• Alien She – Feeler

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s Alien She have been dazzling us with their snappy, experimental art-punk since the start, and have lifted the cloche on their much-anticipated debut LP, Feeler, released through Sligo DIY distro, Art For Blind Records (Altered Hours, Wild Rocket, I Am The Cosmos). Musically, the trio play a blend of agit. punk, shoegaze and alt. pop, tied together with an in-the-moment sense of experimentalism and febrile live energy, giving weight to Alien She’s politically & socially conscious impulse. The artistic inclination of founding members Katie & Aoife, both of whom are heavily Dublin’s art & poetry community in Dublin, first came together at a feminist meeting, and having spent the last two…

  • Conor McGregor: Notorious

    November 7, 2017 - By 

    Part of the fascination surrounding Conor McGregor is that so many people who claim not to care about the Dubliner spend so much time talking about him. The persona; the cars; the suits; the bravado – all gets discussed routinely around pub tables and all of it gets minutely dissected. Is he bringing shame on the nation or representing a sea change in what it means to be Irish? Is he a highly skilled sportsman or a street brawler participating in thinly-veiled barbarism? Is he a showman or a bigot? Is he both? Notorious offers little answers on the above.…

  • Slow Place Like Home – When I See You … Ice Cream!

    November 8, 2017 - By 

      If you’ve had your finger anywhere near the pulse over the past half decade you’d be aware of chill. Everything can, and most probably will, be described as “chill” in 2017. Your boyfriend is chill. Your dog is chill. Even your boss can be “pretty chill” sometimes. For once, this term doesn’t feel like a gross understatement when describing Slow Place Like Home; he’s an artist so chill it will make your weekend on Inishmaan look like a four day bender in Marbella. Keith Mannion has been making music under the moniker of Slow Place Like Home for nearly six years…

  • Watch: Rory Nellis – Wild

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Unless you’ve been residing under a fairly sizable rock over the last few months, you’ll be aware that Belfast’s Rory Nellis has been releasing a series of singles from his forthcoming second album, There Are Enough Songs In The World. A brave move by anyone’s standards, but Nellis is far from your average songsmith. The final single and closing track from the album – which is launched at Belfast’s The MAC this Saturday, November 11 – ‘Wild’ feels like a fitting, deceptively ambitious crowning touch. Clocking in at just under seven minutes, it’s a masterfully unravelling tale that bursts into glorious, full-band swansonging…

  • And So I Watch You From Afar Announce Belfast Show

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Currently zig-zagging around European on tour off the back of the release of their new album, The Endless Shimmering, North Coast post-rock heroes And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of a homecoming show in Belfast on December 16. Supported by Calling All Horses (a band comprised of ex-Alloy Mental, LaFaro and General Fiasco members), CATALAN! and Touts, the globetrotting four-piece will headline the newly-opened Telegraph Building on Royal Avenue on the night. The show will be the band’s first Belfast headline show since June 2015. In a Facebook post, the band said: “On Saturday 16th Dec, returning…

  • Interview: Tandem Felix

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of their first Dublin headline show in over two years tomorrow night Hugh O’Dwyer talks to Tandem Felix frontman David Tapley about their new music and returning to the stage. Tickets for their November 7th show upstairs in Whelans can be purchased here. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, the sound of Tandem Felix has changed quite a bit since some of the band’s earlier work such as Ryan Hoguet and the Popcorn EP. What would you attribute this change in style to? A few things really; I’ve loved country and country-related music for so long. I…

  • Lisa Hannigan @ The Duncairn, Belfast

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    Lisa Hannigan and her band have just edged into the first verse of their fifth song at Belfast’s Duncairn Centre for Culture & Arts. I’ve quickly nipped to the bathroom, where I overhear this brief tête-à-tête between two gentlemen: “Some gig, isn’t it?” “I’ve only just arrived. Stuck in traffic.” “Oh, Jesus.” As I leap up the stairwell back into the venue space, it suddenly hits me: the “Oh, Jesus” immediately (and very tellingly) severed the exchange between the two strangers. When it comes to a Lisa Hannigan show, it really is in your best interests to be present from the very first note…

  • BNQT @ The Button Factory, Dublin

    November 6, 2017 - By 

    The initial seeds of BNQT were planted by Midlake’s Eric Pulido while touring their Antiphon album back in 2013. He hoped he could convince several of his favourite vocalists into a collaboration of sorts that mirrored something akin to the Traveling Wilburys crossed with The Band, with vocal and songwriting duties being shared. Fast forward to April of this year and BNQT’s debut Volume.1 finally blossomed, with Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, Travis’ Fran Healy, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapronas and Band of Horses Ben Bridwell joining Pulido and some of his fellow Midlake colleagues; Jesse Chandler, Joey McClellan and McKenzie Smith. With…

  • A. Savage – Thawing Dawn

    November 5, 2017 - By 

    Andrew Savage has been ensconced in the music scene since his teenage years growing up in Denton, Texas. He played in bands, organised small-scale guerilla marketing campaigns – promotional bathroom band graffiti – and self-released lo-fi tapes until firmly establishing his position within the independent DIY realm with his band Parquet Courts following their debut in 2011. Their reputation has grown steadily and they have seamlessly become an act that figures into the same conversations that laud the likes of Ought and Black Lips. In a relatively short space of time they have become stalwarts of a scene of bands…

  • Premiere: Alien She – Feeler

    November 3, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s Alien She have been dazzling us with their snappy, experimental art-punk since the start, and have just lifted the cloche on their much-anticipated debut LP, Feeler, unveiled today through Sligo DIY distro, Art For Blind Records (Altered Hours, Wild Rocket, I Am The Cosmos) Musically, the trio play a blend of agit. punk, shoegaze and alt. pop, tied together with an in-the-moment sense of experimentalism and febrile live energy, giving weight to Alien She’s politically & socially conscious impulse. The artistic inclination of founding members Katie & Aoife, both of whom are heavily Dublin’s art & poetry community in Dublin, first came together at a feminist meeting, and having spent…