• Q+A: Dublin’s White Collar Boy on SPECTRUM & Debut LP Permanent Haze

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    Set to play their first live show of 2017 at new-fangled Dublin festival SPECTRUM on Saturday, “post-nothing” duo White Collar Boy talk to Brian Coney about progression, their forthcoming new album and the importance of festivals like SPECTRUM. Go here to buy Full Weekend Tickets to SPECTRUM or here to buy Tickets to the White Collar Boy gig. Your debut album, Permanent Haze, is set for release later this year. How was the writing process for the release? Most of the tracks on the record have been kicking around for the past few years and slowly developed into more finished cuts at our space…

  • Guiding The Way: An Interview with Russian Circles

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of shows at Dublin’s Whelan’s on Wednesday, March 22 and Belfast’s Empire Music Hall the following night, Will Murphy speaks to Brian Cook, bassist with Chicago instrumental masters Russian Circles about touring, politics, their latest album, the ideal audience, the craft of songwriting and more. Hi, Brian. How’s the road been treating you? The next few months look pretty exciting in terms of venues and nations, is there anywhere that you’re all particularly looking forward to? What will you be listening to stave off the monotony of touring? Touring has been good. We took care of our headlining U.S. dates…

  • Playlist: Strike 4 REPEAL

    March 7, 2017 - By 

    Tomorrow – Wednesday, March  8 – The Thin Air staff will be participating in Strike 4 Repeal so we shall refrain from posting and sharing content in solidarity with the Repeal the 8th movement. As the strike also coincides with International Women’s Day, to mark the occasion we have compiled a 100 track, 6-and-a-half-hour playlist celebrating the many incredibly talent female performers our island has to offer from Lisa Hannigan, Heathers, Hvmmingbird, Saint Sister, Roisin Murphy, ELLLL, Naoise Roo, Die Hexen and BARQ to Aoife Underwater, LYRA, Nina Hynes, September Girls, Jealous of the Birds, DOTT, Sleep Thieves, EVVOL, Wounded Healer,…

  • Playlist: Choice Music Prize 2017

    March 7, 2017 - By 

    On Thursday evening, the 12th annual award will once again celebrate and acknowledge the best in Irish recorded music, with one winning act walking away with €10,000 on the night. Set to be chosen by a panel of twelve Irish music media professionals and industry experts, the following ten releases will vie for the prize: All Tvvins – IIVV (Warner Music) Bantum – Move (Self Released) Wallis Bird – Home (Mount Silver/Caroline International) The Divine Comedy – Foreverland (Divine Comedy Records) Lisa Hannigan – At Swim (Hoop Recordings) Katie Kim – Salt (Art For Blind Records) James Vincent McMorrow –…

  • Ain’t No Pity In The Mega-City: 40 Years of Judge Dredd

    March 6, 2017 - By 

    The war to end all wars. Senseless carnage on a scale unimagined. The East-Coast of what used to be the United States lies in ruins, occupied by foreign invaders. In the wastelands of the former Soviet Russia, a group of elite operatives infiltrate a nuclear bunker. Aiming the missiles at their enemies’ capital, a captive pleads for mercy. “Judge Dredd – don’t do it! There are half a billion people in my city – half a billion human beings! You can’t just wipe them out with the push of a button!” Dredd stares at the control panel, battered, bruised, but…

  • Copy of a Copy of a: A Strange Kind of Flattery With Lilys

    March 2, 2017 - By 

    There’s a moment on Lilys’ 1996 album Better Can’t Make Your Life Better, where you find yourself wondering “What exactly am I listening to?” It happens on the first track. For a first-time listener, it’s bewildering, a mish-mash of 60s jangle, R&B (in the old use of the term), and garage band scuzz. It sounds like the Monkees jamming with The Who on Jupiter. Which is a compliment, obviously. But if you’d been at all familiar with the Washington D.C. band, then it really was a curveball. Over the course of two well-received but obscure albums, Lilys had established themselves…

  • Home Suite Home: An Interview with Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special

    March 2, 2017 - By 

    Having recently successfully completed a Crowdfunder campaign to ensure its release, Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special and Ulaid recorded their collaborative show The Belfast Suite across two nights at Analogue Catalogue Recording Studio in Rathfriland, Co. Down. Eimear Hurley catches up with Wilson to delve deeper into the project, as well as his own speckled, genre-spanning career to date. Over the course of your career to date you’ve been part of many diverse and fruitful collaborations. What is it that sparks your interest in collaborating with a particular artist? And what do you think makes a successful artistic partnership? I guess…

  • What’s Happenin’ wi’ TOUTS? An Interview With Derry’s Young Punks

    March 1, 2017 - By 

    Derry three-piece TOUTS have wasted little time transitioning from a cover band to an uncompromising punk rock band in the past year.  Having just wrapped up in the studio, they have two E.P.’s tucked in their back pocket, with the first set for release in April*. After meeting at the Brandywell, home of Derry City F.C., the line-up has changed over time, with the current trio consisting of Matthew (singer/guitarist), Luke (bassist), and Jason (drummer).  As a band, their taste has evolved, from mod and pub rock beginnings, to punk rock usurping all other influences. They appear to have the…

  • Playlist: 12 Irish Acts at SXSW 2017

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    As positively hectic as any festival on the face of the globe, SXSW has long been established as a veritable cornucopia of film, music and interactive media from far and very wide. And with festivals of much smaller scale: where the excess of choice becomes something of a burden, planning ahead and knocking up a makeshift “must-see” guide is next to obligatory to ensure FOMO doesn’t become an all-consuming spectre during your festival stay. Just as important is getting some essential listening in before heading off in said sensory abyss. So if you’re SXSW-bound this year and want to check out some…

  • Track Record: Craig McCloskey (Hornets/Destriers)

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    Craig McCloskey from Belfast bands Hornets and Destriers selects and waxes (ahem) lyrical about some of his most prized records, including Chelsea Wolfe, Baptists, Code Orange Kids, The Chariot and Booker T. & The M.G.’s. Photos by Dee McEvoy. Hornets release their new album, Witch Hunt, on 12″ coloured vinyl and digital download in April. Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis Chelsea Wolfe is relatively huge now, what with her song used in one of the Game of Thrones trailers, but I still prefer her older records that sound way less electronic/produced and a bit more folk-ey.  I love the intro track on this record,…