• Timbuktu

    June 7, 2015 - By 

    In the world right now, there is a cultural war unfolding. It’s a conflict of moderation against militancy as ordinary Muslims try to sustain their way of life in the face of violence and campaign of fear in the form of ISIS, whose commitment to brutality may well be one of the most legitimately terrifying elements of contemporary society. The group hold a unique position; by flooding the news with hyper-flashy, well edited YouTube videos of their barbarity, they’ve ensured their constant presence on television screens and on and offline publications globally. This monstrous self-promotion has put any kind of…

  • Stewart Lee w/ Chris Kent @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    May 26, 2015 - By 

    It’s May 24, 2015. It’s been one day since Ireland has officially voted in legislation to allow equal marital rights to the LGBTQA community. The previous night’s celebrations are literally the stuff of legend and in its aftermath, the city of Dublin is collectively undergoing what can only be described as a fierce hangover. Yet in spite of this, the atmosphere in Vicar Street is warm and welcoming. That sense of accomplishment and pride from Saturday is still in the air. So it makes sense that many of us decided to flock to see Stewart Lee, probably one of the…

  • Interview: The Cribs

    May 17, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of Belfast and Dublin shows this week, English indie rock brother trio The Cribs are already working on their forthcoming seventh studio with none other than Steve Albini, having just released their sixth, For All My Sisters. In a revealing conversation with Will Murphy, Ryan Jarman from the band touches upon being “reluctantly co-opted” by the mainstream, the loyalty of their fans and the band’s “opinionated” nature. So, how is this tour going for you guys? It’s really short. We’re literally just here doing The Great Escape from Brighton and then we’re going out to do a couple of Irish dates. I…

  • Blur Retrospective: Parklife (1994)

    May 1, 2015 - By 

    There is something to be said about a frankly worrying number of classic records which is that many of them aren’t up to scratch. There are countless albums which on release were showered with some of the most golden platitudes ever forged. They captured a zeitgeist so perfectly that they must be regarded as true classics. But when you remove them from their time frame, many of them struggle to stand out. Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches is a fun record, but it’s nothing more than that. Post Merriweather Pavilion is a collection of bleeps that we convinced ourselves was…

  • Interview: Charlie Caplowe (Xtra Mile Recordings)

    April 29, 2015 - By 

    In a revealing conversation, Will Murphy talks to Charlie Caplowe, founder of one of the finest independent record labels around, Xtra Mile Recordings. Based in London, the imprint is responsible for putting out some stellar records from Reuben, Frank Turner/Million Dead, Future of the Left, Against Me! and many more. Hi Charlie. What’s the early history of Xtra Mile? What led to the creation? Who were the key players? I was working as a PR for many years handling the press for many acts including Million Dead, Frank Turner’s old band. No labels were signing them, so I said, “Well, sod that.…

  • Blur Retrospective: Modern Life is Rubbish

    April 27, 2015 - By 

    Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish is very much an album made under duress. Having toured the US at their label’s insistence, the band found themselves over £60000 in debt with no commercial prospects to make it back. In order salvage some cash, the group released “Popscene”, a punk inspired, horn heavy stomper with hatefully playful lyrics about the music industry. It’s the sound of band taking all of the frustration and rage they been bottling up for years and letting it out in one vicious, beautiful burst. Naturally it tanked and barely dented the pop charts, peaking at number 32.…

  • Blur Retrospective: Leisure (1991)

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Examining the runt of a band’s musical litter is a never fun. Looking at this small, misshapen thing and comparing it to its stronger, better formed siblings, you almost develop a strange affection for it; a kind of pity. The perpetual adolescence nature of them, acne ridden and still trying to discover what they are and who they could be. Sometimes these little creatures contain more depth and warmth than their cooler, better developed counterparts. Other times they are the like visiting a social media ghost town and seeing all those images and ideas that you were so proud of…

  • Life Festival

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Now in its tenth year, the Life Festival takes place at Mullingar’s Belvedere House & Gardens on the weekend of May 29-31. Headlining is hip-hop icon NAS, performing his out-and-out masterpiece, Illmatic. Also on the bill are the likes of: Squarepusher, Siriusmodeselektor, Eats Everything, The Underachievers, a live set from Gold Panda, Ben Klock, Jurassic 5’s Nu-Mark, Optimo, Sunil Sharpe, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Pantha Du Prince, Skream, Ten Walls, Ratking, Derrick Carter, The Magician, Maceo Plex, Kölsch, Robert Hood, Alle Farben, Oneman, Luke Vibert, Jasper James, High Contrast, Ben UFO, Ame, and many more. Tickets, priced at €145, are available from the Life Festival.

  • Robocobra Quartet – Bomber EP

    April 16, 2015 - By 

    In the quest for the new sound, the path is one paved with ambitious intentions and fraught with admirable failed experiments and laughable attempts at the avant garde. Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music is a terrible album that forces the listener to reconsider what they might constitute as real music, while Lulu is an album where James Hetfield feels it appropriate to yell “I am the table”, while Lou Reed’s withered husk struggles to sing some Burrowsian tripe. Both of these releases are burying their fingers in the earth, digging for something and coming up with dirty fingers. There are…

  • Fast and Furious 7

    April 6, 2015 - By 

    Typically, we love the underdog story. The scrappy young team of misfits and broken toys come together to take on the elite and emerge victorious. The Fast and Furious series is very much an underdog story. From the initial entry, the film got a deserved critical mauling that carried on for the earliest entries. The films were inherently ridiculous but treated themselves with such a po-faced sincerity that much of the fun was derived from the deepest ironic wells. Fortunately the arrival of director Justin Lin helped to curb this. Directing four of the series’ seven entries, Lin not only…