• Bleeding Heart Pigeons Announce New Album ‘Stir’

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    Four years on from the release of their acclaimed debut album Is, experimental pop trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons have announce its long-awaited follow-up, Stir, accompanied by lead single, the prescient ‘Real Connection’. Written and recorded in their converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick, the band have been together for twelve years, having signed to Virgin Records as teenagers in 2013 and since moving on to their own new imprint Hlym Records. Stir is set for release on May 22. In contrast to the “album-oriented” process of Is, the band described their approach in Stir as being more song-focused – “each song is its own little world”. Infectious and…

  • Brand New Friend Virtual Tour Kicks Off Tonight

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    One of the many acts hit with a postponement were Brand New Friend, who were to play one of their biggest headline shows at the start of the lockdown. Johnson siblings Taylor (vocals/guitar), Lauren (vocals/synth) and Logan (bass) will be streaming a series of intimate live acoustic performances on their Instagram & Facebook. Fans can decide setlists by voting via social media channels, and this Monday, March 30, they’ll perform their debut album Seatbelts For Aeroplanes in its entirety. You can catch them on the following dates at 8pm, starting tonight – with Gerry Norman, aka Tour Alaska ‘opening’ at 7.30pm:

  • Islander Announce Live From Home Concert Set For This Friday

    March 25, 2020 - By 

    Islander draws together four of the finest singer-songwriters in Ireland for a special 2-hour online concert on Friday, March 27. Performing – in half hour increments – are Choice-nominated Maija Sofia, the ambient experimental folk of John Francis Flynn, bouzouki, guitar & piano player Anna Mieke and Junior Brother, who wrote our Irish album of 2019, Pull The Right Rope. Viewers are encouraged to donate whatever you can, if you can, to these artists who have lost at least a month of work, with events cancelled and weekly gigs gone for the foreseeable future. All donations will be split evenly between the artists – you can donate here. Links…

  • Premiere: Ghost Office – The Face of Garbo

    March 19, 2020 - By 

    Arguably Belfast’s finest post-punk pragmatists, Ghost Office are back with ‘The Face of Garbo’, the second single from their forthcoming debut album, set for release later this summer. Marrying propulsive – near King Gizzard-esque – psych-flecked chaos with a macro-anthology narrative of fables spanning across time & disciplines, it’s one of their most artistically complete works thus far. The single was produced by bassist Carl Small, with lyrical duties from guitarist/shared vocalist Joe Gilson, who tells us more: “The song tells three stories, of events that cast their makers into myth. The solar eclipse that proved Albert Einstein’s law of relativity, the opera singer Enrico Caruso being threatened…

  • Premiere: Angular Hank – On Your Shoulder

    March 17, 2020 - By 

    Thankfully, the other main immunity we don’t have is to sweet jams, and ahead of their hotly-anticipated forthcoming debut album, Brand New Angle – out this Friday – Angular Hank have shared new single ‘On Your Shoulder’. As ever, they’re as taut with subtly-induced discordant tension as they are free-flowing with slack-pop hooks, springing to mind the likes of masterful craft of Irish peers like Postcard Versions & Careerist. As it stands, Angular Hank are set to hold their album launch at the Workman’s Club on April 3 with support from Skinner – keep posted here.

  • Premiere: Gas Hands – I’m Not In Love (With You)

    March 5, 2020 - By 

    Been missing that singular blend of melodic punk rock and post-hardcore that NI – not least the North-West – has mastered for over two decades? Derry-based trio Gas Hands are here to sort you out with their latest single, ‘I’m Not In Love (With You)’. Formed by frontman & guitarist Dylan Bradley & drummer Michael Brown, formerly of Lost Avenue, they’re joined by Mosmo Strange/Calling All Horses guitarist Nolan Donnelly on bass. Recorded & mixed at Smalltown America Studios by Caolan Austin, the trio’s economical, tightly knit release strikes a midpoint between signature North-West punk and the vitality of a young band hitting their stride. Gas Hands kick off their…

  • Monday Mixtape: The Bonk

    March 2, 2020 - By 

    The Bonk recently released hypnotic garage psych-jazz single ‘May Feign‘. Spanning primitive computer music to postmodern art rock, frontman (and former O Emperor member) Philip Christie takes us through some recent key influences. “These are a few tunes that I have been coming back to over the last while. Turns out I haven’t made it past the late seventies. I am not with it.” Annette Peacock – I’m The One I came across Annette Peacock’s music two or three years ago and since then it has been something I’ve come back to over and over. There is a lovely playfulness in the…

  • EP Stream: Aul Boy – Making Strange

    February 28, 2020 - By 

    Everyone’s favourite rural slack power-pop escapists, Ramelton’s Aul Boy are back with new EP Making Strange. As ever, the wry quartet, led by Fionn Robinson, runs the gamut from jangle-pop ditties to experimental pocket orchestras [the masterful ‘Buttercup’]. Recorded at Donegal’s Attica Studios by Orri McBrearty, with some wonderful artwork from Daniel McGarrigle, it’s available on digitally & on CD. Aul Boy launch Making Strange tonight at Bennigan’s, Derry, and tomorrow night at Letterkenny’s Swilly Inn. Making Strange by Aul Boy

  • Stream: Tuath – pAy Ur TaXeS! (Feat. Post Punk Podge)

    February 20, 2020 - By 

    Having been called psych, noise rock, trip-hop, industrial, and any other lysergic-laced subgenre under our dying sun, Letterkenny’s Tuath continue to defy classification. They remain as shapeshifting an entity as the likes of Mr Bungle, Ween, and Primus – the latter of whose bulbous low-end shares a lot in common with their pulverising, singular new ‘doomer metal’ single ‘Pay Ur Taxes!’. The release, part of the forthcoming The Fuckening EP, sees frontman Robert Mulhern continue to laugh into the void, distilling their 2020 modus operandi into one easy to understand – unless you’re a conglomerate – mantra. Mulhern has submitted to us an essay on the origin…

  • Premiere: Zizou – Living On A Plateau

    February 14, 2020 - By 

    Zizou is the brand new solo project of Mathieu Doogan – also singer & multi-instrumentalist with Dublin slack post-punks Angular Hank. Today marks the grand unveiling of his debut single, ‘Living On A Plateau’. Recorded and produced by Mark Belsky, and written in Montreál before Doogan relocated to Dublin, the project’s name comes from Mathieu’s French granny (“born before Zidane”). Striking that perfect combination of the emotional nuance and songwriting mastery of Sparklehorse and Wilco, it’s a wistful series of vivid, scattershot, kitchen sink portraits of those 20s wilderness years. The blurb reads: “It’s partly about nudity, partly about urban planning, mainly about the…