• Festival Mixtape: Hard Working Class Heroes 2017

    September 21, 2017 - By 

    Right up there with the country’s leading celebrations and showcases of homegrown, independent music, Hard Working Class Heroes will take over several Dublin venues once again across September 29-30. With the line-up whittled down to a rounded 50 acts this year, here’s the full day-to-day and venue breakdown and a playlist featuring our 20 must-see acts this year, including Loah, Bad Bones, Jafaris, Sleep Thieves, Frankenstein Bolts, Soulé, Rocstrong, Brand New Friend, Shookrah and more. Tickets are still available to buy right here.

  • Pulling Their Weight: An Interview with Elder Druid

    September 20, 2017 - By 

    Last week we premiered ‘Witchdoctor’, the lead single from Belfast sludge doom band Elder Druid’s forthcoming debut album, Carmina Satanae. With the album – a fist-clenched, eight-track statement of intent – set for release at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Friday, October 6, we chat to the band about influence, evolution, dark lyricism and why Ireland punches above its weight when it comes to the low-end. You’ve recently been in the studio recording your debut album, Carmina Satanae. How was the experience? Dale (Hughes, bass): I think it’s safe to say that from start to finish the environment was easy going enough that…

  • Honesty and Conviction: An Interview with Dave Hanratty of NO ENCORE

    September 11, 2017 - By 

    The country’s self-proclaimed “pre-eminent music podcast” NO ENCORE will once again take to the stage at Whelan’s on Thursday, September 28. Taking place as part of the inaugural Dublin Podcast Festival, the event will see hosts Dave Hanratty, Colm O’Regan and Craig Fitzpatrick record an episode live alongisde musical guests Overhead The Albatross, Daithi and Elaine Mai. Ahead of what’s sure to be a stellar evening on Wexford Street, Brian Coney talks to Dave Hanratty about the podcast’s conception, present and future. Go here to buy tickets to NO ENCORE Live II Hi, Dave. Take us back to the very…

  • Pennywise For Your Thoughts: How It Unlocked Childhood Terror

    September 8, 2017 - By 

    In the bifurcated narrative of Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and Tommy Lee Miller into a two-part TV movie in 1990 and back in cinemas this week with Bill Skarsgård under the Pennywise powder, childhood trauma folds into adulthood fragility. In the second part of the original movie, generally acknowledged to be the weaker of the two, the grown-up Losers Club of Derry, Maine return to their hometown to face Tim Curry’s murderous Dancing Clown, back at it 27 years later. The young friends’ encounters with Pennywise and his shape-shifting forms are vividly dramatised in…

  • Monday Mixtape: Joshua Burnside

    September 4, 2017 - By 

    Having come good on years of promise with his long-awaited debut album, Ephrata, back in May, Comber experimental folk musician Joshua Burnside reveals a selection of his all-time favourite tracks, including Luke Kelly, The Microphones, Sam Amidon, The Books. The Microphones – I Want The Wind To Blow I love the production on this track – the way the guitars are panned, the heavy compression, the distant drums, and how Phil Elverum holds some words for so long that they become sort of suspended in time. The Books – Free Translator This is a great track by The Books and it’s interesting…

  • Premiere & Interview: Blue Americans – ‘Bull On Venice Beach/Holy Goo’

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    En­ough tears have been shed over the once-fertile, in-breeding Belfast music scene – or more specifically, a certain strain of D.I.Y. post-hardcore that was once ubiquitous in the wake of Brand New and Reuben’s premature breakups – led by young, hungry outfits like More Than Conquerors, who quite successfully married that sound with an astute ear for a hook, delivered by the gilded throat of Kris Platt. Everyone in that band went their separate ways almost exactly two years ago, following not much shy of a decade together. All things, however, must pass, and since then, the landscape has drastically…

  • Playing The Long Game: An Interview With American Football

    August 31, 2017 - By 

    Few bands will ever have the underground cult status of American Football. The Illinois quartet are credited with the creation of one of emo’s most romanticised albums and have been part of the most anticipated return in the emo revival. Ahead of playing The Button Factory in Dublin on Monday, Kelly Doherty chats to Steve Lamos about their return. Where did the decision for American Football to get back together come from? A couple people came to us in light of the first album being reissued and asked us to play. I don’t think we had really considered it before…

  • Makers in the Making: An Interview with Liam Geraghty

    August 26, 2017 - By 

    Almost unheard of as a medium five years ago, podcasting was once relegated to being one of those pesky default iPhone apps that you couldn’t get rid of. However, thanks in part to massively popular shows like NPR’s This American Life, whose podcast Serial in 2014 introduced a whole range of people to the audio form, the podcasting world has gone from a slightly unpopular alternative to listening to music on a morning commute, to shows like Welcome To Night Vale, or My Dad Wrote A Porno selling out multiple nights in Dublin. This September, Irish podcasting network HeadStuff host…

  • Little Terrors: The Enduring Domestic Horror of Rosemary’s Baby

    August 25, 2017 - By 

    Horror is about the violation of boundaries. To keep life tolerable we parcel up the world in our head, organising experience into handy categories, and the most familiar genre icons signal their disruption: alive/dead (zombies, Frankenstein’s monster), old/new (The Mummy), reality/dreams (Freddy Krueger), animal/man (werewolves). The puss and blood and inside-out, syrupy mess of body horror speaks to a primal fear about the loss of identity and self. Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, adapted from Ira Levin’s hugely popular novel and screening in the Beanbag Cinema tonight, is organised around a series of boundary violations. Some of these…

  • We’re New Here: An Interview with Last Days Of Elvis

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    Anxious and introspective on record, Berlin-based Last Days of Elvis are anything but when interviewed. On first impressions, their debut Must Be A Mistake draws stylistic comparisons to The National and Nick Cave but underneath lies diligently crafted expressions of fragility and angst. Ahead of their upcoming UK and Ireland tour, our Dominic Edge discuss life in Berlin, toilet ambience and recording at Funkhaus Studios with vocalist, guitarist and stew-enthusiast Andrew Stark. Tell us more about your name – is it in admiration to the King, or am I wide of the mark? To be honest, I think we just really…