Alicia Keys, Miguel | Odyssey, Belfast (8pm, 21st May)/O2, Dublin (8pm, 22nd May) | £39.50-60/€54.65-86 One of the sexiest and most arresting voices in American pop, plus Alicia Keys. Luke Sital-Singh | Little Museum of Dublin, Dublin (7:30pm, 22nd May) | €11.50 Up-and-coming London folkie in the unfamiliar confines of a Dublin museum. The Whileaways [...]
One of our Faces of 2013, Meltybrains? are certainly one of the most original Irish acts doing the rounds at the moment. Take their new EP Attention! Now That We Have Your Attention for example, which will be released exclusively via a limited number of unique T-shirts made by the band themselves. The shirts come [...]
We have tickets to a pair of tickets to be won for both Ulrich Schnauss at Button Factory and Suuns at the Grand Social (details for both shows are listed somewhere below). To be in with a chance of winning, email us at giveaway@state.ie with your name and stating your preferred gig by tomorrow (Tuesday, [...]
There’s a bit of a Cork theme running through this month’s feature; music from Altar of Plagues, the Altered Hours and newcomer Mylets, who will make his Irish debut at Indiependence in August this summer. These are just a few bands to look forward to as this summer shapes up to be quite a thrilling [...]
In the second part of our Always Read the Label series, we take a look at Ninja Tune, a record label whose colourful form and slick moves have been battling fiercely against the drab aesthetics of mediocre music since its formation in 1990. Eclecticism is their bread and butter, with creativity possibly serving as their [...]
Back for a second year with an expanded line up, there’s little doubt that the Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin built on the promise of 2012 and delivered a fine weekend of music across fifteen venues. As with the original London event, many of the highlights were to be found in the smaller venues and it [...]
First night back in Amsterdam, after too long an absence, and I have the undiluted double pleasure of 1) interviewing John Murry before his show at the Paradiso, and 2) then watching him and his band play. After establishing that I first saw him perform six years ago, on a Sunday morning in the back [...]
The Specials | Olympia, Dublin (7:30pm, 6th and 7th March) | €49.65-54.65 Reformed ska legends break out the hits for two dates on Dame St. Why? | Whelan’s, Dublin (7:30pm, 6th May) | €18.50 Yoni Wolf, the Woody Allen of American hip-hop. British Sea Power | Academy, Dublin (7:30pm, 7th May) | €20 Brighton’s finest [...]
This weekend marks the semi-official start of the Irish festival season, with Vantastival taking to the great outdoors in Louth. Meanwhile in the capital, a no less expansive event is taking place with the second year of the Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin. Spread across fifteen venues in the city, all curated by the likes of [...]
Who are you and where are you from? Martin Noble from British Sea Power. Born in Bury, Lancashire, grew a bit bigger in Leeds, Yorkshire. Who are your favorite artists from home? Arthur Brown went to my school in Leeds, and also attended the same Uni as me. He had a song about Fire. We [...]
It doesn’t feel like Tieranniesaur have checked out of the party completely, it just feels like they went to the off-licence and never came back, probably charming another room full of sweaty revellers with their incessant melody pop and forgetting that we’re all still waiting. Thankfully they’ve found their way back, two years down the [...]
Who are you and where are you from? Kate Stables, born in Winchester. Lived in Bristol, currently living in Paris. Who are your favourite artists from your hometown? Rozi Plain! Rachael Dadd! What’s it really like touring? Like living and learning and being in a car all day every day with the same four other [...]
Oftentimes, the flowery prose that comprises a band’s bio invites eye-rolling. The adjectives and declarations are a necessary evil, but the accuracy of such vivid descriptions is debatable. So, when you read that Three Trapped Tigers “conjure the contained intensity of their namesake”, you may scoff, but two things must be noted. First off, all [...]
I’ve been writing about music for twenty years this month and I don’t remember a time that new Irish music was more independent, energised or interesting than it is now. (Though the mid-90s lo-fi boom, as immortalised in Daragh McCarthy’s The Stars Are Underground, was really something). Part of the reason for the current flourishing [...]