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1 month ago | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
Cork’s, and arguably Ireland’s premier pedal steel player David Murphy released one of our favourite albums of last year with debut LP Cuimhne Ghlinn: Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar. A sublime collection of interpretations of traditional songs, it was another part of a growing body of work that is reshaping the role of the pedal steel away from its American roots and into global folk and contemporary music.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
Full disclosure: I was obsessed with this band from the ages of 15-18. I was insufferable to those around me who didn’t get it – and to them all, I apologise – but growing up in rural south Derry, Jane’s Addiction felt like some portal to the unseen. Whether it was the LA seediness or their connection to a more sensual world, it mattered little.
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May 22, 2024 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
It’s almost 45 years to the day since Gary Numan appeared with Tubeway Army in one of the all-time memorable Old Grey Whistle Test performances, promoting the then-new album Replicas. The band, led by some shamanic, androgynous alien cyborg, felt like a transmission of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders as imagined by William Gibson or Philip K. Dick.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
Your debut LP I Am The Cheese shares its title with a 1977 young adult fiction novel, written by Robert Cormier. Could you tell us about the poignancy of that title to yourself and this body of work? It’s a book I read when I was 12 and was pretty haunted by. The final lines of the novel refer back to the folk song ‘The Farmer In The Dell’:“The cheese stands alone. The cheese stands alone.
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Jan 4, 2024 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
Photos by Loreana RusheIn an inauspicious arch underneath the Dart line in North Dublin you’ll find John ‘Spud’ Murphy, working away in his longtime hub of Guerrilla Studios. “So it still is like a cave, which has pros and cons,” he says. “You’re in a cave. And there’s no external light, but you don’t know what time of the day it is. So you just keep working and you’re not looking outside going, oh, it’s beautiful outside. You just keep working.
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Dec 5, 2023 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
‘Indie rock’, ‘Post-punk’ – the music industry does an effective job of co-opting and commodifying terms originally defined by their reaction to stagnation, creating a deluge of so-close-yet-so-far simulacra. We’ve noticed young artists, of late, pushing back against algorithmically-pleasing confines, into creatively fertile territory. Dublin’s Spit are doing just that with their abrasive, experimental punk that conjures the essence of the movement.
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Nov 24, 2023 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
The most interesting sounds tend to come from those unencumbered with risk aversion. Take Devo, whose five gestative years before releasing a debut album bought them creative armour, allowing them to hone their worldview and arrive fully-formed. Search Results started writing in Dublin within a week of meeting in 2020, having moved from Waterford, Sligo, and Tipperary just prior to Covid.
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Sep 6, 2023 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
The only thing in Ireland faster than the church dropout rate seems to be the growth of its queer and trans punk scene, with Dublin trio Touch Excellent being one of the latest, brightest prospects in the movement. Featuring Amber Excellent on drums, Lenny Hennessy on bass and vocals, and Ló Boyle on guitar, they’re a political band in the purest way that one can be: by simply existing as themselves – and themselves are as full of wit as they are passion.
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Aug 16, 2023 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
Stratford RiseYou might have noticed in these pages over the past year the refreshing air of a heteroglot of brand new, guitar bands. One such act that’s grabbed – and proceeded to mercilessly pulverise – our attention is Bangor quartet Stratford Rise. They’ve been together since early 2020, but it’s still early days, playing live for over a year, but having only just performed their first date outside Northern Ireland in May.
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Aug 9, 2023 | 
thethinair.net | Stevie Lennox
News
Published on August 9th, 2023 |
by Stevie Lennox
Irish compilation series A Litany of Failures, which features independent acts from all corners of the island, has just announced the pre-order and tracklisting for its fourth volume. Set for release on double vinyl and digitally on September 8th, it’s available via Bandcamp.
