• Father John Misty @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    May 31, 2018 - By 

    Father John Misty’s brand of quip laden folk rock has garnered him a loyal following. One that has seen him sell out not one but three nights in Dublin’s Vicar Street. On a humid Monday Night, an enthusiastic but somewhat subdued crowd gathered for the first showing. Bearded men wearing t-shirts adorning their idol seem at odds with the singer’s anti-capitalist persona but I guess that’s just rock and roll. Support on the night comes from Saint Leonard, formerly known as Kieran Leonard, a known associate of The Libertines and Misty alike. Under the guise of Saint Leonards Horses, a…

  • BBC Biggest Weekend @ Titanic Slipways, Belfast – Friday

    May 28, 2018 - By 

    The first signs of 6 Music’s leg of the Biggest Weekender have been appearing at venues all over Belfast this last week. Gigs, seminars, panels and outside broadcasts cropping up daily, heralding the 2 days at Titanic Slipways. For day 1 of festivities, the city, bathed in uncharacteristically glorious weather, conspires to show off just when everyone happens to be paying attention. As the flow of people moving through the city and over the Lagan grows, a Cup Final atmosphere begins to build, smiles and easy conversation with anyone willing to respond are the order of the day, and in…

  • Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel

    May 25, 2018 - By 

    The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett came to international attention in 2014 with the release of A Sea Of Split Peas, a combination of her two previous EPs. Barnett’s lyrics, which detailed the most mundane aspects of her life in a manner that was confessional, witty and biting in equal measure, were the real standouts in that opening gambit, lending a song like ‘Avant Gardener’ (inspired by an ill-fated spot of gardening that resulted in her being rushed into an ambulance) the feeling of a miniature epic. Her debut studio album Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit subsequently arrived…

  • Beck & Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ 3Arena, Dublin

    May 24, 2018 - By 

    Both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Beck have crafted careers built on distinct sonic styles. Their music captured time and place; Beck encapsulates an era within the 90s pushing towards innovation by blending genres within one record, whilst Yeah Yeah Yeahs defined the New York dance-punk sound of the early 2000s. Their cult statuses, born from albums like Odelay and Fever To Tell, respectively, gives them mass-appeal to a myriad of music fans. The pairing of these artists for this one off joint headline arena gig, then, feels appropriate given the impact their music has made on an incalculable number…

  • Parquet Courts – Wide Awake!

    May 24, 2018 - By 

    Parquet Courts’ latest is a petrochemical explosion of fiery politics and sprawling creativity. Building upon their established art-punk sound, the Texan outfit’s experimentation with technicolour keyboard textures, funk grooves and Latin rhythms makes for their most immediate and stylistically diverse release to date. Aptly titled Wide Awake!,  the album is an unapologetically political outing, showcasing A. Savage’s lyrics which seethe with rage and indignation, his thoughts seemingly drawn into sharper focus by the U.S.A’s ongoing political calamity. Crunchy garage rock opener ‘Total Football’ indulges the bands more mercurial instincts with elastic time signatures and a jerkily danceable bassline, providing the…

  • The Sea and Cake – Any Day

    May 22, 2018 - By 

    Chicagoan supergroup, The Sea and Cake sprang from the mid-western city’s post-rock hotbed during the early ’90s, bringing together members of bands such as Shrimp Boat and Tortoise to create a singularly sophisticated sound. Over the course of 11 albums The Sea and Cake have plied an increasingly finessed trade, melding a love of jazz, bossa nova and ’70s Krautrock with their own breezy indie rock instincts, tearing an unlikely wormhole between the parallel universes of Astrud Gilberto, Neu! and Guided by Voices.  The band’s latest effort Any day, which arrives after a lengthy six year break, flashes to life…

  • Delorentos – True Surrender

    May 20, 2018 - By 

    Delorentos fifth studio album, True Surrender, boils down to one simple message: Cut the bullshit. Through intricate metaphors of escapism, bold images of desolate extradition from society and elusive references to the current, global political state, the Dublin outfit beg us to take a step back and ask ourselves: Is this the world we want to be living in? From observations of panic to eventual acceptance, the 2012 Choice Music Prize winners take us on a journey through some manner of existential crisis, leading us ultimately to a state of acceptance. The album opens with a recurring, focal image of an…

  • Eleanor Friedberger – Rebound

    May 19, 2018 - By 

    In the aftermath of the US elections, Eleanor Friedberger spent some time in Athens with the intention of writing an album. Somewhat side-tracked by the city’s allure, she ended up forming a Greek band,  leaving the demos for what would become her fourth solo record until her return home. The remnants of her transitory escape from the reality of a Trump regime are found in the title of the album, Rebound, named after a Goth club in the Greek capital whose music and character informs these ten tracks. Friedberger’s previous band project with her brother Matthew yielded some wildly imaginative…

  • God of War (EA, PS4)

    May 18, 2018 - By 

    Put simply, God Of War is not only one of the best games on the current generation of consoles… it is also one of the best games ever released for any console. Yes, this may sound like embellishment, a factually questionable statement similar to those made by overexcited teenage boys just out of their first live concert: “Dude, that was the greatest thing ever, I mean, like forever!” But it’s true: God Of War is out and out excellent, so much so that at times it can be overwhelming. There are so many things happening at once onscreen, so many skill trees to complete and…

  • Life of the Party

    May 16, 2018 - By 

    Life of The Party is a comedy about the danger of compromising for your partner. Melissa McCarthy plays the homely, mumsy Deanna, whose husband Dan announces he’s filing for divorce just after they drop their daughter off for her first college semester. Feeling sucker-punched and bereft, she decides to enrol in the college herself and finish the archaeology degree she abandoned when she got pregnant. Dan (Veep’s Matt Walsh) is shacking up with a glamorous realtor (Modern Family’s Julie Bowen), leaving Deanna bitter at having put him first all her life and having little to show for it. The message…