I’m going in for a hug with Nick Cave and I’m pretty sure he could use one. We all could, it’s been one of those nights. I’ve just crashed the stage with 50 wannabe Bad […]
This week’s Irish gigs highlighter
A-HA, Live at the Marquee, Cork, Tuesday, SOLD OUT Norwegian icons A-ha pop come to Cork armed with some timeless classics. Over the band’s 10 albums since 1985, the band have flirted with blues, rock […]
In this together: Nick Cave’s growing bond with fans
When our rock stars hit 60 it’s usually time for retrospectives, best-ofs and classic album tours, but Nick Cave is an artist who’s continually raging against the dying of the light. Cave turned 60 last […]
Black rain come down: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in 10 songs
There’s a case to be made for Nick Cave being a rock’n’roll shape-shifter of David Bowie’s equal, even if he’s looked like a spindly Thin White Duke in a black suit for 30-odd years. I’m […]
AVA Festival: It’s all about the Belfast crowd
AVA creator and organiser Sarah McBriar was boasting in the Irish Times this week about the festival’s USP — the unpretentious up for it Belfast crowd. If you’ve got that as a base for an […]
Here’s a radio documentary about why you should be at Open Ear this weekend
With AVA festival and Forbidden Fruit this weekend and Life Festival last week hoovering up thousands of techno buzzers, a select few hundred are heading to the wilds of Cork for the underground electronic music […]
Here’s your top 10 Forbidden Fruit acts this weekend
Life Festival in Mullingar got the head start on the summer season last weekend, with nearly every weekend booked up with sessions up and down the country. And as usual, Forbidden Fruit in Dublin is […]
All the right noises: May 2018 in 21 tracks
Childish Gambino’s gunshots rang out through the whole of this month, with This Is America becoming the pop culture mission statement of the year right away. But even if Donald Glover will be the last […]
‘Such magical violence’: Glitchy brain-fry from Tokyo hip-hop trio Dos Monos
Outlier hip-hop/noise label Deathbomb Arc have been “freaking out” over their new signing Dos Monos – a Japanese/Korean hip-hop trio – and here’s the video that’ll explain why. With an initial manifesto to “hijack your […]
Damo Suzuki leads the Irish gigs highlighter
DAMO SUZUKI, Grand Social, Dublin, tomorrow, €18. Japanese artist Damo Suzuki is on a never-ending tour as a ‘sound carrier’, summoning decades of experience on the fringes of experimental music. Best known as the vocalist of […]
Shake your Honey-maker at Life Festival this weekend
Life Festival jumps the gun on the bank holiday weekend with the first big weekender of the summer season – while also avoiding the clash next week of Open Ear and Forbidden Fruit and […]
‘It’s not in the algorithms’: Jenny Hval – The Long Sleep
On a recent Nuts and Bolts podcast on the Quietus, Jenny Hval recalled being “heartbroken” at her early live reviews when she’d be described as a singer-songwriter, with all the reductive worthiness the term evokes. […]
Lookin’ good today for BBC Biggest Weekend
When the Biggest Weekend was announced, Beeb bosses claimed it would be “the biggest single music event ever attempted by the BBC”. No pressure then. With Glastonbury taking one of its occasional years off to […]
This Beck and Yeah Yeah Yeahs Dublin gig is an indie-head’s wet dream
As ‘one night only’ promises go, a team-up of Beck and Yeah Yeah Yeahs was a wtf indie wet dream when it was announced last December. Both acts were booked in Europe around the same […]
Satisfaction guaranteed: Rolling Stones at Croke Park review
When the Rolling Stones announced this latest tour, Keith Richards claimed they were here for an even longer haul than we’d imagined. “There’s no stopping us – we’re only getting started,” he reckoned, with a […]
Moo Kid 