• The Thin Air Tracks of the Week: J Mascis, Solar Bears, Thee Oh Sees, Enemies etc.

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    You know, we got thinking: three years in, it’s really about time that we started herding up our very favourite tracks – Irish and international – and putting them in one place, each and every week. That very obvious thought developed into a very simple plan (ten or so positively must-hear tracks every Thursday) and here we are. This is it. You are here. Dig below. Enemies – ‘itsallwaves’ RIP Enemies. Don’t miss their farewell show at Vicar Street in December. J Mascis – ‘Waltz 2’ (Elliott Smith cover) It probably shouldn’t work but it does. Go here, man. Crystal…

  • Album Stream: Zinc – Zinc

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Galway based post-rock trio Zinc have spent the first two years of their existence patiently honing a sound that blends their respective musical backgrounds together into a neat instrumental package. Their self-titled debut, mixed by Solar Bears’ and Leo Drezden‘s Rian Trench, is a fitting testament to that careful moulding together of styles, with the sporadic jazz influences sitting comfortably among the trip-hop, electronic and punk elements throughout its seven cuts. Originating as a purely instrumental act, the group, comprised of Simon Kenny (drums), Aengus Hackett (guitar) and Andrew Madec (bass), began expanding on melodic and rhythmic motifs to create something definitive while maintaining a free-form…

  • Oh Boland – Spilt Milk

    September 29, 2016 - By 

    Hailing from Tuam, Garage Rock trio Oh Boland are in the middle of celebrating the release of their long awaited and triumphant debut LP Spilt Milk, touring and performing throughout a number of venues on the East Coast of the US. It’s been a busy time for the Galway lads of late, and the attention they’re no enjoying has been well earned. Oh Boland have already released a number of EP’s since their formation in 2012 and as was the case with these prior releases, Spilt Milk, released this Friday on San Diego label Volar Records, is driven by the same blunt spurges of sludgy and raw, pop punk…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Ties

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    Among its definitions by the Oxford English Dictionary, alongside ‘a strip of material worn round the collar‘ and ‘a game in which the scores are level’, ties is defined as ‘a thing that unites or links people’. It is this third definition that can be best used to describe the exhibitions, artworks and people that feature in this edition of The Thin Air’s Picture This. In Dublin we see the latest show by Willie Doherty which discusses the unified history of two separate places and how this, via the 1916 Rising and later republicanism, has now become part of the…

  • Win Weekend Tickets to Hard Working Class Heroes

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    Hands down the country’s leading showcase of independent, unsigned talent, we have a pair of weekend tickets to give away to this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes in Dublin from October 6-8. With a little extra also thrown in for good measure (all will be revealed) simply Like our Facebook page here and send your answer to the following question to info@thethinair.net to be in with a chance of snapping the tickets up. Name the two acts beginning with the letter F playing HWCH 2016 Good luck!

  • EP Premiere: Paper Dogs – The Lost Art of Conversation

    September 19, 2016 - By 

    If there’s one thing the island of Ireland has no shortage of it’s straight-shooting rock bands. But one such act that has developed that foundation to skilfully – and often very convincingly – accomadate the influence of blues, funk, indie rock and much more besides is Belfast quartet Paper Dogs. Counting such heavy-hitters as Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath, amongst their key influences, the Chris Rooney-fronted band – an increasingly established staple on the live scene up North over the last while – doth their collective cap to a certain grade of genre-defining greats whilst very consciously framing that imprint with their…

  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    Skeleton Tree isn’t the first Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds album born out of personal turmoil. The melancholy of albums like Your Funeral, My Trial in the 80s was inspired by Cave’s worsening heroin addiction, while 1997’s The Boatman’s Call was one of those classic breakup albums, famously considered – until now, that is – to be Cave’s most emotionally affecting work. But that must pale into insignificance for Cave now, ever since his 15 year old son Arthur last year fell to his death from a cliff near their home in Brighton, an event he describes in the album’s accompanying film One More Time With Feeling…

  • Jack White – Acoustic Recordings 1998­ – 2016

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    Jack White is by many people’s reckoning one of the most iconic guitarists of his generation. Standing at a burly six foot plus with his ghostly pale complexion and colour coordinated outfits he has always cut a formidable onstage presence. Photos of him wrestling his red and white Airline guitar will sit alongside the likes of Hendrix and Phil Lynott. It’s invigorating to witness his mastery of the stage. As one half of The White Stripes he not only managed to compensate for a lack of instruments by producing a colossal amount of noise; he was visually mesmerising, throwing himself around like a man possessed and constantly jolting between…

  • Stream: Lighght – What U Need

    September 14, 2016 - By 

    Over the past year or so, mysterious Cork based producer Lighght has been steadily building a collection of dark, ambient, sometimes industrial electronica, with each new composition feeling like a movement in a much more driven direction. Beginnings with tracks like ‘Oppen’ and ‘Croesus Pieces’ were sparse but were enticing in their intent, droning backdrops providing stable bases for muffled melodies. Three months ago saw the unveiling of ‘Drown’, a track which saw the artist veering into more dub, garage influenced territory while still hanging onto the ambient drones. Now Lighght reveals ‘What U Need’, yet another step forward in the artists’ technical…