• Stream: Shrug Life – Your Body

    September 22, 2016 - By 

    We in the Republic don’t like to talk about the big things, and if our history of women’s rights is anything to go by, we especially don’t like to talk about the big things that involve women. As Dublin gears up for Saturday’s March For Choice, jangle poppers Shrug Life have decided to celebrate the event with their latest single, the 8th amendment baiting ‘Your Body’. Leaving subtly and nuance at the door, the trio launch into their polemic with the jugular strike of the track’s opening line: “Your body is not your body/ It’s the property of church and state”.…

  • The G Sessions: Orchid Collective & Michael Mormecha

    September 21, 2016 - By 

    Following a three-year hiatus, Glasgowbury’s G Sessions will make its highly-anticipated return with Dublin alt-folk quartet Orchid Collective (pictured) and Michael Mormecha (Mojo Fury, Clown Parlour, Malojian et al.) on Saturday, September 24. Having previously been held in Draperstown’s Cellar Bar, the bona fide Irish music institution will now be held in Glasgowbury’s hub in the Mid-Ulster town, the Cornstore Loft. The show is bring your own booze (strictly no glass). Tickets are £7 and available now here or from the Cornstore. LOFi LiFE by michael mormecha

  • The Thin Air Tuesday Throwdown: Franklyn @ Lavery’s Belfast

    September 20, 2016 - By 

    Having recently released a string of stellar singles including ‘Tongue Tied’ and ‘Pleasure’ (which we premiered here), Belfast quartet Franklyn will play our next live Tuesday Throwdown in the limited capacity Back Bar of Lavery’s Belfast on October 4. Comprised of three-quarters of the sadly-departed General Fiasco, this is a chance to catch one of the country’s most promising, fast-rising outfits in such an intimate setting. Admission is free. The Thin Air DJs before and after to late.

  • Win Weekend Tickets to Hard Working Class Heroes

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    Hands down the country’s leading showcase of independent, unsigned talent, we have a pair of weekend tickets to give away to this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes in Dublin from October 6-8. With a little extra also thrown in for good measure (all will be revealed) simply Like our Facebook page here and send your answer to the following question to info@thethinair.net to be in with a chance of snapping the tickets up. Name the two acts beginning with the letter F playing HWCH 2016 Good luck!

  • Watch: Paul Finan – Clouds

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    Melding pitch-shifting, underwater ambience reminiscent of Mica Levi’s Under The Skin soundtrack with The Radio Dept-esque city somnambulism and sparse guitar lines in the vein of Vincent Gallo and early Tortoise, ‘Clouds’ by Wicklow composer/producer Paul Finan is a perfectly inspired audio-visual traipse far beyond with no intention of return. Finan said, “This is a song about changing ones perspective. Changing the script or the lens. There is far more out their than our senses perceive. I like that. So much more to know. This is a quick visual I put to the song, but there is a short film in the pipeline inspired…

  • EP Stream: Hvmmingbyrd – Know My Name

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    Counting Cocteau Twins, Portishead, Wilson Phillips, Lorde and the Staves amongst their key influences Kildare/Dublin duo Deborah Byrne and Suzette Das AKA Hvmmingbyrd originally started out as a folk-based quintet back in 2013. The confident culmination of their steady and steadily impressive evolution to a self-described “harmonic alt-pop duo”, their new EP, Know My Name, is a polished, hook-laden affair that sees the duo’s weaving vocal interplay dance above carefully-composed, FM-friendly electronic pop passages. Where it’s occasionally a shortcoming for certain acts of their ilk, Byrne and Das ensure simplicity and melodic linearity are at the root of each track on offer here.

  • EP Stream: Girls Names – Revisionism

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of setting off on yet another European tour, Belfast’s Girls Names have released Revisionism, a five-track remix EP featuring re-workings of recent tracks including ‘A Hunger Artist’ and ‘Reticence’ by Mikey Young of Total Control, Group Zero, Broken English Club, Shift Work and Tom Furse. Traversing skeletal, deconstructed electro, synth exorcisms and droning post-punk incantations, the EP is now available via Tough Love Records. Stream it via Spotify and check out the band’s forthcoming European dates below. SEPTEMBER 21st – SE – Gothenburg – Pustervik 22nd – SE – Stockholm – Bar Brooklyn Debaser 24th – FI – Helsinki – Bar Loose 25th –…

  • EP Premiere: Paper Dogs – The Lost Art of Conversation

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    If there’s one thing the island of Ireland has no shortage of it’s straight-shooting rock bands. But one such act that has developed that foundation to skilfully – and often very convincingly – accomadate the influence of blues, funk, indie rock and much more besides is Belfast quartet Paper Dogs. Counting such heavy-hitters as Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath, amongst their key influences, the Chris Rooney-fronted band – an increasingly established staple on the live scene up North over the last while – doth their collective cap to a certain grade of genre-defining greats whilst very consciously framing that imprint with their…

  • Hit The North: Dan Kitchener (DANK)

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    Just one of many artists coming together for Becks’ Hit The North as part of this year’s Culture Night Belfast today, Dan Kitchener AKA DANK is an English Street artist, illustrator, painter, animator and art director who lives by the mantra “create something new, no matter what, everyday”. We talk to him about the process, perception and politics of street art. You’re set for Hit The North on Friday. Have you created art in Northern Ireland before? What can we expect from your participation? I am very excited to be coming to Ireland for the first time! It’s somewhere I keep meaning to travel to but…

  • Stream: Chris Hanna – Twitch Set

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    Comprised entirely of new material made in the two/three months ahead of the appearance, Belfast producer Chris Hanna has released a stream of his hour-long set at Twitch last week. Also set to make an appearance at Culture Night in Belfast tonight at Left (well worth swinging by if you get the chance) have a stream of Hanna on fierce form below.