Live, The Stranglers, Birmingham 02 Academy, 12.03.16
I don’t really know how to begin. I’ve been seeing The Stranglers live for nearly forty years. There is no band that I have seen more times than this one. I’ve seen The Stranglers be brilliant, and I have seen The Stranglers when they appear to have lost their collective way and fall short of …
Say Psych: Album Review, Live in Berlin by Dead Skeletons
I’ve only managed to see the Dead Skeletons live on one occasion, an amazing double-header with Follakzoid (see here) at the now sadly closed Kazimier Club in Liverpool. It was my first time for both bands, a great night in which the Liverpool PsychFest team had pulled out all the stops to make that small …
Say Psych: Playlist 3/2016
Here are a few tracks that have been wowing me at Psych Insight towers this month. Like always a mixture of new, recently found and new. Enjoy! Kogarashi by Kikagaku Moyo The biggest news of the month was definitely the impending release of a new Kikagaku Moyo album, “House in the Tall Grass”, to be released …
Say Psych: Menimals by Menimals
OK so here’s a new album from Riot Season records, so be prepared to be sonically blasted sphincter first into the next universe. Right? Well actually, wrong because this is a Riot Season release like none other that I can remember. Instead of the usual rush of blood to the fret there’s an easy avant …
Psych Insight: Live, Henge, Electrowerkz, London, 26.2.16
As a band Henge are well named, a unit that is strangely archaic and yet solid; a band whose music batters through to your very soul. On the evidence of its self-titled debut album Henge is also a band that is pretty difficult to categorise being just about ‘post’ everything that you might throw at …
Say Psych: Live Review, Cavalier Song, Electrowerkz, London 26.2.16
Cavalier Song are a band that are new to me this year, but one that I really rate. The band’s debut album, Blezard (read the review here) is a stark and spacious record that has its moments of noise and chaos, but leaves you with the overall impression of dark tranquility. Seeing Cavalier Song for …
Say Psych: Album Review, Phantamonium by Hotel Wrecking City Traders
I first came across Hotel Wrecking City Traders last year with the release of the amazing Australian split 12″ with Hey Colossus on Wild Animal Records. While the Hey Colossus track was a great as you would expect from this ever improving band, the Hotel Wrecking City Traders track, ‘Droned and Disowned (Pt.2) was a …
Say Psych: Album Review, Supernormal 2015 Live Transmissions III by Blown Out
It’s not that long ago that I first became aware of Blown Out. I had been sent an email with a promo of last year’s ‘Jet Black Hallucinations’ album on it, and because it was the first release from Golden Mantra, the label run by Adam from Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs; I decided that …
Say Psych: Album Review How’s Your Favourite Dream by Wooden Indian Burial Ground
Wooden Indian Burial Ground first came to my attention earlier this year when I came across a video of the lead track from this album, ‘Burnout Beach‘. At the time I thought that if the track was in anyway representative of the album then it would be very good indeed and now I’ve heard it …
Not Forgotten: Black & White by The Stranglers
Its early 1978 and I’m standing in the horrible brutalist Ryemarket Shopping Centre in Stourbridge, a copy of ‘Sounds’ in my hands (well all over my hands such was the nature of ink in those days) and the proceeds of my paper round in my pocket. I was thirteen and was deep in the thrall …