• A Litany of Failures: Volume III Announced

    July 3, 2020 - By 

    Two years on from its second volume, islandwide independent music compilation series A Litany of Failures has opened pre-orders and announced the tracklisting for Volume III in the series – out Friday, October 2nd. More eclectic, and more export-ready than ever, the compilation features brand new music from 22 acts across Ireland, including the first recorded output from Fifty Years of Hair (Postcard Versions/Girl Band’s Dara Kiely), The Golden Cleric (Shrug Life/Girlfriend/That Snaake) and Grave Goods (Girls Names, Pins, September Girls), as well as many of our favourites – Robocobra Quartet, Silverbacks, Rising Damp, Percolator, Extravision and many more. With cover art by Nathanaël Roman, it will be accompanied by…

  • EP Premiere: Licehead – Friends

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Paul O’Connor – of That Snaake notoriety – has shared with us his latest release under the Licehead banner, which follows up on last year’s Music For Normal People album, and precedes upcoming summer LP Perfect Death Forever, which is set in a modern Ireland and based around a reincarnated lung’s attempts to kill its host. An aural equivalent to peeling-paint walls-closing-in claustrophobic hysteria, Friends at its extremes recalls the torpid squalor of Fat White Family or The Fall in dada-techno mode. Partly written over the last two months, the EP sees O’Connor turns the pen upon himself and loved ones, and societally-ingrained truths; title track ‘fRENDS’ is itself a reworking of ‘I’ll Be There For You’,…

  • Video Premiere: That Snaake – Dogs 4 Xmas

    December 5, 2018 - By 

    We might’ve just shared the mobile video for ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus‘, but Dublin quartet That Snaake have upped their satire game with an merry offering of paranoia & nihilism, barely concealed by the Incesticide-era Nirvana & Wipers-recalling sludge-punk it calls a gift wrap. Dripping with references to history & pop culture – high and low-brow – it paraphrases Cabaret’s ‘Mein Herr’, about collective myopia blinding us to the rise of fascism in inter-war Germany, before the narrator takes us through questions of what’s missing in their life, and the Darth Maul costume they wore at Christmas. As the band – some of the most underappreciated burrowers Ireland has of the neuroses of the human…

  • Watch: That Snaake – Scofflaw // Sisyphus

    November 20, 2018 - By 

    Remember that time we premiered the mighty ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus’ by Dublin noise rock meddlers That Snaake? Two years on, the Paul O’Connor-fronted band are back with its suitably singular video. According to the band, the video is: a) About the budget-nightmare world of the Irish music scene b) Designed to be viewed on mobile devices as is the way of the future c) Taken from the release In The Court of the Baby Kyng out now on Little L records That’s the lowdown and you’re all the better for knowing it.

  • Various Artists – A Litany of Failures Vol. II

    July 17, 2018 - By 

    To be a contemporary “independent” band in Ireland isn’t merely a genre categorisation, but a complex creative actuality. There’s often a socio-economic subtext to the term, as happens when a multitude of younger or less experienced creatives don’t have the resources to view music as a full-time pursuit just yet. They must therefore look elsewhere to meet the frequently unforeseen costs that stack up when making music – gear upkeep, travel, recording/rehearsal space fees, etc. This can lead to an absence of parity at the level of industry power relations. Simply look at the cultural-economic logic followed by certain festivals…

  • A Litany Of Failures Vol. II Announced

    July 3, 2018 - By 

    Following the limited release of cross-Ireland Little L Records compilation, 2016’s A Litany of Failures – featuring Oh Boland, Shrug Life, That Snaake and Junk Drawer – an expanded second edition has been confirmed for release on July 13. Set to be released on 180g gatefold double vinyl, as well as through Bandcamp, Spotify and the usual outlets, it features 18 acts from Belfast, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Dublin, Galway & Limerick. The DIY, co-op endeavour aims to provide an opportunity to perform outside each of their hometowns, shortening the mental distances between bands, and encouraging a cross-pollination of musical communities. Splitting costs between artists and the organisers, a sense of…

  • That Snaake – Blinded by the Smell

    November 8, 2016 - By 

    Though they describe themselves as a “4 piece band with 3 capable cyclists”, the primary description that’s been following Dublin’s That Snaake around so far is ‘unfashionable’. That may sound unflattering to some, but really it’s an undeniable positive, setting them well apart from those currently more “fashionable” Irish bands – with current trends leaning towards shiny synths, pop hooks and polished production, That Snaake’s combination of rough and ready guitars and undisciplined vocals that nod to noise-rock and 90s slacker indie do make for a bit of a contrast, but having acts around that rail against what’s currently in…

  • Premiere: That Snaake – Scofflaw // Sisyphus

    October 18, 2016 - By 

    We’ve a lot of time for Dublin’s That Snaake. Cutting a singular figure in a scene of prevailing alt-rock uniformity, the Paul O’Connor-fronted quartet’s live shows are some akin to shock-and-awe; a steady blitzkrieg of carefully honed noise and unrelenting disdain. Taken from their forthcoming second EP, Blinded By The Smell (“the melodious outward looking companion to the short-sighted tumultuous rage of [their debut EP] At Swim One Stone“) we’re pleased to premiere the band’s new single ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus’. According to the band, “It tells the story of an ageing musician who played a bit part in the Commitments desperately trying to…

  • Video Premiere: That Snaake – Go Bricker!

    May 23, 2016 - By 

    Like The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster covering late-80s The Fall, ‘Go Bricker!’ by Dublin “recessionary post-punk” band That Snaake is a vehement, breakneck effort that tells the story of a drinking session that derails and ends up in an armed coup which overthrows the government and sees random sesh-mots on Ketamine put in charge of executing the entire fisheries board (remember: your imagination is everything, folks). That Snaake’s first single, the track – heavily based around the themes of drug abuse, religious oppression and poorly conceived guerrila coups – now comes with a video to boot, marking the remastered edition of the band’s wonderfully frenzied debut…

  • Stream: That Snaake – Go Bricker [AKA At Swim One Stone]

    September 14, 2015 - By 

    Dublin post-punk quartet That Snaake have just released their debut EP, Go Bricker (AKA At Swim One Stone). Channelling wry, socially surreal lyrical content in the vein of Future of the Left’s Falco through apathetically snarled vocals evocative of some of the classic indie rock bands. Papally-named guitarists John & Paul contrast angularity & density in the kind of guitar interplay heard from Wire, Milk Music, Slint and Fugazi. The self-aware foursome launched the EP in Dublin autonomous social centre The Barricade Inn on Friday with a selection of great underground Irish acts. The title of the EP comes from a YouTube video of what the…