Articles by Simon Roche
Author of 168 posts.
Simon is State's Art Director as well as running his own graphic design studio (Smoke & Mirrors) out of Copenhagen, where he has tolerated pickled herring and very pretty girls for almost five years. He spends his days designing album covers, magazines, books and maps and can often be found eating the local roasted hot dogs and pursuing his quest to find the perfect pint of Classic.
Website:http://smokeandmirrorsstudio.dk/
Canada’s Wolf Parade are in a tricky spot. In 2005, after producing Apologies to the Queen Mary, a debut album of raw, angular brilliance they equalled, or bettered it, with 2008′s At Mount Zoomer. And so the third one, Expo 86… arrives with all this this baggage and a certain weight of expectation.
With a massively interesting line-up for anyone interested in graphic design, photography and illustration, and specifically where these areas relate to music, Offset 2010 takes place from October 1st-3rd in the Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin and aims to bring the very best of Irish and international visual talent to the city.
Now in its second…
The fourth day really begins where we left off on the third day. Some days are so long that you can hardly believe what you fitted in and we have just remembered that at around 3am Saturday night/Sunday morning, with a flash mob of new friends we met in a bar, we were dancing to…
The third day of a four-day festival is often potentially the best – your body has got used to the abuse of late nights, constant standing and perhaps one or two more beverages than normal. Here at Roskilde there’s also an influx of one-day ticket holders who have been waiting until the weekend to arrive.…
The day begins with a solution to who the mystery hugging-man was last night. He is a member of Hypnotic Brass Ensemble… who open Friday in the best way possible – with a mass of pumping trombones, trumpets etc and by the end of the first minute of dancing and gyrating no-one remembers they have
The famously long Danish winter only really ended five or six weeks ago as the temperatures struggled to reach above 10 degrees, but you wouldn’t know that today as its pure blue skies and temperatures in the mid-20s that greet the opening of the gates at Roskilde 2010 – now in it’s 40th year.
Though…
Another festival celebrating 40 years, Denmark’s Roskilde Festival is one of the best organised of the big festivals and boasts a famous friendliness (they call it the -orange feeling’ after the colour of main stage). 75,000 people have made 2010 a sell out and while the four-day festival proper kicks off today the truly hardy…
On the hottest, sunniest day of the year so far you might think you should be out on the streets at the opening night of this city’s legendary Distortion festival, not crammed into a small, dark room on the other side of town awaiting New York’s newest hyped band to come on stage.
What initially…
While not exactly over-hyped, the debut from The Drums comes on the trail of the Brooklyn four-piece appearing in an array of -Ones to Watch’ lists at the start of 2010. The cheery first single -Let’s Go Surfing’ was a welcome sunny jaunt in the midst of the bleak midwinter and with the height of…
10 years. 10 YEARS. That’s how long it has been since Courtney Love put out the almost perfect rock album Celebrity Skin… and proved she didn’t need Kurt Cobain’s ghost for her rock credentials. Behind all the loudmouth behaviour and garish David LaChapelle photos was someone who could actually nail (careful now) the very essence
Doves as a band rose literally from the ashes of Sub Sub, the more dance-orientated group that brothers Jez and Andy Williams, and Jimi Goodwin formed together in 1989. They had released some well received singles but their studio caught fire in 1996, destroying everything they owned. Their reconstruction turned into the Doves as we…
Danish magazine Soundvenue has just published the full line-up for 2010′s Roskilde festival, which takes place near the Danish capitol from July 1 – July 4.
Full coverage of the festival, day-by-day, will be here on State.ie.
Afenginn
Matias Aquayo
Analog Africa Soundsystem
Arriba La Cumbia
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Alice in Chains
Bad Lieutenant…
Doves have a released a video for their new single ‘Andalucia’ from their best of, b-sides and rarities double album The Places Between… which was released this week. An enjoyable few sunny moments with a group of flamenco dancers and players. Also, to mark the release of the album there are four mini documentaries about
Despite being a well oiled machine, State… is also prone to bursts of spontaneity. It was a balmy night in the German capital when a quick glance at the listings revealed a gig by Manchester’s I Am Kloot, mere hours away. Footloose and fancy-free we S-bahned it over to Kreuzberg and the fantastic Lido venue
