• TV Eye: Horace and Pete

    April 5, 2016 - By 

    The tenth and final episode of Louis CK’s experimental online-self-distributed series, Horace and Pete, arrived in subscribers’ inboxes on Saturday to no fanfare or announcement of the series’ conclusion – simply an email from CK saying he had nothing clever to say about it. It was written, filmed and directed by Louie in the week prior to each release, evidenced by the highly topical barroom discussion, with even Hulk Hogan’s Gawker sex tape discussed. In its finest moments, Horace & Pete feels like zeitgeist-capturing cult television event, and for anyone into it, the personal email from Louis was the highlight…

  • Cinema 16 For 16: Victoria

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    An alternative guide to this year’s cinematic offerings, we trawl through the dilapidated rows of seats in the back alley ‘art’ cinemas and crumbling picture palaces so you don’t have to. Rescuing gummy Venus de Milos from sticky crevices and fishing midget gems out of cold cups of tea. Diaries at the ready cinephiles. One city. One night. One take. So reads the tagline for Victoria, the new film from relatively unknown director Sebastian Schipper that has cinephiles the world over going all googly eyed. It’s the ‘one take’ from the tagline that is especially capturing attention- with the film…

  • Monday Mixtape: Cian Ó Cíobháin (An Taobh Tuathail/Ceol ar an Imeall)

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    Easily the country’s very best radio programme, Cian Ó Cíobháin’s An Taobh Tuathail has proved impossibly formative for so many musicians, music writers and music lovers throughout the length and breadth of the country. A nightly, midweek traipse through the very best underground sounds, the show (which translates “the Other Side” in English) is a veritable trove of electronica, experimental, ambient and more. You can tune in here. Co-presented with Eithne Shortall, Ó Ciobhain returns with the seventh season of TG4’s alternative music programme Ceol ar an Imeall on Thursday, April 7 at 10.30pm. This first episode features Mark Ronson and performances Ham Sandwich…

  • 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…