Video: Pixies – Magdalena
Look, I don’t want to say too much because you have to see this for yourself and if I really wrote a review I’d ruin any sort of genuine experience you might have. Suffice to say this video teeters on the brink between ridiculous and terrifying. It fucks with you at the outset and then …
Profile: Cat Bear Tree
Comfortable in each other’s company and confident in the development of their music, on the cusp of releasing their next single, this three-piece are enjoying the way things are going. “It all makes sense” they tell Nick Pett. The Clore Ballroom is a calm hollow in the middle of the Royal Festival Hall building, cheerfully …
Video of the Day: Until the Bird – Nightingales
I’m sure it was shot in the autumn, but it’ll do. Brighten up your Winter morning with the (faux) Spring light and the arboreal fecundity of “Nightingales”. You can enjoy strong, ardent vocals, virtuoso folk musicianship, the sun rippling over bark, and a lovely moment where the camera takes a dip (in the Thames ?). …
New Music: Spring Offensive – Hengelo
This is one of those songs that can invite different appreciations – an instinctively personal take perhaps, and an understanding informed by the facts behind the tale. Once you’ve read the inspiration, you might never be able to get back to your own. So here’s the track – think on for a while and then …
Mark Yarm – Everybody Loves Our Town: an oral history of Grunge
It gradually occurred to me, as I was reading this excellent and enjoyable oral history, that I didn’t, still don’t really like Grunge, or at least, any of the acts that this jerry-rigged genre supposedly covers. I briefly entertained Pearl Jam, although it was a pretty standard bit of teenage bandwaggoning – they were hip, …
Denim Snakes – 21
“21” is a good time. The sentiment is somewhere we’ve all been – those glorious, fleeting months or years when everything is possible or at least worth a punt and almost every weekend, if not night, throws up serial delights and adventures. The man from Barry’s got it right “18 and I’m an overlord !”. …
Track: Solander – The Woods Are Gone (plus name your price download)
Wintery sadness, gorgeously delivered. The rhythm is the perfect rendition of walking through snow – always trying to go faster, but caught by the weight of the drifts, the sadness, the longing. The shimmering snare shivers under the song like skirring flakes pelting across your eyes in moonlight and bitter winds. On top the guitar …
Comic: A Stinky Tail by Sally Anne Hickman
Back in August I finally got around to writing about comics. It hasn’t taken me quite so long to get around to the second piece, but long enough. The good news is that the quality bar got higher, and that the comic in question is another independent. This time around, the author remains the same …
Aan – I Don’t Need Love
Consider this a precursor. Early next year we’re expecting Aan‘s debut album so this is just to tide you over… Yes, yes, yes, they’re ANOTHER band from Portland, Oregon. It isn’t my fault that they keep on making them over there. ‘I Don’t Need Love’ is a huge slice of experimental indie rock. This is …
Young Braves: Interview and Free Download
“A little bit of liquid courage doesn’t go unnoticed…” Personally I can never get enough of Shropshire, a beautiful combination of breathtaking landscapes and awe-inspiring industrial achievements. It’s also home to Young Braves (formerly Arcade Parade), a band who have already received some pretty favourable exposure through BBC Introducing and who have recently released their …