• 18 for ’18: Crevice

    January 11, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Cork’s Crevice. Photo by Abi Dennison Here’s the thing, a good “vibes” band is hard to find. Capturing atmosphere and the wispy texture of indescribable feelings is, understandably, a tough task. Yet every hack with a synthesizer and a copy of To Be Kind thinks it’s a piece of piss to write long,…

  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

    January 12, 2018 - By 

    The phrase ‘dark comedy’ recurs in descriptions of the filmography of Martin McDonagh, the London-born but Irish-descended playwright turned film-maker who this week received a Golden Globe for his third feature, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It’s the kind of loose, generous generic signifier that covers a multitude of structural and tonal sins. Sin is something McDonagh seems very interested in, populating his films with ugly people hopscotching across ugly situations. Redemption is a tricky prospect, both for the characters and for McDonagh himself, who lumbers Three Billboards with much the same problems that made In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths such…

  • RTÉ Choice Music Prize Shortlist Revealed

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    RTÉ Choice Music Prize has announced its ten-album shortlist for 2017. The prize selects the best Irish album of the previous calendar year. The shortlist is as follows: Come On Live Long – In The Still Marlene Enright – Placemats and Second Cuts Fangclub – Fangclub Lankum – Beneath The Earth and the Sky James Vincent McMorrow – True Care New Jackson – From Night To Night Otherkin – OK Fionn Regan – The Meetings of the Waters Ships – Precession Talos – Wild Alee The winner will be chosen during a live event, which will be held at Vicar Street in…

  • Darkest Hour

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    Even while he’s having a cinematic moment, Churchill keeps his distance. Christopher Nolan weaponized celluloid machinery for the hyper-technical tension of Dunkirk, in which the politics of the coastal evacuation took place off screen, Kenneth Branagh’s naval captain standing in for the stiff upper lip of absent British authorities. Jonathan Teplitzky’s Churchill found Brian Cox’s wartime Prime Minister at the end of his tether on the eve of the Normandy invasion, tired and morose, struggling to maintain the brittle national morale. And now Joe Wright’s punchy Darkest Hour, the closest of the three to a traditional biopic, packing Gary Oldman in…

  • Brad’s Status

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    ‘Everyone is just thinking about themselves; they’re wrapped up in their own stuff’, high schooler Troy Sloan tells his father, who is hunched over the edge of his hotel bed, haunted by deep, formless feelings of failure. The comment is meant to reassure Brad, who has spent their college-tour trip suffering through bouts of jealousy and insecurity, and it’s the sort of line routinely served up to sooth the self-conscious. Everyone’s caught up in their own stuff, no-one even really sees you, so stop worrying so much. But Brad’s problem is that he’s already too self-involved, Ben Stiller’s wounded, jittery eyes…

  • 18 for ’18: Junior Brother

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Junior Brother. Photo by Sarah Ryan Having played Whelan’s Ones to Watch festival the last two years running and given his recent move to Dublin, Ronan Kealy is set to make 2018 his year. The Kerry native, who goes by the stage name Junior Brother, followed up his debut EP Sleeping at the Bottom of the Sea with Fuck…

  • Car Seat Headrest set for Olympia Theatre

    January 9, 2018 - By 

    Less than a year on from playing the Academy, Will Toledo’s Car Seat Headrest have been announced to play a show at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Wednesday, May 16. The news coincides with the announcement that Toledo will release a re-imagined version of his 2011 album Twin Fantasy, on February 16 via Matador. Watch the brand new video for ‘Nervous Young Inhumans’ below. Tickets for the Olympia show are priced at €23.90 and go on sale on Friday, January 12.

  • Watch: Daniel John Paxton – Morning Crow

    January 9, 2018 - By 

    Dublin singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Daniel John Paxton has shared the first of a series of solo recordings made in his home over the past few months. ‘Morning Crow’ finds the front man of cosmic-Americana rockers Buffalo Sunn in more stripped back territory. Embracing his folkier side, Paxton’s touching, bittersweet lyricism is given plenty of room to breathe in this short acoustic number. With more new material promised to be on the way, we’ve plenty to look forward to from Paxton in the coming year. Have a look/listen to the video for ‘Morning Crow’ below, directed by A. Parkes

  • Plain Living & High Thinking: An Interview With Belfast’s Latest Promotion

    January 8, 2018 - By 

    If you’ve been keeping track of the Belfast live music scene lately, you might have noticed – despite well-intentioned pockets and open-minded promoters – that it’s somewhat fractured and currently lacking the infrastructure to cultivate a strong grassroots music community beyond those looked after by management and the likes. Two bands who have organically harnessed their substantial following in a very short space of time are the groove-strewn, endlessly soulful jam trio Electric Octopus – having toured the UK, look to extensively traipse across Europe in Spring following the release of their latest album – and stoner-doom outfit Elder Druid, who released…

  • Rescheduled Breeders Date Announced

    January 9, 2018 - By 

    Thanks to Hurricane Ophelia’s handiwork back in October, The Breeders had to cancel their highly-anticipated return to Dublin at Vicar Street. A rescheduled date was promised and here we are: unless another act of God prevents it (touch wood) the band will play Vicar Street on Sunday, May 27. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, January 18. Back in November, Kim Deal reveal to Marc Maron that a new album will be released in 2018. Check out the full WTF podcast right here.