• Hilary Woods – Colt

    April 25, 2018 - By 

    Some artists are just destined to wind up on certain rosters. One such act is Dublin’s Hilary Woods, an artist whose solo craft we’ve followed with a certain glee over the last couple of years. On June 8, the musician, ex-JJ72 member and multi-instrumentalist will release her debut full-length album, Colt, via Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones, an indie imprint whose discerning (and, so far, pretty impeccable) penchant for repping acts such as Zola Jesus, Jenny Hval, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass and Marissa Nadler runs directly parallel with Woods’ very own crepuscular craft. Her minimal composition & otherwordly layered atmospherics follow two acclaimed EPs and recent scoring of a horror film for IFI’s Weimar…

  • Just Mustard – Wednesday

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    We’ve already said it, but it bears repeating – Dundalk’s Just Mustard are becoming one of our favourite bands in Ireland, and on May 2, they release their debut LP, Wednesday. Moulding swooning, soaring psych-gaze from elements of post-punk, lo-fi electronic & trip-hop, their space-conscious guitar abrasions and delicately haunting aquatic vocals, as we’ve described, “taps right into that exact feeling that creeps in at great small Irish festivals around the early evening. You know the one we’re talking about.” The band have “made a conscious effort to provide the listener with the experience of hearing the band in a room, in their natural state, with little to…

  • Brand New Friend – Seatbelts For Aeroplanes

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock up north, you might have heard about the crest of a wave atop which Brand New Friend have been surfing for the past couple of years. Hype was high based on their live shows even ahead of the release of their almost dangerously-earworming debut EP, American Wives, back in 2016. Fronted by the impossibly charming sibling duo of Castlerock-born Taylor & Lauren Johnson, the band’s brand of starry-eyed, harmony-driven indie-pop is on full display on their forthcoming debut album, Seatbelts For Airplanes.  Johnson’s confessional lyrics allude to the unspoken things in relationships, the nature of overthinking and self-doubt – shaped by the purity of a youthful mind and the Brand New Friend…

  • The Wood Burning Savages – Stability

    April 23, 2018 - By 

    This Friday, April 27, a debut album that’s long been one of NI’s most anticipated, The Wood Burning Savages finally sees its release. Between its effervescent indie rock and vitriol-turned-punk-anthem, the quartet are seemingly set to posit themselves as spiritual and sonic successors to the proudly socialist, alternative punk torch long-carried by the Manic Street Preachers. Debut LP Stability was produced by Start Together’s Rocky O’Reilly and mastered by Robin Schmidt. Derry-born frontman Paul Connolly has the following to say on the release of the album: “A collection of songs about a working class furious at years of empty promises from billionaire Tory MPs who have no…

  • Ry Cooder, Action Bronson, Doug Stanhope, Dweezil Zappa & Incubus Set For Irish Shows

    April 23, 2018 - By 

    Shake off those Monday blues, because there’s almost certainly a show for you amongst today’s announcements: One of the all-time foremost purveyors of roots music, American musician, songwriter, composer & producer Ry Cooder makes a rare appearance at Dublin’s National Stadium on October 15. Tickets are priced €76 from Ticketmaster, and go on sale this Friday April 27th at 9am. Pushing misanthropy to the limit, one of the world’s most gifted & natural comedians’ comedians’ comedians, Doug Stanhope makes his first trip to Ireland in several years, playing the Olympia Theatre on June 14. Tickets are priced €40 from Ticketmaster, and go on sale this Friday April 27th at 9am. Fancy revisiting those halcyon days of turntablist alt. rock? Incubus return…

  • Video Premiere: The Wood Burning Savages – I Don’t Know Why I Do It To Myself

    April 19, 2018 - By 

    Just over a week from the release of a debut album that’s long been one of NI’s most anticipated, The Wood Burning Savages have just dropped a surprise video for single ‘I Don’t Know Why I Do It To Myself’. The video accompanies another rock anthem from an act seemingly set to posit themselves as spiritual and sonic successors to the proudly socialist, alternative punk torch long-carried by the Manic Street Preachers. Minimal, but effective, we see frontman Paul Connolly stroll from inauspicious, disenfranchised beginnings through to the coke-fuelled neoliberal dream – think Ken Loach taking a shortcut through Jordan Belfort. Debut LP Stability was produced by Start Together’s Rocky O’Reilly and…

  • Celtronic 2018

    April 19, 2018 - By 

    Ireland’s leading electronic music festival returns for its eighteenth year across Derry. Celtronic runs from June 27-July 1, featuring concerts, film screenings, workshops, seminars, recording projects and more. Headlining musical proceedings is the iconic veteran Roman Flügel, Steve Bug, Gerd Janson closes events, techno artist DVS1, noisician Paula Temple, Avalon Emerson. Local names include OR:LA, The Cyclist, Ryan Vail and Darren Allen. One of the highlights is sure to be the premiere of new music from Phil Kieran and three local musicians, recorded at Celtronic Studios and performed by the Ulster Orchestra. Priced £59.88 including booking fee, tickets are available to buy…

  • Record Store Day Set To Take Over Bangor High Street

    April 17, 2018 - By 

    As we well know, Record Store Day takes place this Saturday, April 21st, and in celebration, Bangor’s leading the annual day of wax in the North with a series of events on High Street.  Unfortunately for Belfasters, the closure of Belfast mainstays, Head & Sick Records has left them with no local outlets. Thankfully, Bangor’s Bending Sound Records is just a quick train ride away, and will open from 9am-5pm to help. Across the road, the MG car showroom hosts another record fair from 9am-3pm, from which point Flea Market Soul takes over just two doors down, offering up that rare treat: vinyl-only DJs, through the evening on…

  • Watch: Eraser TV – (1-800 COAST 2 COAST)

    April 13, 2018 - By 

    Modern Classic is the logically-titled sequel to last year’s Buzzfeed Depression Quiz from self-aware Limerick indie rockers Eraser TV, one of the exciting DIY acts to emerge from the city in the past year. Their second EP once more plays upon the tense, gently experimental discordance underlying in their breezy, occasionally loungy lo-fi indie rock as frontman Cian McGuirk pines throughout, channeling some Pavement circa Crooked Rain wistful reflection on the wonderful ‘Season 2’. Drawing from the everything-is-commercial-bliss vaporwave aesthetic, they’ve just released a video for for ‘(1-800) COAST 2 COAST’. Seeping the liquescent chorus of decades gone by, it’s a hepped-up, psych-tinged take on what Sonic Youth were doing around Evol.…

  • Fears: h_always

    April 6, 2018 - By 

    Content note: Suicide & self harm.  Under the Fears moniker, Constance Keane hasn’t ever shied from making music that challenges pervasive feelings of anxiety, just as her previous outlet, the sonically-opposing M(h)aol, used primal, abrasive noise-punk as its own vehicle to address greater issues. And, as with anyone who holds complete autonomy over their creativity, it’s often assumed that it’s just one aspect of someone in tune with themselves. By her own admission, Constance has worked hard to accept, utilise, and channel that into a busy and fulfilling professional & artistic life. However, following a traumatic event in Autumn 2017, Constance fell into a suicidal state, and following several trips to A&E, she was admitted to a psychiatric…