• Hozier @ Irving Plaza, New York City

    Hozier played the second night of his two date stint in Irving Plaza, in midtown Manhattan on Friday night, as the incredible and seemingly unstoppable rise of the Bray singer continues apace. Playing to new-found, but diehard fans and a thronged enclosure of New York’s finest, chattering VIPs, is evidence that Hozier is the man of the moment, as he rounded off his 2014 US tour in a venue that will soon not be fit to hold his ever-growing followers. Support act James Bay, accompanied by just a piano/percussionist player had a tough job getting his message out across a venue…

  • Festival Mixtape: Indiependence 2014

    Hands down one of Cork’s finest annual festivals, Indiependence returns to Mitcheltown’s Deer Park across the weekend of August 1-3, headlined by hip-hop overlords Public Enemy, London post-punk trio White Lies and Tom Odell. Better still, this year’s festival boasts some of the very finest acts, of every conceivable ilk and genre, that fall comfortably under the banner “homegrown”. Whether you look to the cosmically-inclined rapture of Cork’s The Altered Hours or Belfast-based indie-pop quartet Go Wolf, amongst several others, the veritable cream of Ireland’s musical crop will be nicely represented across the weekend. Check out the full line-up for the festival…

  • Electric Picnic announces additional acts

    Electric Picnic will be upon us in about a month’s time, and Ireland’s biggest music festival has added twenty-three new acts to their lineup, including a host of artists who performed at Longitude last weekend. The highlights of these new additions include Bombay Bicycle Club (pictured), Wild Beasts, James Vincent McMorrow and Hozier. The full list of the new acts will also see the following perform at the festival: SBTRKT, The 1975, Hercules & Love Affair, The Strypes, Walking On Cars, Le Galaxie, Shit Robot, Bp Fallon, Cathy Davey, Asgeir, Nick Mulvey, Sampha, Seinabo Sey, Rustie,  Nightbox, Sheppard, The Whereabouts, Trinity Orchestra…

  • Longitude 2014 Must-Sees

    Off to Marlay Park we go again. After a string of big-name acts performing at the venue these past few weeks, it’s time for Longitude to cap it all off. This is the second year of the festival, and though the line-up mightn’t be as strong as it was last year, there are most certainly a whole host of top acts to catch at this year’s festival. Here are a few of our favourites and a Spotify playlist for your pre-festival persual. Friday Bombay Bicycle Club They might be an obvious choice, but Bombay Bicycle Club are really one of…

  • Stream: Hozier – From Eden

    Back in December last year, Fast-rising Co. Wicklow artist Andrew Hozier-Byrne AKA Hozier reached number 20 in our Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2013 with his spellbinding single, ‘Take Me To The Church’. His latest single effort, ‘From Eden’, has us equally impressed, suggesting great things for the songwriter on his forthcoming second EP. Featuring delay-soaked guitar chords, swaggering bass patterns on the verse and Hozier’s increasingly inimitable soulful twang, the single was Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record In The World on BBC Radio 1 last night. Set to feature on his upcoming Rubyworks-released second EP – also titled From Eden…

  • Several More Acts Confirmed For Longitude 2014

    Now in its second year, several more acts have been announced to be play this year’s Longitude Festival at Dublin’s Marlay Park from Friday, July 18 to Sunday, July 20. Irish acts James Vincent McMorrow (pictured), Hozier and Le Galaxie were confirmed alongside Roosevelt, Bondax, Cyril Hahn, Julio Bashmore, John Talabot, Bonobo, Sam Smith, Chvrches, Haim, Bastille, Haim and Bastille. Several more acts will be announced on Thursday, February 6 ahead of tickets on sale the following day at 9am. See below for the official list of confirmed acts.

  • Several Irish Acts Set For SXSW 2014

    Several Irish acts have been confirmed to play this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The annual U.S. showcase – now in its 28th year – will feature performances from Unknwn (above), Wonder Villains, RAMS’ Pocket Radio, Foy Vance, and from the south, September Girls, Heathers, Hozier, DOTT, O Emperor, Wounds, The Strypes, The Young Folk and Nightbox. Inaugurated in 1987, South by Southwest 2014 will run from March 11-16 and feature thousands of acts from across the world.

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2013 (35-1)

    Sixty-five increasingly exceptional songs in, we’re pleased to round up our first ever countdown of the Top 100 Irish Tracks of the year. Truth be told, this list could have been much, much longesear – such was the extent and quality of the output from our homegrown musical talent over the last twelve months. From unassuming bedroom artists treading the often very thin line between absolute anonymity and mass recognition to genre-defining, decades-spanning bands that fall comfortably under “legendary” status, we’ve been very happily bombarded with some truly extraordinary Irish music over the last year. Until next time… listen, enjoy…