• Stream: Spies – Young Dad

    March 28, 2018 - By 

    Following a string of well-received releases via Trout Records since forming back in 2009, Dublin band Spies disappeared off the face of the earth back in 2016. Or so it seemed. Frontman Michael Broderick explains: “We felt in order to write something we were really proud of, we needed to distance ourselves from the outside pressures of being in a band. It’s easy to get distracted by all the things you think you should be doing and overlook that your primary objective should be to write great music”. Having re-emerged today with the inspired ‘Young Dad’ — arguably the five-piece’s strongest single effort to…

  • Watch: The Altered Hours – On My Tongue

    March 28, 2018 - By 

    Having zig-zagged around Europe over the last few weeks, Cork’s finest The Altered Hours will play three highly-anticipated shows in Dublin, Letterkenny and Belfast this weekend. Ahead of those, the five-piece have unveiled Breda Lynch’s visuals for new single ‘On My Tongue’, an incandescent peak from their excellent new EP, Over The Void. Striking yet another killer midpoint between garage, noise and mottled psych manoeuvres, the track is a rousing, nigh on lustful ode to cutting totally fucking loose. Those shows: Thursday, March 29: The Grand Social, Dublin Friday, March 30: Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny Saturday, March 31: The Menagerie, Belfast

  • EP Premiere: Lasertom – Super Saor

    March 28, 2018 - By 

    One half of Choice Prize-winning Dublin duo Ships, Simon Cullen has made sublime electronic sounds under the Lasertom moniker for a number of years now. Having focused on the former project from the last couple of years, Cullen is back in solo mode via Super Saor, a brand new three-track EP, produced written and recorded this year. With all three tracks clocking in over 7 minutes ago, it’s a deceptively expansive, synth-drenched, earworm-heavy release brilliantly blurring the lines between electro, house and nu-disco. Featuring artwork by John Rooney, have a first listen to the EP in full below. Super Saor by Lasertom

  • Dublin Set For Rebellious Jukebox YEAH! – A Celebration of The Fall

    March 27, 2018 - By 

    On Saturday, April 21, Dublin’s The Grand Social will play host to Rebellious Jukebox YEAH! – A Celebration of The Fall. Set to take place almost three months on from the passing of the late, great Mark E Smith, the event will feature live music from the likes of The 202s, Afterwardness, Niall Colfer, Dez Foley, Oranges, Richer Than Astronauts, Soft on Crime, Twinkranes and more to be announced, as well as video, spoken word/poetry and DJs. This has essential attendance written all over it. Tickets are priced €10 and are on sale now.

  • VINYL Set For Royal Hospital Kilmainham

    March 27, 2018 - By 

    Billed as a unique music culture event, VINYL is a brand new, three-day event set to be held on the May Bank Holiday weekend at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin. A self-proclaimed salute to all things vinyl, it will present “an immersive theatre of the mind comprising musicians, producers, designers and filmmakers specially convened to celebrate the rich history and enduring legacy of vinyl, its landmark recordings and key personnel, the groundbreaking labels and studios that fostered such talent, with contributions and insights from some of its most perceptive champions.” Revolved around specially-programmed talks, panel discussions, curated collections, music performances,…

  • Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Set For Dublin Show

    March 26, 2018 - By 

    Having released ‘Middle America’ – their first single in four years – last month, it’s been announced that Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks will play Dublin’s Vicar Street on October 19. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday at 9am. SMATJ will release their new album, Sparkle Hard, on May 18 via Domino Records. Check out the artwork and brand new single, ‘Shiggy’, below.

  • Girls Names Announce New Album, Belfast & Dublin Shows

    March 26, 2018 - By 

    Marking the release of their forthcoming, Tough Love-released fourth album album, Stains on Silence, Belfast three-piece Girls Names have announced new dates in Belfast and Dublin. The Cathal Cully-fronted threesome will play Belfast’s Black Box on Friday, June 15 and Whelan’s in Dublin on Saturday, June 23. Tickets for the former are £14.50 (Black Box Members £12); Dublin is €16. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, March 28 at 10am and 9am respectively. Following 2015’s blitzing Arms Around a Vision, and the parting of drummer Gib Cassidy just over a year later, Girls Names suddenly found themselves facing down a looming void. Frontman Cathal…

  • Stream: Dandy’s Loft – Human Dust

    March 23, 2018 - By 

    We have sang the praises of Belfast-based five-piece Dandy’s Loft for some time now. The band, who call Lurgan home, are set to release their highly-anticipated debut album in the coming months. New single and follow-up to January’s ‘Shadows In Motion‘ is the ‘Human Dust’, a self-proclaimed glimpse into the band’s less guitar-orientated material on the album and a real spectral feat. Via a mélange of strings, submerged vocals, synthesiser and some stellar production work, it single-handedly reveals Dandy’s Loft to be much more than any safe or straightforward genre attributed to them thus far. In short: this is vital, inspired and majestic stuff. Stream below.

  • Video Premiere: Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies – Mass Deception

    March 23, 2018 - By 

    As we’ve said plenty of times already, Limerick’s DIY scene is currently riding on the crest of a creative wave, and today, we’re delighted to deliver the latest evidence, with Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies. As they crow flies, you could call them Munster’s Sleaford Mods – seriously, check them out live – as Podge spits post-Tiger quotidian frustration of both systematic and internal. It’s probably their Biggest Tune to date – a genuine call-to-arms with some elements of the Fall’s brief dalliances with mainstream success – produced by Cruiser’s Chris Quigley, with a fully-formed video directed & edited by Richard Holland. “Mass deception and corruption have become endemic in…

  • Premiere: tethers – Television Dreams of Human Beings

    March 22, 2018 - By 

    Formed by friends, guitarist/vocalist Zach Trouton and bassist Dane Kemp, and later joined by drummer Alistair Brattle, tethers are a Northern Irish three-piece whose rock-pop sound bears the imprint of jazz and contemporary classical influence, as well as the lyrical influence of science fiction and folklore. Next month, the band will release their debut EP, Skinwalker, via their own imprint, Swallow Song records. According to the Lisburn-based threesome, they’re re-envisioning the term – which, in Navajo folklore, denotes a shape-shifting with that possesses the forms of animals – “as a future slang for artificially-enhanced humanoids”. Doubling up as both the release’s lead track and tethers’…