Offaly-based hip hop trio Chasing Abbey, top from left: Ro, Bee and TeddyC

Rising out of Tullamore, a rural community of roughly 14,000 in Ireland, the juggernaut trio Chasing Abbey are the consummate underdogs.

They started from the bottom, three childhood friends playing traditional Irish folk music, and now, they’re here taking over the Irish airwaves — and eyeing a total Stateside takeover.

In fairness.

Ireland’s Chasing Abbey Plots U.S. Takeover With Debut EP: Premiere (Billboard)

Pic by Wolff for Billboard

Thanks Shane Gillen

Slyrydes – Mental Health

Ferocious debut single from Galway ‘Punk/New Wave’ outfit featuring Marc O’Reachtaire (top) on lead vocals.

Sez Slyrydes:

“Mental Health”, is an attack on the national scandal that is the “shambolic Irish Health Service and its strength comes in its simplicity.

The song came together in 5 minutes but was born out of prolonged frustration. The lyrics repeat the struggles of a patient simply trying to get an appointment but being only deemed worthy of “a letter from the HSE”.

Slyrydes

Thanks Dwayne Woods

Telephone Explosions – Still Water

New single from Maynooth, County Kildare-based ambient dream pop duo and real life couple Dolores Fogarty and Adrian Mee from new album (available to pre-order here).

Telephone Explosions

Pic: Davina McGinn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA9RMP0uy78

Jiggy – Music for a Found Harmonium

Irish eight-piece bring new life to the rollicking Penguin Café Orchestra classic.

Watch it soar.

Jiggy

Inni-K – Crush

Dublin-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter’s new single about first love, taken from her second album ‘The Hare & The Line’.

Inni-K says:

“Isn’t it funny that years later, still – whenever that lovely glowing, helpless kind of feeling of having a crush on someone comes over me; it feels just exactly like it did when I was ten years old fancying this lovely lad in school who used to share his Hobnob biscuits with me at lunchtime…”

Inni-K

Beta-Max – Reach High-Five

‘Banging’ second single from Dublin-based Electronic/Damce.Rock/Punk outfit featuring Diane Anglim (from alt-rock trip Swords).

Beta-Max (~Twitter)
Beta-Max (Facebook)
Beta-Max (Souncloud

I gave @BigDirtyFry a Celtic mysticism makeover to celebrate his modern translation of a Gaelic classic. Happy Paj day pic.twitter.com/GTnERbUzMi

— Paj (@pajmahalia) March 18, 2019

Golden-throated, blue-eyed Dublin soul singer Paddy Groenland (Paj) releases a  video/music comedy mashup every week (above is his latest).

However….

Paj’s excellent first single proper ‘Friends Confused’ (above) has just ‘dropped’.

And is available here on all formats.

In fairness.

Paj

Gráinne Cotter – Shadows

Video by Leon, who writes;

This follows the narrative of a fallen astronaut searching for Gráinne through a dense forest. The space suit actor Seán T O’Meallaigh dons is the same as the one used in David Bowie’s music video for ‘Blackstar‘…

Gráinne Cotter