• Monday Mixtape: Doug Martsch (Built to Spill)

    May 4, 2015 - By 

    This week’s Monday Mixtape is brought to you from none other than Doug Martsch, who is a big hero to us here at The Thin Air. Doug is the frontman of Built To Spill and they’ve just released their latest album Untethered Moon. Check out some of his favourite tunes below. Slam Dunk – Dying Breed These guys are from Canada. I think they’re on tour with The Arcades of Fire now.   The Warm Hair – Tell Me What I’m Living For, If I Don’t Want To Live Anymore Sometimes I think The Freebird is talking about me in…

  • Monday Mixtape: Dara Kiely (Girl Band)

    April 27, 2015 - By 

    Currently in the studio recording for their debut full-length album – excepted to drop at some point in the Autumn – we’re absolutely certain Dublin’s Girl Band are on the cusp of some incredible things. Taking a breather from recording vocal tracks, Dara Kiely from the band has selected some of his all-time favourite tracks for this week’s Monday Mixtape, ranging from the likes of Syd Barrett and the Doors to Kendrick Lamar and Boom Bip/Doseone. Stream that below.

  • Monday Mixtape: Stefan Murphy (The Mighty Stef)

    April 6, 2015 - By 

    In this special Easter Monday installment of Monday Mixtape, Stefan Murphy of Dublin rockers The Mighty Stef (above, middle) selects and talks about some of his all-time favourite songs, including Neutral Milk Hotel, Echo and the Bunnymen, FIDLAR and the Strypes. Desireless – Voyage Voyage Decadent french pop from the 80’s. An abstract song about traveling eternally. Something of a personal anthem since I was young. I have reconnected with this track in a big way recently. I long to cover it.   Garland Jeffreys – Wild In The Streets This recreates the feeling of a New York summer. A hot sticky…

  • Monday Mixtape: Cathy Pellow (Sargent House)

    March 23, 2015 - By 

    We’re very pleased to present this week’s Monday Mixtape, featuring none other than Sargent House founder and owner Cathy Pellow. A true champion of independent music and some of the very best artists around, Pellow’s mixtape features several unreleased tracks from the likes of R. Ariel, Mutoid Man, And So I Watch You From Afar and No Spill Blood, as well as released material from acts including Helms Alee and Wovenhand. And So I Watch You From Afar – Wasps (from Heirs, out on May 4) Blis. – Floating Somewhere High and Above (from Starting Fires In My Parents House) Empty Houses –…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ricki O’Rawe (Not Squares)

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    With their forthcoming second album, Bolts, set for release next month, Belfast-based trio Not Squares are steadily re-affirming their reputation as one of the country’s very best live acts. Ahead of launching the album at Galway’s Róisín Dubh on April 9, Ricki O’Rawe (pictured in the bold white-rimmed shades, above) from the band shares his favourite songs as of late – including Tyondai Braxton, Luke Abbott, Arca and Polmo Polpo – in a playlist aptly-titled Pissed and Passed Out. Take it away, Ricki. “This mix is made up of sounds that I have been digging recently. The music spans time and space but coheres…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ror Conaty (No Spill Blood)

    March 9, 2015 - By 

    Ror Conaty is currently drumming with cosmic heft overlords No Spill Blood and with Wizards of Firetop Mountain. Today, he shares a playlist of some heavy duty tunes he’s currently enjoying. In his own words: “These are songs I’ve been hounding on lately, some are better off heard in the context of the album like Clint Mansell or Swans but all of them psych me out, some for their intense drive or their ability to make me focus while making things and others for giving me that last shot of serotonin when I though I was empty.” No Spill Blood launch their debut album…

  • Monday Mixtape: September Girls

    March 2, 2015 - By 

    Following on the heels of Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich, ASIWYFA’s Niall Kennedy, Quasi’s Sam Coomes, Ciaran Lavery and Girls Names’ Claire Miskimmin, Dublin noise-pop five-piece September Girls are the next act up for Monday Mixtape. A mix of old and new favourites currently inspiring the writing and recording of their second album, stream their handpicked ten-track playlist below. Photo by Joe Laverty. And one not on Spotify…

  • Monday Mixtape: Bob Nastanovich (Pavement/Silver Jews)

    February 23, 2015 - By 

    Ok, we admit it: our predisposition to mid-Nineties American indie rock is pretty marked. Now that we’ve combined forces and shoved the elephant out of the room, let’s get down to business. Following in the ridiculously tasteful footsteps of Quasi’s Sam Coomes, as well as our very own Ciaran Lavery, Niall Kennedy from And So I Watch You From Afar, Ciarán Smith from Crayonmith and Girls Names‘ Claire Miskimmin, U.S musician and all-round good guy Bob Nastanovich is next up for this week’s Monday Mixtape. A glaringly charimastic member of Pavement and Silver Jews, Nastanovich selects some of his all-time favourite songs from the…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ciaran Smith (Crayonsmith)

    February 16, 2015 - By 

    Following in the footsteps of the likes of Ciaran Lavery and Claire Miskimmin from Girls Names, Ciaran Smith (pictured, left) from Dublin band Crayonsmith selects his all-time favourite tracks – Fog, Rhye, Viet Cong etc. – for this week’s Monday Mixtape. Crayonsmith are currently recording an EP and playThe Horse and Stables, London, on March 17

  • Monday Mixtape: Sam Coomes (Quasi)

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    Best known as frontman of quintessential American indie rock band Quasi, Sam Coomes is our latest willing subject in the often indispensable, always mind-bogglingly tasteful Monday Mixtape. Twenty years into the game, ex-husband and wife duo Coomes (Donner Party, Heatmiser, etc) and Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Wild Flag, etc) AKA Quasi are the living, breathing definition of indie rock royalty. Formed in Portland in 1993, the duo’s uniquely infectious, incomparably insightful brand of indie rock has spanned nine studio albums and countless EPs worth of material. Featuring everyone from Serge Gainsbourg to Iggy Pop, Coomes’ mixtape is a sublime, ten-track…