• the arts column: June 25th

    This week we’ve details on the culmination of a young artistic writing programme and the details of one to be launched, the opening of a new joint exhibition featuring two behemoths of 20th century painting, and details on a host of events in Pallas Projects tied to their exhibition exploring queer culture in Ireland. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Book Launch | Clondalkin Library, Dublin This coming Saturday lunchtime sees the launch of This Being Where We Live in Clondalkin Library. The publication is…

  • the arts column: July 2nd

    Summer is well and truly under way, with primary schools closed and the exams over. With that in mind we’ve details on some workshops and activities to keep young minds out of the way entertained both through the summer and beyond. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Kids Workshop | RHA Gallery, Dublin Saturday July 6th sees a new workshop in the RHA Gallery for 8 to 12 year old, hosted by artist Naomi Sex. Titled Why do we like the things and stuff that we like?, the workshop is performance…

  • Billy Corgan @ Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    Billy Corgan (or William Patrick Corgan as he formally likes to be known as these days) has taken an unprecedented opportunity to perform a short tour of Europe alone, airing out new work and well trodden, decades old tunes. It’s a brief sojourn from the Smashing Pumpkins who are in the middle of a somewhat renaissance tour with three of the four original members which he’ll return to in a couple of weeks. Tonight we’re dispensed with a rare intimate show from the magmatic frontman and anticipation as to what facet of his personality we’ll be presented with is palpable.…

  • Premiere: Sun Mahshene – This Girl I Know

    Is it towering, climactic psychgaze you’re after? Dublin’s Sun Mahshene has you covered. Out today, ‘This Girl I Know’ is the third single from their forthcoming debut album Contradictions and Tales of Fiction, set for release later this summer through Reckless Records. Its three guitars forging an impenetrable wall of sound, the song oozes Ride-worthy euphoria and the midtempo-swagger of Oasis at their most clamorous – think ‘Columbia’ via Creation Records at the end of a Danny Boyle film – helped in no small part by its production at Darklands Audio, Dublin. You can catch Sun Mahshene play The Thomas House on June 21 with Galants, or at Electric…

  • the arts column: June 4th

    This week sees a host of exhibitions opening across the island of Ireland, with shows in Belfast, Cork, Navan and Dublin; as well as the launch of this year’s Belfast Photo Festival. We’ve details of some of the festival’s highlights below, along with information on four openings happening nationwide. As always, if you have an event, talk, exhibition, or would like to recommend one please get in touch via aidan[at]thethinair.net Exhibition Opening | Platform Arts, Belfast This Thursday (June 6th) sees the opening of a new collaborative exhibition in Belfast’s Platform Arts. Titled Bedeck, the show features the works of David Lunney and Eleanor McCaughey, two artists who…

  • Irish musicians to speak on mental health panel in Dublin this weekend

    A number of Irish musicians will be speaking about career-related mental health issues at the Mind YourSelf: Mental Health & Music event in Dublin’s Tara Building this Saturday, 25th May. Westport native Maria Kelly and Dublin’s Paddy Hanna, will be among the musicians coming together to speak on the importance of looking after one’s mental health in music industry careers’. The Mind YourSelf panel, hosted by Selfmade, will look at the factors affecting the mental health of artists and how these manifest, as well as the importance of open discussions, self-care, access to support and the need for positive cultural and…

  • Video Premiere: The Elephant Room – Juniper and Pine

    Dublin-based indie-noise outfit The Elephant Room are one of a select number of DIY artists in Ireland assimilating a broad range of influences from the 60s through to the present year with complete seamlessness. We’re pleased to be premiering their sprawling new single ‘Juniper & Pine’, complete with the band’s self-made video. The song itself is an almost ten minute marriage of experimental noisecraft and lo-fi pop that somehow never outstays its welcome as ekes out new levels of its conceptual framework. Easing in with a Laurel Canyon-indebted neo-psych groove, its lysergic-soaked corners quickly darken into a clamorous sonic ego-death parallel, before returning to consensus reality as something familiar, yet altered.…

  • Video Premiere: Grave Goods – Source

    Ahead of only their third show to date, supporting Beak> this Saturday, May 18 at Whelan’s, tri-city post-punk trio Grave Goods have kindly given us a first recorded glimpse of their visceral power. ‘Source’ is the first release from a session filmed by experimental filmmaking platform IMPATV, which records & broadcasts the heavier side of DIY, experimental & underground culture. Featuring members of Pins, Girls Names and September Girls, ‘Source’ forgoes the brooding atmospheres & jangle of the aforementioned in favour of primal urgency. More than delivering on the promise of its constituent parts, Sarah Grimes & Phil Quinn’s Girl Band-recalling rhythmic syncopation lay claustrophobic, anxious loops between which Lois MacDonald’s buzzsaw guitar finds voids to…

  • the arts column: PhotoIreland Special

    This week sees the launch of this year’s PhotoIreland Festival, with the official opening taking place tonight, May 2nd,at 6pm in their Temple Bar hub: The Library Project. This year is the tenth anniversary of the festival, and to celebrate we’ve a special edition of the arts column focusing on the festival’s extensive programme of events, talks, exhibitions and general celebration of photography in Ireland. Festival Launch Party | Thursday, May 2nd @ The Library Project Tonight from 6pm (PhotoIreland patrons get a sneak peak a few hours earlier at 4pm) the festival kicks off in the foundation’s Temple Bar hub:…