• Premiere: Go Wolf – Running (Live)

    February 17, 2015 - By 

    Over the last couple of years, Belfast electro-pop band Go Wolf have progressively cultivated a perfectly balmy, synth-driven sound underpinned with an impressive command of subtly brilliant, enamouring melodies. Ahead of their OLD FANG-hosted EP launch at Belfast’s Menagerie on March 6, Scott and Hannah from the band have recorded a stripped-back version of ‘Running’ at OLD FANG HQ – a performance that really captures that aforementioned melodic knack. Watch the performance below and go here to buy tickets to the band’s EP launch right here

  • Interview: Sleater-Kinney

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of their Dublin show at Vicar Street on March 26, Brian Coney talks to Janet Weiss, drummer with the recently-reunited, impossibly influential Sleater-Kinney about getting back together, rediscovering the magic of writing and refusing to be ever consigned to the “girl band ghetto”. Hi Janet. Before touching on the reunion itself, in what ways do you think No Cities to Love – your first record in a decade – is a continuation, musically or thematically, from The Woods? I think that with so much time between The Woods and the new record, it’s not really a direct response to…

  • Premiere: Autumns – Blonde EP

    February 16, 2015 - By 

    Fronted by Christian Donaghey, Derry noise-pop trio Autumns are easily one of our favourite live acts from Northern Ireland. Their shows are generally compact, explosive affairs; whirlwinds of feedback-soaked noise and jangling gusto. Released via Belfast’s CF Records, the band’s new four-track EP, Blonde, manages to contain the fervent, kinetic essence of their live show, bursting out of the traps on ‘Je Vous Être’ and crashing back down to earth on ‘You’re Not Tough Enough’. The follow-up up to their Downwards-released debut mini album, the EP was recorded in a single day at their first ever studio recording at Belfast’s Start Together. Blonde…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ciaran Smith (Crayonsmith)

    February 16, 2015 - By 

    Following in the footsteps of the likes of Ciaran Lavery and Claire Miskimmin from Girls Names, Ciaran Smith (pictured, left) from Dublin band Crayonsmith selects his all-time favourite tracks – Fog, Rhye, Viet Cong etc. – for this week’s Monday Mixtape. Crayonsmith are currently recording an EP and playThe Horse and Stables, London, on March 17

  • The Thin Air Valentine’s Playlist

    February 13, 2015 - By 

    Sure, every second song is about love or lack thereof, but that hasn’t stopped us from compiling a Spotify playlist summing up the sometimes transformative, other times twisted world and ways of love pretty flippin’ succinctly. Featuring Mojave 3, James Blake, Pavement, Grizzly Bear, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Magnetic Fields and more, you can and subscribe to it below.

  • For David Pajo (1968-)

    February 13, 2015 - By 

    Over a decade ago now, I discovered the music of Elliott Smith on a Nirvana messageboard. Looking back, it was most definitely a potent catalyst for everything I have looked for in music – and elsewhere – ever since. Someone recommended I check out ‘Tomorrow, Tomorrow’ from XO as a starting point, so I did. I was immediately infatuated; like a giddy moth to a burning flame, instantly seduced by the mournful turns and phrases of Elliott’s words and chords. Without hesitation, I threw myself into his varyingly exceptional discography, listening to nothing else for days on end in the depths…

  • Stream: All Tvvins – Thank You

    February 11, 2015 - By 

    Having received its premiere on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 programme last night, All Tvvins are streaming their debut single, the totally triumphant ‘Thank You’. Last month we summed up the track – namely a live version released last year – as “A charming and bewitching math-pop track released as a live video from the post-Adebisi supergroup. Whip-smart in the composition, and beautifully restrained in the delivery, it is a wonderful dichotomy of heart-warming melodies and existential uncertainty, sealed with searing, aching swell guitar.” The recorded version is just that and more – truly sublime.

  • Watch: More Than Conquerors – Red

    February 11, 2015 - By 

    Both in terms of songwriting and sheer work ethic, Northern Irish alt-rock quartet More Than Conquerors have always stood out from many of their music-making peers. Have entered a new phase of their journey to date, the band seem more intent and enthused than ever, something the earworming ‘Red’ goes some distance in confirming. The Belfast-based band’s first single of 2015, the track is a self-proclaimed “strange elegy and a strange right to understanding. It’s our reason to continue what we’ve started and to play harder than we ever have. When death comes it brings a strange atmosphere to life and music. It…