• Primer: Mairead O’hEocha – Blackbirds in the Garden of Prisms

    October 21, 2016 - By 

    I was first introduced to the work of Mairead O’hEocha a little over a year ago, being late to considerably large and entirely justified bandwagon. What initially drew my attention was the completely personal and selfish connection I felt to her series Home Rules. These paintings depicted scenes and locations O’hEocha had encountered during her daily commute from Dublin to Gorey, where she taught in Gorey School of Art. Sure I had seen depictions of the rural town and surrounding countryside of my youth before but not anything like this. Her style and eye evolved further in 2011’s via An…

  • Chairmen of the Bored: Nostalgia’s Tight Grip on Stranger Things

    October 18, 2016 - By 

    The opening of Netflix’s smash hit Stranger Things finds four adolescent boys gathered round a table, intently focussed on some bits of paper, and some lead figures. The boys are playing Dungeons & Dragons, the perennially popular roleplaying game which caused a moral panic in the 1980s, with concerned moral crusaders convinced that the game was a recruiting ground for Satanists and murderers. The game serves as a framing device for the whole show, with our four young heroes sent on a quest more dangerous and compelling than any dungeon adventure they might concoct in the basement. And along the…

  • Gigs of the Week: No Spill Blood, Katie Kim, Slomatics, Holy Fuck, Sister Ghost

    October 13, 2016 - By 

    From the bone-crushing mighty of Slomatics to the propulsive lo-fi electronica of Holy Fuck, this week’s Thin Air Gigs of the Week is a distinctly darker, heavier affair to last week’s guide. Anyone who tries to contest that’s a bad thing is wrong, my friend. Very wrong. No Spill Blood, Robocobra Quartet, Thumper Bello Bar, Dublin Friday, October 14 Trust be told, you’ll struggle to find a stronger three-band Irish bill than Sargent House’s No Spill Blood, Belfast’s singular Robocobra Quartet and Dublin noise-pop Thumper. With that in mind, Bello Bar is most definitely the place to be in Dublin on Friday night. Slomatics…

  • The Thin Air Tracks of the Week: Cloud Nothings, Æ MAK, Foxygen, Irma Vep etc.

    October 13, 2016 - By 

    While it’s been significantly quieter on the home front compared to last week, the last few days have yielded some serious gems here in Ireland and much further afield. Here’s The Thin Air’s Tracks of the Week, featuring Cloud Nothings, Æ MAK, Myronik and more. Irma Vep – Still Sorry Sublime psych-pop from the Manchester-based DIY artist. AE MAK – I Can Feel It In My Bones One of Ireland most singular acts return with an almighty earwormer. Cloud Nothings – Modern Act Here, the new Cloud Nothings (pictured above) sounds very Cloud Nothings-y. This a good thing. Buckles n’ Son…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Narrative

    October 11, 2016 - By 

    Most exhibitions, in fact most artistic presentations be they albums, books or films, rely on and in most cases are defined by the strength of the narrative that exists or is absent from their presentation. They ensure an audience is guided through the work and suitably poked in the right direction when needed or left to surmise when required. While this idea of a structural narrative is almost universally present in outputs, it’s realisation and presence can be a diverse as the types of works it links and flows between. It can seen conjoining two distinct and seemingly opposing stories…

  • Track Record: Jess Kav (BARQ)

    October 8, 2016 - By 

    Dublin musician and BARQ frontwoman Jess Kav handpicks a selection of records that have left an indelible imprint on her music and life, including Chaka Khan, Jape, Ella Fitzgerald and Flying Lotus. Photos by Moira Reilly. Hiatus Kaiyote – Choose Your Weapon Future-Soul deliciousness from Australia or, to quote them, “polyrhythimic, multidimensional gangsta shit”. The album kicks you in the face with glitchy vocals and operatic intensity from the first song ‘By Fire’. Nai Palm’s voice can hold so much sass and vulnerability simultaneously, god I fucking love her. I feel like she’s life-coaching me with her lyrics. Listen out…

  • Inbound: Whim

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Whim AKA Sarah Di Muzio was born and raised in San Francisco but moved to Portland “in favour of rain and indie Pacific Northwest music”. A visit to Ireland in April 2015 saw her fall in love with Galway, probably for the same reasons, and she has lived here ever since. At only twenty years old she possesses an ability to craft clever indie-folk-pop tunes, the kind that wouldn’t seem out of place in that particularly American brand of quirky hipster rom-com. In fact, her second EP, The Funeral Guest – released in 2015 – was soundtrack to a movie…

  • The Thin Air Tracks of the Week: J Mascis, Solar Bears, Thee Oh Sees, Enemies etc.

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    You know, we got thinking: three years in, it’s really about time that we started herding up our very favourite tracks – Irish and international – and putting them in one place, each and every week. That very obvious thought developed into a very simple plan (ten or so positively must-hear tracks every Thursday) and here we are. This is it. You are here. Dig below. Enemies – ‘itsallwaves’ RIP Enemies. Don’t miss their farewell show at Vicar Street in December. J Mascis – ‘Waltz 2’ (Elliott Smith cover) It probably shouldn’t work but it does. Go here, man. Crystal…

  • Gigs of the Week: Stars of The Lid, Twitch, David Holmes, HWCH & Cathy Davey

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    While this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes in Dublin is undoubtedly the biggest draw in the country this weekend, it seems we’ve chose a particularly to re-launch our Gigs of the Week feature, a weekly round-up looking at (would you believe?) some of the very best and downright unmissable shows taking place – North and South – over the next few days. Cathy Davey Spirit Store, Dundalk Friday, October 7 Having just released her beguiling fourth studio album, New Forest, Cathy Davey (pictured above) has quickly re-established herself as one of the country’s most intriguing solo propositions. Also playing host to…

  • Galaxy’s Greatest Comic: The Story of 2000AD

    October 4, 2016 - By 

    The story goes that the editors of 2000AD – British sci-fi institution and self-styled ‘The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’ – chose its title thinking it would never see the millennia. Nigh on 40 years later it’s still in print, with this week seeing the release of its landmark 2000th issue, giving a perfect chance to reflect on its almost incalculable influence on the comics world and pop culture as a whole. When editor/writer Pat Mills was commissioned with creating a Star Wars cash-in in 1977, he saw it as a vehicle for his own brand of anti-authoritarian anarchy, enlisting fellow scribe John…