After ten incredible years and four critically-acclaimed albums, Dublin rockers The Mighty Stef called it a day last week with a string of fittingly unforgettable Irish shows. AAA photos by Ste Murray at Dublin’s Button Factory and Mickey Rooney at Sandino’s in Derry. Mickey Rooney Sandino’s, Derry Ste Murray The Button Factory, Dublin
Record Store Day took place at Tower Records over two days, featuring live performances from Ham Sandwich, Mundy, Fox Jaw, Spies, The Mighty Stef and This Other Kingdom. Photos by Isabel Thomas.
Dublin’s The Mighty Stef went for nailed-on quality with the production of The Year Of The Horse, traveling to California to splash out on Arctic Monkeys and QOTSA studio legend Alain Johannes. It’s a solid tactic, and sees the rocker’s tight, clean yet snarling stomp polished to a complex gem of a guitar album. It’s been a long road at a full eight year since Stefan Murphy released his debut, entitled The Sins Of Sainte Catherine. Perhaps that heady sense of an album slimmed down and refined over an extended period is a product of the wait; the outcome of…
Redemption is a story told intimately well by the tattered glory of rock ‘n’ roll. At the peak of an atypically hot week in Dublin, hometown hero Stefan Murphy embodied that redemption through a genuine baptism by fire in the sweat-box that is Whelan’s music hall. Heralding the launch of his new album Year of the Horse, The Mighty Stef, as he’s known to fans, led his band mates through a raucous set, featuring friends old and new, and making a remarkable fresh start in the local legend’s career. For an hour and a half of warm-up acts, as cult followers…
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…
The Mighty Stef launched Year of the Horse in the Sugar Club over the weekend with a little help from his friends, Buffalo Sunn and Ghost Estates. Photos by Carlos Daly.
Sixty-five increasingly exceptional songs in, we’re pleased to round up our first ever countdown of the Top 100 Irish Tracks of the year. Truth be told, this list could have been much, much longesear – such was the extent and quality of the output from our homegrown musical talent over the last twelve months. From unassuming bedroom artists treading the often very thin line between absolute anonymity and mass recognition to genre-defining, decades-spanning bands that fall comfortably under “legendary” status, we’ve been very happily bombarded with some truly extraordinary Irish music over the last year. Until next time… listen, enjoy…
With hints of everyone from Queens of the Stone Age, Echo and the Bunnymen and Mark Lanegan, Dublin band The Mighty Stef are streaming their extremely impressive new EP, Iveagh Flats. Serving as a sampler of their forthcoming new album – produced in Los Angeles by none other than Alain Johannes of Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures repute – the three-track release really underlines the band’s forward momentum at the moment. Stream the three-track EP via Soundcloud below.
With Halloween just around the corner, Dublin four-piece The Mighty Stef have unveiled the video to their aptly-titled new single, ‘Vampire, Hold Me Tight’. Directed by Lindsey Byrne, the video “acknowledge[s] the use of some projections from a certain classic British film that has long been a favourite among the group” AKA Robin Hardy’s 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man. Taken from their forthcoming fourth album – produced in Los Angeles by Alain Johannes in Spring – the track will also features on the band’s introductory three-track release, Iveagh Flats EP, which is set for release on November 7. Watch the…
The final acts set to play this year’s Glasgowbury Music Festival have been confirmed. Joining the likes of headliners The Answer, And So I Watch You From Afar and Japanese Popstars at the annual Eagle’s Rock Valley event are Dublin’s blues-rock band The Mighty Stef, singer-songwriters Katharine Philippa, Alana Henderson, Rob Murphy and Paul Casey. Dance DJs Deep Fried Funk, electro-indie band Don’t Fear The Natives, Derry rock band Wyldling and Hurdles, Aces Wild, Windings and The Last Generation make up the final line-up. The announcement comes off the back of Belfast-based rockers LaFaro, ska-punk troupe Pocket Billiards and singer-songwriter Peter McAuley AKA Rams Pocket Radio being confirmed to play the festival, set to take place over two days…