• Stream: Elastic Sleep – Slip

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Announced last week through the band’s social media and streamed exclusively last night on UK blog More Than Disco, Elastic Sleep‘s new single ‘Slip’, is a step into more steadfast, strident territory, straying from their wandering dream-pop path, with noisy yet dreamy guitars and a Kim Deal-esque bassline being completely battered around by an unreasonably large (and thoroughly satisfying) drum sound and soothed, the edges taken off by the quiet majesty of Muireann Levis‘ vocals. Following on from the haze of this year’s “Leave You” E.P., it makes for a bold next move. From the blurb: Irish quintet ELASTIC SLEEP’s ‘SLIP’ is the…

  • Watch: Steve Strong – Contort/Retreat (Live)

    November 13, 2014 - By 

    Arriving in Ireland last night for a tour from the 12th to the 23rd, Plymouth-based one-man post-rock show Steve Strong heads for Cork this weekend, with Galway, Portrush and Dublin following next week, as part of his Agila November ’14 tour. The man is quite a sight to behold live, dextrously manipulating tones and textures with one hand while keeping a tight and tense percussion underneath with the other. From the tour blurb: Steve Strong is a one-man arsenal of beats, tapped guitar and lush, textural melodies. His music is as withheld as it is grandiose, as skeletal as it…

  • Watch: MAU – Original

    November 3, 2014 - By 

    Former Kidd Blunt and current Enemies guitarist Eoin Whitfield issues forth an earworm with his MAU project (fka Spread It Across the Sky) today through HeavyweightPR (seemingly stepping in on release as well as publicity). Featuring a vivid promo video by vibes.ie, and hooks aplenty, it’s a further step in a bold new direction for a man equally versed in heft and melody. Sez the press release: MAU is the new disguise for Wicklow based producer Eoin Whitfield. Eoin has been involved in the Irish music scene for over a decade, from heavily influential melodic hardcore band Kidd Blunt, to his current…

  • Premiere: Hollow Tide – Peter Fuller

    November 3, 2014 - By 

    A little label beginning to make a big noise out of Carlow of all places, cassette specialists Little League have been quietly putting out a stream of varied and exciting releases from around the world, mostly on limited, hand-assembled tapes, with some initial venturing into CD and vinyl. Running the gamut from good-natured indie/emo with Panucci’s Pizza to a brace of low-fi pop efforts from artists like Grant McAndrew, aka Hollow Tide, the label has made itself a home to independent music, by keeping demand up with small physical runs and maintaining ongoing digital sales, as well as innovations like…

  • Premiere: North Side Drive – Snow//Sea//Sky

    October 17, 2014 - By 

    Snow//Sea//Sky, the new release from North Side Drive, the “quiet” solo project of math-pop lads Former Monarchs‘ singing sticksman Jonathan Pearson, is, by his own admission, “weird”. In itself, though, that’s no deviation from the norm in an ever-evolving soundscape, moving from post-rock-inflected piano/cello pieces, to a stint at solo piano in honour of his grandfather in his last EP. His third EP under the name, the release invokes weather and the elements, and the moods Pearson conveys in his songs reflect this perfectly. ‘Snow’, for instance, is a beautiful piece, stark in its beginnings, before building up in a…

  • Farewell, Adebisi Shank

    September 26, 2014 - By 

    Adebisi Shank’s clarification of their situation helped put a lot of thoughts to rest. “Last gigs for a while”, cool, they must be really taking a stab at America or such now they have Sargent House behind them. “Last gigs in Ireland ever”. Uh, okay, really counting on this to succeed as a statement against how the workings of music in Ireland are gamed against independent music in terms of radio, PR, etc.? A statement on their Facebook put all the talk of expansion, abandoning Ireland, etc. to rest. “Dear friends, We hereby announce the end of a band called…

  • Robin Williams: R.I.P.

    August 11, 2014 - By 

    We watch off as it happens again. Another familiar name that stared out from the telly or from the posters is gone. We’ve trained ourselves to observe these passings like a spectator sport, another body of work coming to end without a second thought for the families and friends left behind. We tell ourselves that people die around the world everyday in war and famine, accuse others of bandwagoneering, and in some sort of perverse way, these people are almost rationalised away as casualties of a full life, rewarded with infinite adulation. A name and a face on a wall.…

  • Adebisi Shank – The Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

    August 6, 2014 - By 

    Let’s cut to a very important chase, straight away. This Is The Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank Is Not This Is The Second Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank. The Second Album... was an event in Irish music. Not just a major release, or critically acclaimed, but a happening, a seismic shift in expectations for others to follow, and a step up for Irish independent music, so much so it attracted the attention of Sargent House and the world. It was important, a concentrated blast of everything that was right with the world. Opinion on teaser…

  • The Pavilion

    July 22, 2014 - By 

    Yesterday morning we woke up to the news of the closure of another Cork venue. The Pavilion, after eight years under current management, suddenly shut its doors, flourishing with a magnanimous thank-you over its social media channels to its regulars and social media followers. It’s sad. A wonderful venue, that supported Cork artists so wholeheartedly over the years, and brought in its share of legendary names over the years, from Stiff Little Fingers to Lee Scratch Perry, has come to an end. A place where magic was made, a swathe of musicians cut their chops, and a regular crew of DJs,…

  • Everything Sucks #009: Garth Brooks

    July 8, 2014 - By 

    So, the news has just broke that country-pop superstar and apparent one-man economic stimulus package Garth Brooks has decided that the cash-in he was offered from a willing fanbase, that queued up for days in some cases and doubled occurrences of carpal tunnel syndrome refreshing their browsers, wasn’t good enough. After having two shows pulled owing to the objections of residents who have better things to do than have their front yards pissed in, the man himself issued an ultimatum that it was all the money he was initially offered, or he’d find some other backwoods to warm up for…