• Video Premiere: Kate Quinby – Jack and Jill

    September 23, 2015 - By 

    Having recently resided in Belfast by way of Chicago and New Orleans, Kate Quinby is an artist who effortlessly marries jazz, soul and folk to create a sound very much her own. With her instantly striking vocals at the forefront of her craft, new single ‘Jack and Jill’ is one of the highlights from her sublime debut album, Tribute to Water. Filmed in Chicago – namely the beach at Lake Michigan during sunrise and an urban abandoned lot – the video for the track is a wonderfully radiant accompaniment featuring professional dancers and performers from the Chicago area. Better still, it’s all entirely improvised. Have…

  • Watch: Runaway Go – Lover to Lover

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Belfast indie-pop duo Fiona O’Kane and David Jackson AKA Runaway Go have long earned their stripes as one of the country’s finest purveyors of the genre. With their boundlessly compatible vocal styles, the pair’s music has always burst forth with a vitality and joie de vivre that’s never wanting in the realms of pathos and perspective. With their debut album, Alive, set for release in November, the duo have went down the PledgeMusic route with the aim to secure its release. In the meantime, they’ve given us a taste of what to expect from the record in the form of ‘Lover to Lover’, a wonderfully…

  • Watch: LORIS – Crazy

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Set to play Bad Bob’s on Friday, October 2 as part of this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin, Belfast electronic-pop quartet LORIS have built up a strong following since their inception in 2013. Speaking to BBC’s Across The Line back in May, the band said of their new single, ‘Crazy’: “We wanted [it]to be a really feel good song, and in true Loris style we wanted a big chorus. There are lots of different elements to this song, but we wanted the drums to really stand out to create a big sound. All the different parts make it really…

  • Watch: Ash – Machinery

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    One of our favourite tracks from their sixth studio album, Kablammo!, Ash have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Machinery’. Shot in Tokyo, the video sees Tim Wheeler performing the track in a snazzy karaoke bar, surrounded by a handful of people who fluctuate between looking rather confused and totally ecstatic. Either way, the drink is in, the sense is out and all is well. And what a hook. Ash play the following Irish shows in December: Tuesday, December 15: Olympia, Dublin Thursday, December 17: Roisin Dubh, Galway Friday, December 18: Cyprus Avenue, Cork Saturday, December 19: Dolans, Limerick Sunday, December…

  • Smalltown America All-Dayer: Rosseau

    September 16, 2015 - By 

    One of the most promising acts to emerge in the North of the country this year, Rosseau are the latest act to be featured in our multi-part feature looking back at Smalltown America Records’ sixth All-Dayer, co-hosted by yours truly. Following in the footsteps of headliners Carnivores, Lost Avenue and Freak’s – the latter two who we featured yesterday – this new video captures the aforementioned new-fangled Derry duo performing ‘Hope’ at the event in STA HQ back in July. Buy the STA All Dayer #6 here and check out the Rosseau video – shot and edited by Paul Martin Brown…

  • Watch: Empty Lungs – Medicine

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    With its launch set to take place at Belfast’s iconic Empire Music Hall on Wednesday, October 7, alt-punk quartet Empty Lungs have unveiled the video for their new single ‘Medicine’. Revealing the band’s more saccharine side – and we mean that without any unfavourable connotations  – the Kev Jones-fronted four-piece once more fuse rousing refrains with an earnestness tempered with a keen balance of weight and restraint. Following the single launch at the Empire, the band will also play the following East Coast dates: October 07: Empire Music Hall, Belfast, Ireland October 23: Philadelphia, PA (Empty Lungs Acoustic) October 24: New York, NY October 26:…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery – Shame

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    Having originally featured on his 2013 debut album, Not Nearly Dark, ‘Shame’ by Ciaran Lavery is on the verge of hitting 10 million streams on Spotify – a pretty mindblowing and fully deserved feat for one of the country’s hardest working and most naturally gifted artists. Shot in Dublin by ROC (also responsible for this wondrous thing) the song now has a suitably simple yet perfectly poignant video, once more managing to strike a faultless balance between heartfelt sentiment and droll humour. Ciaran Lavery plays the following UK shows in October. 16 Glasgow Nice N Sleazy 17 Newcastle Upon Tyne The Cluny 2 18 Leeds Games Room, Brudenell Social…

  • Watch: PORTS – Gameplay

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    It feels like a lifetime ago that Derry band PORTS went under the moniker Little Bear. Having very much underlined that interim period in the sublime evolution of their rousing indie rock sound, the quartet’s latest single ‘Gameplay’ is a wistful and cunningly layered mini masterstroke, with a perfectly balanced ratio of sleep and release. Check out the band’s forthcoming tour dates and video for the aforementioned single below. September 25: Whelan’s, Dublin September 26: EchoEcho, Derry September 27:  Monroe’s, Galway October 2: Black Box, Belfast October 3: HWCH, Dublin October 4: Cyprus Avenue, Cork

  • Watch: Aaron Shanley – My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    Lisburn singer-songwriter Aaron Shanley has always operated on the periphery of his music-making peers. With a sound traversing perfectly subtle balladry to abrasive anti-folk forays, he will release a new, eight-track album, Metal Alligator, on September 22. A track falling very much and rather brilliantly under the latter descriptor, ‘My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)’ marries scuzzy lo-fi indie rock in the vein of Ty Segall and Sparklehorse with a wall of drone evoking Bardo Pond and early Flying Saucer Attack. In short: a really tidy, very promising taste of things to come from the wanderlust-smitten artist. Check out the suitably…

  • Watch: Malojian – No Alibis

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    One of our favourite Irish singer-songwriters, Stevie Scullion AKA Malojian knocked us for six with his second stdio album, Southlands, back in May. The latest single to be lifted from that, ‘No Alibis’ is a typically Americana-inflected effort from the Lurgan songsmith, conjuring the likes of Elliott Smith, Wilco and – in its more swaggering passages – Tame Impala and T-Rex. Featuring another sublime animated accompaniment by Richard Davis, the track – assumingly named after the Belfast-based bookstore of the same name – was produced by Malojian drummer and Mojo Fury frontman Michael Mormecha. Malojian plays Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on…