• Irish Music Industry Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund Launched

    April 16, 2020 - By 

    A new COVID-19 emergency relief fund for the Irish music industry has been launched. Set up by Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and First Music Contact (FMC), the fund has been created to assist Irish music creators who are currently experiencing the most financial need. It is open to songwriters, composers, performers, session musicians and arrangers who are currently trying to navigate through this challenging time. As well as financial contributions by IMRO and IRMA, Spotify is making a donation and is also matching donations made to the Irish Music Industry Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund…

  • Lists For Life (Not Just For Christmas)

    December 8, 2017 - By 

    Christmas has finally come! Streaming sites are starting to publish playlists showing which songs we’ve all listened to this year, and while I, like many of you, have enjoyed seeing how that particular contest panned out for me (Not at all what I expected, but the order is entirely believable) it also indicates the beginning of another and much more important recent yearly tradition, saving/stealing all my friends procedurally generated top songs of the year playlists. After last year’s surprising elections and much talk of how we all live in news bubbles it stirred the idea that a similar bias…

  • Stream: President Obama’s Summer Playlist

    August 12, 2016 - By 

    “Been waiting to drop this: summer playlist, the encore. What’s everybody listening to?” Featuring everyone Janelle Monáe, Charles Mingus and Courtney Barnett to Nina Simone, Beach Boys and D’Angelo, Barack Obama has reminded us once more that he is unequivocally the coolest POTUS ever by sharing his 2016 summer playlist. Presumably the last of his several playlists compiled and release during his presidency, Obama first shared what was on his iPod whilst running for office back in 2008, revealing big-hitters John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and the Stones amongst his favourites. His parting Summer playlist of ’16 is a more diverse and intriguing affair,…

  • Interview: Bennie Reilly (Little Xs for Eyes)

    April 9, 2015 - By 

    Mike McGrath Bryan chats to Bennie Reilly from indie pop band Little Xs for Eyes about their new album, Spotify and their plans for the rest of the year. Photo by Abigail Denniston. Everywhere Else has been in the works for a while now. Was there a coherent record in mind all along, or were singles along the way, like ‘Summer Stay’ the focus before collecting them along with other new songs? We recorded the album this time last year, and the songs had all been in development for a couple of years prior to that but during that time we had…

  • Playlist: National Poetry Day

    October 3, 2013 - By 

    We’re humongous fans of poetry here at The Thin Air. As far as we’re concerned, the very best poetry is far superior to a very good song or album – the syllabic genius of a handful of rhyming conquistadors down the ages faring in a realm of incisive mastery that has little to no parallel in any other sphere of the arts. As it so happens, today is National Poetry Day and as we are also humongous fans of lovingly-assembled Spotify playlists of pretty much anything under the recordable sun, we have compiled a fifteen-track playlist of poetry (and music containing…

  • Festival Mixtape: Tanglewood Music and Arts Festival 2013

    July 29, 2013 - By 

    Taking place at the incomparably scenic surroundings of Narrow Water Castle in Warrenpoint, Tanglewood Music and Arts festival returns for its third outing on the weekend of August 3 and 4. Headlined by globetrotting North Coast post-rock quartet And So I Watch You From Afar, the showcase also boasts a line-up including the likes of Thin Lizzy guitarist/singer-songwriter Eric Bell, electronic duo The Japanese Popstars and Belfast singer-songwriter Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special. Several up-and-coming and increasingly established homegrown acts included More Than Conquerors, Pocket Billiards and Hurdles also feature in the line-up, set to take place across four stages. With…

  • Turn It Up: An alternative Blur playlist

    July 29, 2013 - By 

    ‘Girls and Boys’, ‘Parklife’, ‘Songs 2’ – the vast majority of us could hum the choruses to each of these Blur singles in our sleep, night after night, until time itself consumes us and the final under-the-breath muttered “woohoo” for eternity. Which is not necessary a bad thing, of course. In their heyday, Alex James, Damon Albarn, Dave Rowntree and Graham Coxon were collectively responsible for concocting some of the most ridiculously infectious singles of a generation. Lingering beneath that exterior, however, was a considerably more experimental knack spearheaded by the wonderfully wayward playing of Coxon and Albarn’s own brand of…