• Gigs of the Week: TWINKRANES, Freebase, Duke Special, Jun Tzu Album Launch

    With the new semester upon us, more and more new shows are sprouting up in the gig calender over the next few months. Focusing on the absolute immediate future, however, here’s our comprehensively genre-spanning pick of must-see gigs taking place throughout the country over the next seven days. Seven Quarters: Twinkranes, Halves – Whelan’s, Dublin; Saturday, September 13 The third installment of Dublin gig night Seven Quarters at Whelan’s on Saturday night will see boundlessly intriguing Dublin trio Halves play their last Irish show of the year alongside critically acclaimed experimentalists TWINKRANES. If you are in any way inclined towards exceptional, forward-driven homegrown music, this is not a show…

  • Gigs of the week: No Tomorrow, Marissa Nadler, David C Clements, Elastic Sleep

    With Electric Picnic been and gone in a flash, the habitual final chapter of the (occasionally) great Irish summer begins. Things are still a bit quiet on the gig front but, as ever, here’s our pick of shows well worth checking out over the next days. No Tomorrow: SlowPlaceLikeHome, Somadrone, Documenta DJs – Voodoo, Belfast; Saturday, September 6 The next installment of our monthly gig/club night at Belfast’s Voodoo, No Tomorrow returns on Saturday night with a tremendous triad of cosmically-inclined acts from across the country. Just back from playing the Body & Soul stage at Electric Picnic at the…

  • Jim Jarmusch: The Essential Independent @ QFT

    From September 19-25, Belfast’s Queen’s Film Theatre will showcase a slice of the nigh on incomparable oeuvre of a truly singular and independent figure in cinema, Jim Jarmusch. Marking the 30th anniversary of his cult breakthrough film, Stranger Than Paradise, the mini-season will see six of Jarmusch’s finest films screening across six days. They are: Dead Man, a majestic revisionist Western featuring Johnny Depp, considered by many as Jarmusch’s masterpiece. Down By Law, an exceptional and eccentric prison movie featuring Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni. Mystery Train, a film “following a small group of strangers in a strange land…

  • Northern Ireland Music Prize 2014 – Therapy? to perform Troublegum

    Following last year’s successful Northern Irish Music Prize ceremony, it has been announced that the second annual event will take place in the Mandela Hall in the Queen’s University Students’ Union on November 15. The ceremony awards a prize to the best Northern Irish album of the last year as voted for by a number of local media and industry professionals. Last year, Foy Vance won the album of the year prize with his excellent Joy Of Nothing, a strong album among many worthy contenders. Alt. metal trio Therapy? play their million-selling, Mercury Prize-shortlisted 1994 classic Troublegum LP in its entirety at the awards show on…

  • PigsAsPeople – The Plot Against Future Plans

    Belfast-based sludgy post-hardcore/noise rock trio PigsAsPeople release their mini-album – entitled The Plot Against Future Plans – with a free-entry show at the Mandela Hall on its launch date of September 25. This will be the follow up to their First Four Months and Idles & Us EPs, released in autumn 2012 & 2013 respectively (each of which are available on Bandcamp on a name-your-price basis). The album was recorded at Start Together Studios by Niall Doran earlier this year, and the tracklisting – featuring all-new songs, some of which have been played at recent shows – is as follows: 1. Rooks 2.…

  • Gigs of the Week: Electric Picnic, Twitch, Sargent House Label Show, Bonnie Prince Billy & Shizz The Fest

    With the now-sold-out largest music & arts festival in Ireland very much looming before us, it’s a relatively quiet week ahead in terms of gigs, but there are a few of doozies in the coming days scattered across the island. First and foremost: Electric Picnic – Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois; August 29-31 Unfortunately for most, it’s now too late to snap up tickets for Electric Picnic, but for those who wish to see out the Irish summer in style, there’s always one of the most eclectic bills on the circuit. For those who are heading, the Picnic contains some acts of…

  • His New Atlas – Torn Out Lungs EP

    The brainchild of young singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan, aka His New Atlas, releases his new EP, Torn Out Lungs on September 5. The EP – his third since His New Atlas’ early 2013 inception – will be launched with a full band show at the Platform 1 Bar in Armagh on September 12, with further details yet to be announced. He has so far released the video for single ‘His Young’ – although a second single, ‘Pillars’ will be released along with a video in the not-too-distant future – which you can check out below:

  • Jeremy Thomas: The Auteur Producer @ QFT

    Belfast’s Queens Film Theatre will host a special, one-off talk with groundbreaking English film producer Jeremy Thomas on Thursday, August 21. For four decades, Thomas (pictured, right, with Bernardo Bertolucci on the set of the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor) has been behind some of British cinema’s most ambitious and exciting films, working with a host of legendary directors including Nicolas Roeg, David Cronenberg and the aforementioned Italian auteur. The QFT talk is set to be a look back at highlights from a career packed with films of artistic merit, ambition and originality. Things kick off at 7.30pm and you can buy…

  • Sea Pinks – Dreaming Tracks

    Neo-surf-pop act Sea Pinks release their new album, entitled Dreaming Tracks on September 29 through Belfast-based surf/jangle/noise pop specialist label, CF Records. This will be their first release since single ‘An Exploded View’ was put out last November. Check out ‘Dream Happening’ – the first track to be unveiled – below:

  • Robin Williams Tribute & Suicide Awareness Fundraiser @ The Pavilion

    Out of nowhere, we’ve lost one of the finest comedians of our generation. Gone at a sickeningly young age, Robin Williams has moved plains – instantly elsewhere, tragic, unfortunate but “what would he have wanted?” A party/gathering of aficionados raising funds for charity, that’s what.The night – which takes place at the Pavilion Bar on Friday, September 5 – will feature film, music, stand-up and everything in between. Let’s raise awareness/money for suicide awareness charities, and revel in the sheer comedic majesty of Robin McLaurin Williams, one of the greatest people to have ever existed.Entrance will be free but donations are welcome. Doors…