Clare Martin

1 week ago | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin

The language we use always has weight to it, but especially when discussing places of contention. Take, for example, the stretch of land on the northern end of the isle of Ireland. While officially it’s known as Northern Ireland, simply using that term is a political statement in and of itself, tacitly accepting British rule over the six counties ceded by the Republic of Ireland just over a century ago in exchange for its independence.

3 weeks ago | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin

I got homesick easily as a child. Even a slumber party at a friend’s house could plunge me into a sea of yearning for my home that was—and I kid you not—a 10-minute drive from where I was sleeping. I always imagined that homesick feeling as a cold eggshell forming around my heart—not numbing me, exactly, but preserving that sense of home while shutting out everything else. The result was a sort of a remove, an at-arms-length experience of whatever was going on around me.

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. The last time I saw Irish post-punks M(h)aol play, the room was so packed that people were practically standing on top of each other. It was April of 2023, only a couple of months after the band released their excellent debut record Attachment Styles via TULLE (later re-released on Merge Records), which tackled everything from biphobia to period sex to the importance of having a family dog.

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. BLONDSHELL’S NEW ALBUM IS IN no way a sonic shift from her celebrated self-titled debut; instead If You Asked For A Picture is a cohesive follow-up, the subsequent chapter in a book or the next snapshot tucked away in a scrapbook.

1 month ago | pastemagazine.com | Clare Martin

Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THE halcyon days early on in a relationship, when you and your paramour don’t know that much about each other, except that you want to spend all your time together. Around every corner is a mystery—What was their childhood like? Did they go to camp as a kid? Do they get along with their family? What were they like in college?—and those question marks keep us coming back for more.