• Track Record: Tree (Kasper Rosa)

    August 13, 2013 - By 

    In the first installment of Track Record, Belfast musician, photographer and filmmaker Colm Laverty captures James Bruce AKA Tree, drummer with Belfast-based prog quartet Kasper Rosa choosing a section of his favourite and most treasured records from his collection – everyone one from Barbara Streisand to obscure big beat duos hailing from Birmingham. Nice. ___ Rush – A Farewell To Kings A proper Rush record of over the top pro rock greatness. Tough to pick a Rush record out the discog but I decided on this one simply for the triumphant cry of “XANADU”. Barbara Streisand – Classical   This holds…

  • Revisited: Seven Summits – Fossils

    August 11, 2013 - By 

    In the first of a new weekly feature revisiting various relatively recently-released records (everyone loves alliteration, right?) from local acts we take a look at the effortlessly enchanting Fossils, the second album by Belfast-based indie pop band Seven Summits. Released last August, the album’s wonderfully inimitable, masterfully melancholic sound is underpinned by deeply woven introspective intelligence of frontman Rory Nellis. Currently recording new material for a new release, the band – now a quartet featuring Joe McGurgan (Malojian) on bass – recorded Fossils with Phil D’Alton of Master & Dog and was mastered by Fergal Davis. Propelled by Dominic Coyle’s synth lines,…

  • Farewell, Cellar Bar

    August 8, 2013 - By 

    Featuring the thoughts of different people associated with local music or indebted to the establishment in various ways, our reviews editor and PigsAsPeople axeman Stevie Lennox gives his thoughts on and pays tribute to legendary hub of Mid-Ulster/Northern Irish music culture, Draperstown’s Cellar Bar. ___ Well, it’s been a rough few months. With Auntie Annie’s having closed house with no sign of a return, Glasgowbury announcing that this year’s was the final one and now Draperstown’s Cellar Bar – the only decent refuge for anyone seeking original music anywhere near Mid-Ulster. Having dealt with Ryan Lagan and the staff in the…

  • Getting Re-Acquainted: …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead – Mistakes and Regrets

    August 8, 2013 - By 

    By the end of the 90s, it had all gotten very…safe. Things had settled down after a rollercoaster ride lasting ten years, a journey that had taken in baggy, grunge, shoegaze, Britpop, trip-hop, and a host of other stuff (grebo, anyone?). But in the dying embers of the second millennium, popular music had sunk into a quagmire of worthiness, a sludgy mess of genre hopping experimentalism without form, and of box ticking, perhaps best exemplified by Blur’s bloated misstep, 13. It was all very worthy, it was all perfectly well executed, and it was all very dull. And to top…

  • In Conversation: Kasper Rosa, Lantern For A Gale, Vanilla Gloom

    August 6, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of their show at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Wednesday, August 7, Ryan McCormick (guitarist/vocalist, Kasper Rosa – pictured above), Danny McConaghie (guitarist, Lantern For A Gale) and Grace Leacock (drummer, Vanilla Gloom) participate in the first ever In Conversation, a feature in which we get members of three local bands to discuss different aspects of writing, performing and touring both at home and abroad – as well what ever conversational tangents take their fancy… ___ The Death Knell of Local Music? Danny: So is the Northern Irish music scene on its knees? Praying for forgiveness? Grace: “Aww, I feel sad when I hear that!Good music comes in…

  • Everything Sucks #004: Ten Years of Out On A Limb

    August 2, 2013 - By 

    Out on a Limb Records is ten years old this year. A testament to the staying power and DIY spirit of the Limerick indie, its roster reads like a who’s who of independent music in Ireland since its foundation, with survivors like Rest and Elk sharing room with staples like Jogging, Windings (above) etc. and a heritage with names like Giveamanakick, Waiting Room and other bands important to the development and proliferation of Irish DIY culture. Without OOAL, who knows what the scene would be like south of the border? It doesn’t bear thinking about. It was ten years ago, on a…

  • Dan Hegarty: Time Travel

    August 2, 2013 - By 

    I’m still trying to figure out where the past couple of weeks have gone. The much anticipated Longitude festival has been and gone. Some of the highlights included Mark Lanegan Band, Foals, MØ, Half Moon Run, and excellent performances by our very own Young Wonder, MMOTHS, and The Cast Of Cheers. Bring on Castlepalooza, Indiependence, Oxegen, and Electric Picnic! Proving that geography is no obstacle, Cork/Sydney duo In Valour have been working on new material. They’ve also made a video for new track ‘Slow Crunch’. The visuals are stunning, as is the track.   Speaking of Cork, The Vincent(s) are…

  • The First Time: Rachel Austin

    July 30, 2013 - By 

    In the third installment of The First Time, we catch up with Belfast-based experimental folk singer-songwriter Rachel Austin, delving into a whole range of musical “firsts” in her life both as a performer and lover of music. Traversing her experiences with everyone from the Appleseed Cast and the Smashing Pumpkins to UB40 and Django Reinhardt, the Virginia-born artist has come quite the way… Portrait photo by the ever-excellent Joe Laverty. ___ First album you bought? I begged my parents to take me to the music shop to buy Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World when I was 8 or 9.…

  • Festival Mixtape: Tanglewood Music and Arts Festival 2013

    July 29, 2013 - By 

    Taking place at the incomparably scenic surroundings of Narrow Water Castle in Warrenpoint, Tanglewood Music and Arts festival returns for its third outing on the weekend of August 3 and 4. Headlined by globetrotting North Coast post-rock quartet And So I Watch You From Afar, the showcase also boasts a line-up including the likes of Thin Lizzy guitarist/singer-songwriter Eric Bell, electronic duo The Japanese Popstars and Belfast singer-songwriter Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special. Several up-and-coming and increasingly established homegrown acts included More Than Conquerors, Pocket Billiards and Hurdles also feature in the line-up, set to take place across four stages. With…

  • Turn It Up: An alternative Blur playlist

    July 29, 2013 - By 

    ‘Girls and Boys’, ‘Parklife’, ‘Songs 2’ – the vast majority of us could hum the choruses to each of these Blur singles in our sleep, night after night, until time itself consumes us and the final under-the-breath muttered “woohoo” for eternity. Which is not necessary a bad thing, of course. In their heyday, Alex James, Damon Albarn, Dave Rowntree and Graham Coxon were collectively responsible for concocting some of the most ridiculously infectious singles of a generation. Lingering beneath that exterior, however, was a considerably more experimental knack spearheaded by the wonderfully wayward playing of Coxon and Albarn’s own brand of…