State’s top 15 films of 2011

We have a small pool of film writers at State so compiling this list was a lot easier than collating the 40 people who submitted to the top albums of 2011 list. Our intention here is to represent a tasty selection of films you may have missed if you didn’t got the cinema as regularly…

Incoming – Kool Thing

You might remember Kool Thing from their immediately absorbing and spacey electro set in support of Austra earlier this year.
Tonight (Thursday 22nd) the pair play a show in The Sugar Club, Dublin along side Horse Meat Disco and Ships – entry is €10.
Kool Thing also play State’s Midnight Mass tomorrow night (Friday 23rd)…

State’s Merry Mixmas

Christmas cheer is spreading through the State Office and we’d like to share a little with you.
Here we have this year’s Christmas compilation. It’s a collection old and new, contemporary and revamped classics, to sway to over the festive period – there’s also last year’s doozy streaming too.
So if you’re done with Shakey,…

The Score: Contemporary and classical news

Choral services and festive music galas may abound, but this is a quiet time of year in the contemporary classical world. That said, no Christmas would be complete without at least one performance of Handel’s Messiah…. This year the Oratorio will be performed by The Palestrina Choir, Dublin Bach Singers and Orchestra of St

State’s Albums of 2011: 10 – 1

So here we are, the top ten albums of the year – as voted for by the State team. As ever, it’s been a fascinating list (especially when you compare it to our mid-year poll). Some of the albums you might have expected to feature highly haven’t even made the list, with other, more left…

State’s Albums of 2011: 20 – 11

It’s the penultimate day of our top fifty countdown and there’s an appearance for the highest rated Irish album, a surprisingly dramatic fall for the record that topped our mid-year poll and one of the music industry’s old stagers making a superb return to form.
Join us tomorrow for the top ten.

Albums of 2011: …

State’s Albums of 2011: 30-21

Welcome back to our countdown of 2011′s best albums, voted for by various State writers and photographers. Today we have a couple of debuts, a couple of legends stretching their wings and a couple of the year’s most impressive Irish releases. More tomorrow.

Albums of 2011: 75-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 …

Film News: American Psycho, Honest Abe & Prometheus

Occupy Hollywood and Award Season Madness
Occupy Wall Street causes American Psycho remake?
All right, this has really gone too far. Reports are abound that Lionsgate is to produce a remake of American Pyscho… – a perfect adaptation of an awfully tricky novel to bring to the big screen – in order to show us

State’s Albums of 2011: 40-31

Day two of the end of year countdown, as voted for by the great and the good of the State team. This next five bring you two hip-hop giants rubbing shoulders with a UK folk band, a couple of Irish names from opposite ends of the spectrum and a range of North American alternative sounds.…

State’s Albums of 2011: 50-41

After yesterday’s preliminary list, it’s down to the serious business of our top 50 albums of the year – as voted for by our writers and photographers. As you’ll see over the countdown, it’s as eclectic a list as ever and one that draws on albums from across the musical spectrum. Join us tomorrow for…

State’s Albums of 2011: 75-51

Over the past few weeks our team of writers, photographers and editors have been voting for their favourite album releases of the year – once more providing us with an intriguing glimpse into what makes State tick.
The full top 50 list starts tomorrow, but in the meantime here are the 25 that didn’t quite…

Interview: The Dublin Laptop Orchestra’s Alex Dowling

The Dublin Laptop Orchestra was founded by Alex Dowling and Dan Trueman early 2011 along with Rachel Ní Chuinn, David Collier and Jenn Kirby. The orchestra “make music with lots of laptops, hands, golf controllers, a wireless router, and anyone that plays.. anything.” Their aim is “to bring some theatricality and ‘physical presence’ into electronic…

Incoming: Lovers

Portland band Lovers first met in 2002 after a near fatal van explosion brought the three members together. It took a few years for them to actually get round to forming a band but since then they’ve made up for lost time, especially with their debut album Dark Light…. The band play Upstairs at

Bitches With Wolves: “I wanted to make intelligent, knowing and dynamic pop music”

Of all the Christmas shows coming up over the next few weeks, none perhaps whets the appetite as much as tonight’s Bitches With Wolves gig at the Sugar Club in Dublin. State spoke to James O’Neill about his career past, present and future….
We first featured you in our Faces of 2010 feature, have the …