• Watch: Robocobra Quartet – You’ll Wade

    May 1, 2018 - By 

    Very few things excite us more than the prospect of new music from (by far) one of Ireland’s difficult, and genuine, pioneers, Robocobra Quartet. Ahead of second album, Plays Hard To Get, out on May 25th, the band have just released their video for ‘You’ll Wade’. We’ve already covered the song – “Culminating in a cry of “Everything is old news” before petering out in a plume of funereal ambience, its recording and composition distils the band’s ongoing, masterfully unconventional approach” – but the video’s conceit is strong enough to warrant another visit. Shot by Colin Armstrong & edited by Robocobra leader Chris Ryan, it’s…

  • Stream: Girls Names – Karoline

    April 27, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s Girls Names are sitting on one of the Irish albums of the year. Set for release on June 15 via Tough Love, Stains on Silence finds the three-piece at their most vital and experimental to date. Recorded in various locations including Belfast’s Start Together Studio with Ben McAuley, Cully’s home and the band’s practice space, spontaneous creation, cut-up techniques and self-editing took centre-stage for the first time. “We started tearing the material apart and rebuilding, re-editing and re-recording different parts in my home in early Autumn last year,” says frontman Cathal Cully. “When we got them to a place we were happier…

  • Stream: Subplots – Unspeak

    April 27, 2018 - By 

    It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Dublin’s Subplots. Having “formally introduced” drummer Ross Chaney to the fold back in January, the band – now based between Ireland and Canada – spent last year writing and recording the full-length follow-up to 2015’s Autumning. The first single to be taken from that is ‘Unspeak’, a wonderfully-woven six-minute track gem began as a live recording of the trio – on guitar, bass synth and two busted old ARP synthesizers providing bass drum and hi-hat sounds. Vocalist Phil Boughton said, “The song grew around this simple skeletal recording of the three of us playing in…

  • Watch: Hilary Woods – Black Rainbow

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    Some artists are just destined to wind up on certain rosters. One such act is Dublin’s Hilary Woods, an artist whose solo craft we’ve followed with a certain glee over the last couple of years. On June 8, the musician, ex-JJ72 member and multi-instrumentalist will release her debut full-length album, Colt, via Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones, an indie imprint whose discerning (and, so far, pretty impeccable) penchant for repping acts such as Zola Jesus, Jenny Hval, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass and Marissa Nadler runs directly parallel with Woods’ very own crepuscular craft. Conjuring a woozed-out netherworld that wouldn’t feel in any way out…

  • Kurt Vile & The Violators Set For Dublin

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    Having last played the venue back in 2015, Kurt Vile will return to Dublin’s Vicar Street later this year. Taking place on November 14, the show will mark the end of a run of UK and Irish shows by the Philadelphia indie-rock musician. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday.

  • Ry Cooder, Action Bronson, Doug Stanhope, Dweezil Zappa & Incubus Set For Irish Shows

    April 23, 2018 - By 

    Shake off those Monday blues, because there’s almost certainly a show for you amongst today’s announcements: One of the all-time foremost purveyors of roots music, American musician, songwriter, composer & producer Ry Cooder makes a rare appearance at Dublin’s National Stadium on October 15. Tickets are priced €76 from Ticketmaster, and go on sale this Friday April 27th at 9am. Pushing misanthropy to the limit, one of the world’s most gifted & natural comedians’ comedians’ comedians, Doug Stanhope makes his first trip to Ireland in several years, playing the Olympia Theatre on June 14. Tickets are priced €40 from Ticketmaster, and go on sale this Friday April 27th at 9am. Fancy revisiting those halcyon days of turntablist alt. rock? Incubus return…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Seatbelts For Aeroplanes

    April 23, 2018 - By 

    Few Northern Irish acts are on the up quite like Castlerock quartet Brand New Friend. From their release of almost dangerously-earworming debut EP, American Wives, back in 2016, the band’s brand of starry-eyed indie-pop will be on full display on their forthcoming debut album, Seatbelts For Airplanes. A sub-three minute burst marrying starry-eyed, harmony-driven sounds with confessional lyrics touching on the unspoken things in relationships, the album’s title track distils the Brand New Friend sound (essentially – once you hear it, you know it) perfectly. Shot by Gregory Nolan and edited by OneThirtyEight, have a first look at the video for the single below. Seatbelts For Airplanes is…

  • Brian Wilson Set For Dublin Return

    April 19, 2018 - By 

    The legendary Brian Wilson will return to Dublin to play his and the Beach Boys’ Greatest Hits live later this year. Performing alongside Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin and his band, Wilson will plays tracks spanning his 54-year career at Vicar Street on August 21 and 22. Wilson last played the city last year at Bord Gais Energy Theatre as part of the Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour. Tickets for the show are €92.50 (Steep, for sure, but come on… Brian Wilson) and go on sale on Thursday, April 26 at 10am.

  • Video Premiere: The Wood Burning Savages – I Don’t Know Why I Do It To Myself

    April 19, 2018 - By 

    Just over a week from the release of a debut album that’s long been one of NI’s most anticipated, The Wood Burning Savages have just dropped a surprise video for single ‘I Don’t Know Why I Do It To Myself’. The video accompanies another rock anthem from an act seemingly set to posit themselves as spiritual and sonic successors to the proudly socialist, alternative punk torch long-carried by the Manic Street Preachers. Minimal, but effective, we see frontman Paul Connolly stroll from inauspicious, disenfranchised beginnings through to the coke-fuelled neoliberal dream – think Ken Loach taking a shortcut through Jordan Belfort. Debut LP Stability was produced by Start Together’s Rocky O’Reilly and…

  • Another Love Story Announce First Acts

    April 19, 2018 - By 

    Hands down our favourite small Irish summer music festival, Another Love Story have announced the first acts set to play this year’s outing. Returning to Killyon Manor, Co. Meath across August 17-19, the festival – which is co-presented by Homebeat and Happenings – the following acts make up the first announcement: Mammal Hands, Cloud Castle Lake, The Lost Brothers, Ships, O Emperor, Mount Alaska, Somadrone, Davy Kehoe, R Kitt, Pillow Queens, Solkatt, Dowry, Joshua Burnside, Anna Mieke, Sorcha Ricahrdson, Deaf Joe, Robert John Ardiff, Nava, Roe, Inni K, The Silken Same, Sun Collective, Attention Bébé, Interskalatic, Graham Mc Sweeny, Simon O Reilly,…