• TTA Session #002: Hurdles

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Off the back the release of their brilliant Where To Start EP, Belfast-based indie pop band Hurdles are our second featured act on our ongoing Thin Air Live Session series. Filmed and edited by the ridiculously talented Colm Laverty – with audio recorded and mixed by the upstanding and handsome James Bruce – the session features an interview with the Niall Hanna-fronted four-piece and performances of ‘Ruthless’ and their most recent single ‘Control’. Miss our first session with Bellos? Check it out here. Watch the session with Hurdles below!

  • Enablers, Blue Whale, Selaah @ Voodoo, Belfast

    November 16, 2013 - By 

    Five years on from wowing a close-knit assembly at Lavery’s Bunker, one of the most distinctive post-rock bands of a generation return to the Belfast tonight dogged and purposeful despite founding guitarist Joe Goldring having his guitar stolen in Dublin the night before. Founded in 2004 and fronted by poet and spoken word artist Pete Simonelli, San Francisco’s Enablers are all but an act unto themselves, their thoroughly immersive brand of abrasive yet introspective instrumentalism propelled by a masterful confrontational voice that just about guarantees special things on the stage time and time again. Kicking off proceedings in typically inimitable fashion…

  • EP Stream: Chocolate Love Factory – Pickle & POG

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its launch at Belfast’s Radar tonight, Thursday November 14, Belfast-based four-piece Chocolate Love Factory have released a digital stream of their latest EP, Pickle & POG. A six-track release featuring the single ‘Motivator’, the EP was recorded between Clark Phillips and Ben McAuley over the last year and a half. Following the departure of bassist Pearse McClelland, the band have recently expanded to a four-piece, incorporating members of the equally progressively-inclined Yellow Car No Return and The Institute* into the fold. Go here for the event page for the band’s EP launch, also set to feature The Big…

  • Stream: The Rupture Dogs – Feral

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its launch at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Saturday, November 16 as part of Belfast Music Week 2013, The Rupture Dogs have released a stream of their debut album, Feral Recored by James Lyttle at Millbank Studios and mixed/mastered by Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios, the twelve-track release is also available to purchase via the band’s Bandcamp page. Go here for the event page for the Ferali album launch (a show doubling up as the official launch of The Difference Between by Mojo Fury and featuring several more acts) here. Stream Feral below.

  • Psycho Live

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Two special screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 film Psycho will be scored by the world-renown Ulster Orchestra as part of Psycho Live on November 22 and 23. Taking place at The Venue in Derry/Londonderry on Friday (8pm), November 22 and Belfast’s Waterfront Hall (7.45pm) the following evening, the performance will see the orchestra perform Bernard Hermann’s landmark score live. A truly unmissable opportunity to witness one of the greatest horror movies come to life, the Belfast concert will be preceeded by one of the orchestra’s much-love pre-concert talks at 6.45pm, essentially a free fifteen minute discussion featuring radio presenter,…

  • Gary Lightbody releases feature-length statement on NI Music Prize

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its inaugural launch at Belfast’s Mandela Hall tonight as part of this year’s Belfast Music Week, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has released a feature-length statement about the NI Music Prize. The Bangor singer-songwriter – also frontman with supergroup Tired Pony, who are vying for the annual album prize – wrote: “Firstly I’m delighted that Tired Pony have been nominated for the Northern Irish Music Prize. I am gutted that I’m not going to be there tonight to see who wins. Now let me make the case for everyone else but us on this fantastic and diverse list….…

  • Watch: Travis Is A Tourist – Shaking

    November 11, 2013 - By 

    Having spent September in Nashville collaborating with fourteen other UK-based artists and singer-songwriters, former Colly Strings frontman Travis Gilbert AKA Travis Is A Tourist has unveiled the video to his latest single, ‘Shaking’. Featuring Gilbert and quite a bit of wool, the video is probably best described a slightly less psychedelic and hectic take on Mojo Fury’s recent video for ‘Origami Bird’. Available as a free download from Thursday, the song is a full band acoustic effort that suggests extremely promising things in the making for Gilbert. Travis Is A Tourist will play the Belfast’s Engine Room gallery on Linenhall Street…

  • Summertime @ The MAC

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Following on from the success of Planet Belfast, Tinderbox returns to the MAC this season with a dark and bold new play from the award-winning David Ireland. Summertime is a gripping and hard-hitting drama sure to have audiences on the edge of their seats. “Jonathan is struggling to establish himself as the minister in a working class East Belfast parish. One night a young man stumbles into his rectory, covered in blood, and claiming that he is possessed by the devil. Delving deeper into the young man’s story, the minister finds himself coming under increasing suspicion from the local community.…

  • NI Music Prize 2013

    November 11, 2013 - By 

    Featuring performance from five of the contenders, the inaugural NI Music Prize will take place at Belfast’s Mandella Hall on Tuesday, November 12. An accolade aiming to recognising the best album released by a Northern Irish act over the last twelve months, the bands vying for the prize are as follows: A Plastic Rose – Camera Shutter Life And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures Anthony Toner – Sing Under The Bridges Axis Of – Finding St Kilda  The Bonnevilles – Folk Art And the Death of Electric Jesus Fighting With Wire – Colonel Blood Foy Vance – Joy Of Nothing  Girls Names – The New Life Jetplane Landing – Don’t Try Le…

  • EP Stream: Little Matador – Liar Liar

    November 11, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of supporting Queens of the Stone Age at Belfast’s Odyssey arena this day next week, Little Matador have unveiled their debut EP, Liar Liar A four track release, currently available at the merch stall on the band’s current tour with Jimmy Eat World, the EP serves as fully-realised introduction to Little Matador’s sound, from the charging alt-rock of ‘Boom Boom’ to the anthemic ‘Swagger’ of ‘Give Me All You’ve Got’. Check our interview with the band’s frontman Nathan Connolly (also guitarist with the up-and-coming Snow Patrol) here. Stream Liar Liar below.