• Throwing It Out There: An Interview With Kristin Hersh

    April 8, 2019 - By 

    U.S. singer-songwriter, musician and author Kristin Hersh talks to James Cox about pride, process, PTSD, guitar-playing and forthcoming new Throwing Muses material. Your latest release Possible Dust Clouds is certainly one of the more muscular and unapologetically rocking entries to your solo catalogue. Can you talk us through some of the influences behind the album? Where was your mind at when writing and recording this latest batch of songs? I wanted to hear how it feels to be at a show rather than how it feels to listen to a live recording (which is usually just a lousy recording!). The songs themselves…

  • Pavement Co-Founder Scott Kannberg aka Spiral Stairs Set For Dublin and Belfast

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Scott Kannberg aka Spiral Stairs will play Dublin and Belfast in September. The founding member of Pavement and solo artist, who has just released a new album as Spiral Stairs (We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized) will play Voodoo in Belfast on Wednesday, September 25 and Whelan’s in Dublin on September 26. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Thursday, April 4, priced €20.00 and £15.00 respectively.

  • Bombay Bicycle Club To Play All Together Now and Cork Opera House

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Bombay Bicycle Club are set for two Irish appearances in August. As well as joining the bill for the (sold-out) All Together Now in Cork, play the festival on August 4th, the London quartet will also play a headline show Cork Opera House on August 3. Tickets for the latter are priced at €30.00 and go on sale at 10am on Friday. Fan presale for Cork begins tomorrow (Thursday) at 10am.

  • Win Tickets to Broken Social Scene at Vicar Street

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Before they go on sale on Friday, we have a pair of tickets to give away to Toronto indie rock heroes Broken Social Scene at Vicar Street on Saturday, August 17. To enter, send your name and your answer to the following question to info@thethinair.net: Released in 2001, what’s the name of Broken Social Scene’s debut studio album? Good luck!

  • Album Stream: Son of the Hound – Cheers, Sound, Good Luck

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Presumably, Michael McCullagh doesn’t much like to relax. When he’s not overseeing an equally popular web series (The Also Rans) and podcast (Mad Notions) the Belfast-based Omagh musician makes anthemic guitar-pop in the guise of Son of the Hound. Today marks a big milestone in his career to date. Soundtracking “the overarching feeling of being alive, scared and hopeful in 2019”, Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is a debut album that distills that restlessness, as well as an urgent sense of seizing the moment, to ten tracks that burst with heart, humanity and countless star-shaped hooks. Cheers, Sound, Good Luck is launched at Belfast’s Limelight 2…

  • the arts column: April 2nd

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    In this week’s edition of the arts column we’ve details on a pair of job vacancies, the last chance to see an exhibition, artist funding, two exhibition openings, a talk and studio lets. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Job Vacancy | Digitisation Project @ IMMA IMMA have announced details of two vacancies tied to their ongoing project that sees the museum digitise their collection. One is a role to provide support to the wider Collections team, with other tasked with helping documenting the collection itself. For both posts…

  • Stream: Uly – Redlight

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    Uly is the pseudonym of Dublin-based astrophysics graduate-turned multi-instrumentalist Rafino Murphy. Having found his feet playing with some of Dublin’s finest acts, such as Nealo, INNRSPACE and Over Being Under, Murphy started Uly as a solo project in 2018. This project combines lo-fi bedroom beats with hypnotic sonic landscapes to create hypnagogic tracks that are as groovy as they are dreamy. Having recently signed a deal with Dublin-based Faction Records, Uly has dropped his first single with the label, ’Redlight’. The track is a perfect example of Uly’s unique blend of funk and lo-fi, taking the listener down a rabbit hole…

  • This Month In Irish Music: March

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    In the latest of a new regular series, Colin Gannon rounds up the very best Irish tracks released of the month just gone, featuring The Claque, Uwmammi, Invader Slim, James Joys, Cassavetes, Jafaris and more. The Claque — Hush Hush, the transfixing single from The Claque — the newly reinvented trio comprising of Alan Duggan (Girl Band), Kate Brady and Paddy Ormond — was this month’s most wiry, propulsing listen. Miasmic textures, beautiful, veiled melodies and bristling, febrile noise collide, ensuring the group avoid immediate categorisation. The eardrum-splitting tautness of Girl Band does come to mind, but the group are…

  • Stream: Pat Dam Smyth – Dancing

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    When we last spoke to him, back in March of 2016, we reasoned that London-based Northern Irish troubadour Pat Dam Smyth stood tall as one of the country’s most distinctive and vital songwriting voices. Three years on, that theory needs underlining. Having recently signed to Belfast’s Quiet Arch, Smyth is back with a new single – the first for a forthcoming album – called ‘Dancing’. Reflecting on his life as a teenager in Belfast, it’s a pensive, full-band affair, bursting with pathos and Smyth’s singular melodic knack. Stream it below. Smyth’s second album is out in July 2019.