• Stream: New Pagans – Lilly Yeats/I Could Die

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    There’s few things more satisfying than the sonic shock-and-awe of a band cropping up out of nowhere with a sucker punch of a debut single. Comprised of Claire Miskimmin of Girls Names/Cruising, Cahir O’Doherty of Fighting With Wire/GOONS, Lyndsey McDougall and Balkan Alien Sound’s Conor McAuley, New Pagans fall very comfortably under that bracket – and go one with further with the release of two singles, ‘Lilly Yeats’ and ‘I Could Die’. Bearing the hallmarks of a band that have spent some time fleshing out their sound over the last few months, both tracks are keenly balanced between the burrowingly melodic and downright vehement, each strident passage and…

  • 30 Under 30 Film Festival

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    With its sell of “classics films through modern eyes”, 30 Under 30 is a new season of must-see films to watch on the big screen before the age of 30. Taking place in various venues in Belfast and Derry from August to October courtesy of Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast Film Festival, Cinemagic, the Nerve Centre and Strand Arts Centre, the programme for the festival addresses a wide range of issues and concerns for under-30s such as becoming an adult, love and friendship, finding your place in the world, work life and dreams versus reality. Claire Shaw, Press and Marketing Officer…

  • Stream: No Monster Club – Hippocampus Circus Maximus

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    A typically buoyant effort clinging – rather impressively – to the last fleeting vestiges of summer vibrations, ‘Hippocampus Circus Maximus’ is the closing track from Dublin’s No Monster Club’s forthcoming debut 7″, Where Did You Get That Milkshake. Despite having released a dozen albums to date at home, the release will also mark Bobby Aherne’s abundant indie-pop project’s debut US release. Irish folk, have a pre-order here. Want a song to hum for the rest of the day, week – month? Stream below.

  • Premiere: Arborist – I Heard Him Leaving

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    With a sound in which subtlety holds sway where a scream would fall short, Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist is a craftsman of nuance. With his debut full-length album, Home Burial, set for release on November 11 via Kirkinrola Records, the Belfast-based singer-songwriter’s recent single ‘A Man of My Age’ garnered comparisons to such venerated figures as Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan and Jason Molina with very good reason. In knowing there’s no need to clothe a skeleton, McCambridge’s knowingly stark, wonderfully composed songs put the cutting phrase and heavy allusion centre-stage, each lyric lit by softly lilting Americana folk betraying both longing and hope…

  • Adam Buxton’s Bug: David Bowie Special

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    Bona fide Bowie obsessive, Adam Buxton will bring his Bug show celebrating the music videos and other on-screen appearances of the Thin White Duke to Dublin’s Vicar Street on November 20. Having started back in April 2007 as a series of bi-monthly shows at BFI Southbank, Bug quickly became a phenomenon looking at global creativity in music videos. This show – set to take place less than a year after Bowie’s passing –  is a perfect opportunity to enjoy some key moments from David Bowie’s life and career on the big screen, as well as remember the indelible mark he made on our…

  • Primal Scream Set For Dublin and Belfast

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    Returning for their first shows here in three years, Primal Scream have announced they will play Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Wednesday, November 30 and Belfast’s Limelight on Thursday, December 1. Kicking off in Edinburgh and concluding at London’s Brixton Academy, the UK and Irish tour comes off the back of the release of their eleventh album, Chaosmosis, back in March. With support from Japanese noise-rock band Bo Ningen on all dates, check out the full dates below. Tickets are on sale this Friday, priced €35 for Olympia and £27.50 for Belfast.

  • Other Voices Live Set For Austin

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    With a line-up set to forge a combination of Irish and international acts, the country’s leading live music series Other Voices have announced they will head across the Atlantic for the inaugural Other Voices Austin from October 7-9. With the line-up for the showcase set to be announced at the start of October, Other Voices founder Philip King said, “To head to Austin, Texas has been a life long dream. Other Voices has a great affinity with that spirit…. one that is intact in Austin and that lives in the iconic Arlyn Studios, which will be our home this October. It’s a real…

  • Low Announce Irish Christmas Shows

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    A band synonymous for Christmas for many (not least thanks to their 1999 album of the same name) Duluth indie rock trio Low will three Irish dates in December. Closing their A Christmas Performance tour, Alan Sparhawk and co. will play Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Monday, December 12, Dublin’s Christchurch on Tuesday, December 13 and Kilkenny’s Set Theatre on Wednesday, December 14. The band last played Belfast in 2013, Dublin in 2012 and Kilkenny back in 2009. Tickets are on sale at 9am on Friday, September 16.

  • One Minute From Home: An Interview with Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid

    September 11, 2016 - By 

    Few artists reign in their respective genre quite like Texan duo Stars of the Lid. Having released a string of stellar, deeply evocative albums via the likes of Kranky over the last 20 years, Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride have long established themselves as easily one of the most pioneering and influential drone/ambient outfits of all time. Ahead of highly-anticipated shows in Cork (Triskel Christchurch, October 8) and Dublin (National Concert Hall, October 9) as part of their first tour since 2008, Brian Coney talks to Wiltzie about new material, the legacy and future of Stars of the Lid, his work with Dustin O’Halloran as A Winged Victory For The Sullen and…

  • Lingo Festival 2016

    September 11, 2016 - By 

    Returning following the sold-out success of its second annual outing last year, Lingo – Ireland’s first and only spoken word festival – returns to Dublin from October 21-23. With more acts and full line-up info yet to be announced, the forefather of indie-hop Sage Francis (pictured), Rubberbandits‘ Blindboy Boatclub, Palestinian spoken word artist and human rights activist Rafeef Ziadeh and Galway poet Sarah Clancy will headline this year’s festival. Lingo Programme Manager Erin Fornoff said, “Irish Spoken Word has gone from being a practically unknown and underground movement to being an invigorating part of Ireland’s wider culture, you just have to…