• In Photos: Chic @ Belsonic

    Alan Maguire shoots the globetrotting, decades-spanning, downright legendary Chic featuring Nile Rodgers at Belsonic at Belfast’s Custom House Square. Talk about a cool customer – and Rodgers’ ain’t too bad himself.

  • Deafheaven w/ No Spill Blood @ Mandela Hall

    The stir of Deafheaven’s first performance in Belfast is one that few could have anticipated, and even fewer will have forgotten. It was 2012, and the San Francisco black metal outfit were on their first European tour in support of post-rock heavyweights Russian Circles. The band played to an almost entirely uninitiated Speakeasy Bar that night; it wasn’t long, though, until the sheer surprise of the aural viciousness emanating from the stage transformed to excitement and awe. The room, packed full of post-rock fans,  was audibly delighted with the performance. It’s unlikely that any other black metal band in the…

  • Stream: Sea Pinks – Dream Happening

    Jangle/neo-surf pop outfit Sea Pinks have just unveiled ‘Dream Happening’, the first track from their aptly-titled upcoming album Dreaming Tracks. The LP will be Sea Pinks’ first release since single ‘An Exploded View‘ was put out last November. The album is to be released through independent Belfast specialist dream/surf/noise-pop label, CF Records on September 29. Stream ‘Dream Happening’ below:

  • Sea Pinks – Dreaming Tracks

    Neo-surf-pop act Sea Pinks release their new album, entitled Dreaming Tracks on September 29 through Belfast-based surf/jangle/noise pop specialist label, CF Records. This will be their first release since single ‘An Exploded View’ was put out last November. Check out ‘Dream Happening’ – the first track to be unveiled – below:

  • Final Electric Picnic Acts announced

    Less than two weeks now to the start of Ireland’s premier music festival, and the festival has revealed the final seventeen acts that will grace the stage at Stradbelly. Several top Irish bands lead the way with Sleep Thieves (above), Tvvins, We Cut Corners and Raglans all set to perform. The other artists that will be playing at the festival are Jenny Lewis,  Krystal Klear,  PHOX,  The Minutes, Vann Music, Booka Brass Band  Spies, The Academic, Orla Gartland, Buffalo Sunn, Daniel James,  Acrobat and Wyvern Lingo. Electric Picnic takes place at Stradbelly Estate, Laois from August 29 to 31. Tickets are sold out.

  • Hector and the Search for Happiness

    Soon into Hector and the Search for Happiness, the baffling new leading man vehicle for Simon Pegg from director Peter Chelsom (The Hannah Montana Movie), I realised why the ‘dramedic’ inertia felt so familiar. Hector has much in common with last year’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a Ben Stiller film which was remarkable for recreating perfectly in cinematic form the polished emptiness of a high-end credit card commercial. Both are adaptations of a literary work (here, a popular 2002 novel by Francois Lelord), both use a well-known comic actor for a slightly straighter role, and both are about…