• Irish Tour: Run The Jewels w/ Gaslamp Killer

    April 3, 2017 - By 

    The mighty Run The Jewels kicked off their current European tour with shows at Belfast’s Limelight 1 and Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. Photos by Colm Laverty and Mark Earley. Limelight 1, Belfast Few acts can get away with kickstarting a sold-out show by strutting on-stage to the equivalent of a homecoming welcome soundtracked by Queen’s self-congratulatory anthem par-excellence ‘We Are The Champions’. The mighty Run The Jewels are one of those acts. Doubling up as the first leg of their current European tour, to call their appearance at Belfast’s Limelight 1 tonight a masterclass would be a towering understatement. Backed by DJ Trackstar, the globetrotting, genre-defining…

  • Stormzy w/ A2 @ The Olympia, Dublin

    March 31, 2017 - By 

    Every single owner of a pair of Adidas Superstars has started to form a queue outside the Olympia on this particular Wednesday evening on Dublin. As the crowd eyes up each other’s shades of Adidas, it’s clear there’s only one name on everyone’s lips – Stormzy. Stormzy, or Michael Omari to his mum, has been setting grime and pop audiences alight with his palatable take on Britain’s hottest genre of 2017. His critically lauded number one album, Gang Signs And Prayer has already been slated as one of the biggest successes of the year and the excitement is palpable amongst…

  • Real Estate – In Mind

    March 29, 2017 - By 

    It has been a busy three years since Real Estate’s third album, Atlas was released. Firstly, founding member Matt Mondanile decided to leave the band with the intention to focus primarily on his band, Ducktails. Meanwhile, in 2015 frontman Martin Courtney took some time away to record his solo debut, Many Moons. Now, with the addition of Julian Lynch on lead guitar, Real Estate’s return with In Mind maintains the lyrical themes that has defined their output up to this point: the metaphorical utilisation of nature as a reflection of relationships; romantic as well as familial and platonic. And while the…

  • Russian Circles w/ Cloakroom @ Empire Music Hall, Belfast

    March 29, 2017 - By 

    Almost five years to the month since they played one of the shows of 2010 at the Speakeasy alongside a fast-rising Deafheaven, Russian Circles’ return to Belfast tonight doubles up as the first anniversary for local promoters and imprint Solid Choice Industries. If ever there was a performance to mirror the sense of occasion – and the spirit of independence and conviction – the Chicago instrumental trio’s appearance tonight ticked all the boxes. Providing this evening’s lone support is North Indian trio Cloakroom, a band who strike a keen – and subtly compelling – balance between their slowcore-tinged brand of post-hardcore with…

  • The Boss Baby

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    It’s a movie about a baby. Who wears a suit. Like a boss does. I’m not sure what else to tell you. Based on the children’s picture-book by Marla Frazee and directed by Madagascar regular Tom McGrath, Dreamworks’ The Boss Baby takes a universal truth about the demanding reality of newborns, and spins it into a whimsical theory about the origins of toddlers and the conflicting demands put on a family’s resources. Voiced by Miles Bakshi (and Tobey Maguire in the adult-looking-back voiceovers), Tim is a 7 year-old enjoying life as the sole recipient of his parents’ time and attention, mom and…

  • Warpaint w/ Æ MAK @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    There comes a point where the visage of being inscrutable begins to wear off, even the most beguiling cool kids have runny shits some days and when your defining trait over ten years into your career remains a kind inscrutableness, the trick risks wearing thin. The backing music is very Cure-esque, the singing is soft, melodic, harmonious, channelling any number of 90’s female vocalists from Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval to Dolores O’Riordan. Seeing them live (and indoors) is a significant clip ahead of listening to them on record, that distant echo quality reverberates satisfyingly. It’s nice; lovely even, like being…

  • Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    You did not walk with me Of late to the hill-top tree By the gated ways, As in earlier days; You were weak and lame, So you never came, And I went alone, and I did not mind, Not thinking of you as left behind.   I walked up there to-day Just in the former way; Surveyed around The familiar ground By myself again: What difference, then? Only that underlying sense Of the look of a room on returning thence.   Thomas Hardy In July of 2016, musician Geneviève Castrée died.  She was survived by husband Phil Elverum and her…

  • CHiPs

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    Based on the 1977-1983 television series of the same name, CHiPs is an action-comedy remake strangely obsessed with the question of what can and cannot be considered homophobic. Frank ‘Ponch’ Poncherello (Michael Peña) is an FBI agent who goes undercover in the California Highway Patrol to uncover some dirty cops. On the morning of his first day, changing in the locker room, he bristles when his new partner Jon Baker (Dax Shepard), clad only in tightie whities, reaches for a hug. Ponch quickly explains he’s not homophobic or anything, it’s just a weird thing to do with a stranger. Cut to…

  • Spoon – Hot Thoughts

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    There is a problem with longevity. Unless you’re Bowie, you’ll run out of things to say, or at the very least interesting ways to say it. Spoon, who’ve been rolling on for over two decades, seem to have finally reached that point. It’s been a long time since Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga graced our shelves. Now they’re on their ninth LP and the strain shows. Hot Thoughts isn’t bad, it’s perfectly serviceable. It hits all the target a record of this ilk should. Britt Daniel’s distinctive yelp is still offset by some killer…

  • Anohni – Paradise EP

    March 23, 2017 - By 

    Anohni is not afraid to be political. This was obvious with her previous release, 2016’s critically acclaimed Hopelessness, where songs like ‘Violent Men’ and ‘Crisis’ were an angry manifestation of a frustration at the state of modern society. While similar thematically, Paradise is a more despondent reflection, slowly building with the quiet and human admission that  “in my dreams, you don’t love me” (‘In My Dreams’). This refrain sets a scene for the emotions of the six-track EP. Paradise, Anohni’s sophomore release (outside of those albums she released as part of Antony and the Johnsons) shares the same anger, and…