• EP Premiere: Comrade Hat – Tuque

    May 3, 2019 - By 

    Derry-based experimental pop auteur Neil Burns’ Comrade Hat‘s latest EP, Tuque, is set for release on May 10, but we’re pleased to say we have an exclusive premiere streaming a week in advance. Following a string of EPs – including his series of Winter EPs – production credits, and a high profile collaboration with Phil Kieran and the Ulster Orchestra at Celtronic 2018, Burns needed a change. In Autumn of 2018, he relocated to Toronto with some musician friends for a recharge that ultimately led to the creation of Tuque, a complete work that spans post-breakup what’s-it-all-about soul-searching to geopolitical observations in under 15 minutes, with cameos from cult musical figures of the area,…

  • Bill Callahan Set For Vicar Street

    May 2, 2019 - By 

    U.S. singer-songwriter Bill Callahan will play Dublin late this year. The Maryland artist, who has also performed as Smog, will play Vicar Street on Sunday, September 29. Support on the night will come from Dallas Acid. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 10th at 9am.

  • the arts column: PhotoIreland Special

    May 2, 2019 - By 

    This week sees the launch of this year’s PhotoIreland Festival, with the official opening taking place tonight, May 2nd,at 6pm in their Temple Bar hub: The Library Project. This year is the tenth anniversary of the festival, and to celebrate we’ve a special edition of the arts column focusing on the festival’s extensive programme of events, talks, exhibitions and general celebration of photography in Ireland. Festival Launch Party | Thursday, May 2nd @ The Library Project Tonight from 6pm (PhotoIreland patrons get a sneak peak a few hours earlier at 4pm) the festival kicks off in the foundation’s Temple Bar hub:…

  • Watch: Stefan Murphy – Dry Cider

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    We’re very lucky to call Stefan Murphy one of our own. Based in Atlanta, GA, the Dublin artist’s mottled career to date has taken in the triumphant garage rock of The Mighty Stef, exploratory solo sounds as Count Vaseline and far beyond. Murphy is now performing under his own name, making music that he tells us “aims to reconnect with the art of earnest, heartfelt songwriting, while also flirting with his back catalog in the live setting.” If lead single ‘Dry Cider’ is anything to go by, success is both realms is assured. A self-proclaimed tale of youthful misadventure, dedicated to…

  • Russian Circles To Play Dublin, Galway and Belfast

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    Chicago post-metal trio Russian Circles are set for three Irish shows in the summer. The band – comprising Mike Sullivan, Dave Turncrantz and Brian Cook – will play Dublin’s Button Factory on August 8, Galway’s Roisin Dubh on August 9th and Belfast’s Limelight 2 on August 10. It will mark the band’s first Irish shows since 2017. Revisit our interview with the band from then here. Tickets are on sale now, priced €20.00, €20.00 and £18.50 respectively.

  • CQAF’s Sean Kelly on Six Golden Moments From 20 Years of the Belfast Festival

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    Kicking off on Thursday, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival will bring a dizzying array of talent to Belfast’s city centre for its 20th outing, including Rufus Wainwright, Echo and the Bunnymen, Anna Calvi, Teenage Fanclub, Spiritualized, Marian Keyes, Yola, UNLOVED (feat, David Holmes), Nina Conti, Horslips, Chris Difford, Roy Walker, Bill Drummond, Patty Griffin, Kevin McAleer, Lisa O’Neill, Lowkey, Bernard MacLaverty and Horslips. The 11-day festival will feature over 10 events in over 20 venues across the city centre, as it celebrates its 20th anniversary with a programme of live music, comedy, literature, theatre, film, visual art and more. Festival Director Sean Kelly said, “There are…

  • Premiere: Cal Folger Day – G.B.S. (Live)

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    You best believe we enjoy the wonky and wondrous pop of Dublin-based New Yorker Cal Folger Day. Having raved about her since 2014, the multi-instrumentalist chanteuse has recently been occupied with The Woods and Grandma, a stellar pop-opera that she released, via a documentary on Lyric FM, back in December. Featuring an all-star band comprising Phil Christie (O Emperor, The Bonk) on keys and vocals, Daniel Fox (Girl Band) on bass, Nick Boon on guitar, and Solamh Kelly (Myles Manley) on drums, the project toured across the U.S. in January. This week, Day heads off to perform Hamburg and Berlin. Backed by Aoibhinn O’Dea,…

  • John Cooper Clarke @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    May 1, 2019 - By 

    “It’s let’s see who’s still alive in Belfast night”, the fifty-something-year-old man said, entering the foyer of the Ulster Hall. For the city’s former punks any gig by the movement’s old guard is reason to turn out, even it if is for a poetry night. John Cooper Clarke, to be fair, is no ordinary poet. Since the 1970s, Salford’s punk-poet extraordinaire has surfed the highs and lows of an unfashionable business, rhyming and riffing on everything from sperm tests and inner-city poverty to the crumbling NHS, metrosexuals and Bono’s stolen trousers. At seventy, this great satirist is perhaps more relevant…

  • Anna Mieke – Idle Mind

    April 30, 2019 - By 

    Hailing from the hills of Co. Wicklow, singer/songwriter Anna Mieke independently released her stunning debut full length LP Idle Mind in April; fusing elements of Irish folk music with those of global  traditions and alternative pop, Mieke’s debut is a tremendously promising effort. Folk influences abound Idle Mind’s soundscapes: Mieke’s cello drones underneath neatly percussive guitars and a layered arrangement of auxiliary instruments such as harmonium (played here by Ye Vagabonds’ Brian Mac Gloinn), bouzouki, piano, drums and fiddle. The bulk of the instrumentation on the album is provided by Mieke and Mac Gloinn, with additional players Matthew Jacobson, Sonny Sampson,…