Four months on from releasing easily one of the Irish EPs of the year – the superb, sci-fi-tinged four-tracker Superior Fiction – Galway singer-songwriter Eoin Dolan is back with one of modern music’s big aberrations: a legitimately great Christmas single. Marrying sleigh bells and heady surf melodies with killer indie-pop lo-fidelity, it’s almost certainly the only festive single from an Irish artist that you should bother checking out this year.
Including ‘Homez-a-Place‘ and ‘Song From a Party‘, Dublin-based New Yorker Cal Folger Day has released a steady stream of sonically mottled and consistently compelling EPs and singles over the years. Her latest project is The Woods and Grandma, a verbatim pop-about Lady Gregory, which was recorded live in Dublin at Ailfionn by Christopher Barry and mixed/mastered in LA by Hans Zimmer engineer Forest Christenson. Set for broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM on Sunday (December 16) between 6-7pm, the show – which scooped the Little Gem award at the 2017 Dublin Fringe Festival – will go on a two-week East Coast US tour with…
The Redneck Manifesto may not be a household name, but their influence on modern Irish music cannot be understated. Their initial run of releases in the early 2000s, falling somewhere in that uncategorisable gap between post-rock and math-rock, helped to pave the way for the abnormally large influx of instrumental guitar bands on this island. Bands like Adebisi Shank and Enemies bore their influence and long sang their praises, while across the Irish sea, even now-global superstars Foals reportedly worshipped heavily at the TRM alter in their early days, even inspiring frontman Yannis Philippakis’ choice of Travis Bean guitar. Resolutely DIY…
Gnarkats’ knack for blending burrowing, star-shaped melodies with low-end riffs saw them emerge as one of Ireland’s best alt-indie bands this year. Citing the likes of Fidlar, St. Vincent and fellow Belfast-based band, And So I Watch You From Afar, as key influences, Jordan Evans, Stuart Robinson and Louis Nelson are back with their final song of the year, ‘Take Me Away’. A re-recording of an old fan favourite, the single – which comes accompanied with a wonderfully DIY video, which you can watch below – was recorded and mixed by Stuart Robinson from the band.
We’ve a pair of tickets to give away to two Murder Capital shows this week: Wednesday (December 12th) at Voodoo in Belfast and Dublin’s Workman’s Club on Friday. To enter, simply e-mail info@thethinair.net with the following question and indicate which show you would like to attend: What is the name of the Murder Capital’s frontman?
Conor O’Brien’s Villagers are the latest act announced to headline Iveagh Gardens next summer. Supported by Aldous Harding, the band – who released one of the Irish albums of 2018, The Art of Pretending to Swim, in September – will play the Dublin show on Friday, July 12. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, December 13 at 9am.
Forbidden Fruit have revealed their first names for 2019. The annual festival – which returns to Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin across the Bank Holiday weekend of June 1-3 – will welcome Skepta, Danny Brown, Mura Masa, Elbow, First Aid Kit, Jon Hopkins, Paul Kalkbrenner, Maribou State, Mall Grab, Daniel Avery, Polo & Pan, Homeshake, Ross from Friends and Saint Sister. More acts are to be announced. Day and weekend tickets go on sale at 9am on Thursday.
Lisa Hannigan, with support from Anna Mieke, at The White Horse in Ballincollig, Cork. Photos by Ciaran Foley.
Snow Patrol playing a career-spanning set at Belfast’s SSE Arena. Photos by Niall Fegan
To celebrate our collective itchy feet awaiting the onset of socially acceptable daytime drinking, half-arsed cracker pulling and hastily-concocted post-pub sandwiches, here’s our annual Semi-Alternative Christmas Playlist – featuring everyone from Yo La Tengo, Big Star and Mazzy Star to The Fall, Mark Kozelek and Deerhoof.