• Singing The Blues: An Interview With Jimmy Eat World

    December 30, 2016 - By 

    It’s hard to think of many bands as consistent and dependable as Arizona natives Jimmy Eat World. Legends and primary breakthrough act of the emo scene, they have failed to put a step wrong in their long career and yet again have delivered with their most recent album, Integrity Blues. Despite 23 years of being worshipped by thousands of sentimental teenagers and beyond, there’s no airs and graces from the band – just a few regular guys who happen to have sold millions of records. Ahead of their sold-out date at the Olympia Theatre last month, Kelly Doherty met with the…

  • Stream: The Thin Air’s Death Culture Blues #5 on Dublin Digital Radio

    December 30, 2016 - By 

    In case you missed it or on the off-chance you fancy a second listen, the fifth – and our personal favourite – installment of Death Culture Blues, our weekly show of experimental, cosmic and ambient sounds on Dublin Digital Radio, is available to listen back now.  Check it and this week’s playlist – featuring everyone from Radioactive Man to Robocobra Quartet – below. 1. Radioactive Man – Go Ahead London 2. A Band Called O – Coasting 3. Video Liszt – Fade In Hong Kong 4. Maximum Joy – Let It Take You There 5. Katie Kim – Ghosts 6.…

  • Stream: The Thin Air’s Death Culture Blues #4 on Dublin Digital Radio

    December 23, 2016 - By 

    Aired last night on Dublin Digital Radio from 8-10pm, this week’s Death Culture Blues was – would you believe – a Christmas special. It was. Featuring some lesser-known festive gems from the likes of Alan Vega, Quasi, Sun Ra, Frank Sidebottom and Merzbow, you can check out the full playlist and stream it back via DDR’s Mixcloud below. 1. The Vacant Lots – No More Christmas Blues 2. John Fahey – Joy To The World 3. Vince Guaraldi Trio – Christmas Time is Here 4. Alan Vega – No More Christmas Blues 5. Frank Sidebottom – Christmas Is Really Fantastic…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2016 (#49-1)

    December 22, 2016 - By 

    Well, there we have it: twelve months, innumerable tracks, and – despite the mild trauma it has incurred having to do it all over again – our top 100 Irish tracks of the year. It wasn’t easy but we got there, y’know? Go here for #100-75 and here for #74-50. Your move, 2017. 49. Roisin Murphy – Ten Miles High 48. Ships – Around This World 47. Jealous of the Birds – Tonight I Feel Like Kafka 46. R51 – Elephant 45. Hiva Oa – Seskinore mk ll (part 1) by Hiva Oa 44. Galants – Evergreen 43. Saint Sister…

  • Vault Lines: Ciaran Lavery

    December 19, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of playing a special one-off show with strings at Belfast’s The MAC tonight (Monday, December 19), Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery waxes lyrical on his love of a lesser-known Luke Kelly gem, ‘The Sun Is Burning’. I’m somewhere between 14-16 years old and I’m standing in the kitchen of my house. Luke Kelly is playing. We grew up with some version of Luke Kelly and The Dubliners’ Greatest Hits or collection of songs to as far back as I can remember.  I’m not sure if I understood the depth of the music or lyrics but I do know that I…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2016 (#100-75)

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    As much as the whole process can skim close to the torturous, few things in this er, business rival the sheer satisfaction of sifting through a full year of music in order to attempt to carve out some semblance of a Top 100. And whilst descending, close-ended lists of this kind are almost exclusively arbitrary exercises nullified by good ol’ subjectivity, there’s something intrinsically important about taking a broader snapshot of music released in the twelve months just gone, offering up our very own take on what stood out best, strongest, and most emphatically of all. Make no mistake, it’s been a…

  • Admission for One: A Companion Piece to Robocobra Quartet’s Music For All Occasions

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    A conversation The Thin Air’s Stevie Lennox had with Chris Ryan that delves further into Robocobra Quartet’s process, including authorship, membership of the band, the philosophy of creativity or ‘good art’, punk rock, some stories regarding how the lyrical content of the album came about, as well as a little ‘Phil Collins in-the-studio’ self-indulgence. Photos by Ruth Kelly Art is defined by those who have achieved autarky in their process, and if drummer, vocalist, composer and producer Chris Ryan is the brain and beating heart of the idiosyncratic avant-punk collective Robocobra Quartet, he’s fully aware the remaining organs and limbs…

  • Our Krypton Son: The Bridge of Early Sorrows

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    Set to release the video for his single ‘Relics’ on Monday (which you can preview below) Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son returns with a Kafkaesque tale for the latest installment of his Thin Air column.   One morning I awoke to find I’d transformed into a gigantic animated turtle. I lay in bed, upended on my flat, brown coloured shell – which was two-dimensional and, having presumably been drawn by some celestial cartoonist (one clearly on a budget), lacking in any detail whatsoever. I stared terrified at the ceiling, unable to turn my body over. I immediately…

  • Stream: The Thin Air’s Death Culture Blues #3 on Dublin Digital Radio

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    Despite a little technological hitch, we returned with Death Culture Blues on Dublin Digital Radio last night spinning two hours of psychedelic, experimental and ambient sounds in the varied vein of Füxa, William Basinski and The For Carnation. Check out the full playlist (which, it seems, features no less than four umlauts) and listen back to the show in full via DDR’s Mixcloud below. Death Culture Blues returns to Dublin Digital Radio on Thursday, December 22 from 8-10pm. 1. Silver Apples – Ruby 2. Bruce Haack – Party Machine 3. Amon Düül – Yeti (Improvisation) 4. Michael Turtle – Spooky Boogie…

  • Inbound: Hiva Oa

    December 15, 2016 - By 

    Despite having released a debut album and EP back in 2012 while based in Edinburgh, Hiva Oa had gone pretty quiet until recently. As it turns out, a relocation back home to Ireland was on the cards for core members Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy, not to mention a change in direction. Where that previous work traded on a sparse, minimal folk sound mainly built around guitar and cello with occasional forays into loops and effects, their aptly titled new EP mk2 (part 1) sees those electronics completely take over their sound, with single ‘A Great Height’ perfectly juxtaposing sinister…