• Frame By Frame #001: Abandcalledboy – Cliff Richard

    February 4, 2014 - By 

    In the very first installment of Frame By Frame – a brand new feature looking at the production of music videos by all kinds of  Irish bands and artists – Colm Laverty talks to Ryan Burrowes and Mark Finnegan from Northern Irish alt-rock trio Abandcalledboy about their recent, wonderfully retro tribute to the Peter Pan of pop, Cliff Richard. >Hi guys. First off, tell us a little bit about each of your roles on this music video. Mark (Finnegan, bass): I did a lot of the pre-production (storyboarding, set pieces, locations), it’s something I have a bit of experience in, but…

  • Interview: Cymbals

    January 31, 2014 - By 

    C Having just released their long-awaited second album, the stellar The Age of Fracture, London DIY ‘tropi-disco’ four-piece Cymbals have spent the last two months carefully re-imagining their decidedly danceable electro-indie craft. Inspired by the decaying nature of semantics and everyday meaning in the modern age – as written in the book of the same title by Princeton academic, Daniel T. Rodgers – the album is challenging and resolutely enjoyable in equal proportion. Ahead of their Belfast show at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Thursday, February 6, we talk to the band’s bassist Luke Carson to discuss concepts, inspiration and the band’s implicit “manifesto”…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… January

    January 31, 2014 - By 

    In the first of an new series-based feature, Belfast-based writer Aaron Hamilton trawls through the very best music released in the month of January, distilling his favourites to a mere eight tracks.  Whereas the first five are in no particular order, the final three are, as you might well guess, in order of consecutive greatness. Will we be humming their choruses this time next month? Check yourself then and read on now. St. Vincent – Digital Witness [Loma Vista] A second teaser to her upcoming album, ‘Digital Witness’ shows a decidedly weirder side to Annie Clark’s music. The big horns are…

  • Inbound: Cruising

    January 30, 2014 - By 

    Comprised of members from Belfast and Dublin respectively, Cruising reared their head back in November with a scuzzy, two-chorded burst of overcast garage-rock in the form of ‘You Made Me Do That’. It pricked our ears and spiked our inner eye from the first crashing cymbal, the four-piece’s albeit “early days” vibe positively promising some great things in the making. Ahead of their debut Belfast show supporting September Girls at the Menagerie on Saturday, February 1, we fired a few questions to band (featuring one or two familiar faces) and they fired some answers back. Hello, Cruising. Whilst we could be…

  • The Record #004: Stillpoint

    January 28, 2014 - By 

    In the latest installment of The Record, Liam Kielt caught up with Belfast alt-rock band Stillpoint as they recorded their forthcoming single ‘Go Ahead and Go’ at Start Together Studio. A semi-swansong as sorts coinciding with the band’s recent decision to go on hiatus for a while, it will be released at some point over the next couple of months. Check out Liam’s photos from the recording and our interview with Stillpoint frontman (and Two Glass Eyes‘ bassist) Dave McKendry below. Hey guys. You recently recorded your single ‘Go Ahead and Go’ at Start Together. Tell us about the recording process.…

  • Q&A: Girl Band

    January 22, 2014 - By 

    Dublin-based quartet Girl Band have made a hell of a lot of noise in a short space of time. From last year’s gloriously curdling racket of a Blawan cover, ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’,  the band have been riding on a fresh wave of attention which has not only rekindled interest in their 2012 EP, France 98, but has also created something of a hypestorm around their latest single, ‘Lawman’. What’s particularly refreshing is that said hype seems to be justified – the aforementioned single is a six-minute beast of a thing; all dread-inducing basslines and frenetic percussion.…

  • Q&A: Hornets

    January 23, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their forthcoming new EP, No Faith, we chat to Sib, vocalist/bassist from Belfast punk metal band Hornets about the writing and recording of the release, recently expanding to a four-piece and what the next few months hold in store for the band. Photos by David Timlin. You’re set to release your latest EP in the coming weeks. How was the song writing process for these songs and what can we expect to hear? Yes, our new EP, No Faith, is to be released on the 31st March. The song writing process for the EP was much…

  • Ten Reasons Why You Should Love Iron Maiden

    January 20, 2014 - By 

    Whether you like it or not, Iron Maiden are one of the most successful British bands of the last 35 years, ignoring traditional methods of support to stay at the top of the pack. They’ve (fairly) consistently managed to stay ahead of their peers, and even after all this time, still manage to pull out a few surprises. They’re going to be spending a large portion of 2014 on the road, effectively laying rest to their 80s legacy in a series of epic gigs all across Europe. But for those of us who’ve never appreciated the unique charms of the…

  • Interview: Tera Melos

    January 19, 2014 - By 

    There are few bands who can write a song that is equally melodic, complex, and crushingly heavy in quite the way that Tera Melos do. Even in their earlier, scuzzier part of their career – when the three-piece’s songs really just sounded like a patchwork of fairly disparate ideas and virtuoso instrumentalism – their first, self-titled release was a group of nine songs, ‘Melody 1’ to ‘Melody 8’. The band have always shirked the “math-rock” genre that is often applied to them, and as their sound has developed it becomes easier to see why. Their sound has followed a very…

  • Spaceman: A Harry Nilsson Tribute Playlist

    January 15, 2014 - By 

    Twenty years ago today – in January 15, 1994 – the towering, thoroughly one-of-a-kind musical genius of one Harry Nilsson fizzled out for good in a home in Agoura Hills, California. At the age of just 52 years old, the New York singer-songwriter bid farewell to a plain that he documented and distilled so incisively and astutely not only via his extremely eclectic original compositions but also in his various collaborations and innumerable reworkings of music written by peers and legends alike. Perhaps most famous for a song that he did not write – the timeless ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ from Midnight Cowboy…