• Day by Day and Stage Times Revealed For Hard Working Class Heroes 2017

    September 5, 2017 - By 

    The Day by Day schedule and stage-times have been revealed for this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes. Set to return to Dublin across September 28-30, the independent music showcase will be Ireland’s largest gathering of bookers, labels, managers, music supervisors, radio folk and journalists from around the world and here at home. As well as a full bill of workshops, discussions, and panels, see below for those all-important days, venues and times. Tickets for Hard Working Class Heroes are on sale now.

  • Hercules & Love Affair – Omnion

    September 4, 2017 - By 

      In 2008, when Andy Butler formed Hercules & Love Affair and released breakthrough single ‘Blind’ –featuring Anohni – into the world there was a fear from DFA Records that the track had the potential to be a one-hit wonder of sorts. Quite the contrary, the critically acclaimed track shone a light on Butler’s project which has now, nearly ten years later, released its fourth studio outing Omnion. Since its inception, Hercules & Love Affair has grown to be a more collaborative effort, combining the intensity and and elegance of Butler’s production with a word-class cast of featured artists, including…

  • LCD Soundsystem – American Dream

    September 4, 2017 - By 

    After putting a metaphorical bullet in the project’s jaded head five years ago, James Murphy found himself with plenty of time to kill in a post-LCD Soundsystem world. He went back to producing music, and found he was still good at that. He became something of a wine and coffee connoisseur, and found he was good at that too. But like many retirees he began to feel a void. And so an awkwardness was born — not unusual for Murphy — which left him with something of a conundrum: do you reform the band you supposedly buried forever and risk…

  • Monday Mixtape: Joshua Burnside

    September 4, 2017 - By 

    Having come good on years of promise with his long-awaited debut album, Ephrata, back in May, Comber experimental folk musician Joshua Burnside reveals a selection of his all-time favourite tracks, including Luke Kelly, The Microphones, Sam Amidon, The Books. The Microphones – I Want The Wind To Blow I love the production on this track – the way the guitars are panned, the heavy compression, the distant drums, and how Phil Elverum holds some words for so long that they become sort of suspended in time. The Books – Free Translator This is a great track by The Books and it’s interesting…

  • Autumn @ The RHA

    September 7, 2017 - By 

    Vera Klute, Cloud – Courtesy of the Artist This Friday sees the launch of the RHA Gallery’s Autumn programme with four new exhibitions opening. In Gallery I is Vera Klute, Ronnie Hughes’ work is displayed in Galleries II and III with Janet Mullarney in the RHA Foyer; and finally, the work of  Susan Connolly is on show in the RHA’s Ashford Gallery. Klute presents Plunge, a multimedia exhibition that makes use of both video and sculpture. Her work sees her discuss the everyday rituals and habits of people, and the transmutation of the normal to the abnormal. More details on Plunge can be found online…

  • Exhibition: Käthe Kollwitz: Life, Death and War @ National Gallery of Ireland

    September 5, 2017 - By 

    This Wednesday sees the opening of a new exhibition featuring the work of German printmaker Käthe Kollwitz. Titled Life, Death and War, the show consists of 40 prints selected from the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart art museum. As alluded to in the show’s title, the exhbition features pieces from Kollowitz’s Death series (1934-37), her two war series: Peasant War (1902-08) and War (1921-22) as well as her two other major art cycles Revolt of the Weavers (1893-98) and Proletariat (1924-25). During the opening decades of the 20th Century, Kollwitz (1867-1945) established herself as one of the finest and highly regarded printers of the era, achieving this during a period…

  • The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding

    September 2, 2017 - By 

    Sun Kil Moon miserabilist Mark Kazolek famously dismissed the The War on Drugs “beer commercial lead guitar shit” shortly after the release of 2014’s instant-classic third LP Lost In The Dream. Despite being desperately unfair to the Philadelphia outfit – effectively a vehicle for frontman Adam Granduciel since the departures of founding members Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn – it does tap into the band’s own internal paradox: their music is undoubtedly rooted in the stadium-filling giants of 80s rock, from Granduciel’s Dylanesque purrs and Mark Knopfler-style lead guitar, while ambient flourishes recall U2’s Eno lead pre-Joshua Tree experimentalism. The…

  • Arvo Party – Arvo Party

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    There’s been something of a LaFaro-shaped hole in Belfast’s music scene since their dissolution a couple of years ago. In a city that’s had no shortage of post-hardcore-leaning bands over the years, LaFaro stood far in front, assisted by a rawness and lack of pretence, not to mention frontman Jonny Black’s vocals that swapped the usual throaty screams and Americanised emoting with a sarcastic snarl handed down from Steve Albini and mclusky’s Andy Falkous. After going on to join Cahir O’Doherty’s Goons – a band who were similarly riffy but lacked that same LaFaro spark and never really got going…

  • Patti Cake$

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    Geremy Jasper, former vocalist of 00’s New York band The Tears, has channeled his younger creative frustrations into feature debut and Sundance hit Patti Cake$, an upbeat tale of an unlikely hip-hop hustler and solid contender for the year’s feel-good rankings. Its got magic indie dust and an against-the-odds underdog ethos and its leads, Danielle Macdonald and Siddharth Dhananjay, two best friends and hip-hop partners, are a memorable and winning double act. Macdonald is Patricia Dombrowski, aka Dumbo, aka Killer P (the titular tag comes later), a plus-size, white, ginger woman desperate for rap glory. Dhananjay is Jheri, an Indian-American who…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Hate It When You Have To Go

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    Few Irish bands have had a stronger 2017 than fast-rising North Coast quartet Brand New Friend. Having featured them as an Inbound one-to-watch act in our magazine this time last year, we’re pleased to present a first listen to the band’s virulent new single ‘Hate It When You Have To Go’. Clocking in at just over two minutes, the track – conjuring everyone from Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle ato early Ash – perfectly distils the Taylor Johnson-fronted foursome’s peerless brand of starry-eyed lo-fi indie-pop. Check out the band at Cosby Stage at Electric Picnic this Sunday at 2pm and a…