• Festivals: Quarter Block Party

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Cork’s varied and vital cultural communities have always been a pillar of life in the city, but the past year or so has seen exponential growth, despite setbacks. Next year looks set to be a cracker, with a bumper crop of albums and EPs in the pipeline for release, and the announcement of  the Quarter Block Party festival, taking over the venues and businesses of North and South Main Street for a weekend, from February 6th to the 8th. Run as a collaboration between The Makeshift Ensemble (the force of nature behind the Quarter arts all-dayers at the Triskel) and…

  • Stream: No Spill Blood – White Out

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Dublin dystopia-soundtracking bass/synth/drums trio No Spill Blood have put forward ‘White Out’, the first track on their upcoming debut LP, the Brass Eye-referencing Heavy Electricity, which follows up on their excellent 2012 debut, the Sargent House-released Street Meat EP. Taken from their forthcoming 9-track album – featuring vocals on one song from D.I.Y. punk icon Mike Watt – the song is more of what you’d come to expect, with the retro-futuristic synth lines that characterise their sound, along with pulsating, doomy fuzz bass and pounding rhythmic repetition. The album is available to pre-order now on Bandcamp, and is released through Sargent House on January 27. Heavy Electricity by No Spill…

  • Ed Zealous Announce Split, Final Show

    December 11, 2014 - By 

    Having released their long-awaited (not to mention, altogether stellar) debut album, Wired, back in February, Belfast-based electro-rock band Ed Zealous have announced they’re to split. With a final farewell gig – hosted by yours truly – set for Belfast’s Voodoo on February 7, the band said in a statement: “To our Fans, Friends & Family as Ed Zealous, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to call it a day as a band. What an unbelievable adventure it has been. What started life as a little drunken banter has taken us to playing the Odyssey with Snow Patrol, to Glastonbury,…

  • Little Gem Records opens today in Dublin

    December 6, 2014 - By 

    Dublin is getting a brand new record shop, in the shape of Little Gem. Opening today just off O’Connell street in the city centre, Little Gem promises to stock records, cds, cassettes and other various goods from independent bands and labels. Address: 5 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1. 

  • Stream: R.S.A.G: Don’t Move So Fast

    December 4, 2014 - By 

    Jeremy Hickey AKA R.S.A.G. has returned with yet another wonderfully propulsive solo effort, ‘Don’t Move So Fast’. Driven by an urgent House beat and featuring Hickey’s ever Alan Vega-esque vocals, the track was produced by Hickey, Darkin and The Kilo 1977. R.S.A.G. plays Waterford’s Central Hall on Friday, December 5 and Dublin’s Grand Social with Plutonic Dust, Dear Desert and White Collar Boy on Friday, December 12. Stream ‘Don’t Move So Fast’ via Soundcloud below.

  • Watch: Christmas Hearts – Christmas Is In Your Heart

    December 4, 2014 - By 

    Let’s be honest: the vast majority of Christmas charity singles – no matter how worthy the charity – suck. Either overly earnest or compositionally benign (and often both), they leave the tendency to leave the listener feeling a little crippled inside, stripped of any latent festive cheer. Fortunately, there are exceptions – exceptions like ‘Christmas In Your Heart’ by the utterly-enviably talented troupe of tale-telling troubadours that is Christmas Hearts. Comprised of Niall Jackson from Bouts, Conor O’Brien of Villagers, MayKay of Fight Like Apes and many more, the guys have concocted a real gem with the single, imagined and released with the aim to…

  • Jape announce Spring 2015 tour

    December 3, 2014 - By 

    With his new album, The Chemical Sea, set for release on January 23, Jape AKA Richie Egan & Friends have announced a forthcoming European tour. Kicking off in Lilla Hotelbaren in Stockholm, Sweden on January 28, the tour will conclude in Barcelona’s Razzamatazz on March 6, taking in Dublin’s Academy, Galway’s Roisin Dubh, Limerick’s The Kasbah Social Club and Cork’s Cyprus Avenue along the way. The announcement coincides with the reveal that ‘Séance of Light’ will be the second single to be taken from The Chemical Sea. Make sure to check out the January issue of our magazine to read Richie’s…

  • Premiere: Boss Sound Manifesto – Full Moon Crazy Dog

    December 4, 2014 - By 

    Self-proclaimed “four old punks and a soul boy from Belfast”, Boss Sound Manifesto will launch their debut vinyl and digital EP, In It For The Good Times, at Belfast’s Voodoo on December 20. Ahead of that, we’re pleased to premiere the wonderfully tripped out video to the release’s lead single, ‘Full Moon Crazy Dog’. Created by Belfast-based visual maestros DSNT, the promo – very much in accordance with the music – distils the band’s brilliantly left-of-centre, decidedly no-fucks-given approach. “In it for the good times” indeed. Watch the video below and go the Facebook event page for the EP launch here.

  • Premiere: Gross Net – Gross Net EP

    November 27, 2014 - By 

    Recently-arrived post-punk/neue Deutsche welle-influenced duo Gross Net – comprised of Girls Names‘ Philip Quinn and Autumns‘ Christian Donaghey, completed by programmed drums – have announced a brooding, excellent new three-track self-titled EP in the form of a cassette, recorded by the band themselves over the course of a day. The EP is out on Sligo label Art For Blind, who have accommodated releases from The Altered Hours, Hands Up Who Wants To Die, Perfect Pussy and more. The limited edition coral red cassette is available to pre-order for just £3.50, with a free download code – or simply only £2 digitally – from the Gross Net Bandcamp. You can…

  • Watch: Elastic Sleep – Slip

    November 25, 2014 - By 

    Cork dream-pop quintet Elastic Sleep have just unveiled the video for new single, ‘Slip’, following their debut EP, Leave You, which came out in April; and with fellow shoegazers The Altered Hours also hailing from the county, it seems to be fast-becoming a minor hotbed for all things psychedelic. ‘Slip’ – released through Big Tea Records as the second of their Winter Trio of singles – is available now from iTunes and Bandcamp for just £1. Watch the video below: