• Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Time

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Mankind has always will be obsessed with time. How long does anything take? When will something happen? We use it as a yardstick for task and events. As a society we’re enthralled by time-travel, constantly preoccupied with how long things take to do and get to. We’ve even coined the phrase ‘time immemorial’ to indicate how long things have been the way there are – it’s July 6th 1189 in case you were curious. Time is a revisionary tool by which we revisit the past and judge previous actions, comparing and contrasting them to now – they same time heals…

  • Track Record: Ruan Van Vliet

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Popical Island co-founder and Dublin-based artist Ruan Van Vliet shares some of the more curious gems in his record collection, including Abigail & The Horsey, Ketaminnie Driver and Ammo Blood. Photos by Aaron Corr. Tutankhamun Joyner – Celestial Brouhaha Already a well known sideman in groups led by John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and Barry Coltrane, Joyner stepped out on his own with this debut as band leader on the Impulse! label in 1969. Energy music, free skronk, multiphonic overblowing, spiritual yodelling – this is a huge mess and I can’t make head nor tails of it. Nightmare. Peepin’ Tommy Pervis – Outside…

  • Primer: Mairead O’hEocha – Blackbirds in the Garden of Prisms

    October 21, 2016 - By 

    I was first introduced to the work of Mairead O’hEocha a little over a year ago, being late to considerably large and entirely justified bandwagon. What initially drew my attention was the completely personal and selfish connection I felt to her series Home Rules. These paintings depicted scenes and locations O’hEocha had encountered during her daily commute from Dublin to Gorey, where she taught in Gorey School of Art. Sure I had seen depictions of the rural town and surrounding countryside of my youth before but not anything like this. Her style and eye evolved further in 2011’s via An…

  • Clever Things Done Simply: An Interview with Wyvern Lingo

    October 22, 2016 - By 

    Catching some downtime following a busy few months that saw the release of their stellar A Letter For Willow EP and a UK support tour with James Vincent McMorrow, Bray trio Wyvern Lingo will soon set off for a string of Irish dates across November and December. Ahead of those – as well headlining Jameson’s Bow St Sessions at Cork’s Crane Lane on October 27 – Brian Coney talks to drummer/vocalist Caoimhe Barry about plans for their debut album, the open road and striking a balance between accessible and experimental. Register for free tickets to the band’s Bow St Session with Pleasure Beach and Amaron + Magic…

  • Chairmen of the Bored: Nostalgia’s Tight Grip on Stranger Things

    October 18, 2016 - By 

    The opening of Netflix’s smash hit Stranger Things finds four adolescent boys gathered round a table, intently focussed on some bits of paper, and some lead figures. The boys are playing Dungeons & Dragons, the perennially popular roleplaying game which caused a moral panic in the 1980s, with concerned moral crusaders convinced that the game was a recruiting ground for Satanists and murderers. The game serves as a framing device for the whole show, with our four young heroes sent on a quest more dangerous and compelling than any dungeon adventure they might concoct in the basement. And along the…

  • Love and War: An Interview with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    As their average fan will happily tell you, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe isn’t as much outspoken as he is nail-on-head, uncannily on-the-money about pretty much everything he cares to discuss or pass comment on. To say, then, that he “gives a good interview” – no matter how brief – would be a fairly towering understatement. With two eyes on the horizon, Newcombe talks to Robert Higgins ahead of the release of BJM’s fifteenth album, Third World Pyramid, touching on creativity, sobriety and imminent war. You’ve always been a prolific songwriter, but the past year has been busy even by your standards. What do…

  • Interview: Psychoanalysing The Man Who Fell To Earth with Dr. Eve Watson

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    This is the year when we lost one of the true greats, a man who defined the term enigma, tore up the manual of rock music when it was barely written and who continues to inspire freaks, free-spirits and anyone who hasn’t felt the need to fit in beyond his death. From the start of his career through to the remarkable epitaph that is Black Star, the man born David Jones has left behind a massive hole in the hearts and minds of music fans everywhere. Dr. Eve Watson is one such fan. Studying in the States saw her discover…

  • Gigs of the Week: No Spill Blood, Katie Kim, Slomatics, Holy Fuck, Sister Ghost

    October 13, 2016 - By 

    From the bone-crushing mighty of Slomatics to the propulsive lo-fi electronica of Holy Fuck, this week’s Thin Air Gigs of the Week is a distinctly darker, heavier affair to last week’s guide. Anyone who tries to contest that’s a bad thing is wrong, my friend. Very wrong. No Spill Blood, Robocobra Quartet, Thumper Bello Bar, Dublin Friday, October 14 Trust be told, you’ll struggle to find a stronger three-band Irish bill than Sargent House’s No Spill Blood, Belfast’s singular Robocobra Quartet and Dublin noise-pop Thumper. With that in mind, Bello Bar is most definitely the place to be in Dublin on Friday night. Slomatics…

  • The Thin Air Tracks of the Week: Cloud Nothings, Æ MAK, Foxygen, Irma Vep etc.

    October 13, 2016 - By 

    While it’s been significantly quieter on the home front compared to last week, the last few days have yielded some serious gems here in Ireland and much further afield. Here’s The Thin Air’s Tracks of the Week, featuring Cloud Nothings, Æ MAK, Myronik and more. Irma Vep – Still Sorry Sublime psych-pop from the Manchester-based DIY artist. AE MAK – I Can Feel It In My Bones One of Ireland most singular acts return with an almighty earwormer. Cloud Nothings – Modern Act Here, the new Cloud Nothings (pictured above) sounds very Cloud Nothings-y. This a good thing. Buckles n’ Son…

  • For Love Nor Money: An Interview with Gross Net

    October 13, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his stellar debut LP via Touch Sensitive in November, Girls Names’ guitarist Philip Quinn AKA Gross Net talks to Brian Coney about money, sanity, impetus, authenticity and the fact “we’re all fucked”. Photos by Diarmuid Kennedy You release Quantitative Easing, on November 25. It follows on from Outstanding Debt, your collection of re-commissioned tracks from aborted releases. Once again, money is the pervading theme here. Cast your mind back ten years ago, did you ever envisage it taking such a hold over your art? Well… ten years ago releasing music, or making a slight bit of income…