• Watch: Problem Patterns – Christmas Number One

    December 11, 2020 - By 

    Whether you’re thrilled or dreading the prospect of a quiet Christmas this year, Belfast’s finest feminist punks have a single we’re delighted to let you hear. Its doo wop-via-Breeders harmonies guaranteed to have you grinning from ear to ear, ‘Christmas Number One’ is a refreshingly positive take on coping with expectations of seasonal cheer. Now, don’t let our lazy rhyming couplets put you off – Problem Patterns’ latest single is as earworming as they’ve ever been. Normally, we’re not ones to copy & paste a press release, but as ever, they put it better than we could have: “Known for their feminist punk ethos, Problem have tackled such topics as…

  • Kosmische Kristmas 6

    December 20, 2019 - By 

    That most seasonal of Irish underground krautrock supergroups celebrate that special time of the year with a night of “music that never happens again not happening again” for the sixth year running at Plugd this Sunday, 22nd December. The band features Cruiser’s Chris Quigley & The Sunshine Factory’s Jack Horgan on guitar, The Altered Hours’ Cathal MacGabhann on keys, Gilbert & Trá Pháidín’s Micheál Fitzgerald on Bass, Fixity/The Bonk man Dan Walsh on Drums & Flute. For just five euros, you can join them as they seek freedom through repetition until 1am. Walsh and MacGabhan will spin appropriate tunes before and after. Doors open…

  • The Thin Air’s Semi-Alternative Christmas Playlist

    December 10, 2018 - By 

    To celebrate our collective itchy feet awaiting the onset of socially acceptable daytime drinking, half-arsed cracker pulling and hastily-concocted post-pub sandwiches, here’s our annual Semi-Alternative Christmas Playlist – featuring everyone from Yo La Tengo, Big Star and Mazzy Star to The Fall, Mark Kozelek and Deerhoof.

  • Video Premiere: That Snaake – Dogs 4 Xmas

    December 5, 2018 - By 

    We might’ve just shared the mobile video for ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus‘, but Dublin quartet That Snaake have upped their satire game with an merry offering of paranoia & nihilism, barely concealed by the Incesticide-era Nirvana & Wipers-recalling sludge-punk it calls a gift wrap. Dripping with references to history & pop culture – high and low-brow – it paraphrases Cabaret’s ‘Mein Herr’, about collective myopia blinding us to the rise of fascism in inter-war Germany, before the narrator takes us through questions of what’s missing in their life, and the Darth Maul costume they wore at Christmas. As the band – some of the most underappreciated burrowers Ireland has of the neuroses of the human…

  • Comrade Hat – Ho Ho Hum

    December 13, 2017 - By 

    After the year we’ve had, it’s quite honestly surprising we’ve not reached another Gary Jules moment of collective despair, but fear not: Comrade Hat has it covered in a typically loungey, subversive fashion. Following up on his five previous Winter ‘festering season’ releases between 2009 & 2015, this latest EP, Ho Ho Hum, manages to smirk through winter’s grimace. It proffers five sunnily low-key ditties that dabble in jazz muzak, apocalyptic calypso [see ‘Driving Home for the Apocalypse-oh’] and and some swooning Stevie Wonderesque turns that bely its sinister undertones, offering another glimpse at the singular, surrealistic, oneiric sonic tapestry woven by Derry-based experimental pop songwriter and avant-crooner Neil Burns. To help set the scene, here’s the…

  • Low Announce Irish Christmas Shows

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    A band synonymous for Christmas for many (not least thanks to their 1999 album of the same name) Duluth indie rock trio Low will three Irish dates in December. Closing their A Christmas Performance tour, Alan Sparhawk and co. will play Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Monday, December 12, Dublin’s Christchurch on Tuesday, December 13 and Kilkenny’s Set Theatre on Wednesday, December 14. The band last played Belfast in 2013, Dublin in 2012 and Kilkenny back in 2009. Tickets are on sale at 9am on Friday, September 16.

  • Tokyo Godfathers: A Hunky Dory Christmas

    December 22, 2014 - By 

    Christmas films are a tough nut to crack, if you’ll pardon the pun. They require an almost faultless balance of pathos and sentimentality, lest we forget that “It’s a Wonderful Life” is about the failure of common man and suicide as well as angels attaining wings. If you go too far in one direction, you can end with a film which seems insincere, idiotic and full of saccharine trust. The inverse of that is you end up with a nasty, hateful film which just sneers at the audience. Every now and then, a film gets the balance just right; Satoshi…

  • Block T Christmas Party: Squarehead, Bantum, Bad Santa Screening, Live Visuals & more

    December 5, 2014 - By 

    The Sugar Club hosts the Block T Christmas Party on December 13 which looks to be an attack on the senses. On the night, they combine visuals and audio, with a screening of Billy Bob Thornton black comedy Bad Santa, performances from Dublin lo-fi garage pop Squarehead, Irish DJ/producer Ruairi Lynch aka Bantum – accompanied by a live visual mapping show from Slipdraft –  some Block T DJ’s and a night-closing DJ set from Donal Dineen of 2fm. The plethora of activities doesn’t stop there though, folks, as video intervals come from Darklight, there’s a Print Your Own Christmas T-shirt workshop by Damn Fine Pint. Tickets are available from the Sugar Club for €12, or €10…

  • Mark Kozelek – Sings Christmas Carols

    November 26, 2014 - By 

    “I just don’t understand Christmas I guess” laments Mark Kozelek in a spoken word section of the opener ‘Christmas Time Is Here’, and while he is reading lines originally spoken by Charlie Brown it sets the tone for the entire record. The former Red House Painters‘ singer Kozelek attempts to understand the holiday season on Sings Christmas Carols by exploring the emotional depth of these Christmas songs and escaping from his depression and melancholy. Mark Kozelek is no stranger to cover albums, having released a downtempo covers album of AC/DC songs entitled What’s Next to the Moon and Tiny Cities, an…

  • Eleven Must-See Shows in Belfast This Christmas

    December 3, 2013 - By 

    Whilst we haven’t exactly been neglected of great shows of every conceivable kind all throughout 2013, there’s something about the Christmas period that somehow brings together some of the most downright irresistible line-ups of homegrown (and occasional international) musical talent. This year is no different, both across Belfast and much further afield. That said, keeping our eyes (and ears) firmly fixed upon the aforementioned hub of seismic musical happening, we present to you our eleven “must-see” shows in Belfast this festive period.  Radar: Feet for Wings – Speakeasy, Thursday, December 19 Radar at Belfast’s QUBSU Speakeasy has delivered for some…