• Premiere: Swimmers Jackson – Life’s Short (Embrace It)

    August 30, 2017 - By 

    Shot on a boat somewhere between Croatia and Montenegro, the video for ‘Life’s Short (Embrace It)’ by Dublin’s Niall Jackson AKA Swimmers Jackson perfectly captures the song’s simple yet potent message. The second single to be taken from his forthcoming new EP, the track finds Jackson (who is also a member of Dublin indie rock quartet Bouts) in particularly emphatic form, weaving wistful, surf-tinged harmonies with a brilliantly burrowing, lo-fi sensibility. We’ll cut to the chase while we’re at it: this is easily one of our Irish tracks of the year so far. The release comes ahead of a string of…

  • Glen Hansard Set For Irish Christmas Shows

    August 30, 2017 - By 

    With special guests to be announced, Glen Hansard has announced that he will play three special, full-band Christmas shows in Dublin and Belfast in December. The performances – which promises to “bring the big band back together with strings, horns, bells and whistles – will stop off at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on December 15 and Vicar Street on December 17 and 18. Hansard performed two sold-out intimate shows in the latter Dublin back in August. Tickets for the shows go on sale on Tuesday, September 5 at 9am. Tickets are £27.50 standing/£30.00 seated for the Belfast date and €40 for the…

  • John Maus Announces New Album, Will Play Dublin in November

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    Having been off the radar over the last while in order to focus on completing his PhD, Austin experimental pop master John Maus will release his first album in six years, Screen Memories, via Ribbon Music on October 27. A month later, on November 24, Maus will play The Grand Social in Dublin, thanks to the joint efforts of Skinny Wolves and Aiken. With guests still to be announced, tickets for the show are priced €18.50 and go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday, August 30. Screen Memories opening track ‘The Combine’ is released today, in which Maus intones with an apocalyptic stateliness, “It’s going to dust us all…

  • Stream: A Dream, The Night – Sick Day

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    Limerick duo Julianne Murray and Adam Alcock AKA A Dream, The Night identify themselves as ‘indie electronic chill pop’. Reflecting a couple of their key influences in the likes of The xx and James Blake, new single ‘Sick Day’ goes some distance to warrant the title. Featuring visuals courtesy of Derek Boland, it’s an impressively-produced, gently bobbing gem of electro-pop nocturnalism that also conjures the likes of Mount Kimbie and Lapalux at their most restrained. We’re epecting big things from these guys in the future.

  • Watch: Eraser TV – Golden Boy

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    The astutely-named debut EP, Buzzfeed Depression Quiz, from Limerick indie rockers Eraser TV now has an accompanying video for its nine minute centrepiece, ‘Golden Boy’. A composition reminiscent in scope and mood to David Pajo’s Papa M, or slowcore greats Codeine, ‘Golden Boy’ never drags as much as it could; Functioning as something as a Freebird as far as rock epics go, it bucks the trend by saying more in its sole lyric than all the confederate flagwavers the ’70s could muster. The video itself eschews a potentially overdriven narrative or the dreaded ‘live performance video’ in favour of grainy, intensely frisson-inducing archival footage of war, giving the song…

  • Premiere: Pale Rivers – West Point

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    One of our must-see Irish acts at Electric Picnic this weekend, Cork five-piece Pale Rivers released one of our favourite Irish tracks of 2016 – debut single ‘August 6th‘ – back in October last year. Having arrived in such promising fashion, the band have doubly confirmed with new single ‘West Point’. Accompanied by visuals Kevin McGloughlin and Mike Lee, it’s a wonderfully earworming effort betraying the band’s knack for combining inward-looking lyricism with their own brand of instantaneous alt-pop. Wrangling with spectres of the past as framed by the present day, this is a refined primal scream that broods as much as it…

  • Watch: King Kong Company – Involved

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    Photo by Tara Thomas The mighty King Kong Company have shared their first new music since last year’s self-titled LP. ‘Involved’ marks the drawing to a close of the band’s busiest summer to date, having become vital stalwarts of the festival circuit in the past couple of years. Recorded on the road, ‘Involved’ is a typically high-energy, melody strewn kicker that has been opening the band’s sets throughout the summer. It comes paired with a classic tour-video, comprised of videos taken on their travels and clips from gigs and festival slots sent in by people in attendance. King Kong Company will be capping of…

  • Watch: SlowPlaceLikeHome – Echoes

    August 24, 2017 - By 

    Fronted by Keith Mannion, Donegal psychedelic electronic act Slow Place Like Home returned last week with one of the Irish tracks of the year so far, ‘Echoes’. The second single to be lifted from the band’s forthcoming album, When I See You…Ice Cream, the track – which features vocals from Fearghal McKee of ’90s cult Irish alt rocker Whipping Boy – now comes bolstered by a stellar video courtesy of Michael Liston. Filmed on location in July in and around Ballyshannon and Dicey Reillys in Donegal, it very nicely reflects the song’s nocturnal, otherworld sway. Slow Place Like Home play Electric Picnic…

  • Watch: Video Blue – Magpies at Dawn

    August 24, 2017 - By 

    We’re big fans of Video Blue here at The Thin Air. The London-based, Dundalk native’s brand of DIY indie-pop has rarely been far from our respective speakers since the release of his debut album Love Scenes in March of this year. Now the solo-crooner – real name Jim O’Donoghue Martin – returns with yet another single to be lifted from the album, and with some charming visuals to boot. Following the snappy minimalism of  ‘Hold Muzik’ and the scratchy insecurity of ‘Dust Moves’, ‘Magpies at Dawn’ is the LP’s slow-burning closer, all woozy guitars, layered vocals and subtle, glittery synths. We’ve said it before…

  • Premiere: Autre Monde – Village of Loomers

    August 22, 2017 - By 

    Without the faintest shadow of a doubt, Dublin quartet Autre Monde are one of the very best bands in the country at the minute. A stellar live proposition to boot, the Paddy Hanna-fronted foursome funnel their myriad influences in magnificent ways; bearing the imprint of but never kowtowing or passing off bygone sounds as their own. Concluding and very nicely capping off their opening four-track offering, ‘Village of Loomers’ – a self-proclaimed “indie ballad” of sorts – was recorded with Daniel Fox of Girl Band in Spring. Here, as with their previous material to date, Hanna, Padraig Cooney, Mark Chester…