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November 30th, 2002: The Notting Hill Arts Club is filled with the usual music loving, workshy folk who seemingly always have the good fortune to attend such late afternoon musical showcases,...

"It's just me this year… It's the austerity tour!" Neil Hannon tells Ragged Words with a giggle a few hours before taking the stage at Dublin's Sugar Club. Tonight is one of a...

While the book on Irish album of the year may have already virtually closed before hot favouite Villagers' release their highly anticipated debut Becoming A Jackel this week, many in the UK -...

The pre-show announcement goes something like this: “The artist has asked for you not to clap between songs, or until after he has left the stage. The exit is part of the show. The first...

The last time Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were in Ireland, they left many an Electric Picnicker standing in the rain, peaking into a packed tent where early Sunday morning revelers were being whipped...

Maybe Ragged Words aren't getting out enough but frankly we're a bit surprised Wild Beasts have so thoroughly sold out The Academy. There's such little room among the 850 that have squeezed...

Notwithstanding an impromptu solo stand at the end of Animal Collective’s Whelans show a few years back, tonight is Noah Lennox’s debut Irish performance as Panda Bear. That being said...

The rain seemingly hasn’t stopped for a moment as the Electric Ballroom spills out another bellyful of indie lovelies onto the ever-depressing streets of Camden Town. But the weather,...

The Low Anthem are one of those types of bands that seem to just float around for a while, managing bit by bit to earn themselves a nice little following. They last played Dublin in September...

January isn’t typically a month that welcomes sunshine sounds and cheery vibes, yet somehow and somewhat out of nowhere, Surfer Blood managed to roll those summer months in way ahead of...

Tonight’s support act Hulk consists of Dublin-based producer Thomas Haugh and guest Adrian Crowley; Crowley provides guitar atmospherics, while Haugh fiddles with all manner of...

Three years have passed since Ragged Words last caught Dawn Landes live. During this time she has released two exquisite albums of lilting country and blues...

The Lexington is so packed, Ragged Words has to apologise for breathing. We're so squashed in that to do so would feel like invading the space of the rather large guy we're stood next to. For a...

Three hours! Americana super group Monsters of Folk are clearly not a band for those lacking in stamina. On a night that soared to astonishing dizzy heights - propelled primarily by Jim James...

There are a few things you never expect to happen to you in your life. Winning the lottery, that’s a pretty common one. Being struck by lightning, yep, that’d be pretty high up on the...

The Lexington is slowly becoming one Ragged Words favourite small venues in London. On the one hand it’s got enough charm to entice the likes of (questionable or otherwise – ed)...

Tonight’s show is sold out, an impressive if not surprising feat for Barden’s Boudoir and Kristian Matsson, The Tallest Man on Earth. Dalston is no Scandinavian township, you’ll find no glassy...

60 years ago Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen.

30 years later and no less revolutionary (albeit in a different setting - Leeds), Gang of Four...

How on earth does he do it? On the 41-year road from a New Jersey coffee house to the now near annually consecutive 40,000 sell outs here at the RDS, Bruce Sprinsteen has seen out eight American...

It’s 1994 and I’m perched up in the wings at the Britxon Academy with my Dad watching The Cult melt the faces and burn the ear canals of all those in attendance. This was the last time...

Academy 2 has the lowest ceilings I’ve ever seen at a gig venue.  It’s in the basement, beneath the (only slightly) more salubrious main venue in Dublin’s Academy.  It...

Every once in a while, something really special comes floating into your musical headspace. Once this happens, you pretty much have to resign yourself to the fact that you’re going to snap...

It’s been an auspicious start to 2009 for David Michael Stith. Following his transition from graphic designer to full-time musician, his début Curtain Speech EP dropped right...

What a night. As far as debuts go, The Soul Jazz Orchestra's first foray onto Irish shores can only be described as a total success. Choice Cuts have brought some fantastic soul and hip-hop acts...

Dublin magazine-turned-promoter Foggy Notions specialise in bringing over newcomers to these shores, experimenters and oddballs, the kind of “so indie you...

As was pointed out elsewhere, the last time Adrian Crowley launched an album, he was...

After recently falling in love with the new Papercut’s album, You Can Have What You Want, this writer delved a little deeper into frontman Jason Quever’s work and discovered that he...

A recent Sunday Times Culture article heralded the return of shoegaze, a genre supposedly pioneered by My Bloody Valentine’s superlative album Loveless. According the article’s author...

Curse our shoddy timekeeping. POD has gathered an unusually strong triple bill for tonight’s show, and Ragged Words foolishly arrives too late to catch Lucky Dragons (for which we’ll...

When Camden’s most famous engine shed was reopened two-and-a-half years ago, its carefully timbered roof was built for night’s just like this. Sure the sound isn’t perfect -...

When in (touch wood) years to come, someone asks, Padraic, when exactly did you start to lose your hearing? At least now I can give them a time, place, date and even the song that did it. I mean I...

Hype is rarely a good thing, and this Ragged Words reviewer felt it badly. Animal Collective’s ninth studio album Merriweather Post Pavillion was new material to these ears, but the wonderful...

10pm on a Tuesday night is awfully late for the first of a three-band bill to be winding up their set but maybe that’s how they roll in the United States of Los Angeles, the place openers Anavan...

Sections of the audience are sat on the concrete floor of Cargo’s auditorium as Jana Hunter plucks the opening chords of the night, but soon enough everyone is drawn to stand. Alex Scally – Beach...

Despite the title of his new album, North Carolina alt-pop pianist Ben Folds doesn't do normal. His live shows are characterised by a healthy disregard for the wellbeing of his battered keyboard,...

It will be with no small degree of trepidation when this gig-hungry hippo ventures Foals' way again after seeing them straddle brilliance and farce in equal measure on Thursday night in Dublin's...

Fleet Foxes aren’t for belting along to no matter how badly tonight’s crowd - the second London sell out in a week - may want a Killers-esque sing song. ‘Drops in the River’ goes ok but then Robin...

The Walkmen's new album, "You & Me", is already established in the minds of many listeners as one of the year's best. It not only showcases the band's trademark knack for combining classic 60s...

Tonight the Lexington’s door staff are turning customers away before the supports act’s even tuned up and last night things got a little crazy one Northern Line stop away at the Old Blue Last. It...

A near capacity crowd turned up on a blustery Glasgow night at the city's new uber-cool, west end venue, The Captains Rest to see Springfield, Missouri four piece and Polyvinyl favourites, Someone...

Touring must be both an exhilarating and gruesome experience. Whilst the rapture of a crowd must enliven even the weariest and tired of souls, the repetition of the very songs which provoke the...

Did someone call Beach House underwhelming last week? Not terrifically arresting live, was it? Who, me? Naah. Really? Well in that case Victoria Legrand and...

If leafing through the near-unanimous five star debut album reviews from all the heavyweights (and a few lightweights) hadn’t told Fleet Foxes they’d arrived, then tonight – the...

An all-seated affair, hastily rearranged at the last minute from Crawdaddy to Tripod. An announcement before the main act arrives on stage, warning us not to make any undue noise during the show...

Thanks to the wonderful work of the Upset the Rhythm gang, London has been graced by some of North America’s best new bands. Recently we’ve had High Places, Crystal Stilts, Wavves, Women and...