• Line-Up Announced For Electric Picnic 2022

    The line-up for this year’s Electric Picnic has been revealed. Marking its return to Stradbally Estate in Co. Laois after three years, this year’s bill features headliners including Tame Impala, Arctic Monkeys and Megan Thee Stallion, as well as Pixies, Sleaford Mods, Bright Eyes, Wolf Alice and more. There’s a raft of Irish acts in there too, from CMAT, Kojaque and Just Mustard, to Denise Chaila, For Those I Love and Saint Sister.With more acts set to be announced in the coming weeks, check out the full first line-up announcement below. Tickets for this year’s festival go on sale at 9am…

  • NewDad – Banshee

    Young Galway quartet NewDad hit the ground running with the release of their debut EP Waves in early 2021. Its fresh take on hypnotic dream pop and shoegaze sounds captured the hearts and minds of listeners and critics alike. On their follow-up, Banshee, NewDad have kept that momentum going, accelerating toward a dazzling future. Recorded in Belfast and mixed by John Cogleton (Lana Del Rey, Phoebe Bridgers), Banshee sees NewDad dig deeper into their sound, resurfacing with a handful of tracks that see them at their most daring, intense and captivating. Opener ‘Say It’, arguably the band’s most radio-friendly track…

  • SoFFT Nights Reveal 2022 Line-Up

    Lisa O’Neill and Tolü Makay are among the names set to play this year’s SoFFT Nights. Making its return to Dunderry Park in Co. Meath across 4-5th June, the festival will also play host to Elaine Mai (with MayKay and Sinead White), Pastiche, Moxie, Kíla, and Séan Fitzgerald with Lankum’s Daragh Lynch across the weekend. Beyond live music, there will also be activities including astronomy talks, bat walks, shamanic journeying, reggae yoga, sound baths, active imagination workshops, music for young children, and site-specific theatre. “We put on the very first festival in the midst of covid in October 2020 and over the course of…

  • Ten Past Seven & Shifting at Bello Bar

    On Saturday, 5th March, Dublin’s Bello Bar hosts one truly righteous double-bill: Kerry instrumental trio Ten Past Seven with Dublin noise-rock levellers Shifting. After myriad months of being unable to do so, both bands will largely perform music from two of the best released on these shores in 2020: Long Live The Bogwalrus and It Was Good respectively. Limited numbers of vinyl will also be on sale on the night. Tickets are €10 on the door and available here. Newcomer? Not to worry. Check out two new live videos of both bands performing – live in Rory from TP7’s shed no less – below.…

  • For Those I Love Wins Choice Music Prize

    For Those I Love, aka David Balfe, has won this year’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize. Off the back of performing three tracks at the event, which was held live at Dublin’s Vicar Street, Balfe scooped the prize for his self-titled 2021 LP. The Dubliner walked away with the prize – which was presented in association with IMRO and IRMA – as well as €10,000. Balfe beat off stiff competition in this year’s shortlist, which also featured the likes of Villagers, Bicep, Kojague, Saint Sister, Elaine Mai and more. Revisit For Those I Love in full below.

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 4th March

    Rejoice, it’s Bandcamp Friday once again. Here’s the best Irish tracks and releases of the week, from Acid Granny, Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies, MuRli, Lighght, Natalia Beylis, Wild Rocket, Arthur Itis and more. Acid Granny – Urban Hurling Urban Hurling by Acid Granny Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies – Gentrification Nation MuRli – The Sky Has Windows The Sky Has Windows by MuRli Seodra by Lighght Natalia Beylis – Fortuna: Installation Works 2013 Fortuna: Installation Works 2013 by Natalia Beylis SSMMUUTT – Pissed Up In Поділ / Magick Bridge ft Gareth Quinn Redmond Pissed Up In Поділ…

  • Video Premiere: Wild Rocket – Formless Abyss

    Few bands do obliterating quite as convincingly as Wild Rocket. On releases such as 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics, the Dublin space rock band wed masterful repetition with a slew of bludgeoning riffs to lethal effect. The title track from the band’s imminent new release, ‘Formless Abyss’ takes that unfuckwithable ratio and ups the ante a hundredfold. Across the perfect eternity of ten minutes, the band unshackle one almighty beast that’s equal parts trouncing and – as it crests, a bokeh shot of face-searing sludge – supremely acid-soaked. Big words, yes, but this is a big fucking song. Watch Rian Trench’s aptly tripped-out visuals for the track below. Featuring contributions by Colin Mifsud, Tommy O’Sullivan…

  • Watch: Comrade Hat – From Lost To The River (feat. Inishowen Gospel Choir)

    Ahead of his first Belfast show in over 3 years for Brilliant Corners Jazz Festival this Friday, 4th March at the Black Box Green Room – and another on the 11th – staple of the Northern jazz scene Neil Burns, aka Comrade Hat is back with his definitive artistic statement to date in ‘From Lost To The River’, the first single taken from his forthcoming album, Old Gods, Vol. 2, the follow up to last year’s Vol. 1. Without straying from the oneiric yearning that’s been threaded through his work so far, the single truly levels up his practice. Starting out with a locked, deep-pocket…