Last year one of NIs finest folk troupes, Farriers, began to look for help to put out their debut album, Years Ago in Our Backyard. They had all the tracks recorded, but needed a little hand to get the funds to mix, master and press the release. Their fans stepped up and donating over £4,000 on a funding site to help them out and now the album is finally here! Pretty good going! 

So we're very excited at ATL towers! We've heard the album and reckon ya'll are in for a treat! Match the new tunes with one of the finest live acts about and Sunday at the Black Box will surely be one of 'those' gigs!

Plus there are some special guests, including support from the ever reliable Gareth Dunlop and Ross Clarke from Glasgow's Three Blind Wolves.

We spoke to Rachel Coulter from the band about what to expect:

"We are thrilled to finally launch our first album this Sunday at The Black Box. It has been a long time in the making but well worth the hard work and the wait. We are also really excited to be sharing the stage with some very special guests - Gareth Dunlop, Ross Clarke from Three Blind Wolves, Matt McGinn, Katie Richardson from KATC and Kowalski's Louis & Paddy. It's going to be a cracker night with a full band & choir towards the end, filled with warmth, banter, handclaps and plenty of stomps of course. A lovely way to end the weekend for sure."

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Farriers launch their album Years Ago in Our Backyard at the Communion Gig night on Sunday at the Black Box, Belfast. Support comes from Gareth Dunlop and Ross Clarke. Have a listen to some of the Farriers album tracks below!

 

Once again, it's quality AND quantity with our GOTW as not three, not five, not seven but FOUR decent bands take to the stage at The Empire Music Hall, Belfast this Thursday.
 
It's another SONI (Sounds of Northern Ireland) showcase, with Phil from SONI explaining:

'We run at least five gigs a month at three different venues in Belfast and Hague's Bar in Lisburn - we are also one of the main bookers and organisers of Sunflowerfest. Our business is putting on the best gig nights possible, featuring bands and acts from all over N.I and beyond...in a wide range of genres.

'The Empire gigs are our biggest night of the month, featuring some of the most exciting acts we showcase - at this show, Summer Shootout, we feature the big alt-rock anthems of headliners Levity Breaks, special guests are Deadlights - a ferocious live act who have just won the Voodoo "B******s To Poverty" Battle of The Bands, In Elegance also play...just back from touring the UK with Kill Hannah and Dear Superstar, and the mighty Stillpoint kick things off with their huge, Biffy Clyro-esque riffage.'

Couldn't have put it better - can we get Phil to write these things from now on?

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Deadlights, Levity Breaks, IN Elegance and Stillpoint play The Empire this Thursday night (May 17th).

 

Naturally enough, when an ATL playlist comes to life, we get a bit excited. And that seems to be what's in store tonight at The Menagerie with four of our favourite new bands taking to the stage, four pretty different sounding acts at that. Like a music pick n' mix at the cinema, but not as expensive because....the bands are really light.

Anyway.....FutureScope, Parachutes Over Paris, City of Stars and Go Wolf - (left to right) epic, riffy, cute and quirky. It's loosely billed as a celebration of indie-electronica, so expect lots of poppy synths in amongst those guitars. In a nutshell though, we play these bands loads and thus think they're great. Oh, and there's what seems to be an 8-bit connoisseur called Casion on the bill. He's new to us, but a wildcard is always fun.

Niall from Futurescope puts things into perspective:

'Basically half hour sets from every act showcasing the top songs. BBQ first, then each band will be playing with a full band set up! 'We will be playing a sneaky cover of Arctic Monkeys too which should be good.'

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Futurescope, Parachutes over Paris, City of Stars, Go Wolf, Casion and DJ Ryan Dornan play The Menagerie, Belfast this tonight from 8pm.