Tag Archives: Belfast

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Pigsaspeople – Farewell show in Belfast tomorrow night

What you may need to know…

01. Post-hardcore and noise-rock were in order for Pigsaspeople, a three-piece from Belfast.

02. Emerging in 2012, the band quickly trotted out (hurr) their debut EP, The First Four Months before settling into recording Idles & Us, written around the same time and released the following year. Debut LP The Plot Against Future Plans, released in 2014, was an underrated slab of dissonance.

03. Streaming above is the band’s now-final single, 65 Symptoms, recorded at Start Together Studios and released as part of that studio’s Singles Club.

04. They bid farewell tomorrow night, after four years of activity, with a big show at Belfast’s Limelight 2.  Also on the bill are 7.5 Tonnes of Beard, Bosco Ramos, and No Great Loss. Fiiiiiilth.

Verdict: With no shortage of either sonic or thematic heaviness, the band leaves behind a solid body of work, built on a rake of riffs.

Pigsaspeople

Photo: Ciara McMullan

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Ash – Power-pop trio to receive Oh Yeah Legend Award

What you may need to know…

01. The tight-knit Northern scene continues to honour its trailblazers and forebears with the Oh Yeah Legend award, previously bestowed upon The Undertones, The Divine Comedy, Therapy? and Terri Hooley. This year, it’s the turn of Oh Yeah Music Centre namesakes Ash.

02. Potted story to save time: teenage Iron Maiden tribute band start playing power-pop in the venerated Northern tradition, fetch local management attention, rocket straight to the top after their GCSEs off the back of a genius string of three-minute bijoux; burn out and still make a low-key gem of a difficult second album; return to form and conquers the world; do effectively whatever they please thereafter, including a series of alphabetically-labelled 7″ singles released fortnightly for a year, and setting up a studio in New York.

03. Like there’s anyone left in the country that needs any further info on Oh Yeah (streaming above), or any other of that immortal run of singles in the mid-Nineties-to-early-noughties.

04. The band will be honoured by the music centre named for their globe-straddling single, at a special ceremony before they perform their album 1977 (from start to finish) for its twentieth anniversary, at the Mandela Hall in Belfast on November the 11th. Tickets on sale now.

Verdict: Well-earned.

Ash

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Pleasure Beach – on the festival rounds

What you may need to know…

01. Belfast dream-pop five-piece Pleasure Beach are busy on the summer’s festival bills.

02. Signed to local label Faction, the band emerged late last year with debut single Go, which quickly made radio rounds, and got a Choice Music Prize nomination for Song of the Year.

03. Streaming above is the video for Go, taken from their Dreamer to the Dawn EP, released this past February.

04. Catch them next on the 25th at Sea Sessions, Longitude on July 15th, and at Indiependence on July 30th.

Verdict: Their EP is one of the strongest by a debuting Irish band in recent years. Ramshackle songcraft with much to like for shoegazers and synth nerds.

Pleasure Beach

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Slomatics – Electric Breath

What you may need to know

1. Belfast doom-metal monoliths Slomatics have a new album, Future Echo Returns, enroute and available for pre-order via Black Bow Records.

2. Their fifth full-length sees them place continued emphasis on songwriting over heft for its own sake, as detailed in this interview with Stereogum.

3. Streaming above is lead-off single Electric Breath, accompanied by a mad 3D-animated piece from editor Dermot Faloon.

4. Live excursions to launch the record are likely for later this year, but until those announcements, here’s a look at the limited, gatefold, purple-and-green splatter edition of the LP.

Verdict: Fiiiiilthy tones and massive riffs at a (relatively) glacial pace. Perfect for summer barbecues and family gatherings.

Slomatics

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Sister Ghost – Growing Pains

What you may need to know…

01. Sister Ghost is the garage-rock/punk project of Co. Derry’s Shannon D. O’Neill, formerly of all-girl post-punk trio Vanilla Gloom.

02. The project has quietly been turning out singles for nearly two years now, progressing nicely from quick-and-dirty grunge, to the sum of a wide palate of influences and reference points held together by O’Neill’s distinct voice and muddy/jangly guitar dynamic.

03. Streaming above is the video for new single Growing Pains, premiering yesterday on The Last Mixed Tape. Practice is hard sometimes.

04.  Shannon is joined in a live four-piece by an assortment of good buddies from various bands on the Northern scene (that might also be familiar to Irish music blog nerds). Last seen live at Dublin’s F_ Festival, more gigging activity is sure to follow off the back of the new release.

Verdict: Think a shiny, ’80s indie-pop bijou roughed up to bejaysus with squally alt-rock and punk influences. Glorious.

Sister Ghost

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exmagician – Job Done

Here’s what you may need to know…

1. Some of the component parts of Belfast rockers Cashier No. 9 have returned, regrouping after a hiatus as exmagician, and maintaining their relationship with UK indie institution Bella Union.

2. The band have picked up where they left off, with Job Done, streaming above, showcasing their ever-expanding predilection for big aul’ songs, fleshed out with layered, reverb-heavy production.

3. The song comes from the band’s debut album, Scan the Blue, available now from the usual streaming and download haunts and in physical formats from Bella Union.

4. The duo turn up next at the Interlude Fest at the RHA Gallery in Dublin, on June 24-26.

Verdict: Grand psych-pop tack for the encroaching summer and the long evenings therein. Approved.

exmagician

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The Fenian Café, Falls Road, Belfast

While the majority of the merchandise on sale relates to historic republican figures and 1916 there are a number of items of questionable taste including ‘Union jack toilet tissue’.

“Almost everything we sell is of our own, we design almost all of it,” the staff member said.

However, he did add that while most of the items have historic significance some of the items were intended to be tongue in cheek and for the benefit of tourists.

Fenian cafe with ‘IRA’ sign defends Union flag toilet tissue (Irish News)

RBOTN

Rabid Bitch of the North – Green Eyes

What you may need to know…

1. Belfast’s Rabid Bitch of the North trade exclusively in a falsetto-laden, old-school strain of thrash metal, with pockmarks of the genre’s NWOBHM predecessors for good measure. Precisely zero fecks are given at any point for your opinion on the matter.

2. Green Eyes is out now via Greek label Alone Records, on the hallowed medium of 7″ vinyl, with an accompanying woven patch (for your battle jacket) also available. The suitably retro video (above) was directed and edited by Full Scope Films.

3. They’re great craic live, in fairness. We caught them at an installment of the Siege of Limerick all-dayer a while back and had fun. Their lean, tight, power-trio setup just does their tunes justice.

4. They’re supporting American metal legends Argus at On The Rox in Dubland on March 13, alongside heavy-metal traditionalists Stereo Nasty. Tickets €15 on the door with merch stalls on the night.

Verdict: While possibly not everyone’s cup of tay, even in the preponderously fractured & diverse world of metal and its derivatives, there’s no knocking RBOTN’s dedication to providing a decent dose of unassuming, unpretentious thrash. Fair balls.

Rabid Bitch Of The North