• Avenues For Belonging: David Berman soundtracked the strangest and saddest parts of life, but also the most beautiful

    August 8, 2019 - By 

    Songwriter and The Thin Air contributor Maija Sofia reflects on the profound and unwavering influence of  late Silver Jews frontman David Berman, and remembers a peerless, uncompromising artist who not only comforted the lonely and lost, but brought them together. I remember very clearly the first night I ever heard Silver Jews, I was sprawled out on the carpet in a big curved room in North London, lying on my stomach with my laptop open and a bottle of Sainsburys’ wine half-finished beside me. It was early summer and I had the window open to the hot dust and the sound…

  • Inbound: Gracepark

    August 7, 2019 - By 

    Hailing from Artane in North County Dublin, Gracepark is an eight-piece art collective consisting of three rappers (Matthew, Conor and Dara), one singer (Femi), one producer (Charlie), two photographers/videographers (Cian/Luan) and their manager (Remi). It’s a project that combines aspects of visual artistry with numerous variants of the Hip Hop genre, creating a sound that is unheard of elsewhere in Ireland’s Hip Hop community. They are undoubtedly one of the most exciting collaborative efforts on the Irish music scene. Jack Rudden had the pleasure of meeting up with the collective to discuss Stephen King, the prolific nature of Hip Hop…

  • Shooting Star: Remembering Elliott Smith Playlist (1969-2003)

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    On October 21st 2003, one of the most naturally-gifted, boundlessly resonant singer-songwriters of his era, Steven Paul “Elliott” Smith bookended his story in Echo Park, California. He was thirty-four years old. Having spent several years lauded as a troubled genius, his reported suicide kickstarted the creaky old myth machine into gear once more. But whilst destined to remain “that Good Will Hunting guy” for countless people not too au courant with, say, Quasi’s discography, the outpouring of confusion and raw grief on that day in October 2003 was unprecedented, bringing into sharp focus the extent to which Smith was regarded in the lo-fi…

  • Heavy Pop: An Interview with THVS

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their eagerly-anticipated debut album in Belfast’s Voodoo on October 12, we catch up with THVS, a Belfast-based three-piece whose emphatic “heavy pop” craft is on the very cusp of breaking through. THVS straddle a line between heavy sounds and pop music sensibility. How has the project evolved from your previous incarnations? Michael: I think that very part of it in and of itself is the evolution, the pop sensibility. In any previous band I’ve been in that was very much balked at so I think that step has lead us to a wider sound. Who…

  • Festival Mixtape: Stendhal Festival 2019

    August 2, 2019 - By 

    Set to return to Limavady across 15-17th August, Northern Ireland’s only unmissable summer festival – and three-times winner of Ireland’s “best small festival” – Stendhal is shaping up to be just as memorable as its last few outings. Ahead of our festival preview next week, we’ve whittled the year’s bill down to a twenty-track mixtape, featuring SOAK, Basement Jaxx, Kitt Philippa, Sister Ghost, New Pagans, Kíla, Talos, Elma Orkestra & Ryan Vail, Malojian, Lisa O’Neill, Bouts, Arvo Party and more. Go here to buy tickets to this year’s festival.

  • Mixtape Preview: Madonna – Truth or Dare @ Oh Yeah Music Centre

    July 30, 2019 - By 

    Let’s face it: honorific nicknames in popular music don’t come any more clear-cut than Madonna and the Queen of Pop. The singer, songwriter, businesswoman, actress, producer, dancer, director, author and humanitarian born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 has ceaselessly shapeshifted and fearlessly reinvented like no other. Her musical output is but half the story. Naturally, such a towering legacy has attracted its fair share of filmed exposés and feature-length accounts over the years. None, however, even flirt with the sheer watchability of Alek Keshishian’s 1991 film Madonna: Truth or Dare (or In Bed with Madonna outside of North America). Filmed…

  • Monday Mixtape: Electric Octopus

    July 12, 2019 - By 

    Next month, Belfast psych-jam maestros Electric Octopus stop off in Dublin, Belfast and Derry for three unmissable shows with Freiburg four-piece Sound of Smoke. Ahead of that, guitarist Tyrell Black, bassist Dale Hughes and drummer Guy Hetherington select and wax lyrical about some of their all-time favourite tracks, including Alice Coltrane, Thom Yorke, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and more. Derek Trucks Band – Sahib Teri Bandi Besides the fact that Derek Trucks and the song are just straight up great. The energy that comes from it is incredible! It builds and weaves in so many ways and the slide guitar…

  • This Month In Irish Music: June

    July 5, 2019 - By 

    Was June the strongest month in Irish music this year so far? By way of Girl Band, Yankari, Uly, Roisin Murphy and more, Colin Gannon makes a strong case in his monthly round-up. Girl Band — Shoulderblades Girl Band (pictured) are back. Dara Kiely’s ungodly, contorted howl is back, as exorcistic and scabbed as ever. In the same month that Two Door Cinema Club made their excruciatingly ghastly comeback, Ireland’s revered purveyors of shadowy, techno-informed noise rock arose from their slumber. Kiely’s health problems led at least in part to their lack of visibility over the past few years, creating a…

  • Mixtape Preview: The Promise – The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town

    June 27, 2019 - By 

    In the latest installment of Mixtape, a season of music films curated by Feature, the Oh Yeah Music Centre will play host to a screening of Thom Zimny’s 2010 Bruce Springsteen doc The Promise – The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town on July 3rd. As modern retrospective music films go, none have pulled off conveying the bliss and burden of mounting superstardom – the legal issues, the towering pressure, the creative gestation – with the same power and panache as Zimny’s film. With his 1975 third album, the critically and commercially devoured Born To Run having made him a star beyond his wildest…

  • Monday Mixtape: HEX HUE

    June 24, 2019 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Belfast musician Katie Richardson aka HEX HUE selects a mixture of old and new favourite tracks, from Lykke Li to Christine and the Queens, that have “fed into the HEX HUE story in different ways”. So Sad So Sexy – Lykke Li Lykke Li was the first Scandinavian artist I really remember notably hearing loving. I love how much her sound has changed over the years and she has been a big influence on me – partly just by introducing me to a Geographical world of music that I have consistently fallen more and more…