• Inbound: Affleck (Exclusive EP stream)

    July 29, 2013 - By 

    Seventy-five percent of sadly-departed experimental pop foursome Eatenbybears, Affleck are a Belfast-based three-piece that have covered quite a bit of ground in the four months since the former outfit’s untimely dissolution back in March. Comprised of Aidan Kelly, Clark Phillips and James Pollock, the electronic pop outfit – dusting themselves down and arguably finding their sound – have been occupied writing and recording their all-too-brief self-titled debut EP, a sublime five-track slab of phantasmal harmonies, shuffling somnambulist rhythms and subtly cascading, wonderfully woven electronic noise. As it so happens, for this week’s special installment of Inbound, we have an exclusive stream…

  • Mustang Margaritas: Alex Trimble and Jamie William

    July 26, 2013 - By 

    Last summer Two Door Cinema Club frontman Alex Trimble and his best friend Belfast photographer Jamie William embarked on road trip down the West coast of America in a classic car, taking in everything from the scorching Nevada desert and seedy sights of Las Vegas. Armed with a pair of Contax G2 cameras and literary notions like On The Road for company and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas for company, the duo set about capturing their journey, the result of which is Mustang Margaritas, a collection of postcards hand-picked to tell the story of one special trip in a Mustang across…

  • Everything Sucks #003: Millenials

    July 25, 2013 - By 

    So the latest bored-old-hack thing du jour is to label children of the ’80s “millennials” and get stuck into them for the same shit bored old hacks did to Generation X, etc. etc. So far, so very every reactionary article, and while a lot of them have valid points (narcissism and selfies, for example), it’s mostly just the same old same: “kids these days and their technology/music/haircuts (delete as applicable), aren’t they silly/weird/unfamiliar to our audience!”. The counter-arguments build up in your head as you read, and you know you’re fighting a losing battle with the decrepits that churn out…

  • In conversation with… The Vincent(s)

    July 25, 2013 - By 

    In the first installment of  In Conversation With..., photographer Brid O’Donovan captures Margus and Shane from Cork “death pop” five-piece The Vincent(s) visually and in conversation about the band and their music. This is where we would say “awesomesauce” if we sucked – which we do so … awesomesauce. _____ [On discovering music as a kid] Margus: “I had a friend around the corner. We moved into this estate when we were young and you’d see someone wearing a band t-shirt and you would be obsessed. You call round to their house when you’re not invited. Then I found his…

  • Life Through A Lens

    July 23, 2013 - By 

    Isn’t technology mindblowing? I’m typing this collection of words onto a page, in whichever font I choose, displayed on a screen, which is attached to a bunch of plastic and metal with electricity running through it which is wirelessly connected to an international network containing all the information ever, which I can’t even see. Crazy. Thanks to technology, the world of entertainment has been changed forever. Sure, it has its pros and cons but it has certainly made things a lot easier. There is no need to leave your house to do most things. You can buy albums, watch movies,…

  • Classic Album: The Blue Nile – Hats

    July 23, 2013 - By 

    Every so often, an album slips through the cracks. It may have inspired quiet critical praise among the attentive, but for the most part the record sinks without trace into the mists of obscurity. Some albums are eventually rescued from this fate – The Velvet Underground & Nico being the most famous example of a record posthumously put on a pedestal – but the majority of these forgotten critics’ darlings are left to be cherished by a devoted few, doomed to pop up occasionally on ‘Forgotten Classics’ blogs or Channel 4 specials before fading away again. Despite having an older…

  • Getting Re-acquainted: Dinosaur Jr – Freak Scene (1988)

    July 23, 2013 - By 

    Until this point, noise-mongers Dinosaur Jr had never sounded so upbeat. Indeed, this seemed to be the moment that the entire American indie underground came out of its shell and decided to have some fun. But little did anyone know, this upbeat ode to joy was soon to become a fond farewell to the idealism and camaraderie of a scene that had fundamentally altered the lives of many. Goodbye indie charm, hello corporate clout. By 1988, Dinosaur Jr had silenced most of the doubters. The somnambulistic three piece had originally been the butt of many a joke, with their sloppy,…

  • Everything Sucks #002: Sweet ’95 – The Retortening

    July 19, 2013 - By 

    Looking at Dan Hegarty’s column on 1995 recently here on this site, I found that, for all the reminiscing on things like Britpop (which sucked, by and large, not that we knew better) and the WWF of the day (more on that later), it was summarily A Very Good Time for Irish music. Not as fervent and fertile as today’s jubilant mass of DIY gigs and indie labels, but a far cry from the marginalisation of independent and non-commercial music that had gone on a generation previous, where people like Phil Lynott were thrown out of the showband system that…

  • OST: Ciaran Lavery

    July 18, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of OST we get totally enchanting Aghnagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery to select and talk about ten tracks that have irrevocably altered his music listening, loving and making life; everyone from Tom Waits to Travis. ___ The Band – ‘It Makes No Difference’ The Band are a special collective I felt personally proud enough to have ‘got’ in my late teens. Their back catalogue is frightening but the amount of heartbreak in this song has always grabbed me, maybe due to Rick Danko’s vocals or generally the story of possibly one of the most under-rated bands to ever exist. I…

  • Tour Journal: Vanilla Gloom

    July 18, 2013 - By 

    A hotly-tipped “must see” act at the final ever Glasgowbury music festival this weekend, Belfast-based all-female post-punk band Vanilla Gloom have just returned from their first tour across the water – a brief but eventful little stint across Scotland beginning and ending in Glasgow. In the first installment of an occasional tour journal feature, Shannon O’Neill, vocalist and guitarist from the Derry three-piece details the band’s experiences on and off the stage via photos (courtesy of the very talented Ciara McMullan), doodles and day-to-day thoughts from on the road. ___