• The Record: Stonemasons

    August 20, 2015 - By 

    Featuring in studio photos by Liam Kielt, we chat to Belfast-based alt-rock trio Stonemasons about the writing, recording and release of their vehement new five-track EP, Lost Layers.  Hey guys. For complete newcomers, how did the Stonemasons come about and get off the ground? Pod (Kerr, bass/vocals): We all grew up around the same area of North Antrim. Blaney was playing guitar in a pop-punk called Breaking Even and McCann and myself were playing covers with a different drummer. We initially met through from beating lumps out of each other on a hurling pitch until a hazy 18th birthday party where we got chatting about…

  • Other Voices Electric Picnic Line-Up Revealed

    August 20, 2015 - By 

    Having announced its first acts late last month, Other Voices have revealed the full schedule for this year’s Electric Picnic. Taking place over the three days and nights of the festival (Friday, September 4 to Sunday, September 6) East India Youth, August Wells, Ham Sandwich and The Staves are amongst 21 acts set to perform at the OV stage. Check out the full line-up above and go here to win tickets to the festival courtesy of Other Voices.

  • Watch: Enemies – Play Fire

    August 18, 2015 - By 

    Last month, we featured a special The Record feature documenting the recording of ‘Play Fire’, the sublime new track by Kilcoole math-pop maestros Enemies. Their first release in two (long) years, it sees the band concoct one of their most wonderfully cohesive, deftly arranged and downright catchy tracks to date. Speaking of the single – taken from their forthcoming third studio album – Enemies’ guitarist Lewis Jackson said, “It was this idea of getting as far away from our comfort zone as possible, without losing what makes us Enemies.” And how they’ve succeeded. Watch Finn Keenan’s video for the song below.

  • Watch: Cat Palace – Real Fresh

    August 17, 2015 - By 

    “Hey, I wanna be different, so I shaved my head on both sides – I leave a little on top. You know I’m keeping it real fresh, man.” So goes the chorus to ‘Real Fresh’ by Dublin singer-songwriter David Blaney AKA Cat Palace, a self-proclaimed “devotional” artist whose hugely impressive debut self-titled debut EP quite frankly blew us away back in February. This latest single – featuring a simple yet wonderfully singular video – fuses woozy Americana with a brilliantly biting commentary on half-arsed, samey social charades. The track will also feature on a forthcoming Cat Palace EP, set for release at the beginning of September.

  • Watch: Planet Parade – Blue Sky

    August 14, 2015 - By 

    Striking a keen balance between Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend and Mac Demarco, Maynooth duo Michael Hopkins and Andrew Lloyd AKA Planet Parade have just release one of the most sublimely sun-kissed Irish singles of the Summer. Featuring Steven McCann on guitar and Graham Hopkins (assumingly a relative of Michael’s) on drums, the wonderfully throwback video – created by Brian Lloyd – just seals the deal and then some. One for the repeat button.

  • Watch: Somadrone feat. Jape – Invitation

    August 14, 2015 - By 

    The follow-up to 2013’s hugely impressive The First Wave, Dublin producer Neil O’Connor AKA Somadrone is set to release his fifth album, Oracle, on September 18. The first track to be lifted from that, ‘Invitation’ – featuring fellow Redneck Manifesto alumni Richie Egan AKA Jape – is a hugely encouraging taste as to what’s in store from the forthcoming eight track-release. Accompanied by a video courtesy of Kevin Mc Gloughlain and Leon Giblin, ‘Invitation’ is perfectly balanced between sleep and release, its opening two minutes of teasing sparseness yielding to two minutes of throbbing, mildly kaleidoscopic electronica, each bar yielding to a new detail. Stream/download the…

  • Premiere: Robocobra Quartet – Mizaru

    August 13, 2015 - By 

    Set for their first touring traipse to the UK next month, Belfast-based jazz-punk quartet Robocobra Quartet will also make their debut Electric Picnic appearance in Co. Laois at the start of next month. Do your very best not to miss them if you’re bound there this year. “Lyrically exploring two of the three proverbial ‘wise monkeys'”, the latest self-produced release from the Chris Ryan-fronted band, ‘Iwazaru/Mizaru’, “finds the personal tangled with the social. This comes in the form of Mizaru’s melancholic re-appropriation of an MP’s 1932 speech and Iwazaru’s self-deprecating look at “speaking no evil” that brashly pairs a lyrical call-back…

  • Dublin Zine Fair 2015

    August 13, 2015 - By 

    Supporting, promoting and celebrating all things zines, this year’s Dublin Zine Fair takes place at Dublin’s Chocolate Factory on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16. Featuring stall holders from across the country and further afield plying their homespun wares, the fair will also include zine readings, live music and craft workshops throughout both days from 12-5pm. See below for the daily schedule and go here for the Facebook event page. 1pm: Workshop (Saturday: Weaving €10 | Sunday: book binding €5) 2pm: Comics Lab (Sunday only €3) 3pm: Zine Readings 3.30pm: Workshop (Saturday: Make a Dreamcatcher €10 | Sunday: Needle Felting €15)…

  • Sun Kil Moon @ Open House Festival, Bangor

    August 12, 2015 - By 

    “People love me. Some people hate me. A lot of people love me, but some people hate me. Some people anonymously go on to the internet and say cruel, hateful things about me. But that’s ok. That’s ok. That’s ok because it means you’re somebody when that happens to you. It means that you’ve arrived. It means that you can lie in bed at night with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach. Some people hate me and some people love me. Some people come to my shows and write big, long essays about how much they love my music…

  • Watch: Bouts – Missteps

    August 12, 2015 - By 

    We’ve a lot of time for Dublin indie-rock band Bouts. For us, they personify the best things of the genre: simultaneously perfectly loose and very tight, they tip their collective hat in the general direction of their (largely Nineties, U.S.) influences whilst continuing to carve out their own sound; one that allows seems to place joyousness slap bang in the middle. Taken from their a forthcoming, five-track EP, set for release in January, the band have returned after a nigh on two year break away with ‘Missteps’, a track bursting with the band’s instantly likeable sound. If you’re yet to…