Republic of Loose fans witnessed a vastly-changed line-up take to the Academy stage on Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve (December 22nd to the rest of you) for their sole Dublin headlining show of 2009.
Founding members Mick and Dave Pyro, along with eponymous bassist Benjamin Loose, are all that remains of the old guard as cracks increasingly…

The Arctic Monkeys that took to the stage of Dublin’s O2 was a far cry from the precocious young band that burst upon an unsuspecting music scene just four years ago. Back then, the Sheffield quartet answered to nobody: they shunned the majors to sign for mid-sized indie Domino Records (home to Franz Ferdinand)…

Any lingering doubts that chivalry is, in fact, dead were obliterated at the Academy on Thursday night. Though a majority female audience had filed in to see the red half of synth-pop duo La Roux perform in Dublin for the second time in 2009, the front row was, to a man, entirely male –…

It’s been exactly three years since we last heard of Robbie Williams in any meaningful capacity. Then, it was the controversy over his single ‘Rudebox,’ one of the most self-evidently awful specimens of pop music in recent memory. The song earned its creator more mainstream exposure than his last album, 2004’s forgotten Intensive Care,…

For reasons that seem to confuse a lot of Irish people, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving a full month and a half before their neighbours to the south. While Americans celebrate their own peculiar foundation myth – the coming together of English settlers and Native Americans for a spot of dinner at Plymouth – Canadians celebrate…

Situated as it is on the broad banks of Limerick’s Shannon, the Clarion Hotel is hardly the city’s most imposing sight, or even its tallest building, but it is the ideal backdrop for an evening gig in the true People’s Capital of Munster. The gig in question, a free concert paid for by a…

Science vs. Religion is a debate that has raged for centuries, not least on our own shores. It’s taken a back seat over the past decade or so as we’ve ridden the wave of liberalism that often accompanies economic progress, but it’s reared its head once again in recent months with Minister Dermot Ahern’s…

Maximo Park’s 2005 debut A Certain Trigger was a revelation. Catchier, edgier and more intelligent than anything on the British indie scene at the time, it seemed to have made a mere formality of the Newcastle natives’ coronation as the latest great British indie band. As fate would have it, they had the immense…

As far as concept albums go, American Idiot was as loose as they come. Based around your typical suburban layabout, the Jesus of Suburbia, and his freaky girlfriend, whose name he unfortunately manages to forget, it gained a reputation as a political record on the strength of the title track and lead single, a…

There are people, influential people, that say Bob Dylan’s entered somewhat of a renaissance. On paper, it’d be hard to disagree. His last two albums have sold as many copies as his entire ‘80s and ‘90s output combined- and this in the midst of a collapsing industry, while old-school rock critics have fallen over…

(Atlantic)
A late entrant to the pop charts, at 28, singer/rapper Flo Rida has more than made up for lost time: his debut single ‘Low’ (feat. T-Pain) broke the record for the most downloaded single upon its release in 2007, and would go on to top the charts on about twelve different continents over…

Chances are, if something sounds like a gimmick, it probably is a gimmick. The Spirit Of Apollo, the first album from globetrotting pairing Ze Gonzalez (a Brazilian, best known for being a professional skateboarder) and Squeak E. Clean (an American, best known for being Spike Jonze’s brother), has “gimmick” written all over it: it…

As headliners BATS took to the stage of Portobello’s Lower Deck late on Saturday night, the atmosphere was palpable. It was the band’s final show, a fundraiser, before they were set to regroup in Salem, Massachusetts to record their debut album. “We need the money,” announced frontman/guitarist Rupert Morris.
Early support act Jenny &…

Nick Cave is obsessed by it. Shane MacGowan appears immune to it. Johnny Cash’s fascination with death and mortality came to define his legend and followed him, fittingly, all the way to the grave. Death, too, is a lingering theme through 100 Midnights, the second full-length record from Dubliner the Mighty Stef (né Stefan…