• The First Time: Alana Henderson

    May 24, 2013 - By 

    In the very first installment of The First Time, we ask fast-rising, cello-wielding, Dungannon-derived songstress Alana Henderson to cast her minds eye back to pivotal ‘firsts’ in her music-listening, discovering and making life. Next week: Mojo Fury’s Mike Mormecha. First album you bought? Lets be honest shall we? It was a Shania Twain album. Come On Over. I was off school sick and I remember gathering the money together and sending my mum to go and buy me it in Woolworths in Dungannon. I’m pretty sure I loved it. The first album I remember buying myself was Anthony & The…

  • “Social Consciousness and Bono”: Nomeansno interviewed

    May 24, 2013 - By 

    In 1979, two brothers got together in a basement in Canada, and began making noise. In 2013, that noise shows no sign of dissipating. Nomeansno have blazed a trail through punk rock, tackling the subjects that few others would dare to, and experiencing more reinventions than a gaggle of scientists at a reinventing convention.  Currently somewhere out there in the world, preaching the gospel, Steven Rainey caught up with guitarist Tom Holliston to get the low-down on the career that never should have been. Nomeansno are an enigma. Wrapped in a conundrum, if you like. Whatever suits you. A lot…

  • Lost In Necropolis: Nomadic Rituals

    May 15, 2013 - By 

    In the very first of his regular column on all things metal – Lost In Necropolis – Conchobhar Ó Dochartaigh catches up with Belfast-based doom/sludge metal three-piece Nomadic Rituals ahead of the release of their debut album to talk doom, recording and their thoughts on the local metal scene. Tell us about how the band formed. Was there a shared vision or aim in mind? What influences would be a good reference point for those unfamiliar with you? Craig, our vocalist/bassist, asked us if we wanted to form a sludge/doom band, so we organised a jam to see if it…

  • Will Self

    May 3, 2013 - By 

    As much renown for his towering intellect and vocabulary as he is for his increasingly ambitious literary work, 51-year-old writer and journalist Will Self is, equally, widely recognised as “that clever guy from Question Time and/or Shooting Stars“. Ahead of his talk at this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Brian Coney happily risks becoming fully aware of his own intellectual impotency in discussing Self’s beloved London, the oft-misunderstood approach ‘psychogeography’ and the author’s latest, arguably most accomplished novel, the Man Booker Prize-nominated Umbrella. You have, of course, recently published Umbrella. At the risk if being too general, what type of…

  • Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2013

    May 3, 2013 - By 

    Having gone from strength to strength over the last decade and a bit, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival has all but cemented its reputation as the most versatile and wholly immersive arts festival in Northern Ireland, if not the whole island of Ireland. As it prepares once more to dominate Belfast night-life and enthrall thousands across ten days of lovingly-selected, boundlessly exciting music, art, comedy and everything in between, Brian Coney sits down with CQAF organiser from day one, Sean Kelly, to discuss what’s in store and how the country’s most loved annual arts festival came to be. ______ Hi Sean.…

  • The Tell Tale-Hearts: Desert Hearts

    May 3, 2013 - By 

    Seven years since they last released an album, Desert Hearts return, vision undimmed and armed with a magnificent new record. And, as Francis Jones discovers, the passing of time has not tamed them. I’m sitting downstairs in Voodoo bar in Belfast awaiting the arrival of Desert Hearts. I’m here to interview them about their new album, Enturbulation=No Challenge. The last – and only previous – time I interviewed this band was back in 2006, around the release of their second album, Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki. My memories of that evening are not altogether pleasant. Drummer Chris Heaney had recently departed the…

  • Inbound: The Altered Hours

    May 3, 2013 - By 

    Of the many acts to emerge seemingly fully-formed from a currently thriving Cork scene, five-piece The Altered Hours rank right up there as the most downright thrilling. Brandishing a superbly kaleidoscopic, altogether hypnotic brand Krautrock-tinged psych-rock, the band, who recently supported New York psych masters White Hills on their Irish tour, have just released their superb debut 10″ Sweet Jelly Roll on A Records. In the first of our Inbound: series, focusing on new and exciting Irish acts, we catch up with four fifths of the young band to get the lowdown on their sound, mindset and steady rise. Words…