• Watch: Best Boy Grip – Can’t Buy Love, Son

    July 14, 2015 - By 

    The latest in a string of Irish singer-songwriters to wisely wander down the road of crowd-funding, Derry’s Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Best Boy Grip aims to released his forthcoming debut album on September 7. The latest track to be released from the album, the impassioned and swooning ‘Can’t Buy Love, Son’ perfectly captures the essence of the project, hinting – alongside the previously released ‘Sharks‘ and ‘Cops‘ – at something really special in the works. Having already achieved his Pledge goal, there’s still 55 days to contribute. Like what you hear? You can do so here.

  • Monday Mixtape: Anton Newcombe

    July 13, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of his show with Tess Parks at Dublin’s Sugar Club on Wednesday night (July 15), Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe selects and talks about not five, not ten but twenty-three of his all-time favourite songs, featuring 13th Floor Elevators, Joni Mitchell, Dungen, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone and more. The Doors – The Crystal Ship There’s something about this beautiful love song that touched me when I was very young. Still love it. Dungen – Panda God, when this came out I was taken back – so powerful in any language. Love these guys, love Sweden. John’s Children – Smashed Blocked…

  • Summer Watch 2015 @ Whelan’s

    July 9, 2015 - By 

    On July 10 and 11, Dublin’s Whelan’s will play host to this year’s Summer Watch 2015, featuring some of the country’s very best and most promising acts. The line-up is as follows: Tadgh, Hawklion, I Heart The Monster Hero, Skelocrats, Riot Tapes, Rocstrong, I Am Niamh, Mythill Grim, Switzerland, New Valley Wolves, Pretty Beast, Paddy Hanna (pictured), Half of Me, Participant, Buffalo Sunn, The Fontaines, Pranks, Sub Motion, Let’s Set Sail, Fruit Tones, Swimmers and Gangs. Tickets are €5 per day with a complimentary pint of Heineken (door tickets only available until 11pm). Advanced tickets are available from WAV Tickets.

  • Oh Yeah Centre Summer Camps

    July 9, 2015 - By 

    Interested in music journalism and photography? Like the idea of learning how it works by actively creating your own magazine or blog, complete with photos, reviews, news and features? Oh Yeah has teamed up with yours truly, The Thin Air, and Carrie Davenport Photography to provide hands on learning in publishing. Over the course of five days participants will work together under guidance from our experts to deliver what will be a fun, colourful, engaging Zine and blog that you will produce and publish at the end of the week. Both elements will come together at the end of the week…

  • Stream: Girls Names – A Hunger Artist

    July 9, 2015 - By 

    Having just returned from a string of European dates, Girls Names have unveiled ‘A Hunger Artist’, the latest single to be taken from their forthcoming third album, Arms Around a Vision. Assumingly taking its title from Franz Kafka’s 1922 short story of the same name, the track – quite possibly our favourite Girls Names effort to date – sees frontman Cathal Cully confront a life lived “hand in mouth.” Elaborating, he said, “Most guitar music now is just a playground for the rich middle classes, and it’s really boring and elitist. We’re elitist in our own way, in that we’re on our own…

  • Watch: Come On Live Long – Speak Up

    July 8, 2015 - By 

    Shot by Mercedes Arturo & Nico Casavecchia in (deep breath) Brooklyn, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Beijing, Barcelona, Berlin, Tigre, Tierra del Fuego, Niece, Mar del Plata, San Jose, Copenhagan, Cannes, Ko Pha Ngan and London, Dublin’s Come On Live Long have unveiled the sprawling, rather spectacular video for their seven-minute new single, ‘Speak Up’. Watch it below.

  • Track Record: Gav Icon

    July 8, 2015 - By 

    With his Sixties sensibility and a penchant for garage and punk rock, Gav Icon, DJ and frontman from Gavin and Thee Icons selects his favourite records from the likes of Black Lips and The Cramps to The Sonics and Ramones. Photos by Ste Murray. Black Lips – Good Bad, Not Evil  The Black Lips are one of Garage Rock’s modern greats, with a live show that would make GG Allin stop and say, “Ah, Jesus that’s just too far lads”. They there are what a rock and roll band should be. This album has the tracks ‘O Katrina!’, ‘Bad Kids’, ‘Lock and Key’ and ‘Veni…

  • Watch: His New Atlas – Saints

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    Having confirmed his arrival last summer with his stirring single ‘His Young’, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan AKA His New Atlas has returned with his strongest single effort to date, ‘Saints’. Accompanied by a video courtesy of Maverick Renegade, the song sees a heartfelt performance from O’Hagan merge with a impressively-layered, almost symphonic backdrop, resulting in four minutes of building and subtly beatific brilliance.

  • Mastodon w/ Bad Breeding @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    Treating tonight more like a pilgrimage into the dark heart of sludge-laden, conceptual metal than your typical jaunt to a gig, we’re joined giddily by the sizeable crowd of Mastodon T-shirt wearing fans as we enter the baroque surroundings of the Ulster Hall.  The air, thick with beard and brew, seemingly creates its own atmospherics ahead of any performance so far, but, safe in the knowledge that we’ll be banging our heads soon we file in and stand our ground.  It’s not exactly filled to the brim, but it’s not nearly empty either and the consensus thus far is that…

  • Premiere: Contour Shreds – Remixes EP

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    Having impressed at Body & Soul last weekend, Dublin electronic duo Conan Wynne and Anna Doran AKA Contour are right up with our acts to catch at the Red Bull Music Academy stage at this year’s Longitude Festival in Marlay Park. With just under three weeks left to that slot, we’re pleased to premiere a brand new remixes EP from the pair. A self-described “compilation of remixes, reinterpretations, and general reconfiguration of our musical friends and our sounds” the release features reworkings by Sounds of System Breakdown, R.S.A.G, Fran Hartnett, Emma Nicolai and Contour themselves, as well as an original mix of…