metal scene – especially considering Masvidal and Reinert turned down full time positions in the band to concentrate on their own project. Although Cynic’s demos (especially ‘Reflections of a Dying World’) were death metal with thrash sensibilities, it soon became apparent that this Focus would be dramatically different. There were hints – a bass fill here, a breakdown…

  • Several Irish Acts Set For SXSW 2014

    January 10, 2014 - By 

    Several Irish acts have been confirmed to play this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The annual U.S. showcase – now in its 28th year – will feature performances from Unknwn (above), Wonder Villains, RAMS’ Pocket Radio, Foy Vance, and from the south, September Girls, Heathers, Hozier, DOTT, O Emperor, Wounds, The Strypes, The Young Folk and Nightbox. Inaugurated in 1987, South by Southwest 2014 will run from March 11-16 and feature thousands of acts from across the world.

  • Choice Music Prize 2014 Shortlist Revealed

    January 8, 2014 - By 

    Now in its ninth year, the shortlist for the Meteor Choice Music Prize has been announced. Including the long overdue comeback albums from genre-defining shoegaze My Bloody Valentine, the breakthrough second album from Belfast-based four-piece Girls Names and the Mercury Prize-nominated {Awayland} by Dublin’s Villagers, the winner of the ten-act shortlist will be announced at Dublin’s Vicar Street on Thursday, February 27. Check out the full nominations below: And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures (Sargent House) Bell X1 – Chop Chop (Belly Up Records) Girls Names – The New Life (Tough Love) Kodaline – In…

  • Good Vibrations up for BAFTA Award

    January 8, 2014 - By 

    Having been chosen by movie critic Mark Kermode as his #1 film of 2013, Good Vibrations has been nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category at this year’s BAFTA Awards. The film – chronicling the rise of Terri Hooley’s legendary Belfast record shop and his discovery of Derry punk upstarts the Undertones at the height of the Troubles – was released at the start of last year to a wave of critical and commercial attention. The nomination is in recognition of Colin Carberry and Glenn Paterson’s stellar screenplay for the film. This ceremony will take place on…