It’s not all brilliant music and good times at a festival. There’s always the occasional ear-splitting, vomit-inducing act which comes along at the wrong moment and makes the idea of spending a day in a portaloo a much more appealing prospect. Whatever you do this weekend, please adhere to State’s public health warning and you’ll…

1. THE KILLERS, Main Stage, Sunday
No strangers to Oxegen, The Killers are guaranteed crowd pleasers, finishing off the last night of Oxegen ’09 with a bevy of hits from their three albums. -Mister Brightside’ alone should be worth the price of admission.
2. KINGS OF LEON, Main Stage, Saturday…
Oxegen just wouldn’t be Oxegen

Despite its reputation as a rock / indie festival, Oxegen always has the odd delight on offer for those looking for slightly less weighty thrills. From the Sugababes and Amy Winehouse to Pink and the Scissor Sisters (although sadly not Girls Aloud) there have been plenty of excuses to check out the chart toppers. This…

State will be trying its hand at two forms of DJing this Oxegen weekend. First off, Phil Udell will be joining Sinéad Ní Mhórdha to co-host her Front Row show on Phantom 105.2 from 1pm to 3pm on Friday.
Then Sunday afternoon at 3.20pm will see our own Niall Byrne (aka Nialler 9) take to…

jOG isn’t a game, but it can enhance the way you play games, and help your fitness into the bargain. Essentially, it’s a motion-sensitive controller that enables the player to control on-screen characters through their own body movements: if you run (on the spot, of course), your character runs too. The jOG… controller detects if

Three of Ireland’s indie legends are appearing Upstairs in Whelan’s next Friday, June 19. Martin Egan, former Power Of Dreams frontman Craig Walker (pictured), and Fearghal McKee, legendary frontman with Whipping Boy with his new Line-up (SSS), share a triple bill.
Egan, whose songs have been recorded by Christy Moore, Hothouse Flowers, will be performing…

Editors have announced a three-date Irish tour later this October in support of their as-yet-untitled third album, due for release later this year. The band will play St George’s Market, Belfast, on Wednesday, October 7, the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Thursday, October 8, and Dolan’s, Limerick, on Friday, October 9.
Tickets for all shows…

Almost three years after their debut (‘we prefer to say two and a half’), Director are back with a new album, I’ll Wait For Sound…, rejuvenated, refreshed and ready to reconnect with their fanbase.
‘We spent a long time trying to get a release in the UK. At the end of it all, we

Gregory And The Hawk make their Irish debut in The Infirmary (Mardyke Complex), Cork, on June 21, with a gig Upstairs at Whelan’s on June 22. Support comes from Jean Elliot Senior (Crëvecoeur).
Made up of native New Yorker Meredith Godreau, on guitar and vocals, alongside upright bass-player Mike McGuire, Gregory And The Hawk have…

Legendary rock band Alice In Chains have signed an exclusive worldwide deal with EMI’s Virgin Records and are gearing up for the release of their first new studio album in more than 10 years. The band and producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters) began recording last October at Studio 606 in Northridge, CA and recently…

Set in 1864, before the events of the original Call Of Juarez, Bound In Blood …is another Western-themed shooter, following the fortunes of the McCall brothers, during and after the American Civil War. Playing as both Thomas and Ray (who ends up as the pistol-wielding preacher of the original game), two Confederate soldiers who

Movies about movie-making tend to be either hilariously vitriolic (The Player) or poignant (Lost In La Mancha): unfortunately, The State Of Things …is neither. Wim Wenders’ re-released 1982 film follows the fortunes of maverick German film director Friedrich Munro (Patrick Bauchau), as he travels from Portugal to LA in search of

The second part of acclaimed French director Jean-Claude Brisseau’s trilogy exploring society’s taboos, The Exterminating Angels… is all based around sex and sexual fantasy. Ostensibly an examination of women’s innermost desires, it nonetheless plays out like your average male’s wet dream, involving graphic all-female threesomes and two women mutually masturbating each other at a table

Based on Stefan Aust’s book of the same name, The Baader Meinhof Complex… tells the true story of the Red Army Faction (RAF), an ultra-violent terrorist organisation dedicated to the overthrow of what they perceived as the rise of fascism in the 1970s, including US imperialism in Vietnam and the growth of a police state