• TTA Session 10: Abandcalledboy (Part II)

    In the second installment of a two-part session, Irish noise quartet Abandcalledboy perform ‘Playdough’, that malleable, positively inedible toy we all worshipped as kids. Go here to check out the first part featuring ABCB playing recent single ‘L.A. Dick’. Filmed and edited by Colm Laverty. Sound by The Chris’ AKA Chris Ryan and Chris Brazier.

  • TTA Session #010: Abandcalledboy (Part 1)

    In the first of a two-part Thin Air Live Session, Colm Laverty captures ever-evolving positively idiosyncratic alt-noise quartet Abandcalledboy performing recent single ‘L.A. Dick’, a track we reckon(ed) calls to mind the likes of The Fall and Tera Melos. Sound by Chris Ryan and Chris Brazier.

  • Watch: Abandcalledboy – LA Dick (Keian Remix)

    Back in May we introduced Lia, the debut EP by Dublin-based Irish-Iranian songwriter and producer Keian Roohipour AKA Keian. Four months on, the Co. Down man has worked his shuffling, unravelling wizardry on ‘LA Dick’, the latest single by Abandcalledboy. Warping the original to a barely recognisable state, it makes for five odd minutes of wonderfully tangential electronic nocturnalism, hinting at some great things in the pipeline. Watch the video for the original track here and check out Keian’s remix below.

  • The Record: Abandcalledboy

    In the latest installment of The Record, Brian Coney talks to Ryan Burrowes (below) from recently-expanded Belfast-based quartet Abandcalledboy about changes within the ranks, the writing and recording of their forthcoming new material and their plans for the rest of the year. Photos by Colm Laverty. You’ve been playing sets solely comprised of new material live recently. Why such a shift there? Basically the shift was down to how much we have changed musically, the older material doesn’t really fit with the tracks we have now. We used our last mini-tour (with 100 Onces) to say goodbye to the older…

  • “We Are…” by Diarmuid Kennedy

    Whether you’ve encountered him or not – and chances are many of you have – self-professed “unprofessional photographer” Diarmuid Kennedy has been a veritable fly-on-the-wall of Belfast music over the last couple of years. A masterfully discreet operator, he is often one of a small handful at people to brave line-ups of all-but anonymous debutantes and furtive young musicians; his photography – just like his work capturing bigger, more established local bills – providing a priceless insight into an ever-evolving, somewhat maligned but, for the most part, consistently impressive music scene. Sitting outside the Pavilion Bar on Ormeau Road – a venue in which the photographer has shot innumerable up-and-coming bands…

  • The Thin Air/CQAF Hüsker Dü night @ Voodoo

    As part of this year’s The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, we’re very happy to present a special celebration of boundlessly influential U.S. three-piece Hüsker Dü at Voodoo Belfast on Monday, May 5. As well as hosting a one-off screening of Every Everything: The Life, Times and Music of Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü drummer, songwriter and visionary, Belfast-based punk and rock n’ roll bands, No Matter, The Groundlings (headliners) and alt-rock three-piece, Abandcalledboy will play three sets balanced between original material and their very own takes on classic Hüsker Dü material. In Every Everything, The Life, Times and Music of Grant Hart,…

  • EP Stream: ABandcalledboy – Abandcalledboy

    The follow-up to last year’s promising Dead Academics EP, Northern Irish schizo-punk trio Abandcalledboy have released their seven-track self-titled EP. Including the release’s lead single ‘Cliff Richard‘, the EP features the brims with the Ryan Burrowes-fronted trio’s now fully-formed grasp of fusing earworming melodies with pummeling weight. Over the course of seven tracks, and most impressively on ‘Serotonin’ and ‘Mirrorlover’, drop-tuned riffs meld with deceptively contagious vocal hooks and an unrelentingly impassioned delivery that confirms the arrival of one of the country’s most promising alt-rock bands of a generation. Abandcalledboy kickstart a string of UK dates in Glasgow this evening…

  • Frame By Frame #001: Abandcalledboy – Cliff Richard

    In the very first installment of Frame By Frame – a brand new feature looking at the production of music videos by all kinds of  Irish bands and artists – Colm Laverty talks to Ryan Burrowes and Mark Finnegan from Northern Irish alt-rock trio Abandcalledboy about their recent, wonderfully retro tribute to the Peter Pan of pop, Cliff Richard. >Hi guys. First off, tell us a little bit about each of your roles on this music video. Mark (Finnegan, bass): I did a lot of the pre-production (storyboarding, set pieces, locations), it’s something I have a bit of experience in, but…

  • Video Exclusive: Abandcalledboy – Cliff Richard

    Having watched it at least five times revelling in its unmitigated majesty, we’re happy to give you an exclusive first look of the wonderfully retro and decidedly rad video for ‘Cliff Richard’ by Northern Irish alt-rock three-piece Abandcalledboy. “We made it ourselves,” said the band’s drummer and vocalist, Ryan Burrowes. “We basically watched a load of Cliff Richard videos and attempted to re-create our own twisted version with a grand budget of £0.” “We made the costumes ourselves, came up with loads of ideas and then with our friend Odhrain, went and shot it all on what felt like the coldest day ever. It’s…