• Watch: Enemies – itsallwaves

    September 29, 2016 - By 

    Kilcoole math-pop maestros Enemies may as well have ripped out our heart yesterday when they announced that they’re set to play their final show at Dublin’s Vicar Street on December 18 following the release of their third and final album, Valuables, via Topshelf Records on December 9. Now, less than 24 hours to digest the news, the band have cushioned the blow by unveiled the video for ‘itsallwaves’, the lead track from their forthcoming swansong. Featuring positively life-affirming tour footage courtesy of the band, Wez Evans, Darragh Bambrick and Niall O’Kelly, the video – directed by Evans – perfectly accompanies the track, a…

  • Premiere: Patrick Gardiner – Riverside Remark

    September 29, 2016 - By 

    When we premiered his Carcassonne EP back in April last year, we praised Co. Down singer-songwriter Patrick Gardiner‘s “subtly eclectic mix of incisive, occasionally wry and consistently considered acoustic tale-telling”. Nineteen months – and a whole lot of writing and recording – later, the songsmith has resurfaced with its accomplished, not to mention considerably more stripped-back and song-centric follow-up, ‘Riverside Remark’. A departure from the fleshed-out, full-band sound of the aforementioned EP, this new effort sees Gardiner and his guitar take centre-stage much like his early ruminations. A considerably less impressionistic – or indeed jazz-tinged – tale than many will be…

  • Premiere: Maija Sofia – Dreamscape

    September 29, 2016 - By 

    Dublin-based Galway antifolk singer-songwriter Maija Sofia is an artist whose craft fully benefits from taking the road less travelled. A self-proclaimed “surreal romance interweaving music with samples from an interview with the poet Anne Sexton” ‘Dreamscape, her new audio-visual effort with London independent filmmaking duo Will & Joe, is a short but striking abstracted meditation on truth, sex, The End, the transience of existence and Earth, as well as intersubjective role we play ‘neath the gossamer-like fabric of this mortal coil. Speaking about the collaboration, Will & Joe said: “‘Dreamscape’ has been a labour of love in-between other jobs and commitments for over a year. It is the shortest music video we’ve…

  • Stream: Lie Ins – Potatoes/Back on the Clock

    September 28, 2016 - By 

    It’s sometimes good to remember: Lie Ins aren’t just for Sundays. And nowhere is that more evident than quickly glancing at the calendar before stumbling upon ‘Potatoes’ and ‘Back on the Clock’, a new double-single from the Dublin indie pop band of the same name. Sure, that doesn’t aeally make a whole lot of sense but in the words of Aerosmith, let the music – insistent, merry and earworming as ever – do the talking (via Bandcamp below). Potatoes b/w Back on the Clock by Lie Ins

  • Premiere: Galants – Evergreen

    September 28, 2016 - By 

    Dublin noise-pop quartet Galants are a band that proudly – and very impressively – wear their influences on their collective sleeve. Forging the fuzzed-out, forward-moving indie rock of Dinosaur Jr. and early Yo La Tengo with the nebulous ‘gaze of My Bloody Valentine and tight, Byrds-influenced harmonies of Teenage Fanclub, their sound is unabashed hero worship but with more than enough deviation and departure to make it all their own. The first track from their forthcoming debut EP, ‘Evergreen’ is a perfect case in point. Have an exclusive first listen to that below and make sure to catch the guys at Dublin’s The Workman’s Club on Saturday, October 8…

  • Sound of Belfast Programme Launched

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    Promising “live gigs, music industry, awards, learning and community” the programme for this year’s Sound of Belfast was launched earlier this afternoon at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre. The nominal successor to Belfast Music Week, the 10 day annual festival is, according to Oh Yeah Music Centre CEO Charlotte Dryden, “a celebration of a great music city impressing audiences with new sounds, providing youth and community with access, encouraging participation through workshops and discussing the sector with industry and artists”. With highlights including Malojian’s This Is Nowhere album launch at the MAC, Robyn G Shiels’ ‘If I Were Thy Demon’ single…

  • Album Premiere: Count Vaseline – Yo No Soy Marinero

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    Whilst many musicians tend to tread the thin, often imperceptible lines blurring their status as performer or full-blown artist, it’s safe to say Dublin’s Stefan Murphy falls very comfortably into the latter. With his unique brand of urgent, genre-warping sonic wanderlust, from his days fronting the much-loved The Mighty Stef to his current guise as Count Vaseline, Murphy has always clearly lived, felt and fully meant his calling. Set for release on Friday (September 30) via OCDC, the debut Count Vaseline album, Yo No Soy Marinero, was born as a DIY project in Berlin back in the Spring. Having spent much of his time since in…

  • Album Premiere: windings – Be Honest and Fear Not

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    It takes a certain amount of gall to open an album with a 7 minute epic culminating in an arena-seeking, solo-drenched crescendo. But in the case of much-loved Limerick alt/folk five-piece windings that gall is something far more akin to collective poise and confidence on ‘Ambivalence Blues’, the lead track from their wonderfully-realised fourth studio album, Be Honest and Fear Not. Four years on from the release of the band’s sublime, Choice Prize-nominated I Am Not The Crow, this new record – recorded at Attica Studios in Donegal with Villagers’ Tommy McLaughlin – bursts forth with the band’s “modus operandi in 2016: if you are…

  • Kraftwerk 3D Set For Dublin and Belfast

    September 26, 2016 - By 

    Following hugely successful worldwide concert tours, German electronic legends Kraftwerk will bring their career-distilling 3-D show to Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre and Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on June 2 and 4 next year. Bringing together music and performance art, the concerts are a true “Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art.” Tickets for both shows go on sale this Friday (September 30), priced from €62.50 (Dublin) and £49.00 (Belfast).

  • Video Premiere: No Monster Club – Do The Mess Around

    September 23, 2016 - By 

    In case you missed the memo, Dublin’s No Monster Club are catchier than velcro with a cold.  They’re catchier than Avian flu on the 212 to Derry from Belfast on a Friday afternoon. They’re catchier than Brian Wilson spinning a whole stack of Ty Segall records back-to-back for eternity, ad infinitum. You get the picture. With its synopsis of “en route to the big gig, the boys cross paths with a peculiar stranger…” the Bobby Aherne-fronted outfit’s latest visual extravaganza is a veritable feast for the senses. The track itself is one of four new songs on the 7″ EP Where Did You…