If insanity really is doing the same thing over and over again, Band of Skulls may well have gone certifiably bananas during the recording of their second album. From the decent opening title track to the agreeable, folksy finale of ‘Close to Nowhere’ you get the impression that they only know how to write two…

“That’s all I need, to sit in the sun,” sings Porcelain Raft, aka Mauro Remiddi, during the beautifully titled ‘Unless You Speak from Your Heart’. Coming midway through Remiddi’s debut album, it’s a line that sums up the feeling for the majority of the Rome-native’s record. Sounding beautifully lazy for large parts, it’s perfect for…

It’s good to hear that the somewhat tumultuous relationship between Dave Grohl and various Foo Fighters has eased of late. The past decade has seen personal tensions affect their work, with One by One… re-recorded in double quick time, a decision that came after the original sessions were filled with rows over Grohl’s non-committal attitude

What with the excellent Yeh Deadlies releasing their debut album The First Book Of Lessons… on 8 April through Popical Island (you can listen a stream of it here if that takes your fancy), it got State thinking back to December 2008. That’s when we tracked down Annie Tierney and her former band-mates from Chicks

Aside from the bloke who barges the door at the House of Lords to signify that the Queen wants to come in and let off some steam, there can hardly be a more British job than Radio 3’s Composer in Residence. It’s the kind of title that would have been a punchline in King Ralph…

While it’s an undoubtedly enjoyable affair, there is still a nagging lack of depth to the 12 tracks The Joy Formidable offer up on their belated debut album. For a record so long in the making it’s something of a let down that probably the most interesting question arising from the tunes is whether we…

It’s been well over two years since newbie director Joseph Kosinski stood in front of assorted obsessives, movie execs and a very large, very doubting media presence at Comic Con 2008 in San Diego to reveal concept footage of the much delayed sequel to Steven Lisberger’s ambitious 1982 sci-fi Tron….
Thankfully, most doubts were

After seven years of supposed break ups, rumoured releases, and generally lying low, Massive Attack released their fifth studio album, and after fearing the worst, State can confirm it’s an early runner for album of the year. There’s collaborations with Damon Albarn (whose home studio they also recorded in), Martina Topley Bird, Guy Garvey and,…

Smoke fills the room, sweat drips from every forehead, stray bikers wonder what’s going on and Scary Éire rule everything in their sights. Get into it or make your way back outside into the pissing rain on Capel Street. The concrete floor and indescribable sheeting used on the walls can barely be seen at the…

At this stage most of us have seen some unlikely hero dance their way through -Bonkers’. Be it the drunk in the corner of your local who found some last embers of energy to move to it or even, as State bore witness to at a wedding this summer, several folks aged 50-plus havin it…

It’s not difficult to see why Joel Conroy’s at times disjointed surfing documentary has won so many fans in the last year. The shots of surfers making light of four-storey high waves in the shadow of the Cliffs of Moher and elsewhere provides jaw dropping entertainment, while the protagonists are a great mix of Ireland’s…

‘I’ll wrap this up nice and pretty for you,’ says the massive frame of The Sugarhill Gang…‘s Wonder Mike, ‘I left Sugar Hill Records so that I could buy a hot dog. I didn’t like the way of working, I’ll be that succinct.’ State hadn’t realised just how touchy a subject the band’s former

Considering the well-trodden choice of those heading down the biopic route is to smooth out the rough edges of the main subject, it’s a testament to director Anne Fontaine’s faith in Audrey Tatou’s innate likeability that she allows her to portray Gabrielle -Coco’ Chanel as a generally moody, often unsympathetic loner in this beautifully shot,…

After much of the good work from the third and fourth instalments of the Harry Potter franchise was undone by the bloated, forgettable Order of the Phoenix…, there is a huge sense of something to prove in the sixth outing for the scarred chosen one. Alfonso Cuarón and then Mike Newell not only gave