• Jessica Hopper Keynote @ Women’s Work

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    As part of Women’s Work NI, a week long festival based around International Women’s Day and highlighting the valuable work women contribute to the music industry, current editorial director of MTV Jessica Hopper gave a rousing keynote speech to a crowded Oh Yeah! Centre. The crux of the legendary journalist/editor’s speech was that the so far rather circuitous conversation around women in the industry had only gained momentum recently: we are finally being heard. She outlined how how she got started (a punk fanzine inspired by Babes In Toyland), which brought her neatly to her other point: why is ‘fangirl’…

  • Irish Tour: Wolf Alice & Spies

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    Having released their Mercury Prize-nominated debut My Love Is Cool last year, London alt-rock quartet Wolf Alice stopped at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre & Belfast’s Mandela Hall at the weekend. Support came from Spies. Photos by Aaron Corr & Alan Maguire. Olympia Theatre, Dublin by Aaron Corr Mandela Hall, Belfast by Alan Maguire

  • Roving Eye: Bell X1 in London

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of her air miles-inducing Thin Air feature Roving Eye, Tara Thomas captures Dublin’s Bell X1 at London’s Union Chapel. I couldn’t stay away from London, and particularly Islington, for too long before being drawn back to the entertainment hotbed on another Roving Eye. This time around I was destined for Union Chapel, one of the most alluring venues in the city. Founded in 1799, the architecture has acoustics at its core and provides a glorious platform for the human voice. Tonight, after sixteen sold out dates, Bell X1 conclude their tour in what is arguably the perfect…

  • Insert Coin: Zoe Jellicoe

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Insert Coin, Eoghain Meakin speaks with Zoe Jellicoe, editor of Critical Hits: An Indie Gaming Anthology, currently on target to meet its Kickstarter funding goal. From remarkably humble beginnings video games have become, quite simply, the most important form of entertainment in the first world. With a growing demographic and an unwavering core audience gaming no longer competes with its less immersive cousins like film and television but sits apart as a fully-fledged and largely respected entity. As a market gaming is hugely lucrative and with the home console well into its eighth generation the industry…

  • Treasures & a Cup of Tae: A tribute to Martin A. Egan.

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    Last November we sadly said goodbye to a well loved character and champion of Irish culture, Martin A. Egan. Musician, author, artist, poet, raconteur and most importantly a friend- Martin had many strings to his quare aul bow. In a special tribute to his life and work, we’ve compiled reminiscences from friends, family and musicians who felt his influence and his loss with equal impact. Pop the kettle on and have a cup of tae in his honour. “I first met Martin Egan when Planxty played on The Aran Islands in 1972. He sailed out to Kilronan with Mary Coughlan and…

  • Interview: Hornets

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of their rather special, secret album fundraiser on Saturday, Melanie Brehaut chats to Belfast hardcore quartet Hornets about their influences, ambitions & love of the local scene. You have a rather exciting event coming up. Can you tell us a bit about it? We’re having a bring your own event in Belfast City Centre in order to raise funds for recording our debut album. It’s limited to 80 spaces and you can receive details via sending your name over to hornetsbanduk@gmail.com. We’re playing alongside us will be Apartments and Unyielding Love. There will also be an Exhibition featuring work from Jenna Hayes,…

  • Access All Areas?

    March 7, 2016 - By 

    Eoghain Meakin weighs up the occasional mismatch between music love and accessibility in venues, festivals and beyond. People come to music for different reasons; for some it’s that hour wind down after work. For others it’s the pumped gym playlist, the ‘let’s get it on’ dinner mix tape, the ‘when I was young’ NOFX compilation, or the ‘I am still young’ hip hop hits of 2015 (handpicked by VEVO). It permeates into our entire lives. It’s a comfort, a refuge and a challenge and inspiration. It doesn’t exist just in a moment but as a continuous soundtrack to our lives.…

  • Interview: Hamell on Trial

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    When Ed Hamell decided he was done with bands, picked up a battered acoustic guitar, and decided to go it alone, he called himself Hamell on Trial. And whether he meant to or not, he set the scene for over two decades of confessional, confrontational, and apocalyptic music. Make no bones about it, when he gets on the stage, Ed Hamell is on trial. And we’re judge, jury, and executioner. With numerous brushes with mainstream acclaim under his belt, the New Yorker has managed to keep in underground for most of his career, but that acerbic style, calling to mind…

  • Rave New World (04/03)

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    Antoin Lindsay and Aidan Hanratty return for their latest look at the very best electronic gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Lower Your Expectations #5: Barry Redsetta + Frawl at The Underbelly, Limerick Saturday 5 March LYE continues its run of great guests, with Major Problems boss Barry Redsetta travelling to Limerick tomorrow night. He’s famed as a warmup DJ, but here he’ll be shining brightly. He’s got quite the collection, with unreleased goodies to boot (MPR010 is killer) – check out this sweet mix he did last year for proof. Local man Frawl is on support, fresh from the…

  • Premiere + Interview: Ryan Vail – Invert

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    Whether you’re a newcomer or have been following his slow-burning, revelatory evolution as of late, Derry’s Ryan Vail has always commanded a domain that he can call his own. A master of subtlety, nuance and the hallowed space between the notes, his debut EP These Words revealed fully-formed promise that has only grown (and grown into itself) in the half-decade since. Whether you look to EPs including Fade and Grow, tracks such as ‘Sunlight’ and ‘Days’, superb new single ‘Wounds’ or Sea Legs, his well-received concept collaboration with Ciaran Lavery, Vail’s music and the sphere he conjures via slowly bobbing, synth-laden electronica has always…