• Watch: LORIS – Crazy

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Set to play Bad Bob’s on Friday, October 2 as part of this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin, Belfast electronic-pop quartet LORIS have built up a strong following since their inception in 2013. Speaking to BBC’s Across The Line back in May, the band said of their new single, ‘Crazy’: “We wanted [it]to be a really feel good song, and in true Loris style we wanted a big chorus. There are lots of different elements to this song, but we wanted the drums to really stand out to create a big sound. All the different parts make it really…

  • Watch: Ash – Machinery

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    One of our favourite tracks from their sixth studio album, Kablammo!, Ash have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Machinery’. Shot in Tokyo, the video sees Tim Wheeler performing the track in a snazzy karaoke bar, surrounded by a handful of people who fluctuate between looking rather confused and totally ecstatic. Either way, the drink is in, the sense is out and all is well. And what a hook. Ash play the following Irish shows in December: Tuesday, December 15: Olympia, Dublin Thursday, December 17: Roisin Dubh, Galway Friday, December 18: Cyprus Avenue, Cork Saturday, December 19: Dolans, Limerick Sunday, December…

  • Watch: Robocobra Quartet – Iwazaru

    September 18, 2015 - By 

    Set to be released on lathe cut 7″ via Smalltown America on October 16, ‘Iwazaru/Mizaru’ is the latest double-single by Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet, a band who have grown in several leaps and bounds since first coming to our attention at a Battle of the Bands competition in the city’s Pavilion Bar last July. Accompanied by a skilfully enshrouded video by Sarah Plunkett, the former track is yet another rapt and ruminating slab of sorcerous jazz-noise from the Chris Ryan-fronted band, further revealing the heterogeneous prestige of their ever intrepid craft. Check out ‘Mizaru’ here, pre-order the release here and check out forthcoming RQ tour dates…

  • Stream: Mons Olympus – Incognito

    September 10, 2015 - By 

    Let it be known: Mons Olympus don’t exactly shy away from the riffs. With an ever metamorphosing hybrid of space prog and funk, the latest phase of the Belfast-based three-piece’s evolution has taken form in the punchy, groove-laden ‘Incognito’, a track that sees the Rory Dee-fronted band trimming the proverbial fat and aiming straight – and most tenacious – for the jugular. Featuring some wonderfully subtle violin work by Aidan Kelly of Affleck, the track – the purest distillation of the band’s vision to date, including their previous incarnation as Chocolate Love Factory – was recorded, mixed and mastered by Stephen O’Hagan and…

  • Watch: PORTS – Gameplay

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    It feels like a lifetime ago that Derry band PORTS went under the moniker Little Bear. Having very much underlined that interim period in the sublime evolution of their rousing indie rock sound, the quartet’s latest single ‘Gameplay’ is a wistful and cunningly layered mini masterstroke, with a perfectly balanced ratio of sleep and release. Check out the band’s forthcoming tour dates and video for the aforementioned single below. September 25: Whelan’s, Dublin September 26: EchoEcho, Derry September 27:  Monroe’s, Galway October 2: Black Box, Belfast October 3: HWCH, Dublin October 4: Cyprus Avenue, Cork

  • Watch: Abandcalledboy – LA Dick

    August 5, 2015 - By 

    Any song with a main riff that evokes ‘Blindness’ by The Fall and an outro reminiscent of latter-day Tera Melos can only be a good thing in our books. Where are we going with this, you wonder? Wonder no more: Abandcalledboy have unveiled the video for their new single ‘LA Dick’, the suitably spazzed-out follow-up to their double single ‘George Best In Show/Paul Simon’s Daily Routine’, released back in March. Watch the video for the single –  created by Odhrain Soanes and Andrew Grafton – below.

  • EP Premiere + Interview: THVS – Everyday Hexes

    July 15, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the embers of Belfast riff-wielding institution Comply or Die, heavy rock three-piece THVS are on the precipice of completing the first stage of their instantly ear-grabbing metamorphosis. Officially released on Friday (July 17), we’re pleased to present a first listen of their expectedly visceral four-track EP, Everyday Hexes, also chatting to frontman Michael Smyth about the writing and recording of the EP, the formation of the band and their plans for the future. Hi Michael. First thing’s first, how did THVS come about? The band came about after a band practice got cancelled so Matt and I decided to go up and play anyway.…

  • Watch: Pocket Promise – Music For The Twelfth

    July 14, 2015 - By 

    Having been on extended hiatus for a few years, Co. Tyrone band Pocket Promise remain of Ireland’s all-time truly great alt-pop bands. With some expectation suggestive of a reunion of sorts in the pipeline at some point in the future, the band have re-emerged, in some form, with the up until-now unreleased ‘Music For The Twelfth’. With its backdrop of the Northern Irish marching season, the song – over a decade old at this point – should be familiar to anyone caught the band (compised of members that went on to form Seven Summits) during their initial, country-spanning tenure of the mid-noughties. Speaking of…

  • Watch: Best Boy Grip – Can’t Buy Love, Son

    July 14, 2015 - By 

    The latest in a string of Irish singer-songwriters to wisely wander down the road of crowd-funding, Derry’s Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Best Boy Grip aims to released his forthcoming debut album on September 7. The latest track to be released from the album, the impassioned and swooning ‘Can’t Buy Love, Son’ perfectly captures the essence of the project, hinting – alongside the previously released ‘Sharks‘ and ‘Cops‘ – at something really special in the works. Having already achieved his Pledge goal, there’s still 55 days to contribute. Like what you hear? You can do so here.

  • Premiere: Travis Is A Tourist – Loosen Up

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    In a land and age increasingly over-saturated with every conceivable ilk and fashion of singer-songwriter, Travis Gilbert AKA Travis Is A Tourist manages to carve his own path of folk-pop, one imbued with a real, almost touchable sense of purpose. The follow-up to his ear-grabbing 2013 debut EP, Gilbert will release the five-track Weakdays on July 6, a release defined by Gilbert’s wonderfully crafted admissions of open-eyed restlessness, doubt and destiny. Seeking to “marry the robust rock of artists such as Ryan Adams with a slice of Prince-esque R’n’B” the EP’s lead single ‘Loosen Up’ distils the essence of Weakdays across three and a…