• Stream: Skelocrats – Lyin’ Eyes

    With their recently-completed new album, Charles II, set for released in March, Dublin quartet Skelocrats have released a self-proclaimed “yearning folk-rock ballad.” Having listened to it a handful of times already, that about perfectly sums it up in our ears. Driven forth by Bronwyn Murphy-White’s lamenting vocals, the track is a short and sweet 50s-echoing tale, all swooning and jangly and positively delightful. The last twenty seconds are particularly satisfying. Stream the track by the Popical Island band below.

  • Album stream: Oh Boland/Me and My Dog – Delpi

    Ahead of its official launch tomorrow night, Popical Island are streaming the brand new split between Galway’s Oh Boland and Mayo’s Me and My Dog. Featuring five tracks by each band, the album will be released as a pro-dubbed pale blue cassette tape, each hand-titled by the band. Musically, the split is a rather typically (in the best way possible, that is) collection of starry-eyed jangle-pop, indie rock and surf from two of Popical Island’s finest acts. The split is released at Dublin’s The Pop Inn tomorrow night (Saturday, June 7). Go here for the show’s Facebook event page and stream the…

  • Album stream: Ginnels – A Country Life

    Just over three years on from the release of his self-titled debut album, Grand Pocket Orchestra and No Monster Club guitarist/bassist Mark Chester AKA Ginnels has returned with his fourth album, A Country Life. Released via the wonderful Popical Island, the fourteen-track release was recorded, mixed and mastered by Chester at Rialto Cottages and The Pop Inn during the winter just passed. With the likes of ‘Car’s Parked’ and ‘God Botherers’ standing out on first listen, the record is seemingly a more fleshed-out and less (albeit wonderfully-woven) haphazard concoction of sounds, all propelled Chester’s instantly recognisable brand of restless, somewhat melancholic indie rock.…