• Q+A: Ted Chippington and the Nightingales

    May 7, 2014 - By 

    Formed in Birmingham in 1979, post-punk mavericks the Nightingales split up in 1986 after seven years, three albums, eight John Peel sessions and tours with everyone from Bo Diddley to Nico. They returned to the stage in 2004, and are playing their first ever Irish dates this month, including a slot at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The band hit McHugh’s in Belfast on Thursday, May 8, with ‘anti-comedian’ Ted Chippington in tow, the man who Stewart Lee has often cited as the reason he started doing stand-up. Nightingales frontman Robert Lloyd and Chippington tell Andrew Johnston about life as outsiders. Words by Andrew Johnston…

  • Thirty-five new acts announced for Longitude

    May 6, 2014 - By 

    With an already impressive line-up on the cards, thirty-five more acts have been announced to play the second outing for Longitude festival in Dublin’s Marlay Park this Summer. Amongst the new acts unveiled earlier today are Greg Dulli’s rejuvenated The Afghan Whigs (pictured), Nebraskan singer-songwriter Conor Oberst and Irish folk-pop duo Hudson Taylor. Check out the full list of new additions as well as the current poster for Longitude 2014 – taking place from Friday, July 18 to Sunday, July 20 – below. The Afghan Whigs Bipolar Sunshine Broods Circa Waves Conor Oberst Dawes Elliphant Hudson Taylor Joey Badass Josh Record Kyla La Grange…

  • Album stream: The Elephant Room – Body

    May 6, 2014 - By 

    Currently simmering under the radar, Dublin three-piece The Elephant Room have released their rather idiosyncratic new ten-track album, Body. With hints of everyone from Wilco, Sebadoh (namely ‘Valley’) Soul Coughing and Sparklehorse, the distinctly lo-fi quality that pervades the record works very much in its favour, primitive keyboards, fuzzy chord progressions and knowingly elemental experimentation all lending to the charms of this somewhat unpredictable release. Sound like your kind of thing? Stream the album via Bandcamp below. Body by The Elephant Room

  • Gig(s) of the week: Le Galaxie, Ceephax Acid Crew, De La Soul

    May 7, 2014 - By 

    With several new line-up announcements for Irish festivals being made over the last couple of days – Longitude, Sunflower Fest, Culture Tech – we are well and truly looking forward to the coming Irish summer here at the Thin Air towers (I say “towers”, I mean Caffe Nero on Donegall Square West, Belfast). Ahead of that cider-soaked maelstrom of mini-buses and crap tents however we have another installment of our Gig(s) of the week, featuring hopefully something for everyone, North and South, over the next seven days. Le Galaxie present Love System – The Academy, Dublin Friday, May 9 Our outright…

  • CQAF: Yuck & Bouts @ Black Box

    May 3, 2014 - By 

    Just over a year since their founding member – and central songwriting force – Daniel Blumberg jumped ship to focus on his own music, English indie rock darlings Yuck make their highly-anticipated return to Belfast tonight something of a wounded but defiant soldier. Indeed, with a new EP, Southern Skies, getting a mixed reaction from critics and aficionados alike, there is an unspoken feeling in the air that the band have both reputation to uphold and repertoire to deliver. One wonders: whether they care to confront the question or not, are they able and set to confound the likely ill-founded theories of the detractors? With the Black Box…

  • The Thin Air/CQAF Hüsker Dü night @ Voodoo

    May 5, 2014 - By 

    As part of this year’s The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, we’re very happy to present a special celebration of boundlessly influential U.S. three-piece Hüsker Dü at Voodoo Belfast on Monday, May 5. As well as hosting a one-off screening of Every Everything: The Life, Times and Music of Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü drummer, songwriter and visionary, Belfast-based punk and rock n’ roll bands, No Matter, The Groundlings (headliners) and alt-rock three-piece, Abandcalledboy will play three sets balanced between original material and their very own takes on classic Hüsker Dü material. In Every Everything, The Life, Times and Music of Grant Hart,…

  • The Record #004: Funzo

    May 2, 2014 - By 

    The brainchild of Liam McDermott, Dublin hip-hop group Funzo have had a prolific and tireless journey since their inception in 2009. With 250 live shows – including numerous high-profile festival appearances – under their belt, they launch their debut album, The Great Lonesome, at Dublin’s Twisted Pepper on Saturday, May 17. Talking to us for the latest installment of The Record, McDermott fills us in about his songwriting process, the recording of the “concept” album and his very generous plan for its launch. In-studio photos by Shaun Neary. Hi Liam. You recently recorded your new album, The Great Lonesome. First off, can you tell us…

  • Ten must-see shows at Cathedral Quarters Arts Festival 2014

    May 1, 2014 - By 

    Now in its fifteenth year, hands down Belfast’s most exciting, diverse and inspiring festival of music, culture and arts, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival returns from May 1-11. Boasting a programme featuring everyone from De La Soul and Tinariwen to Simon Amstell, Shonen Knife and Yuck, it is quite possibly the annual festival’s strongest roster to date. At the risk of scaling a mount of hyperbole, we reckon there is quite literally something for everybody at this year’s festival. Whether you look to the words and ideas of the likes of Bernard McLaverty or Mark Ellen, the comedy of Katherine Ryan or Howard Read et al, genre-defining artists such as The Handsome Family, The Selecter and Fuck Buttons or…

  • Watch: VerseChorusVerse – Three

    May 1, 2014 - By 

    Currently on tour in England, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse has unveiled the video to his latest single, the wonderfully dark ‘Three’. Created by Industrious Dark – the team behind Wright’s videos for  ‘No More Years‘ and ‘Nothing is Easy‘ – it was shot in Wright’s Grandmothers old house and in Edinburgh. Speaking of the video, Wright said, “Adrian Rowe  – who was guitarist in my first band, PepperBook – and Emma Dodds are the brains behind it. I said that I had been watching lots of Orson Welles’ movies – well, more than usual – Third Man etc., and would love something noir. Plus…

  • The First Time: Johno Leader (The Radioactive Grandma)

    April 30, 2014 - By 

    Not for the last time, it’s the The First Time time. Belfast-based photographer Joe Laverty delivers yet another wonderful portrait shot, this time of Johno Leader from Co. Cavan acoustic indie-rock band The Radioactive Grandma, and gets the musician’s music-buying, making and loving firsts, traversing everyone from Moby, Val Normal, R Kelly and the Prodigy. First album you bought? The very first album I ever bought was purchased with vouchers that I got for my birthday. I was about 15 or 16 years old and that album was 1977 by Ash. It got played about five times before I was introduced to…