• EP Stream: Eoin Dolan – Superior Fiction

    August 28, 2018 - By 

    Released via Galway imprint Citog Records, Galway singer-songwriter Eoin Dolan’s new EP Superior Fiction is a four-track distillation of his yearning, sci-fi-tinged surf pop craft. Steeped in the imagery and atmosphere of a vintage seaside town, it confines within its minutes Dolan’s remarkable knack for marrying heartbreaking melodies and gentle instrumentation with the sadness and beauty of 1960s surf pop. Featuring an animated video created by Galway songsmith David Boland AKA New Pope, the EP’s lead single and title track – a self-proclaimed “ode to truth” marrying breezy, full-band balladry with Dolan’s incisive lyrics – is a perfect case in…

  • EP Premiere: Elaine Malone – Land

    August 29, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of high-profile performances at Electric Picnic & Quiet Lights Festival, the debut EP that Limerick-born, Cork-based singer-songwriter Elaine Malone has been drip-feeding elements of throughout the year is finally here. Vivid stories manage to sidestep the usual potholes of romantic imagery, as Malone strings together a narrative as well as one can across four tracks. Pop moment ‘You’ warbles its way into existence, glaring directly into the once-beating heart of first love, with its honesty cushioned by psychedelic, oneiric arrangements, going onto explore similar, loose threads of humanity. We made some grand statements some months back about about her last single ‘No Blood’, which “musically recalls some of Tim Buckley’s airy jazz…

  • Mac DeMarco, Blood Orange, Roisin Murphy and More for Metropolis Festival

    August 23, 2018 - By 

    Dublin’s annual October Bank Holiday fest Metropolis always deliver with the line-ups, and it seems that this year is going to be no exception. Ahead of many more acts to be announced, Mac DeMarco, Blood Orange, Villagers, Roisin Murphy, The Black Madonna, Young Fathers, Grandbrothers and Gwenno are amongst the first names confirmed to play the RDS across October 27-28. Promising, once more, music, performance, conversation and installation for its fourth edition, tickets go on sale at Friday, August 24 at 9am, ranging from €49.50 to €115.00. Installment plans are available.

  • Premiere: Ciara O’Neill – Equal and Opposite

    August 22, 2018 - By 

    A self-proclaimed play on words and emotions, ‘Equal and Opposite by Portadown folk singer-songwriter Ciara O’Neill was written during a trip to Nashville back in 2015. Revolving around the idea that “one man’s trash is another mans gold”, O’Neill said of the track: “I was feeling a little unsettled within myself and unsure of what direction I was going in both personally and musically. For every one thing, need or emotion there’s an opposite. It’s a reminder that we are all different and unique and that’s ok.” A reflective, carefully-crafted effort, ‘Equal and Opposite’ is a highlight from O’Neill’s newly-released album, Arrow, which was…

  • Premiere: Extravision – Repeat It

    August 22, 2018 - By 

    Comprising members of Dublin bands Sissy, Surge and No Spill Blood, Extravision offer up something special via the sum of their parts. As the city’s finest forward-moving post-punk proposition, the threesome recorded their debut demo with ex-drummer Legs – who, we learn, was lost to the Vancouver punk scene – at the start of the year. With No Spill Blood sticksman, the mercurial Ror Conaty on board, the band are leading the charge, with the aforesaid demo set for release via Sligo imprint Art For Blind imminently. Ahead of that, we have for you an exclusive first listen of ‘Repeat It’ from the demo. Stick…

  • Watch: Tristan Da Cunha – Opa

    August 22, 2018 - By 

    You know what’s lovely and accomplished to nth degree? The debut single from Co. Wicklow’s Tristan Howard AKA Tristan Da Cunha. A woozy, snug-as-hell swell of homespun bedroom-pop, it marries sleepyheaded hip-hop instrumentalism via intent-drenched, longing lo-fidelity. Long story short: it’s one of our Irish songs of the year so far. Directed by Howard and Leslie Sharpe, and edited by Sam Zarrin, check out its video below.

  • Watch: Villagers – Fool

    August 20, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his fourth album, The Art of Pretending How To Swim, Conor O’Brien’s Villagers have unveiled the video for new single ‘Fool’. A self-proclaimed “romantic battle-cry from the centre of a technological dystopia”, the video – which was directed by Bob Gallagher, the whiz behind the video for Villagers’ previous single ‘A Trick of the Light’ – takes the lyrics (“So here is my bleeding heart. Will you take the pain away?”) as a starting point for the narrative. “The video is a surreal take on a marriage proposal, which is the ultimate gambit in love,” says Gallagher. The scenario pushes how…

  • Premiere: Larry – WAH

    August 17, 2018 - By 

    Made up of Joey Edwards, Aoife Ward and David Noonan, Dundalk three-piece Larry knocked our hungover, quietly contemplative socks off at Arcadian Field festival earlier this month. Filtering the imprint of the likes of Ryan Adams, Pixies and Wilco, the threesome’s brand of lo-fi alt-rock brims with burrowing pop sensibility and wonderfully-wielded lyrical pathos courtesy of frontman Edwards. Ahead of recording their debut album in Electrical Audio, Chicago with our Lord and Saviour, Steve Albini this September (keep your eyes peeled for a 12″ vinyl via Pizza Pizza Records) we’re pleased to present a first look at the video for the band’s new single ‘WAH’. Like the song – and…

  • Watch: Bullet Girl – Wasted

    August 16, 2018 - By 

    Dublin alt/indie quartet Bullet Girl have shared the video for their sweat-laced new single, ‘Wasted’. Directed by Raymond Kenny, with additional camera by Dean Flynn, it captures the quartet cutting loose and performing the track at a show in Whelan’s back in July. Sound up your street? Have a peek below.

  • Premiere: Dott – Wedding Song

    August 16, 2018 - By 

    On the third anniversary of Dott members’ Anna and Evan’s wedding day, the Galway noise pop band have released a new video for the apt-titled ‘Wedding Song’. Taken from their stellar new album Heart Swell – which the band are marking with shows around the country – Dott’s chief songwriter, Anna wrote the song following the marriage in 2015 – the same year Same Sex Marriage was made legal in Ireland by popular vote. The video, by Madra Dana, is a look back at what weddings looked like before Same Sex Marriage was legal, while being juxtaposed with McCarthy’s lyrics which contemplate how the Marriage…