• Underworld, Sloucho and More for AVA 2025

    January 28, 2025 - By 

    In one way or another, we say it every year: AVA Festival just keeps levelling up. Hands down one of the island’s very best summer festivals – and an electronic institution in Belfast – AVA returns to take over the Titanic Slipways across 30-31st May. With a new, arts-focused initiative to be announced in the coming weeks, this year’s line-up is more than enough to get us excited. For edition number 11, organisers have brought together headliners including Underworld and Overmono, and countless big hitters, among them VTSS, KI/KI, 999999999, Job Jobse, Sally C and Tommy Holohan. A slew of…

  • Applications Open to Perform Stendhal 2025

    January 22, 2025 - By 

    We’ve a lot of love for Stendhal Festival here at The Thin Air. When Glasgowbury took its final bow at Eagle’s Rock in Draperstown in 2013, there was, despite the sadness, a shared belief that Stendhal could pick up the baton, fill the gap and create something even bigger and better for the future. Sixteen years later, the annual Limavady festival hasn’t just filled the gap – it has redefined what a homegrown festival can be. Stendhal has become a cornerstone of NI’s cultural calendar and a beacon for creativity, collaboration and unforgettable live experiences. At the heart of this…

  • Nine Inch Nails Set For Dublin Return

    January 22, 2025 - By 

    Nine Inch Nails have announced their highly-anticipated return to Dublin. Two years on from playing the venue, Trent Reznor and co. will return for a show at 3Arena on June 15th. The show doubles up as the opening night of the band’s Peel It Back world tour, the full dates of which are below. Tickets for Nine Inch Nails at Dublin’s 3Arena go on sale at 12pm next Wednesday, January 29. Revisit a stone-cold NIN classic below. Photo by Jenn Five

  • Brilliant Corners 2025 Announced

    January 21, 2025 - By 

    If you’re into jazz or just good music in general, you’ll hopefully already know that Brilliant Corners is one of the top festivals in Ireland – and year 13 is shaping up to be something special. Big shout-out to the legends at Moving on Music who’ve been making this happen year after year, pushing the boundaries of jazz and bringing a level of talent to Belfast that you won’t find anywhere else. It’s not just one of the best jazz festivals around – it’s straight-up one of the best festivals on the island, full stop. From 28th February to 8th…

  • Second Edition of Femme Fest Set for Róisín Dubh

    January 15, 2025 - By 

    Last July, Galway’s Shark School hosted the very first Femme Fest at Róisín Dubh. Alongside the garage rock contenders, the event – dubbed “a collection of the most badass, rockin’, female-fronted bands in the country right now” – made a strong debut, featuring Shark School, Cruel Sister, Affection to Rent, Vernon Jane, and Red Sun Alert. Now, six months later, Shark School have gone all out for the festival’s second edition. Taking place on Thursday, 27th February, it also serves as a stellar showcase of female-fronted bands from across the island, as well as some of the fiercest and fastest-rising…

  • RTÉ Choice Music Prize 2024 Shortlist Revealed

    January 6, 2025 - By 

    The shortlist for this year’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2024, in association with IMRO & IRMA, has just been announced. Following yet another phenomenal year for Irish music, the list of nominees is as follows: A Lazarus Soul – No Flowers Grow In Cement Gardens Curtisy – What Was The Question Fontaines D.C. – Romance  Orla Gartland – Everybody Needs a Hero KNEECAP – Fine Art NewDad – MADRA Niamh Regan – Come As You Are  Róis – Mo Léan Silverbacks – Easy Being a Winner SPRINTS – Letter To Self Further information and shortlists…

  • Earth Set for Long-Awaited Irish Return

    December 18, 2024 - By 

    Earth, one of the most seismic and influential bands in contemporary music, are set to return to Ireland after more than a decade. The long-running sonic vision of Dylan Carlson – drone pioneer, rock sage, and genre-redefining master – Earth have shaped some of the most defining releases of the past 30 years. From the groundbreaking Earth 2 to their latest LP Full Upon Her Burning Lips, via classics like Hex and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, Carlson and an evolving lineup – currently joined by long-time drummer Adrienne Davies – have continuously transformed, securing their place…

  • Shortlists for NI Music Prize 2024 Announced

    September 24, 2024 - By 

    With just over seven weeks to go, the shortlists for the 2024 Northern Ireland Music Prize have been revealed. A year on from Arborist scooping the main Album of the Year prize,  it’s another strong, genre-spanning showing across the board for what is – give or take a few elements – essentially the North’s answer to the Choice/Mercury Prize. As expected, the strongest shortlist of the lot is the Album of the Year Prize, which features some of the island’s very best releases of the last 12 months, including Exmagician’s Sit Tight, Last Immediate Images by Blue Whale (pictured), Blouse…

  • Stream: Junior Brother – Take Guilt

    September 19, 2024 - By 

    A new Junior Brother song has long been good cause for some celebration here at TTA. In the six years since we featured him as one of our 18 artists to watch out for in 2018, Ronan Kealy has underscored his status as one of the island’s all-time songwriting greats. A born curveballer par excellence, the Kerry native increasingly put paid to the kneejerk “alt-folk” mantle via sprawling songs that are as burrowing and beatific as they are brilliantly-realized. It’s a fact woven throughout his latest, ‘Take Guilt’. Paired with a lyric video by Dylan Gomery, it’s a sorcerous five-minute…

  • Premiere: PostLast – Mizen

    September 18, 2024 - By 

    In their first six months, PostLast, the duo of HAVVK’s Julie Hough and BARQ’s Stephen McHale, have consistently drawn us in with their prismatic alt-pop craft. Three months after premiering their third single, ‘Scavenge,’ we’re excited to present a first listen of the wonderfully wistful ‘Mizen,’ out tomorrow, 19th September. The song was inspired by one of Julie Hough’s earliest memories – a family holiday in Cork and Kerry. The accompanying music video features the same seascapes that mesmerised her as a child. Reflecting on the track, Julie said: “I remember being in the back seat of the car, listening…