• Monday Mixtape: Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh)

    February 15, 2016 - By 

    To say Lou Barlow needs no introduction would be something of a colossal understatement. A founding member of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and the Folk Implosion, Barlow is both a veritable indie rock hero and lo-fi pioneer par excellence. Having recently released his third solo album, Brace The Wave, Barlow reveals and waxes lyrical about some of his favourite tracks discovered via apps like Shazam, including Crain, Sauna Youth and Dublin’s Girl Band. I love the music-identifying apps on my phone, Shazam and SoundHound. If I hear something and don’t know what it is I tap one of these and aim my phone.…

  • Rave New World (12/02)

    February 12, 2016 - By 

    Antoin Lindsay is back! He and Aidan Hanratty run through the best gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Kink – Live at District 8, Dublin Friday 12 February Number 1 on RA’s list of live acts last year, Kink has been rolling out bangers for years, and finally got his due with this particular recognition. See why he got the top spot at District 8, who have a pretty special season of guests this spring. AH Fleetmac Wood presents I See Your Gypsy at The Sugar Club, Dublin Friday 12 February A ludicrous name, I agree, but this show looks like a…

  • Crowded With Different Voices: an interview with Julia Holter

    February 11, 2016 - By 

    Few artists follow their own path so downright convincingly as Californian experimental pop auteur Julia Holter. With her extraordinary, peerlessly prismatic fourth studio album, Have You In My Wilderness, finishing at the top-end of many ’15 End of Year lists, her standing as a supremely individual musician is incontestable. Ahead of her show at Dublin’s Button Factory next Wednesday night (January 17) Brian Coney chats to Holter about inspiration, the thematic concepts underlying her music and the consequence of widespread critical acclaim. It’s five months on from the release of Have You In My Wilderness. I’m curious: does the kind of acclaim it…

  • Inbound: Bear Worship

    February 9, 2016 - By 

    Bear Worship is the new project from Irish musician Karl Knuttel, who has previously performed as Pinkie and as Ivan St John.  Here, he talks about his love of synthesisers, making music out of necessity, and the benefits of being ‘ridiculously controlling’. Words by David Turpin. You’ve said that Bear Worship emerged out of a time of anxiety and depression, and yet the music is far more dreamlike than nightmarish, and far more expansive than claustrophobic.  What do you mean when you say it was made “out of necessity”? You know, anxiety is a harrowing experience. It’s not at all…

  • New Pope’s Guide to Galway

    February 9, 2016 - By 

    Having released one of our favourite Irish records of 2015 in Youth, Galway dream-folk artist David Boland AKA New Pope sings the varied praises of Galway and all it has to offer in 2016. Galway is great. Everybody loves it. You love it, I love it, she loves it, we all love it. Sometimes I feel weighed down by the love of it. I love it so much that it’s crushing my soul. I feel oppressed by the loveliness of it all. I think someday I’ll go mad with the love of it. The sick smothering love, the clawing breathless…

  • Interview: Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    The non­-for­-profit­ run ​Open House Festival​ finished its round of sold out gigs across Northern Ireland at the weekend. The festival, which organises live performances in unique and intimate venues, treated guests to acts such as homegrown talent Stephen Maccartney; Jarrod Dickenson, an upcoming Texan-­born Folk and Roots­ Blues singer; and last but not least, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, a Bluegrass band from Michigan. During the festival, Claire McKeever caught up with Mark and Josh, one half of Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, at their penultimate gig at The Arcadia in Portrush. How was Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys…

  • Classic Album: Motörhead – Another Perfect Day (1983)

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    1983 was an interesting year to be in Motörhead. After conquering the UK charts with the one-two punch of Ace of Spades and No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith, they’d established themselves right at the forefront of the rock world, a band that could go toe-to-toe with the best of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, or appealing to the still thriving punk rock scene, whilst simultaneously being perfectly at home amidst more mainstream fare, gooning for the cameras on Top of the Pops. Iron Fist (1982), however, hadn’t been particularly well received. Co-produced by guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, the…

  • Bookmark: Shawna Scott (Sex Siopa)

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of Bookmark, Seattle-born Shawna Scott of Dublin’s Sex Siopa selects and talks about her some of her all-time favourite books. Photos by Melanie Mullan. Girl Trouble by Carol Dyhouse This is the book I’m reading at the moment. I picked it up in the Wellcome Museum bookshop when I was in London last month. It’s brilliant! It’s a brief history of moral panics over the past 150 or so years. Not surprising, when there’s a moral panic, it’s almost always about women. From the suffragettes’ involvement in the “white slavery” panic to the post-war rise of…

  • 16 For ’16: Paddy Hanna

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    Fifteen hugely promising, genre-spanning Irish acts down, we conclude our annual Ones to Watch feature with Dublin’s Paddy Hanna. Words by Cathal McBride. Photo: Mark Earley. Following his 2014 debut album Leafy Stilleto on Popical Island and a pair of strong 2015 singles, Dublin’s Paddy Hanna is on an upward trajectory that shows no sign of faltering any time soon. A string of Irish support dates with Girl Band last year with his backing band, including No Monster Club’s Bobby Aherne, has only helped to raise his profile further. Swapping his old band Grand Pocket Orchestra’s lo-fi art pop for…

  • Rave New World (05/02)

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    With Antoin wirelessless, Aidan Hanratty returns for his latest look at the best electronic gigs, tracks, mixes and releases of the week. Gigs Galcher Lustwerk & Dj Deece at Opium Rooms, Dublin Friday 5 February There’s a crazy amount of good gigs this weekend. First off, DJ Deece, long-standing Hidden Agenda resident, is behind a new series of gigs, and having opened with an all-nighter a few weeks back, this time he’s got the don Galcher Lustwerk (pictured) in town. If you’re not familiar with 100% Galcher already, well where have you been for the past three years? He’s closed that…