Portishead have released a brand new track – ‘Chase the Tear’ for Amnesty International. It’s now available as an exclusive download single from 7 Digital with all earnings going towards Amnesty’s human rights work.…

Phantom 105.2 have announced the details of this year’s New Year’s Eve show at the Academy in Dublin. The line-up features:
Main Room
Delorentos
Noise Control
The Funeral Suits
Basement
Talulah Does The Hula
RSAG
Heritage Centre
Planet Parade
Green Room Bar…
90′s Indie Disco Phantom DJs
Tickets are on sale now at €25 incl.

The Jane Bradfords have released their own Christmas single as a free download, although ‘Too Much Christmas’ is not your average seasonal fare. Featuring Katie Richardson (Delawares/Katie and the Carnival) on guest vocals, the band describe the record as “not so much an anti-Christmas song but it has a familiar sense of melancholy amidst the…

Rihanna has announced a full set of European dates for next year, including a show at Dublin’s O2 on May 22nd. Tickets from €44.20 inclusive of booking fee go on sale this Monday 14 December at 9.00am, maximum tickets 8 per applicant.…

To help launch his new album next spring, Fionn Regan heads out on a nationwide tour in March. The Shadow Of An Empire is the much anticipated follow-up to his Mercury Prize and Choice Music Prize nominated début album, The End Of History….
Dates as follows:
Saturday March 6th – Dolan’s, Limerick
Sunday March

Directed by Talulah Does The Hula’s Jessie Ward (aka Love Action), the video for ‘Sing To Me’ (released this Friday) has a distinctly seasonal feel to it, as well as a very Dublin one….…

Many people’s tips for greatness, The Sleep Thieves‘ latest video City Lights is directed by Killian Broderick. The track is available for free download here. The band play a special Christmas show upstairs at the Twisted Pepper on Tuesday 22nd December, with DJ sets from Halves, GPO, Le Galaxie, Bellajane and I Phoenix.…

After a few years of will they / won’t they hesitation, the original Power Of Dreams line-up have announced a short reunion tour of the UK and Ireland to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their debut album Immigrants, Emigrants and Me…. The landmark will see a double CD reissue, to feature containing all 14

And so we arrive at State’s ten finest albums from 2000 to 2009. An amazing six debut releases feature, including our highest polling record from this year. There’s also one of the decade’s most potentially exciting band’s final roll of the dice, the record that revitalised the Irish singer songwriter, a cult classic plus, of…

Metallica have confirmed a second concert at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast on 12th May 2010 on the back of their show on 11th. These will be the band’s first concerts in Belfast in over 20 years and will take place In The Round. Tickets priced from £49 including booking fee are on sale now.…

With their largest hometown headline show coming up in a couple of weeks, And So I Watch You From Afar have announced the supports for their show on December 18th at the Ulster Hall. Joining them will be Adebesi Shank, Lafaro and Cashier No 9. Tickets, priced £8, are available here.…

Kasbian have been announced as the first headliner for next year’s T in the Park, the sister festival to our own Oxegen. If things go to the form of recent years, that should mean that July will see them fulfill the same role at Punchestown. Early bird tickets for the festival go on sale tomorrow…

Three Irish albums make it in to our penultimate count down, one from a new name, one from an old name and one from a name that was only with us for a frustratingly short while. Elsewhere there’s a strong European and American feel, with only a loud mouth from Birmingham representing for the UK……

As we approach the business end of our albums of the decade poll, some of the major names of the past ten years make their first appearance alongside some less familiar faces. There’s a string showing from one of the most acclaimed Irish albums of recent years, a hip-hop classic and one of the biggest…