• Cork Heads: Dog Day Media

    December 19, 2014 - By 

    Dog Day Media are a fast growing media production company based in Cork city. They are best known for their viral videos where they sent a jar of Ballymaloe relish into space and their Kearys road trip around Ireland. In the latest installment of Cork Heads, photographer Brid O’Donovan shoots the guys in their working environment and discusses the company thus far. The Birth of Dog Day Media Alex: We all know each other from west Cork. Billy, William and Eoin grew up there and I go down there every summer. I’ve a house there all my life. We all…

  • Festivals: Quarter Block Party

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Cork’s varied and vital cultural communities have always been a pillar of life in the city, but the past year or so has seen exponential growth, despite setbacks. Next year looks set to be a cracker, with a bumper crop of albums and EPs in the pipeline for release, and the announcement of  the Quarter Block Party festival, taking over the venues and businesses of North and South Main Street for a weekend, from February 6th to the 8th. Run as a collaboration between The Makeshift Ensemble (the force of nature behind the Quarter arts all-dayers at the Triskel) and…

  • The Magic Numbers Irish Tour

    December 5, 2014 - By 

    Pop-rock juggernauts The Magic Numbers were in Ireland this week, for a tour rescheduled from September after an ill-timed throat issue afflicted vocalist Romeo Stodart. Undaunted, they traversed the country, with The Thin Air in tow at various tour stops. With fourth album ‘Alias’ in the can, and on the home stretch for pre-Xmas touring, the band were in rare form, and we were there for all of it with access-all-areas photography, and our thoughts from each night. MONDAY DEC. 1ST – GALWAY @ THE ROISÍN DUBH: Not Faemous took to the stage to a small crowd, and played quite pleasing…

  • Watch: Elastic Sleep – Slip

    November 25, 2014 - By 

    Cork dream-pop quintet Elastic Sleep have just unveiled the video for new single, ‘Slip’, following their debut EP, Leave You, which came out in April; and with fellow shoegazers The Altered Hours also hailing from the county, it seems to be fast-becoming a minor hotbed for all things psychedelic. ‘Slip’ – released through Big Tea Records as the second of their Winter Trio of singles – is available now from iTunes and Bandcamp for just £1. Watch the video below:

  • Cork Music Trail: Ones to Watch

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    It would seem that MTV have remembered what their (previously-orphaned) acronym stands for, turning their attention away from mouth-breathing reality-show nonsense, and on to music, of all things. With the announcement of the Shepard Fairey-directed Rebel Music calling attention to youth subcultures around the world and the transcendent tunes that soundtrack their lives, the idea hits that the floundering music-channel grandfather has either finally realised the error of its ways and is earnestly trying for relevance, or has just been subject to the law of diminishing returns. Either way, the cable & satellite success story of the 1980s wobbles its way to Cork…

  • AAA: The Frank and Walters @ Cork Opera House

    October 28, 2014 - By 

    Yet another Access All Areas feature? Sure go on! This time we head to Cork with our photographer Rory Coomey  for The Frank and Walters 25th Anniversary show. The guys pulled on their best orange shirts and rocked out to a sold out crowd in the Opera House. Check out the gallery below for more.

  • Premiere: North Side Drive – Snow//Sea//Sky

    October 17, 2014 - By 

    Snow//Sea//Sky, the new release from North Side Drive, the “quiet” solo project of math-pop lads Former Monarchs‘ singing sticksman Jonathan Pearson, is, by his own admission, “weird”. In itself, though, that’s no deviation from the norm in an ever-evolving soundscape, moving from post-rock-inflected piano/cello pieces, to a stint at solo piano in honour of his grandfather in his last EP. His third EP under the name, the release invokes weather and the elements, and the moods Pearson conveys in his songs reflect this perfectly. ‘Snow’, for instance, is a beautiful piece, stark in its beginnings, before building up in a…

  • Cork Heads: Shane Nolan (Bartender)

    October 17, 2014 - By 

    In this installment of the aptly named Cork Heads -looking at some of the brightest sparks in Cork’s currently thriving scene- Brid O’Donovan meets with Shane Nolan, an experienced bartender with a background in art which informs his creative cocktails. So what cocktail did you just make for me? I was given the typical question of “Give me something limey/lemony” or a really bad description of how to make a drink for someone. This is what a lot of bartenders get but you learn from it. What I just made for you is what I would deem as the perfect drink. In it’s…