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 of…

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…

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 a…

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 more…

The bad news for anyone who completed last year’s original Assassin’s Creed title is that the brooding hero of that game, Altair, is not the star of the sequel. The good news, however, is that even if you loved the original, which State… did, the follow-up improves on it in practically every way.
While we

Taking its cue from the likes of Guitar Hero and the obviously named Rock Band, Lego Rock Band …does pretty much what you’d expect: puts you behind the mic, drums, bass or guitar in a brand spanking new, plastic (oh no) band and lets you warble, strum, wallop and bang your way to virtual

Let It Beep is an interesting title for Tennessee quintet Royal Bangs‘ sophomore effort, but it only tells part of the story. A much more explanatory moniker would’ve been Let It Beep, Bang, Crash, Bounce…. and Rock. Coming across like a younger, more focused Flaming Lips (particularly on the evidence of this year’s Embryonic…

Courting controversy seems par for the course with Call Of Duty‘s Modern Warfare …franchise, such is the realism of the violence on display, but the developers at Activision and Infinity Ward have outdone themselves this time, with this game making headlines all over the globe, including spots on most of our country’s top talk-shows,

Like a throwback to the early days of Hawkwind, Jethro Tull and other quintessentially British musical absurdists (even mythical speed metallers Sabbat), The Witch And The Robot deal in decidedly weird folk/prog fare (or should that be fayre), with enough quasi-mystical lyrics to embarrass a sci-fi convention. That said, it seems this particular bunch of…

Not since an early teenage flirtation with Dungeons & Dragons has State ever really embraced the role playing genre with anything even approaching gusto, so it’s a testament to just how good Dragon Age: Origins… is that we’ve lost sleep, been late for work and even spent time on a bus worrying about which Dwarven

Right from the start of Californian quintet Local Natives‘ debut, it’s clear that this is something special. Gently melodic guitar is joined by a ridiculously insistent drum-beat for all of 39 seconds, before Taylor Rice’s dreamy vocals enter the fray: ‘Oh some evil spirit/ Oh some evil this way comes/ They told me how …

It’s Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Pinocchio as you’ve never seen them before: covered in blood and other bodily gore. Fairytale Fights… takes a glut of familiar characters from your childhood, from Jack (of beanstalk fame) to the naked emperor (minus his new clothes), and puts them in a 3D platformer that tries its

Like a cross between Indiana Jones and Lara Croft (albeit without the gravity-defying figure that made the latter such a hit with teenage male gamers), Nathan Drake is back and he’s in trouble’¦ big trouble.
Uncharted 2… begins with our hero coming to consciousness on a wrecked train carriage, that just happens to be teetering

Named after an audio equipment manufacturer, Chicago quartet Califone trade in mostly acoustic, alt. country and folky tunes. Not that you’d ascertain that from -Giving Away The Bride’, their opening salvo on this, their second long-player: it’s all staccato percussion, groaning samples and ethereal vocals. It’s experimental and exciting, like a lo-fi Beck out-take crossed…