Obituary: David Berman from Purple Mountains/Silver Jews dies.
It was only last month that Backseat Mafia reviewed the great new album from David Berman’s Purple Mountains project, saying it was: a beautiful album from beginning to end – a bleak vignette of some mid-western USA existence leavened by a twisted sense of humour, a sweet acceptance of the bitterness of a worn out …
EP Review: Greta Stanley – Sun In My Eyes
It’s the spaces in between the ethereal beauty of Greta Stanley‘s vocals that make her music so mesmerising. Think later stage Radiohead – delicate, sometimes sparse, musical pattering serving and augmenting the song and the voice. Stanley has long impressed us here at Backseat Mafia and ‘Sun in My Eyes’ displays a stunning musical progression, …
Track: Jekyll – Marionette
Blackpool’s Jekyll are a band going places – something Backseat Mafia predicted back in 2014 when we reviewed one of their first singles ‘I Do What I Can’. Now, having signed with Fierce Panda Records and booked through International Talent Bookings (ITB) along with bands such as Editors and Kasabian, Jekyll have released a fantastic …
Album Review: Ummagma – Compass
Any preconception about Ummagma being easily slotted into a dream/pop shoegaze label was put on notice with the release of their single ‘Caravan’ earlier this year and has certainly been dispelled for good with their new album ‘Compass’ being released on 26 July. Opening track, ‘Rolling’ has the wide-eyed exuberance of anything released by Pharrel …
Album Review: TC&I – Naked Flames – Live at Swindon Arts Centre
Well this is a delightful surprise. After the release of TC&I‘s welcome ‘Great Aspirations’ EP last year there were murmurings that the project was finished for the moment following some well received gigs last year. It now seems these gigs were recorded, and ‘Naked Flames’ is the result. TC&I is, on record, the legendary Colin …
Track: The Murder Capital – Don’t Cling to Life, plus Album and Tour News
Ireland’s art punk maestros, The Murder Capital, have released a third single off their forthcoming debut album ‘When I Have Fears’ which is due for release on 16 August 2019. And based on the singles released thus far (and an accidental preview), this is an album to look forward to. ‘Don’t Cling to Life’ has …
Premiere: Fingerless – Tambourine Addict Who Plays the Drugs
…a hazy fugue of swirling guitars, thumping rhythms and a psychedelic high …
News: The Cult – Celebrate 30 Years Since the Release of Sonic Temple
Two years before the 1989 release of ‘Sonic Temple’, The Cult shocked many of their goth-tinged indie followers with the release of ‘Electric’, a hard rock-infused blast of an album that subverted many of the indie rock tropes. Introducing distorted riffs, wild guitar solos and posturing more befitting a heavy metal devil-worshiping rock band, this …
Album Review: Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains
David Berman – the singer/songwriter behind Purple Mountains – has form. Very good form. He was originally in the legendary Silver Jews formed along with Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich in the late eighties and Purple Mountains – both the band and the album – is the first sign of life since the Silver …
Album Review: Gena Rose Bruce – Can’t Make You Love Me
Since covering her single ‘Blazing Radio’ back in 2014, we here at Backseat Mafia have keenly followed the career of Melbourne’s Gena Rose Bruce and it is with great joy to declare her debut album, ‘Can’t Make You Love Me’, a promise strongly delivered. There can be no doubt that Bruce’s style has matured and …