The Black Death was possibly the most devastating pandemic in human history. A bubonic plague caused by bacteria was carried on oriental rat fleas, the disease spread from China to Europe by rodents stowed away on merchant ships docking at Mediterranean ports in the 14th century. Symptoms included breathing difficulties, armpit boils and groin infections…

Nightbox are an Irish band from Wicklow, based out of Toronto who released their debut EP on the uber-cool Kitsuné records earlier this year. Later this month, they will play their first ever Irish shows on August 30th at The Academy 2, Dublin and August 31st at The Stiff Kitten, Belfast.
Who are you and …

Hard Working Class Heroes have announced the 100 Irish act that will play this year’s festival in and around Dublin city centre on October 6th, 7th and 8th.
The venues involved this year: The Button Factory, The Mercantile, The Grand Social, Shebeen Chic, Twisted Pepper and The Workman’s Club.
Weekend tickets cost €45 plus fees,…

The newest single from Laura Marling is a sprawling folk number that continually builds, gaining orchestration and energy from beginning to end – pop culture site Holy Moly has described the song as “Bob Dylan to Cocteau Twins in five minutes.”
The track is taken from Laura Marling’s forthcoming album A Creature I Don’t Know…

One by one Bjork is leaking tracks from her latest album and multimedia project, Biophilia.
Addressing the interaction between nature and technology, Biophilia… is also a suite of mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and iTouch, where to the initial or “mother” app is free to download, allowing access to 12 different apps. You are

Dublin Community Television in partnership with First Music Contact are making a television series exploring the independent music in Ireland. Investigating the lives and activities of labels, bands, collectives, promoters, bloggers and punters, the series aims to document the intricacies and involvement each has in local community into short films called 6 Minutes Of Independents…

Lisa Hannigan’s has announced that October 21st is the release date for her second album titled Passenger… in Ireland. The album gets an earlier release in North America on September 20th.
The album was recorded with her band and producer Joe Henry in Wales in one week. North American tour dates for September & October

As announced by On The Record, another slew of acts has been added to the Electric Picnic line-up.
Here’s the full list of additions:
Factory Floor
Jacques Lu Cont
Tensnake
Shit Robot
Crazy P
Andrew Weatherall
Zinc
The 2 Bears
Star Slinger
Rainbow Arabia
Onra
Kormac
Dave Devalera
Tu-Ki
LRB & Matador
Trainwreck DJs
Toby…

It has been 9 years since Ms Dynamite won a series of awards (BRITS, MOBO) and prizes (Mercury) for her debut album A Little Deeper. The lack of interest in her follow up record Judgment Days… and subsequent slump in her musical career has been branded The Curse of the Mercury; the modern-day concept

Texas post-rockers Explosions In The Sky played a rousing, if shortened, performance of ‘Postcard From 1952′ on CBS’ Late Night With David Letterman show.
Read JP O’Malley’s interview with the band here.
‘Postcard From 1952′ is taken from the Explosions In The Sky’s most recent album, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care… which is out

New Jersey mathcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan will play The Academy in Dublin tonight, before heading for Belfast tomorrow night – Thursday, August 4th.
In a continually rotating line-up, Ben Weinman remains the only founding member. Despite injuries, lawsuits and members walking out, The Dillinger Escape Plan have still released four studio album since…

Feist has announced the full details of her fourth studio album.
Metals… will be released on September 30th in Ireland, early October in the UK/US, via Cheerytree/Interscope – full tracklisting and artwork below.
The announcement was proceeded by a series of teaser videos (streaming below), indicating collaborations with Chilly Gonzales, Mocky and Valgeir Sigurðsson on

Viewer discretion is advised but the nudity in the Nico Casavecchia directed video for ‘Go Easy’ by We Cut Corners is pretty artful, in a bedroom love triangle that leads to confusion and anguish.
‘Go Easy’ – free to download below – is the lead single from Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards…

I think we can start this one with a WTF?
You read it right. Lou Reed and Metallica, or Loutallica as PR has punned, are collaborating on an album called Lulu.
The project is based on the plays of German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind. Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box… tell a story of a