• Watch: Meltybrains? – Donegal

    March 13, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of jetting off to SXSW next week – and our Belfast show with them and Blue Whale at QUBSU’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 – Dublin experimental band Meltybrains? have unveiled the video for the stupendous ‘Donegal’. When the track first reared its heard at the start of February we called it a “spirited, expansive ode to escapism – reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marry in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon.” Donegal will be released as part of the band’s debut vinyl release, ‘Donegal/IV’, on February 16. Buy it here. Watch the video for ‘Donegal’…

  • Cities Breathing @ O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin

    March 15, 2015 - By 

    “Cities are living. Cities breathe.” Videographers and visual artists Peter Martin, Albert Hooi with Al Kennington and Kevin A Freeney of CLU Music, were commissioned to visually explore contemporary Dublin, collecting beautiful, moving imagery of our unique capital. Musical artists CLU Music, New Jackson and I Am The Cosmos, have composed an eclectic array of scores to accompany the three short films. In the impressive O Reilly Theatre on Monday, March 16, the two creative strands will come together for a one-off, live, audio visual vignette of Dublin city today, created, curated and produced by Dylan Higgins and Al Kennington…

  • Festival Mixtape: Body & Soul 2015

    March 12, 2015 - By 

    Set to return to Ballinlough Castle, Clonmellon in Co. Meath during the Summer solstice weekend of June 19-21, Body & Soul 2015 is set to be one of the highlights of the Irish summer festival calender yet again. Just yesterday, the festival announced its first wave of confirm acts – and what a tidy list it was. Ahead of further line-up announcements, stream our sixteen-track playlist featuring some of the very best acts already confirmed to play the festival – including Goat (pictured), Dan Deacon, Natalie Press, Clark, Meltybrains?, SOHN, Nightmares on Wax, Savages and Austra – below.

  • Watch: Skelocrats – Zirconium Heart

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Not that you need reminding, but those notoriously sonically incestuous Popical Island lads are a quare bunch of busybodies this weather. Having unveiled the video for his very own ‘The Loneliest Master’ just yesterday, Bobby Aherne AKA No Monster Club is the directorial maestro behind the cosmic-romance themed video for Skelocrats‘ effortlessly earworming ‘Zirconium Heart’. The song will feature on the Dublin band’s forthcoming album, Bella Bella, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar with Ginnels and Switzerland on Friday, April 17.  The band will also play Sweeney’s, Dublin on May 9 and  Galway’s Roisin Dubh with Paddy Hanna on May 14.…

  • Interview: Rory Nellis

    March 12, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year since the release of his wonderfully beguiling four track EP, The Moon, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Rory Nellis is currently crowdfunding for his forthcoming debut album, Ready For You Now, via Pledgemusic. Ahead of its release in June, Nellis – also frontman with the indie rock quartet Seven Summits – talks to us about the crowdfunding process, the host of local musician friends who feature on the album and how focusing on the positives of his hometown pays creative dividends. Hi Rory. Your forthcoming debut solo album, Ready For You Now, is being released via PledgeMusic – an increasingly…

  • First acts announced for Body & Soul 2015

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Delivering one seriously impressive opening line-up announcement, Body & Soul have unveiled the first acts set to play this Summer’s Festival. Taking place, as per usual, during the Summer solstice weekend of June 19-21 at Ballinlough Castle, Dan Deacon, Goat, Savages (pictured), Clark and Matthew E White and more are amongst the first wave of acts set to play the annual festival at Clonmellon, Co. Meath. With many more acts yet to be announced, check out the full line-up below and go here to buy tickets. Savages photo by Misha Vladimirskiy.  

  • Watch: Cloud Castle Lake – Glacier

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Last month, we called ‘Glacier’ by Dublin trio Cloud Castle Lake “a wonderfully-layered effort, beautifully disentangling over five-and-a-half minutes, that sees Daniel McAuley’s high falsetto vocals take centre-stage yet again – and how.” Now the Rian Trench-produced song – set for release via Happy Valley Records on March 16 – has a suitably intense video to accompany it. Directed by Cáit Fahey, the video is a shadowy, contorted affair, nicely interspersed with bursts of light and colour. Cloud Castle Lake will play Galway’s Roisin Dubh on March 26, Dublin’s Workman’s Club on March 27 and Limerick’s Kasbah Social Club on March 28.

  • Watch: Villagers – Hot Scary Summer

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    The second single to be released from his forthcoming third studio album, Darling Arithmetic, Conor O’Brien AKA Villagers is streaming the exquisite ‘Hot Scary Summer’. An outright highlight from the album – released via Domino on April 13 – the track is one features instrumentation written and recorded exclusively by O’Brien in the loft of a converted farmhouse that he lives in in Malahide. Pre-order the album here. Go here to check out Villagers’ forthcoming tour dates and watch the video for ‘Hot Scary Summer’ below.

  • First acts announced for Indiependence 2015

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Ash, Mark Lanegan Band, The Dandy Warhols and Jape are amongst the first ten acts announced to play this year’s Indiependence Festival. Set to return to Deer Farm in Mitchelstown, Cork, across the weekend of July 31 to August 2, the festival will also see performances from Gavin James, Admiral Fellow, Little Hours, The North Sea, Wyvern Lingo and The Flaws. Go here to buy tickets to the festival.

  • Watch: No Monster Club – The Loneliest Master

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Featuring Bobby Aherne from the band tackling the most fearsome of extreme sports – thumb wrestling – Dublin’s No Monster Club have unveiled the video for ‘The Loneliest Master’. Featuring a support cast comprised of Owen Colgan (Buzz from Hardy Bucks) and a host of local comedians and musicians on Popical Island, the video was created by Giles Brody and Conor O’Toole. ‘The Loneliest Master’ is taken from People Are Weird, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar this Saturday evening. Stream/buy it here and read our review of it here.