• Front of House: Keith Killen (Skinny)

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of Front of House, photographer Tara Thomas shoots and talks work, experience and breaking through in the industry with Irish tour manager, backline tech and touring guitar tech Keith Killen AKA Skinny. Hi Keith! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Well, I like long walks in the rain and… I’m 30, I work as a touring guitar tech, backline tech and tour manager for a number of bands as well as FOH and some corporate work. I absolutely love my job and don’t like having too much time off, idle hands and all that!…

  • Monday Mixtape: Jack O’Rourke

    November 14, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Cork artist Jack O’Rourke guides us through some of his all-time favourite songs, including Iggy Pop, O Emperor, Beach House and Randy Newman. O’Rourke plays Mike The Pies in Listowel, Kerry and Belfast’s Duncairn Arts Centre on Thursday and Friday respectively. O Emperor – Po Everything O Emperor have put out is fucking incredible. They are edgy and push the boundaries sonically but there’s so many melodic hooks and genuine musicianship, so you’re never left thinking, is this Emperor’s new clothes? Inventive melodies and the sentiment about running from The Man with the trippiest video makes it compulsive…

  • So Long, Leonard Cohen

    November 11, 2016 - By 

    To suggest that the life of Leonard Cohen was anything short of remarkable would be an understatement by anyone’s standards. Poet, songwriter, accidental fashionista, Buddhist monk, wheeler and dealer, lover and friend, forever a gentleman, and never far from the sharpened edges of comedic wit, the man lived as great men do – with a profound love for the beautiful things, an acceptance of the inevitable, and an enthusiasm to share it all with a world in desperate need of something with which to relate. Leonard Cohen has been known as the songwriter’s songwriter since his debut release Songs of…

  • Playlist: Northern Ireland Music Prize 2016

    November 8, 2016 - By 

    On Friday, November 11, 12 Northern Irish acts will vie to be awarded this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize, essentially the Northern equivalent of the Choice Music Prize. With Downpatrick’s Ash set to received the Oh Yeah Legend Award – before playing their 1977 album in full –  shortlisted acts PORTS, Jealous of the Birds and Girls Names will also be performing on the night. Ahead of the event, we’ve compiled a Spotify playlist tracks from the 12 nominated acts, including Documenta, exmagician, Ciaran Lavery and more.

  • Gigs of the Week: Teleman, Peaches, Buzzcocks, Saint Sister, Sarah Neufeld

    November 3, 2016 - By 

    Teleman Limelight 2, Belfast/Workman’s Club, Dublin Friday, November 4/Saturday, November 5 Having released their first-rate, second studio album, Brilliant Sanity, back in April, London indie-pop quartet Teleman stop off at Belfast’s Limelight 2 and Dublin’s and Dublin’s Workman’s on Friday and Saturday. Total newcomer? Well worth checking out on a whim. Peaches w/ Cut Once The Academy, Dublin Sunday, November 6 Supported by Dublin duo electronic duo Michael Hefferman and Aisling Browne Cut Once, electro-pop Queen par excellence Merrill Beth Nisker AKA Peaches plays hands down the best show in the country on Sunday night at the Academy. Brought to…

  • Festival Mixtape: Metropolis 2016

    November 3, 2016 - By 

    Set to bring the veritable cream of the sonic crop to Dublin’s RDS this weekend, Metropolis is undoubtedly one of those festivals worthy of being doubly filed under “must-attend”. Ahead of the three-night blitz of sight and sound, stream our twenty-track Metropolis Festival Mixtape, featuring DJ Shadow, Moderat, Girl Band, Jessy Lanza, BADBADNOTGOOD (pictured), The Sugar Hill Gang, Novelist, Shura, Crystal Castles and the mighty Grace Jones, below.

  • Label Mixtape: Castle Face Records

    November 1, 2016 - By 

    San Francisco based Castle Face Records is an independent label that was formed ten years ago by Thee Oh See’ John Dwyer along with associates.  Brian Lee Hughes – who worked on a film for Coachwhips (another J.D. fronted band) final performance – fell in love with Dwyer’s work and offered financial assistance to allow him to release his endless stream of musical conceptions.  It came at a time when a major label had duplicitously dropped the ball when it came to releasing Thee Oh Sees’ Sucks Blood (2007).  These serendipitous events proved to be the catalyst needed to form Castle…

  • No Country For Bold Men: The Stormy Psychedelia of the 13th Floor Elevators

    October 31, 2016 - By 

    It’s something of an accepted cultural trope that sixties music was awash with recreational drug use. Acid, in particular, still holds a central place in many people’s conception of the sixties western counterculture as a socio-historical phenomenon, to the extent that anyone wishing to visually document the decade seems obligated to include a montage of marches, hirsute men and women looking a bit glazed, riots, Hendrix, more marches & Nixon – all set to the Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’. It’s one of those culturally reductive but semiotically useful ways of describing material history, albeit one that leads to sourceless pseudo-proverbs…

  • Gigs of the Week: Windings, Kiasmos, James Blake, DJ Yoda & Mhaol

    October 27, 2016 - By 

    Sure, the irrefutable gig of the week has already happened but bearing in mind this feature prefers to focus on the weekend, let’s try and stay positive. As ever, Halloween is a massive weekend in all corners of the country with shows, one-offs and happenings of every ilk cropping up across the board. This year is no different. Here’s our five must-attend gigs. James Blake Limelight 1, Belfast/Olympia Theatre, Dublin Friday, October 28/Saturday, October 29 Having released his stellar third studio album, The Colour In Anything, back in May, these are positively unmissable Irish dates from the Grammy-nominated Londoner. Kiasmos (DJ Set) Saturday,…

  • Track Record: Ruan Van Vliet

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Popical Island co-founder and Dublin-based artist Ruan Van Vliet shares some of the more curious gems in his record collection, including Abigail & The Horsey, Ketaminnie Driver and Ammo Blood. Photos by Aaron Corr. Tutankhamun Joyner – Celestial Brouhaha Already a well known sideman in groups led by John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Barry Coltrane, Joyner stepped out on his own with this debut as band leader on the Impulse! label in 1969. Energy music, free skronk, multiphonic overblowing, spiritual yodelling – this is a huge mess and I can’t make head nor tails of it. Nightmare. Peepin’ Tommy Pervis – Outside…