Nialler9

Episode 223 of the Nialler9 Podcast is a return to the festival field with Nialler9 and Andrea Cleary. We review last weekend's All Together Now Festival in Waterford. Niall shares his experiences of the festival's fourth year, a weekend in which ran the weather gamut from rainy to windy, muddy to sunny. We talk highlights and lowlights, the mud, the rain, the wind, festival organisational logisti...

It's the most popular monthly episode where Niall and Andrea share what's moved them musically from the month of July. On Episode 222 we have selections from Big Thief, Sarah Crean, Andrea's pick of the Barbie soundtrack, another of Niall's song of the summer contenders, Fizz, Aluna, Mitski, The Hives, girlfriend, albums from Blur and Joanna Sternberg and some a tune tribute to Sinéad O'Connor. *...

30 years ago this week, Singer Sinead O’Connor sparked outrage when she tore up a picture of the Pope during her musical performance on Saturday Night Live. The fallout of that action is at the centre of Kathryn Ferguson's new documentary about Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares - which is in cinemas this Friday. Following the release of last year's Rememberings, O'Connor's biography, the film tel...

This is a rewind of an episode from 2021. Today's episode is all about my favourite subgenre of disco and dance music - Italo. What it is, where it came from and why it's so enduring. Italo disco is a European form of electronic disco that proliferated throughout Europe in the early '80s. It’s a catch all term for 80s electronic pop of mostly Italian origin. Italo is what happens when disco starts...

For a subgenre deep dive, Niall takes a dip into the idea of Balearic music, and finds out that it's not as easy to explain as he first thought. Balearic is often thought of as a signifier of music that is evocative, sun-kissed and downtempo, but as our deep dive discovers Balearic is a feeling, an approach, that encompasses those things but also can be cheesy, soft, rocking, easy listening, dance...

Note, this is a rewind of an episode from 2021 to mark our second Indie Sleaze night on September 29th in Workman's Cellar. You may have heard of the term Indie Sleaze lately. A term newly coined to describe a nostalgic trend of post-Y2K era of culture and aesthetics of indie music and parties that crossed cities and continents. Niall and Andrea are talking indie-rock, blog house, nu-rave, electro...

Episode 220 is a chat with the journalist, pop culture writer, and author Michael Cragg . Michael's new book Reach for the Stars is a rip-roaring oral history of UK pop music between 1996 and 2006, told through the interviews with the popstars, the songwriters, producers, label executives, pop fans, svengalis and culture writers of the day. It's an unputdownable behind-the-scenes history of Britis...

It's the ever popular monthly episode where Niall and Andrea share what's moving them musically from the month of June - new music and older stuff too. On Episode 219 we have selections from King Krule, The Hives, Bright Eyes, Peter Gabriel, Maija Sofia, Glasser, Slaughter Beach, Dog, Niall's song of the summer contender and some oldie shouts from Surfers, Freestylers, Joy Anonymous and Bikini Kil...

We are keeping our summer school vibe going for a bit for the season by keeping episodes relaxed and casual for a bit while the weather is a bit nicer. Episode 218 of the Nialler9 Podcast then, sees Niall take the reins of the going out buzz after last week's Andrea Goes To Slane episode. It was a busy festival weekend with Beyond The Pale, Body & Soul and Seas Sessions all taking place in Ire...

Episode 217 of the Nialler9 Podcast is all about that great Irish music institution - Slane Castle. 22 years (!) after Nialler was last at the big annual concert in Meath, Andrea makes her first trip to Slane for the Harry Styles concert and our roving vibe reporter is here to share her experiences from the gig day out, the food on offer, and the car park saga after. Plus, there's a look at the re...

Niall and Andrea with episode 216 of the Nialler9 Podcast and our monthly new music recommender for the month of May 2023. On Episode 216, there are some "face eggs"-themed albums from Water From Your Eyes, Eyes Of Others and Caoilian Sherlock along with song choices from Gurriers, Blur, Kieran Hebden + William Tyler, Bricknasty, Buck Meek and two oldies from The Fall and Glasser. And for those of...

A reappraisal of the career of Cass Elliot, formerly known as Mama Cass, of The Mamas & Papas. For this week's episode (#215), Andrea Cleary, takes the lead for a deep dive into the life and times of Cass Elliot, the late-60s singer who recently went viral when a Tik-Tok user used her song 'Make Your Own Kind Of Music' on a meme with Nicolas Cage / Pedro Pascal from the film The Unbearable Wei...

Nealo is a Dublin rapper and artist who is a regular on this site since first appearing in 2018 . 2020's All The Leaves Are Falling was a Choice Music Prize-nominated debut album, an album exploring loss, friendship, family and the ties that keep us searching for home. Fresh from the release of new song 'Forest' with Morgana of Saint Sister on vocals, Nealo is teasing a new album at a later date,...

Galway rapper Celaviedmai is one of our favourite up and coming rappers and collaborators as she has shown adeptness at moving between rap, house, drill, Amapiano and Afrobeat in her music so far. Mai is an artist with ambition and exciting plans on the horizon including a set at The Hennessy Hip-Hop House at Body & Soul Festival this summer. It was great to have Mai in to pick 5 songs that ha...

It’s the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month, and some older. On Episode 212, there are albums recommended by Feist, Kara Jackson, Benefits and Tom Trago, along with choice songs from Anna St. Louis, Laurie Shaw, Beabadoobee + Clairo and two oldies. Plus a bit of listener feedback about last week's AI episode, some book, TV and film recomm...

Episode 210 of the Nialler9 Podcast is a two-hander. We are talking about the last of the enigmatic crooners who played the same festival - Coachella - and got on very differently. Firstly, Andrea takes the lead on recounting and speculating on what exactly was / is going on with Frank Ocean's set at Coachella at weekend 1 this past Sunday. Ice rinks, ankle injuries, long silences, unfocused showm...

Episode 209 is a chat with our pal, journalist, author, playwright, DJ and wheelchair user Louise Bruton. Louise has recently restarted her Legless In Dublin platform on a paid Substack (free to disabled people), where she is "covering areas of access and disability, reviews and personal essays that champion disabled people and educate non-disabled people". It came after Louise had grown exhausted...

Episode 208 is a dive into the world of boygenius and their debut album the record. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus came together as boygenius in 2018 with a debut EP on Matador. The EP combined their collective tones of tones of country, melodic folk, indie and singer-songwriter strands together, before they all went off to make another solo record - Phoebe Bridgers made Punisher (20...

It's the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month. March has given us a jam-packed month of albums to get our ears around, including: Lankum - False Lankum Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Ailbhe Reddy - Endless Affair JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which...

A second episode this week as it's a timely chat with MayKay, the vocalist, singer-songwriter and Other Voices presenter who is returning to her original role as lead vocalist with the band Fight Like Apes. The band split up in 2016 after releasing three albums Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion (2008), The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner (2010) and Fight Like Apes...

On this episode of the Nialler9 Podcast, Niall is joined by No Encore's Dave Hanratty for a chat about Meet Me In The Bathroom, the recent documentary about the New York City music scene of the early 2000s. The film by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern is based on the oral history book of the same name by Lizzy Goodman and is concerned with the rise of New York rock and indie stalwarts like The Str...

In 1996, the Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes travelled to New York to make a record. While hanging out in the Lower East Side and Alphabet City, Holmes and some pals, armed with a DAT recorder, dropped some acid and wandered around the city recording people for his upcoming LP. A year later, that album, a classic record - 1997's Let's Get Killed was released, which imbued a cinematic world-bu...

February was a short month but there was lots to love (and talk about). It's the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month. Just before Andrea went off to India for the rest of the month, and after last week's Choice Music Prize special , we are chatting specific favourite new and some old music. Featuring chat about Lana Del Rey, Skrillex, Caro...

On this two-hour episode, Niall and Andrea are joined by writer and journalist Una Mullally, to discuss the 10 nominated albums in this year's Choice Music Prize Irish album of the year 2022 category. 10 nominated albums are in the process to be pored over by 11 judges, and they are.. CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead A self confessed global pop star from Ireland Ciara Mary Alice’s Thompsons count...

Episode 201 is a journey through some of the last 35 years in music through the medium of the sample, from the Amen break to famous sample-heavy albums to our own personal favourite sampled songs. We discuss how an obscure 1960s B-side became the most sampled song in history and helped birth genres like drum and bass and jungle. We explore the sample art of albums like DJ Shadow's Entroducing, Bea...