• Remake/Remodel – When Cover Versions Go Weird

    October 28, 2014 - By 

    Doing a cover version is a tricky job, with the amount of creative effort required to make it work frequently outstripping the potential rewards. But sometimes, just sometimes, the elements lock into place, and the planets align, and we’re taken to a higher level of consciousness. The BBC have been running a campaign to find the best cover versions of all time, and the Flaming Lips have just unleashed their song by song reworking of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but what about the ones that slipped through the cracks? This list might not be the best covers in the…

  • Sexual Objects: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk

    October 27, 2014 - By 

    Last month, UK distributor Arrow Films – known for their lavish DVD and BluRay reissues – released new editions of five extraordinary films by the Polish auteur Walerian Borowczyk.  Available as a box set (limited to 1,000 copies and now sold out), as well as individual discs, the beautifully remastered editions make this a perfect time to investigate Browczyk’s bizarre and beautiful oeuvre. Born in 1923, Borowczyk studied painting and lithography in Kraków before embarking on a career as an animator.  Working first in Poland and later in Paris, Borowczyk produced an incredible array of short animation pieces, including the…

  • Tease-O-Rama @ Black Box

    October 22, 2014 - By 

    Tease-O-Rama… what can I say?! One of my favourite nights of the year, it makes me feel like a kid in a candy store (or just myself in a candy store, I still get quite excited about candy) all the glitter, extravagant costumes and dance routines. A night of sensual and hilarious acts from a group of incredibly talented and charismatic characters. The performers reward your appreciation with the removal of a piece of clothing. That is, after all, a major part of Burlesque – the suspense, the tease. The performers have you on the edge of your seat and…

  • Track Record: Michael Smyth (THVS/Tusks)

    October 19, 2014 - By 

    Let’s face it – who doesn’t like to brag about their record collection? In this, the latest installment of Track Record, the toweringly tasteful Michael Smyth, ex-Comply or Die commander-in-riff and current THVS frontman/Tusks sticksman, takes Liam Kielt – and you, our ever-informed readership – on an illustrious ramble through his sweet record collection. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit 7” First one, a classic! I know it’s a single but this is the first record I ever bought. I got this in Hector’s House – I really miss that place. When I first got into music, properly, my friend gave me a copy…

  • Album premiere: Meb Jon Sol – Southpaw Niños

    October 13, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based folk singer-songwriter Michael McCullagh AKA Meb Jon Sol has been on something of a far-reaching musical expedition since his Colenso Parade days. A far cry musically from the starry-eyed indie pop of the latter – now defunct – Omagh five-piece, McCullagh’s debut solo album bears the lyrical and thematic imprint of wisdom and experience throughout, each track underpinned by the inner workings of wanderlust or quixotic wondering. Preceded by “yeo!”-generating singles ‘Leave All Your Troubles With Me‘ and ‘Captain of this Ship‘, Southpaw Niños strikes a keen balance between self-reflection and knowingly cavalier abandon, McCullagh’s quasi-mystical, eager tales of the open road and distant…

  • A Brief History of Post-Punk

    October 10, 2014 - By 

    Unlike many genres of music susceptible to the prefix ‘post-’, post-punk stems from largely traceable foundations. Just as the first wave of punk rock formed via so-called ‘protopunk’ pioneers in Velvet Underground, The Stooges and MC5, post-punk represented the inevitable manifestation of punk rock’s reaction against itself. In other words, despite what it apparently implies, post-punk did not arrive ‘after’ punk: it formed and co-existed alongside it, mirroring its DIY values whilst looking towards a more rigorous aesthetic of artistic complexity beyond punk’s stripped-back musical revolution. Whilst not exactly an outright ‘Year Zero’ or some pre-determined period of rebirth at…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Track of September

    October 7, 2014 - By 

    Not just a pretty face (“Not even a pretty face!”) Aaron Hamilton is a man of fine and discerning taste. So much so, he has his own monthly column here at the Thin Air dedicated to looking back at the very best tracks released in the month previous. As we’re edging our way very cosily into October, here’s his Choice Cuts from September, the equally parts terrific and tumultuous month that was. Busdriver – Retirement Ode (Big Dada) The opener from Busdriver’s just-released masterclass in experimental rap Perfect Hair, Retirement Ode lists the costs involved in the production of the album…

  • Farewell, Adebisi Shank

    September 26, 2014 - By 

    Adebisi Shank’s clarification of their situation helped put a lot of thoughts to rest. “Last gigs for a while”, cool, they must be really taking a stab at America or such now they have Sargent House behind them. “Last gigs in Ireland ever”. Uh, okay, really counting on this to succeed as a statement against how the workings of music in Ireland are gamed against independent music in terms of radio, PR, etc.? A statement on their Facebook put all the talk of expansion, abandoning Ireland, etc. to rest. “Dear friends, We hereby announce the end of a band called…

  • Folk Horror on Telly

    September 19, 2014 - By 

    Telly used to be odd. Often that oddness was on purpose. I’m not talking about the “Alan Partridge pitching on nothing” oddness of shows like Splash or Who’s Doing the Dishes? – Through the Keyhole meets Come Dine With Me presented by the fat one from Westlife. Those shows are obviously just a disgusting waste of time from the ground up. No, I’m talking about the flavoursome, nutritious, umami weirdness of older shows, made by hippies who were trying to communicate something and allowing all manner of folksy freakishness to seep in. Robin of Sherwood, Richard Carpenter’s hour long Silvikrin commercial was tea time television…

  • Stream: A Yes Playlist

    September 18, 2014 - By 

    Very obviously completely unrelated to anything that is happening, anywhere in the world, pertaining to politics, nationalism and all things in between, we’ve decided to compile a ten-track Yes playlist, featuring affirmatively-inclined tracks by the likes of Tune-Yards, Mogwai, Elliott Smith, Beck and Surfer Blood. Stream that below once you’ve finished admiring the strawberry above.