• Premiere: Travis Is A Tourist – Loosen Up

    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…

  • Watch: Travis Is A Tourist & Rosie Carney – Needed It

    With a show together set for Belfast’s McHughs on Wednesday, June 24, Old Fang’s Travis Is A Tourist and Rosie Carney have teamed up to plaintive yet wonderfully lulling ‘Needed It’.  Recorded to mark Old Fang’s imminent first birthday celebration tour, the video was filmed by Ross McConaghy. Watch it below.    

  • A Place To Bury Strangers w/ Travis Is A Tourist @ Voodoo, Belfast

    On a cold, dank – did I mention cold? – and generally miserable Belfast evening, what could  be more inviting than some live music with good friends and good beers? Not much, and as we headed into Voodoo, safe in the knowledge that the aforementioned factors would welcome us, we were thrilled to just be warm and dry. Then, at 8.30 sharp-ish, Travis Is A Tourist takes to the stage in support of the headline act for the evening, A Place To Bury Strangers. Wonderful. Well, actually, wonderful in a sense.  Here’s the thing: Travis Is A Tourist (below) is…

  • Stars Irish Tour

    Canadian dream pop act Stars played Dublin’s Opium Rooms with support from Vann Music on Friday and Belfast’s Limelight 2 with support from Travis is a Tourist last Saturday. Check out our two galleries below featuring photos by Mark Earley and Sara Marsden.

  • Conor Scott – Watch Me Go

    Singer-songwriter and oft-spotted Belfast busker Conor Scott releases his debut three-track EP Watch Me Go on November 17. The as-yet-unsigned musician’s EP will be available from iTunes and Amazon. He’s gained a lot of steam following his performance on BBC vocal-based talent show, The Voice – a reality show at least based on some discernible talent – and his songs have taken him on tour across the UK, performing in venues like Liverpool’s Cavern Club. The official launch takes place at Aether & Echo on November 18, and support comes from the impressive selection of local acts in experimental folk artist Joshua Burnside, folk-pop act New Ancestors and…

  • Line-up announced for inaugural Output showcase

    With just over a fortnight to wait, the line-up for the inaugural Output have been announced. Northern Ireland’s largest ever one-day conference and showcasing event, taking place throughout Belfast’s city centre and Cathedral Quarter on Thursday, October 16, it will see a series of free talks, workshops and pop-up gigs, attending by around 350 artists, businesses and creative students. We’re very happy to be involved, too. Teaming up with tastemaker par excellence Niall Byrne AKA Nialler9, we will host a most awesome showcase in the Black Box main room with Cork psych rock five-piece Altered Hours (pictured), Dublin electronic duo Contour, Derry…

  • Forfey Festival

    Taking place across the weekend of August 1-3, the wonderfully intimate and unaffected Forfey Festival returns to Forfey Farm near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh with one of its strongest line-ups to date. As ever, homegrown folk and acoustic acts make up the majority of this year’s line-up, but there is also a wide range of electronic and rock artists – everyone from Hornets to Affleck – performing across the festival’s three days. With more acts still to be announced, the current line-up is: Callum Stewart, Beulah Kim, Wonder Villains, Travis Is A Tourist, The Emerald Armada, Skeletons, Rupture Dogs, RAMS’ Pocket Radio, More Than…

  • The Thin Air’s Top 100 Irish Tracks of 2013 (100-75)

    It’s that time of year again: End Of Year” lists are steadily rolling in from every conceivable direction, many of us are still debating the BBC Sound of… verdict for next year and we’re all silently pondering our own favourite albums and EPs of the last twelve months. Closer to home, it’s been yet another ridiculously impressive year for Irish music, both North and South. Since January 1, right up until the writing of this article (December 10), a single week hasn’t gone by that wasn’t soundtracked in some way by the very best in new, homegrown music. As such –…