Track: The Marble Man – single, album and London date news
Been in our thoughts a bit this week, Munich has. Even before Robben sealed it for Bayern just before the end of the Champions League Final. And that was mainly down to a singer-songwriter based in that city, Josef Wirnshofer, who writes and records under the name The Marble Man. Releasing his first album in …
See: Gypsy & The Cat – It’s a fine line video, and album news
There’s two things that I’ve always been good at. One is dreaming, and I often think that maybe now that I’m a proper grown up, with children and everything, I’m possibly too old for dreaming, but I don’t seem to be able to stop. So every time I kick a ball it’s Wembley and I’m …
New Music: Cotton Mount – In Blue Colour
There’s this sort of rule that when you talk about Switzerland, you have to mention things like mountains and Cuckoo clocks, watches and chocolate and the like. Musically, there is sort of Alp horns and yodeling and things. I’m sure that if I were Swiss, I would be thoroughly sick of these sort of lazy …
Meet: Sweet Baboo, and his new album ‘Ships’
I don’t know why, but some of the best and most interesting music to come out over the last few years has been from Wales. Amongst this breed of creative people is Stephen Black a.k.a. Sweet Baboo. Under this moniker he has released some criminally undervalued records that mould indie, psych, country, Motown and plain …
Meet: Ty, and hear about his new releases, label and gigs
One of the best releases we have heard this year on Backseat Mafia came from UK Rapper, Ty and his Kick and a Snare EP. Born Ben Chijioke, he was born and still lives in London. More importantly, he has been at the forefront of UK Hip-Hop for over ten years, starting with his album …
Meet: Skillit – Rapper, Actor, Comedian
I blame it on my brother. I was happy with my music choices at the time. Me and Billy Bragg, The Smiths, The Housemartins, The Cure – we had this special thing going on. Then one day he (let’s not forget prior to this he had bought things by Bon Jovi and Europe) suddenly came …
Track: Harleighblu releases new single, Enough Now
I spoke about my parents record collection before. What reminded me of it was reading about 21-year-old Nottingham singer Harleighblu. This smokey voiced sultry soulstress (I’ll stop there before I get involved in some ‘s’ rated alliteration record attempt) who was deeply influenced by her mother’s collection of soul gems. Using that as a starting …
Track: New single from Manchester electro artist Bipolar Sunshine – Rivers
Marmite and Manchester. Be a good book title that, for someone like Stuart Maconie or something. It’s also true. I’ve had occasions to be there (hasn’t everyone in the UK) whether that be football (away days, eh?) concerts, record shopping or even seeing my sister when she lived there. And wandering round that old city …
Not Forgotten: The Family Cat reissue news and an interview with Fred.
I stumbled on The Family Cat. The record shops I frequented all had it. I picked it up so many times, mainly because it had something that appeared fantastic. The Family Cat is such a fantastic name for a band, and the artwork on debut mini-album ‘tell ’em we’re surfin’ is utterly brilliant. So I …
Track: Fat Freddys Drop – Blackbird & the album release show
We have this cleaner. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not one of those rich families that mention to everyone that they’ve got a cleaner because that means we must therefore be middle class. We actually need a cleaner. I seem to have bred (and I know they’ll be some argument about this) two of the …