Killing Joke are set to make their Dublin return. Having delivered a resounding set at the Academy last August, the Jaz Coleman-fronted band will return to the city to play the Button Factory on Friday, June 12th. Support comes from Paranoid Visions. Tickets cost €32.00 and go on sale on Friday, March 13th at 10am. Killing Joke first played Dublin back in 1983 and have stopped off in the city every decade since.
It’s no bad thing that the indie scene across the island is saturated. If anything, it’s a total boon. That saturation – that heady wealth of artists and collaborative energy – invariably gives rise to scenes and communities that would’ve otherwise lay dormant or just out of reach, fated not to be. Take one look across the country and it’s clear that the scene – cross-country show swaps, co-pros, split releases etc. – is more tight-knit and fertile than ever. One band that both embodies that ethos and manages to cut through the noise to make their own noise heard is Belfast’s Buí.…
The line-up for this year’s Electric Picnic has been announced. Coming amidst news of various cancellations regarding the global onset of coronavirus, organisers of the annual festival at Stradbally Estate in Co. Laois have have revealed that the Chemical Brothers, Run The Jewels (pictured) and Bicep are among the acts joining already-announced headliners Rage Against the Machine across 4-6th September. With more to be announced, Irish acts including Rejjie Snow, Just Mustard, Saint Sister and Aoife Nessa Francis will also make an appearance. Check out the current full line-up below. This year’s festival is already sold out.
Alternating Current is the latest Irish festival to be postponed due to concerns relating to the global spread of coronavirus. Following on from news that Vantastival will now take place later in the year – and with the likes of SXSW, Coachella and national St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at home being postponed or cancelled – it’s been revealed that the inaugural three-day celebration of Ireland’s musical underground won’t go ahead at Dublin’s Sound House this weekend as planned. Posting on Twitter, Dublin Digital Radio (who along with Enthusiastic Eunuch are behind the event) said: “We’ve thought, debated and agonised over…
One of the very finest face-melting propositions around, Newcastle heavy psych masters Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs will play a brace of Irish dates in November. The Matthew Baty-fronted band, who release their new album Viscerals in April, will play the Belfast’s The Empire on November 26th and Whelan’s in Dublin on November 28th. Priced £18 and €20.00 respectively, tickets go on sale on Friday, March 13th at 10am.
Vantastival has been postponed until September. The annual Drogheda music festival, which was set to return across May 29-31, is the latest event to be postponed due to issues surrounding the global spread of Coronavirus. The festival will now take place across September 18th-20th and all tickets purchased are valid for the new dates. In a Facebook post, organisers said: “Due to multiple challenges arising from the spread of Coronavirus, we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the Vantastival festival, which will now take place 18th – 20th September 2020. All expert opinion indicates the situation is likely to deteriorate…
Jack Rudden predicts exciting things for Dublin’s Rachael Lavelle in 2020 and far beyond. Photo by Kevin Hennessy Gothic, bewitching and haunting, Rachael Lavelle is all of these things and many more. The Dublin musician is as multifaceted as she is enchanting. A competent songstress and interesting producer, Lavelle creates music that exists somewhere between Baroque compositions and ambient experimentations. She is the intersection of Bjork and Laurie Anderson. In Lavelle’s music there are countless layers of sonic peculiarities. Found sounds dissolve into oceans of ambient electronics, which are counterpointed by assertive piano lines and a strikingly idiosyncratic vocal tone. She…
North Coast instrumental rock trailblazers And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of a new music and arts festival in support of mental awareness and suicide prevention. Created to “celebrate community and to encourage asking the question… are you ok?” OK? will unite some of the country’s best acts at Belfast’s Telegraph Building on Saturday, March 28th. Raising money for Aware NI, PIPS and Help Musicians, the show will feature sets from ASIWYFA, SOAK, General Fiasco, David Holmes, Phil Kieran, Joshua Burnside, New Pagans, Catalan!, Pillow Queens, Junk Drawer, Jordan Adetunji, Careerist, Cherym, Problem Patterns and Gnarkats.…
If you’ve caught only a fleeting second of the visuals accompanying the music of Borders, you’ll know that it carries with it a huge weight of visual import. Spanning symphonic ambience and widescreen electronica, the record – which scooped last year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize – was a remarkably filmic meeting of the minds from two of the country’s most innovative artists, Ryan Vail and Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Elma Orkestra. It checks out, then, that such a naturally scopic, wonderfully-wrought statement on belonging and the universal power of nature and our place within it would translate well to the documentary format.…
From Mitski and Kitt Philippa to Lucy Dacus and Maija Sofia, Belfast punk trio Gender Chores wax lyrical about some of their all-time favourite tracks. Photo by Chris McCann Kitt Philippa – ’68 2/4′ Sam: This is the closing track of Kitt’s incredible first album, and it’s my favourite one on there. It has a real steady, sure pulse that supports the refrain “Keep me going ’til the morning light”. Its gravitational pull allows the swirling arrangements of woodwind and piano to orbit out into the distance and then be gently guided back to the forefront which beautifully reinforces the…