Iron and Wine, Calexico, Kathleen Edwards, and the indefatigable Glen Hansard perform a truly beautiful festive cover version of The Pogues classic The Fairytale of New York, live on the Jimmy Fallon show. Don’t let the fact that they beeped out ‘Faggot’ from the tune, or Edwards ‘my aawse’ delivery put you off. It’s a […]
Asaf Avidan is no longer just big news in Israel, where he has had a number of top selling albums. With his unique soul-filled voice Avidan, the Israeli born singer-songwriter, has now come to the attention of audiences worldwide – in part thanks to the massive hit single One Day / Reckoning Song (Wanklemut remix), […]
A wonderful statue of Flann O’Brien has been unveiled in Strabane, County Tyrone as part of the collaborative Urban and Renewal Programme between Strabane and Donegal councils. O’Brien, one of Ireland’s foremost literary talents spent most of his life in Dublin, but was born in Strabane and the town has been keen to stress the […]
Vandaveer, the American alt-folk band/project fronted by songwriter Mark Charles Heidinger, first captured our hearts here at TMO with Resurrection Mary, a glorious acoustic turn that’s like a masterclass in how to take some staple elements (acoustic guitar, harmonies, a ghost story) and shake them up into something fresh, charged (sexually and emotionally), and truly […]
A couple of songs into the Fuck Buttons set, as part of their European Slow Focus Tour, and thanks to the pulsating rhythms and a brilliantly simple but mesmerising combination of video projections and lights, it feels like we’ve been transported to a strange and unfamiliar landscape. It’s a stunning live show. Geography and landscape […]
It’s fair to say that Local Natives, the Californian band who emerged on the scene in 2009 with the album Gorilla Manor, have navigated the difficult second album period succesfully at this stage; They’ve had great critical and chart success (the album reached #12 in the Billboard top 200) , and their live shows continue […]
Torres is the stage name of Mackenzie Scott, a hugely talented twenty-three year old singer-songwriter from Macon Georgia. Torres is also the name of her debut album, which, independently released, has won deserved critical acclaim with its ten tracks that display a rare talent and maturity. Jayson Greene, reviewing the album for Pitchfork, wrote of the […]
What are the ramifications of the widespread electronic surveillance undertaken by the United States’ National Security Agency, as revealed by Edward Snowden? How does knowing that your online activities (social media, email, search engines etc) could be monitored affect how you discuss and research sensitive topics? How does widespread surveillance affect how journalists and writers […]
An international team of scientists today released results of their tests on the bones of exhumed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Officially Neruda died of heart failure – brought on by advanced prostate cancer – on the 23rd September 1973 in Santiago’s Santa María Clinic, twelve days after the military coup that crushed Salvador Allende’s left-wing […]
