There’s an expectant crowd in Dublin’s Academy 2 for Californians’ Local Natives second visit here, with the majority of the capacity crowd drifting in during a fine set by support act, Peggy Sue.
The Californian five-piece take to the stage without much fanfare..

While always critically lauded, mainstream commercial success has so far eluded Tom McRae. OK, so he’s not going to be bothering either Simon Cowell or the upper reaches of the singles charts any time soon, but his emotionally charged songwriting and uber-passionate delivery should have propelled the English vicars’ son (both his parents were…

Duke Special cannot be accused of resting on his considerable laurels, with his latest project a highly ambitious triple-CD set, based around a play, a novel and a silent movie star.
The Stage is the Duke-penned music for Bertold Brecht’s 1939 classic anti-war play, Mother Courage And Her Children, which ran in London’s National…

Mass Effect 2 begins a couple of years after the tumultuous events of the first episode of the epic sci-fi RPG. Humanity’s place in the galaxy seems stronger than ever, but all is not right. Entire human colonies have been disappearing across the solar system without a trace of violence, and it’s up to…

In these genre-bending days of crossovers, where it seems nobody wants to hear if there’s not at least a smidgeon of electronica or a smattering of dubstep in your music, it’s refreshing to hear a band doing a straightforward pop-rock album. On their debut, Arnold Sideways, Dublin quartet The Chapman Society stick primarily to…

OK, we know it’s only February, but we’re already predicting that Dante’s Inferno is going to be one of the games of 2010. This uber-violent hack ‘n’ slash epic is one of the most addictive titles we’ve set thumbs on in months, and after Assassin’s Creed 2, Dragon Age Origins and Modern Warfare 2,…

If, like State, you grew up on a diet of boys’ comics like Warlord, Victor and Commando, then The Saboteur is the game for you. EA’s latest free-roaming action adventure combines two of State’s favourite things: shooting Nazis and driving real fast. Seriously, set in WWII-era Paris, this game looks incredible, has some fairly…

It’s impossible to review Fionn Regan’s second long-player without reference to the not-so-benevolent godfather of folk rock: the spectre of Bob Dylan looms so large over The Shadow Of An Empire¸ he should be given a co-production credit. This is not the Dylan who crooned metaphysical about life’s big questions blowin’ in the wind,…

On first listen, Erland And The Carnival exude the kind of quintessentially English folksiness that could have a sizable bunch of listeners reaching for the off switch. Certainly, the first few bars of album opener ‘Love Is A Killing Thing’ suggest pastoral idylls and village fairs, but it soon becomes far more Wicker Man…

Army Of Two’s main protagonists look like they could be the genetically modified steroid-pumped clones of Sly Stallone and Arnie Schwarzenegger, until they put on their specially created masks (more of which later). Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, veterans of the passable first Army Of Two title, are on a mission in Shanghai when…

Ivan St John’s Xmas Party takes place Upstairs at Whelans on Monday, December 21, and everyone who attends will receive a bright, shiny copy of Ivan’s debut single, ‘There You Stand’.
“It’s going to radio in the new year so unless you work in that field, this is your only chance to get one…

Dublin act Elves Of Heaven have had a Christmas track included on Filter Magazine’s Winter 2010 Landmark Music compilation download. See here. Elves Of Heaven, the brainchild of Dublin musician/producer Martin Clancy, are in illustrious company on the sampler, joining acts like Florence And The Machine, Air, Tom Waits and Noah And The Whale.…

The galaxy’s most unusual superheroes are back in another frantic adventure, traversing solar systems in a bid to thwart the maniacal Dr Nefarious from gaining control of time itself, which is controlled by the Great Clock, located in the dead centre of the universe, give or take 50 feet.
Anyone who has spent even…

This debut album from Kildare’s Band On An Island has been many years in the making. Championed by our own Niall Byrne as far back as 2006, the Newbridge-based six-piece have been ploughing what must have seemed a lonely furrow for so long. The fact remains that their kind of poetic rock was probably…