• Deep Down South: Few Gigs There, Lads

    January 26, 2015 - By 

    Irish metal has been having a few years of exponential growth, with the rise of all-dayers like The Siege of Limerick and bands like Primordial, Murdock and Coldwar representing the island’s riff community on the world stage, and quality stuff materialising from the woodwork everywhere, from Ilenkus and Kawtiks to veterans like For Ruin and Mael Mordha. But at the forefront of all this has been Limerick prog-metal monoliths Shardborne, coming to the Cork Community Print Shop this Saturday care of PYRE Promotions, with Ealadha and Mannequin Republic in tow. Launching upcoming LP ‘Living Bridges’, the instrumental quartet’s combination of…

  • Deep Down South: More Block Party, Doin’ Pana, and a Bail of Riffs

    January 19, 2015 - By 

    Quarter and the Makeshift Ensemble‘s Block Party last week announced the newest additions to their Block Party festival, happening across North and South Main Streets on February 6 to 8. Added to the multidisciplinary arts weekend’s lineup are psych heavyweights The Altered Hours, shoegaze outfit Elastic Sleep (pictured), as well as Tandem Felix and Fierce Mild. Irish Times journo Jim Carroll brings his Banter series to The Vision Centre @ St. Peter’s on the Saturday. The first session – Inside the Miracle of Sound – will see Jim speaking to Cork musician Gavin Dunne about getting his start in the business,…

  • The Eternal Folly of The New Year Resolution

    January 15, 2015 - By 

    A solitary ray of sunlight cracks through the curtains, penetrating the dank grime of the post New Year’s Eve party carnage, announcing the dawning of a new age. For dramatic effect, Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt morning suite is playing in the background. You cast off the filth and scrum of the night before (it was a particularly heavy party, we can assume), and you stand before the sun, naked as the day you were born, sreaming in the face of the eternal, “THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT! I AM THE MASTER OF MY OWN DESTINY!”At least, that’s what a lot of us plan to do, anyway.…

  • Start a Band

    November 10, 2014 - By 

    Good day, readers! I’m Chris and The Thin Air have kindly provided me with this platform to talk about the wonderful world of touring and other aspects of life in a band. I began touring about seven years ago, the early days consisted mostly of performing to tiny amounts of people, being broke and sleeping on floors or in vans. Since then there has been no catapult to superstardom, more a gradual yet steady progression in my touring lifestyle and in many ways I feel very fortunate for this, as it has helped me develop a resilience to a lot…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… October

    November 5, 2014 - By 

    Black Milk – ‘Everyday Was’ ft. Mel Computer Ugly Opening with 16-bit synth sounds before transitioning into the track proper, Black Milk’s new album If There’s A Hell Below harks back to Cannibal Ox’s 2001 album The Cold Vein. On this opening track, ‘Everyday Was’, a simple and catchy bass melody forms the backbone of a beautifully textured instrumental, once again reminiscent of that CanOx classic. If There's A Hell Below by Black Milk Dutch Uncles – ‘In n Out’ Memphis Industries The first sample of O Shudder, the new album from Dutch Uncles, ‘In n Out’ is an unashamed…

  • Robin Williams: R.I.P.

    August 11, 2014 - By 

    We watch off as it happens again. Another familiar name that stared out from the telly or from the posters is gone. We’ve trained ourselves to observe these passings like a spectator sport, another body of work coming to end without a second thought for the families and friends left behind. We tell ourselves that people die around the world everyday in war and famine, accuse others of bandwagoneering, and in some sort of perverse way, these people are almost rationalised away as casualties of a full life, rewarded with infinite adulation. A name and a face on a wall.…

  • Meb Jon Sol: Worried Man, in A

    July 29, 2014 - By 

    I pressed the dusty keys of the old upright near the entrance of the barn. It let out a brace of discordant notes in the close summer heat and left little finger silhouettes in the dirt on the ivory. ’I shouldn’t be here,’ I thought, ‘and it won’t be long until I’m found out.’ The barn was out the back of a farmhouse around the back roads of Leitrim. It had been converted into a studio, but it seemed to have fought valiantly against the conversion. Rusting car parts and stumped farm tools scattered around the stony garden surrounding the…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… July

    July 31, 2014 - By 

    Death From Above 1979 – Trainwreck 1979 (Last Gang Records) The stonking great bass thump on Death From Above 1979‘s 2004 record You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine was an undeniable part of the duo’s past successes. Ten years later and we are finally getting another taste. Their sound hasn’t evolved drastically, but with the new track ‘Trainwreck 1979’, its obvious that the band is out to make a statement, a reaffirmation of what they can do with a bass and a roaring vocal hook. NehruvianDoom – OM (Lex Records) The second track to be unveiled from NehruvianDoom‘s debut album, ‘OM’ is a…

  • The Pavilion

    July 22, 2014 - By 

    Yesterday morning we woke up to the news of the closure of another Cork venue. The Pavilion, after eight years under current management, suddenly shut its doors, flourishing with a magnanimous thank-you over its social media channels to its regulars and social media followers. It’s sad. A wonderful venue, that supported Cork artists so wholeheartedly over the years, and brought in its share of legendary names over the years, from Stiff Little Fingers to Lee Scratch Perry, has come to an end. A place where magic was made, a swathe of musicians cut their chops, and a regular crew of DJs,…

  • Meb Jon Sol: Bound For Glory

    July 14, 2014 - By 

    I pulled my cap further down my brow and buried my face deeper in my scarf to shelter from the biting cold. It had been threatening to snow all day but so far only delivered misty rain that cascaded down in brilliant sheets through the winter night. First came a pair of headlights, piercing the rain grey. Soon the entire shape of the lorry tore around the McKenzie roundabout I was standing on, shuttling at a speed which I feared would cause it to topple over on top of me. The driver maneuvered the roundabout with ease, circling and parking…