• Stream: My Tribe Your Tribe – Vol. II EP

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Dublin-based singer-songwriter and producer George Mercer AKA My Tribe Your Tribe is streaming his second solo EP, the aptly-titled Vol. II. Formerly of Boy Lights Fire, Mercer released Vol. 1 back in April. Vol. II is mainly comprised of material written since the musician moved to Dublin from Laois in June. Speaking of the release Mercer said “My direction felt like it was changing. A lot of the previous influences and styles of music I has been listening to over the past couple of years were surfacing in my writing.” “I wanted to bring the immediacy of folk and popular music into play,…

  • Watch: We Cut Corners – YKK

    November 18, 2013 - By 

    Having released a stream of it last month, Dublin indie rock duo We Cut Corners have unveiled the Eoin Heaney-directed video for their new single, ‘YKK’. Filmed in black and white, the minimalist video features the pair performing the track in front of supremely seizure-inducing visuals from Dublin-based projection/visual artist collective LeTissier. ‘YKK’ is released via Delphi on November 25 and is set to feature on We Cut Corners’ second studio album, which will be released next year. Watch the video below via Vimeo.

  • The National @ The Odyssey, Belfast

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Restraint. A hard quality to achieve in one’s day to day life. Musically, however, it’s very difficult indeed. Amplified by speaker stacks and placed in the glare of spotlights, many bands affect emotion by stomping on a distortion pedal or guldering angst-ridden couplets. In stark contrast, the austere members of The National continually reign in such fits of childish pique. Take, for example, ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, with its spiralling drum patterns, mournful horns and droning guitar. It’s a perfect storm albeit one that never breaks but pulses and throbs towards a climax which never quite arrives. It creates a thrilling tension,…

  • TTA Session #002: Hurdles

    November 15, 2013 - By 

    Off the back the release of their brilliant Where To Start EP, Belfast-based indie pop band Hurdles are our second featured act on our ongoing Thin Air Live Session series. Filmed and edited by the ridiculously talented Colm Laverty – with audio recorded and mixed by the upstanding and handsome James Bruce – the session features an interview with the Niall Hanna-fronted four-piece and performances of ‘Ruthless’ and their most recent single ‘Control’. Miss our first session with Bellos? Check it out here. Watch the session with Hurdles below!

  • Enablers, Blue Whale, Selaah @ Voodoo, Belfast

    November 16, 2013 - By 

    Five years on from wowing a close-knit assembly at Lavery’s Bunker, one of the most distinctive post-rock bands of a generation return to the Belfast tonight dogged and purposeful despite founding guitarist Joe Goldring having his guitar stolen in Dublin the night before. Founded in 2004 and fronted by poet and spoken word artist Pete Simonelli, San Francisco’s Enablers are all but an act unto themselves, their thoroughly immersive brand of abrasive yet introspective instrumentalism propelled by a masterful confrontational voice that just about guarantees special things on the stage time and time again. Kicking off proceedings in typically inimitable fashion…

  • EP Stream: Chocolate Love Factory – Pickle & POG

    November 14, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its launch at Belfast’s Radar tonight, Thursday November 14, Belfast-based four-piece Chocolate Love Factory have released a digital stream of their latest EP, Pickle & POG. A six-track release featuring the single ‘Motivator’, the EP was recorded between Clark Phillips and Ben McAuley over the last year and a half. Following the departure of bassist Pearse McClelland, the band have recently expanded to a four-piece, incorporating members of the equally progressively-inclined Yellow Car No Return and The Institute* into the fold. Go here for the event page for the band’s EP launch, also set to feature The Big…

  • Stream: The Rupture Dogs – Feral

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its launch at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Saturday, November 16 as part of Belfast Music Week 2013, The Rupture Dogs have released a stream of their debut album, Feral Recored by James Lyttle at Millbank Studios and mixed/mastered by Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios, the twelve-track release is also available to purchase via the band’s Bandcamp page. Go here for the event page for the Ferali album launch (a show doubling up as the official launch of The Difference Between by Mojo Fury and featuring several more acts) here. Stream Feral below.

  • Psycho Live

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Two special screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 film Psycho will be scored by the world-renown Ulster Orchestra as part of Psycho Live on November 22 and 23. Taking place at The Venue in Derry/Londonderry on Friday (8pm), November 22 and Belfast’s Waterfront Hall (7.45pm) the following evening, the performance will see the orchestra perform Bernard Hermann’s landmark score live. A truly unmissable opportunity to witness one of the greatest horror movies come to life, the Belfast concert will be preceeded by one of the orchestra’s much-love pre-concert talks at 6.45pm, essentially a free fifteen minute discussion featuring radio presenter,…

  • Gary Lightbody releases feature-length statement on NI Music Prize

    November 12, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its inaugural launch at Belfast’s Mandela Hall tonight as part of this year’s Belfast Music Week, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has released a feature-length statement about the NI Music Prize. The Bangor singer-songwriter – also frontman with supergroup Tired Pony, who are vying for the annual album prize – wrote: “Firstly I’m delighted that Tired Pony have been nominated for the Northern Irish Music Prize. I am gutted that I’m not going to be there tonight to see who wins. Now let me make the case for everyone else but us on this fantastic and diverse list….…

  • Watch: Travis Is A Tourist – Shaking

    November 11, 2013 - By 

    Having spent September in Nashville collaborating with fourteen other UK-based artists and singer-songwriters, former Colly Strings frontman Travis Gilbert AKA Travis Is A Tourist has unveiled the video to his latest single, ‘Shaking’. Featuring Gilbert and quite a bit of wool, the video is probably best described a slightly less psychedelic and hectic take on Mojo Fury’s recent video for ‘Origami Bird’. Available as a free download from Thursday, the song is a full band acoustic effort that suggests extremely promising things in the making for Gilbert. Travis Is A Tourist will play the Belfast’s Engine Room gallery on Linenhall Street…