• Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Fool’s Weekend

    April 1, 2016 - By 

    The biggest cultural and historical weekend these shores have ever seen may have passed but there are still a treasure trove of exhibitions and events on nationally to continue the cultural outpouring. In this installment of Picture This, following on from visual and musical spectacles of last weekend, we’re throwing light on video and music themed shows on nationwide. From personal accounts of childhood, to comments on city architect and pieces about relationships these is something on for all to enjoy. Words by Aidan Kelly Murphy. Belfast: “An exploration of the mythologies of past events and relationships.” What: Other &…

  • No Fracking Way: An Interview with This Land writer Siân Owen

    April 1, 2016 - By 

    A theatrical journey through an ever-changing landscape, confronting some hugely pressing issues regarding climate change and, in particular, fracking, Siân Owen’s This Land is a play being hailed for striking a keen balance between engrossing fictional narrative and the much bigger – more important – picture. Ahead of performances at Coleraine’s Riverside Theatre (Apr 6), Omagh’s Strule Arts Centre (Apr 7), Derry’s Waterside Theatre (Apr 8) and Belfast’s The MAC (Apr 9), Brian Coney chats to Owen about the production and its portrayal of the issues. Go here to buy tickets. Hi Siân, before touching on This Land, can you give us some background on Pentabus and…

  • Rave New World (01/04)

    April 1, 2016 - By 

    After a Good Friday spent away from the web, Aidan Hanratty and Antoin Lindsay are back with the best gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Dip with Lumigraph and Sias B2B at Bar Tengu, Dublin Friday 1 April Two Dublin heroes, Lumigraph and Sias, aka Frank B, go back to back tonight at this long-running party, while the regular residents take care of things in the main room. AH Moderat at Vicar Street, Dublin Wednesday 6 April Another stellar team-up here, as Modeselektor and Apparat join forces once more in support of their third album, III. Colossal beats meet yearning melodies, and the…

  • Road To Nowhere: Modest Mouse’s This Is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, Twenty Years Later

    March 31, 2016 - By 

    What do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘driving music’? As musical notions go, it’s one that usually comes with a specific set of aesthetic criteria. Upbeat tempos, big choruses, maybe the occasional indulgent guitar solo. This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, the debut of Issaquah indie rockers Modest Mouse, turned twenty last Saturday. While directly referencing both a long journey and a clear mind, if anything this album is the protracted, pensive inverse of canonical ‘driving music’ – ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ with a dicey hangover. Modest Mouse emerged in the…

  • Track Record: Andy Connolly (Deviant & Naive Ted)

    March 31, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record, we head to Limerick to hang out with Andy Connolly of Deviant & Naive Ted to reveal the man behind the mask’s music tastes, from Chick Corea to DJ Faust. Photos by Moira Reilly. Lews Tewns & Nobsta Nuts – Poverty is Thirsty Work The answer to ‘what’s your favourite record’ changes daily but today it’s most definitely this. Lews Tewns & Nobsta Nuts, AKA the Headcase Ladz, are the best rap posse to ever come out of Wales and one of my favourite rap groups of all time. They are sadly under-represented by…

  • Beyond The Divide: An Interview with Pat Dam Smyth

    March 29, 2016 - By 

    There are few more inimitable and instantly engaging songsmiths than London-based, Northern Irish troubadour Pat Dam Smyth. Five years on from the release of his stellar debut album, The Great Divide, Smyth is currently crowdfunding for its forthcoming follow-up via Pledge Music, a release that will surely doubly confirm his standing as one of the country’s most distinctive and vital voices. Ahead of shows at Belfast’s The MAC on Friday, April 1 and Rathfriland’s Bronte Church on April 2, Smyth chats to Brian Coney about his pledge campaign, touring across Europe and finally feeling he belongs to the current era.…

  • Not Just Feeding a Scene: An Interview with Chad Ubovich of Meatbodies

    March 25, 2016 - By 

    Fronted by Chad Ubovich who has worked with the likes of Ty Segall, John Dwyer and Mikal Cronin, Meatbodies are embedded in California’s idiosyncratic garage rock revival.  Much like the bands connected to the aforementioned names – and they are plentiful – Meatbodies blend pop influences with heavier elements such as noise rock, metal and psych. This is evidenced in the other bands Chad Ubovic has worked with, from the sunny disposition of Mikal Cronin’s band mixed with the dark, dense sounds of Ty Segall’s, Fuzz, which is heavily indebted to Black Sabbath. Meatbodies rest somewhere between these two bands, exhibiting a…

  • Label Mixtape: Fortuna POP!

    March 24, 2016 - By 

    Created in London in 1995 by Sean Price, or El Presidente as he prefers to be addressed, Fortuna POP! has for over twenty years been a steadfast bastion of everything lo-fi and fuzzy. The last few years have seen the label enter a veritable golden era. They’ve been responsible for Joanna Gruesome’s fuzz-pop debut LP Weird Sister, which won the Welsh Music Prize, the regional pop punk of Martha’s debut album Courting Strong, which was included in NPR Music’s 50 Favorite Albums of 2014, and records by a cornucopia of others ranging from Evans the Death to Pete Astor to…

  • Roving Eye: Otherkin in Amsterdam

    March 23, 2016 - By 

    I people watch, I guess who they are, imagine where they are going, wonder what they do in life. It’s generally how I pass the time in airports. As I wait in line to board my flight I don’t need to guess who the approaching group of young men are. All clad in black denim and leather, with guitars strapped to their backs, this is most definitely Otherkin and we are Amsterdam bound for the iconic London Calling Festival. Fresh from a support slot on Ash’s tour, and performances at Eurosonic these lads are in seriously high demand. As we…

  • New Pope’s Guide To Galway #3: Bands

    March 23, 2016 - By 

    I like bands that have personality and I like music that comes from a place, be that geographically or socially or mentally or emotionally or philosophically or whatever. As long as it’s honest in some way and thoughtful in some other way and in some other way transcends mindless entertainment and stabs you in your pineal gland, wherein lies the soul. Galway is blessed with a number of such bands and here are five of them.  Oh Boland I’ve known these young gentlemen for a few years and when they got together musically they named themselves Oh Boland, though I’m…