• Classic album: Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs

    September 24, 2013 - By 

    No-one expected this. Previously, Mercury Rev had been the David Baker fronted psyche-noise outfit that was as likely to pick a fight with the audience than write a work of transcendent beauty. Records like Yerself is Steam and Boces are great fun, full of guitars that are distorted to the point where they cease being guitars, and crazy, stream of consciousness lyrics. But they certainly didn’t position the band as one of the most significant bands of the 90s, and this is exactly what Deserter’s Songs did. A couple of things had to happen in order for this change to take place, though. Baker was out,…

  • Culture Night Belfast: Ten Must-See Events

    September 20, 2013 - By 

    With 250 events set to take place across 100+ to over 30,000 people this evening, it’s safe to say we’re spoiled for choice at this year’s Culture Night Belfast. With an understandable leaning towards the more musical end of the spectrum, we have scratched our heads to no end to whittle down the plethora of happenings to a mere decad worthy of your consideration. See you in the streets, rooftops, cathedrals, etc. 1. 101 Sessions Some of Belfast’s finest musicians will quite literally congregate at the wonderfully intimate church on 101 Donegall Street from 7.00pm. As well as music from…

  • Everything Sucks #006: The Problem With Arthur’s Day

    September 19, 2013 - By 

    Last time your columnist went on here to decry something he found was directly harmful to music in Ireland, he well overshot his mark and wound up dividing camp a little. So, let’s try a different tack, shall we? Arthur’s Day is coming up and already hundreds and thousands of casual drinkers are plotting their whereabout at 1759 hours that day. That’s just it, though: casual drinkers. This make-believe “holiday”, that was manufactured, not only in our lifetimes, but four years ago, is nothing more than another stupid ploy designed to shill alcohol to a society that already suffers from…

  • The First Time: VerseChorusVerse

    September 19, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of The First Time we get the virginal sonic lowdown from North Coast songsmith extraordinare Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse. Traversing his wide-ranging tastes and first-time musical experiences with everyone from John Denver to Public Enemy, we get an invaluable insight into the musical DNA of a homegrown songwriting giant. First Album I Ever Bought: Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. I was 9 years old and heard ‘Straight Outta Compton’ by NWA at my big brother’s friend’s house. It had been out a couple of years at this stage and…

  • Incoming: Myles Manley

    September 18, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of Incoming we shoot the proverbial breeze with singer-songwriter Myles Manley, a completely one-of-a-kind artist born in England, raised in Sligo and currently based in Dublin. Idiosyncratic, offbeat and hugely accomplished, he evokes everyone from Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel and Bright Eyes and is a brilliant and unconventional poetic mind on the brink of breaking through.  Hi Myles. First off, what are your earliest memories of wanting to be a musician and performer? Are there any defining first moments? I started playing the bass at about 15 because there were around 20 electric guitar players in my year in…

  • An A-Z Playlist of Grand Theft Auto

    September 17, 2013 - By 

    With the release of arguably the most anticipated video game of a generation, Grand Theft Auto V, Shannon Delores O’Neill casts a nostalgic ear back at some of the best music from GTA – a series that vividly captures the sounds of the era in which each game is set, from the pop and funk of Vice City to the alt-rock and hip hop of San Andreas. And what better to do that than with an A-Z Spotify playlist kicking off with Alice In Chains and ending with Zapp & Roger (“who?” we hear you cry)? NB: don’t forget to do…

  • Lesser Known Pleasures: The Boo Radleys – Everything’s Alright Forever

    September 18, 2013 - By 

    Lesser Known Pleasures is a look at albums that live forever in the shadow of a classic. An artist’s “other”. Great records that were possibly a little too far ahead of their time. Perhaps fame had dimmed but the artist peaked creatively outside the spotlight. Maybe a grand artistic statement was greeted by bemused critics with disdain or worse, a cold shoulder. Lesser Known Pleasures won’t be found on the latest Best Albums Ever! list. They aren’t obscure enough to be Great Lost Albums either. They are albums that are less revered than they might be and deserve a wider…

  • Radio K

    September 20, 2013 - By 

    The atomic symbol of potassium, the maligned protagonist in Franz Kafka’s The Castle and the unspecified superior feature of a certain breakfast cereal: the letter K denotes and relates to many things. Tentatively established back in 2006, Radio K has steadily established itself as Belfast’s go-to weekly alternative club, set in the suitably underground surroundings of the basement of Belfast’s oldest bar, McHughs at Custom House Square. Casting our eye back to its foundations and the years that have since passed, we catch up with the club’s main players to trace the supremely soundtracked trajectory of a Belfast social institution.…

  • Getting Re-Acquainted: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round & Round

    September 11, 2013 - By 

    A year is a long time in the world of pop music, and it’s hard to believe that an incredible three years has passed since the release of Ariel Pink’s game-changing album Before Today. Before that, he’d been a lo-fi oddball, a seemingly deliberately obscure artist as likely to be responsible for a piece of unlistenable mucking about as he was for a warped slice of vintage FM pop music. Before Today changed all that, and ‘Round & Round’ was the moment when his peculiar genius asserted itself. Over a bed of hazy Hall & Oates-esque synths, Pink and the rest…

  • Twenty Months, Twelve Photos, One Glass Eye

    September 11, 2013 - By 

    If you’re a regular gig-goer in Belfast, chances are you will at least know amateur music photographer Diarmuid Kennedy to see. Having worked tirelessly on his own initiative to capture  pretty much every single local gig worth going to over the last twenty months, he has very kindly selected a dozen of his favourite distinctive black-and-white photographs during this period, offering a snapshot of a small but thriving scene and the thoughts of a true champion of homegrown live music. Take it away, Diarmuid. “It is very flattering to be asked to select my favourite photographs for Thin Air.  I am a complete amateur…