• Stream: So Cow – Barry Richardson

    July 7, 2014 - By 

    Taken from their forthcoming first album proper, The Long Con, Galway three-piece So Cow have made an extremely solid return with their new single ‘Barry Richardson’. A typically off-the-wall dose of slinky, guitar-led garage pop, the track calls to mind Pinkerton-era Weezer, Blur circa Modern Life Is Rubbish, the charming lyrical ruralism of Andy Falco (Mclusky/Future of the Left) and Deerhoof. The Long Con – produced by Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, no less – is the band’s first album recorded in a studio and sees Brian Kelly joined by Dublin drummer Peter O’Shea and Jonny White on bass. According to the band’s Soundcloud…

  • Album stream: Oaks – Safe Haven

    July 7, 2014 - By 

    One for fans of abstracted, hip-hop inflected ambient noise, Belfast-based musician James Bruce AKA Oaks has released his eight-track debut album, Safe Haven. Calling to mind everyone from Mouse and Mars, Labradford and The Books to Tortoise, Exploding Orchestra and Boards of Canada, the album – recorded in different locations but predominantly Bruce’s home – melds found sounds and samples with scattered beats, brass and strings to form an impressive, nicely hypnotic mid-point between drifting melancholia and bold experimentalism. The artwork for the released – arranged by Bruce, also drummer with Belfast prog band Kasper Rosa – features a photo taken by Tom McGeehan. Stream Safe Haven via Bandcamp…

  • Forfey Festival

    July 7, 2014 - By 

    Taking place across the weekend of August 1-3, the wonderfully intimate and unaffected Forfey Festival returns to Forfey Farm near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh with one of its strongest line-ups to date. As ever, homegrown folk and acoustic acts make up the majority of this year’s line-up, but there is also a wide range of electronic and rock artists – everyone from Hornets to Affleck – performing across the festival’s three days. With more acts still to be announced, the current line-up is: Callum Stewart, Beulah Kim, Wonder Villains, Travis Is A Tourist, The Emerald Armada, Skeletons, Rupture Dogs, RAMS’ Pocket Radio, More Than…

  • No Good Trying: A Syd Barrett Playlist

    July 7, 2014 - By 

    “I wasn’t always this introverted. I think young people should have a lot of fun. But I never seem to have any.” So said Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1971. Three years on from parting with Pink Floyd – a band he co-founded and named – Barrett had just released his second and final studio album, Barrett, before withdrawing from the limelight, a visionary, plagued genius; victim of psychedelic consumption. Tales of his heavy LSD use and notoriously erratic behaviour are well documented, agonisingly revealing the birth and decay of arguably psychedelia’s brightest star, a beatific songsmith, equally entrenched and liberated by his…

  • Gigs of the Week: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Arctic Monkeys, Neil Young

    July 7, 2014 - By 

    With Wimbledon reaching an exciting conclusion yesterday evening, and the World Cup edging towards its finale this week, the summer seems to be well and truly flying by. But never fear, friends: we at the Thin Air are here to guide you towards the finest gigs happening across the country over the next seven days. Arctic Monkeys – Marlay Park, Dublin; Saturday, July 12 Arctic Monkeys return to Ireland this Saturday to put on what’ll surely be a great show, but they’re not the only reason to head to Marlay Park this weekend. Jake Bugg, Miles Kane and Royal Blood make up the…

  • Stream: Adebisi Shank – Voodoo Vision

    July 3, 2014 - By 

    Dropped late last night, Dublin instrumental three-piece Adebisi Shank have got us even more excited for their forthcoming third album with the release of the somewhat familiar ‘Voodoo Vision’. A fixture of their live sets over the last few few years, the track – previously titled ‘Thunder’ – is a vocoder-laced, effects-laden brilliantly-realised, beautifully bastardised and utterly exhilarating six minutes of sheer instrumental transcendentalism. We’re fans, in other words. Stream the track – set to feature on the band’s forthcoming third album – below.

  • Happy Days Festival 2014

    July 3, 2014 - By 

    Dedicated to the life and work of Nobel-prize winning Irish writer Samuel Beckett, Happy Days Festival returns to Enniskillen from July 31 to August 10. World-renown as one of the finest and boldest alternative festivals around, Happy Days – named after the 1961 Beckett play of the same name – will see varied theatre productions, visual art, concerts, writers and artists talks, special events and everything in between take place across Enniskillen over the eleven days. Make sure to check out the full brochure for the festival – including venues and ticket prices – here. Watch a clip of Billie Whitelaw in a performance…

  • Inbound: The Clameens

    July 4, 2014 - By 

    Currently in the studio recording their debut EP, Derry four-piece The Clameens have made a strong impression at home and further afield over the last twelve months, not least for the infectious pop-rock of singles ‘Don’t Judge’ and ‘Follow’. In the latest installment of Inbound, we talk to the band’s frontman, Sean Breslin, about their formation in the Creggan area of Derry, abiding to a very particular songwriting mantra and the band’s stance on living for the moment, whilst striving towards the future. Hi Sean. You’ve had quite busy last few months playing shows and getting your music out there to new…

  • Public Enemy announce Belfast show

    June 27, 2014 - By 

    Legendary New York hip-hop group Public Enemy are set to play Belfast’s Limelight 1 on Tuesday, August 5. Consisting of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, DJ Lord and more, the show will mark pioneering Long Island outfit’s debut show in the city, thirty two years after they formed. Lauded for albums including Fear of a Black Planet and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the group released their twelfth studio album, The Evil Empire of Everything, back in 2012. Tickets for the show go on sale from Ticketmaster right here at 9am on Monday morning (June 30). Watch the video…

  • Interview: New Secret Weapon

    June 26, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of playing this year’s Sea Sessions in Bundoran at the weekend, we talk to Dublin prog-tinged alt-rock trio New Secret Weapon about their guerrilla-style live shows, breaking free from songwriting conventions and recording their long-awaited self-titled debut album with Solar Bears’ Rian Trench.  Hi guys. You said you formed “in the aftermath of KnockanStockan Festival 2007”. What was the catalyst for formation there? There were many catalysts but the best one was probably the fact that the three of us had never played music together before and we played as if we’d been playing together our whole lives. Seven years on,…