• Oh Yeah Centre Summer Camps

    July 9, 2015 - By 

    Interested in music journalism and photography? Like the idea of learning how it works by actively creating your own magazine or blog, complete with photos, reviews, news and features? Oh Yeah has teamed up with yours truly, The Thin Air, and Carrie Davenport Photography to provide hands on learning in publishing. Over the course of five days participants will work together under guidance from our experts to deliver what will be a fun, colourful, engaging Zine and blog that you will produce and publish at the end of the week. Both elements will come together at the end of the week…

  • Stream: Girls Names – A Hunger Artist

    July 9, 2015 - By 

    Having just returned from a string of European dates, Girls Names have unveiled ‘A Hunger Artist’, the latest single to be taken from their forthcoming third album, Arms Around a Vision. Assumingly taking its title from Franz Kafka’s 1922 short story of the same name, the track – quite possibly our favourite Girls Names effort to date – sees frontman Cathal Cully confront a life lived “hand in mouth.” Elaborating, he said, “Most guitar music now is just a playground for the rich middle classes, and it’s really boring and elitist. We’re elitist in our own way, in that we’re on our own…

  • Watch: Come On Live Long – Speak Up

    July 8, 2015 - By 

    Shot by Mercedes Arturo & Nico Casavecchia in (deep breath) Brooklyn, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Beijing, Barcelona, Berlin, Tigre, Tierra del Fuego, Niece, Mar del Plata, San Jose, Copenhagan, Cannes, Ko Pha Ngan and London, Dublin’s Come On Live Long have unveiled the sprawling, rather spectacular video for their seven-minute new single, ‘Speak Up’. Watch it below.

  • Track Record: Gav Icon

    July 8, 2015 - By 

    With his Sixties sensibility and a penchant for garage and punk rock, Gav Icon, DJ and frontman from Gavin and Thee Icons selects his favourite records from the likes of Black Lips and The Cramps to The Sonics and Ramones. Photos by Ste Murray. Black Lips – Good Bad, Not Evil  The Black Lips are one of Garage Rock’s modern greats, with a live show that would make GG Allin stop and say, “Ah, Jesus that’s just too far lads”. They there are what a rock and roll band should be. This album has the tracks ‘O Katrina!’, ‘Bad Kids’, ‘Lock and Key’ and ‘Veni…

  • Watch: His New Atlas – Saints

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    Having confirmed his arrival last summer with his stirring single ‘His Young’, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan AKA His New Atlas has returned with his strongest single effort to date, ‘Saints’. Accompanied by a video courtesy of Maverick Renegade, the song sees a heartfelt performance from O’Hagan merge with a impressively-layered, almost symphonic backdrop, resulting in four minutes of building and subtly beatific brilliance.

  • Mastodon w/ Bad Breeding @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    Treating tonight more like a pilgrimage into the dark heart of sludge-laden, conceptual metal than your typical jaunt to a gig, we’re joined giddily by the sizeable crowd of Mastodon T-shirt wearing fans as we enter the baroque surroundings of the Ulster Hall.  The air, thick with beard and brew, seemingly creates its own atmospherics ahead of any performance so far, but, safe in the knowledge that we’ll be banging our heads soon we file in and stand our ground.  It’s not exactly filled to the brim, but it’s not nearly empty either and the consensus thus far is that…

  • Premiere: Contour Shreds – Remixes EP

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    Having impressed at Body & Soul last weekend, Dublin electronic duo Conan Wynne and Anna Doran AKA Contour are right up with our acts to catch at the Red Bull Music Academy stage at this year’s Longitude Festival in Marlay Park. With just under three weeks left to that slot, we’re pleased to premiere a brand new remixes EP from the pair. A self-described “compilation of remixes, reinterpretations, and general reconfiguration of our musical friends and our sounds” the release features reworkings by Sounds of System Breakdown, R.S.A.G, Fran Hartnett, Emma Nicolai and Contour themselves, as well as an original mix of…

  • Monday Mixtape: Neil Allen (The Emerald Armada)

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Neil Allen, frontman with Northern Irish alt-folk band The Emerald Armada reveals some of his all-time favourite songs, including Temple of the Dog, The Eagles, LCD Soundsystem and John Martyn. The Emerald Armada headline this year’s Spectrum Festival at Belfast’s QUBSU on Friday, July 6. Temple Of The Dog – Hunger Strike One of the best team ups of all time. It was the first time Eddie Vedder went vocally head to head with Chris Cornell. Stone from Pearl Jam said, “That’s right, our boy can sing too!’ Great tune. LCD Soundsystem – All…

  • Track Record: Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet)

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    If you were to put us on the spot and ask us, “Which Thin Air feature do you enjoy the most?” we’d almost certainly say Track Record.  Next up to select and discuss some of their all-time favourite records is Chris Ryan, frontman with Belfast-based band (just “band” – we’ve used up all our high-falutin descriptors for these guys) Robocobra Quartet. Punk rock ahoy. Photos by Colm Laverty. Sound of Ruby – From Under The Sands of the Desert EP (Tian An Men 89) Saudi Arabia’s answer to Butthole Surfers. Sound of Ruby are one of my favourite bands of all time…