Music
Live Review: Calexico – Albert Hall, Manchester – 30th April 2015
Calexico made a welcome return to the UK after a couple of years’ absence in support of their brilliant new album – Edge of The Sun – and we were there to see them at Manchester’s Albert Hall. This was only one of three British gigs for Calexico so the venue was packed to the gills with people of …
Album Review: Palma Violets – Danger in the Club
The London based Indie Rock outlet Palma Violets broke through to the mainstream with their debut album 180, released in 2013, after a successful lead single and significant promotion from the likes of NME. Comparisons have been drawn from the likes of The Libertines, The Strokes, and the whole Garage-Rock revival. Admittedly, I was not …
Not Forgotten – Half Man Half Biscuit – Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral
It is the late 90s. The Britpop bubble has burst, its fans realising that the overwhelming majority of so called indie acts were now being dropped like stones through a wet paper bag by their major label paymasters, because their second or third albums haven’t sold in the same eye-watering numbers as their over-hyped debuts. …
Track: Vennart – Operate
You might know the name Mark Vennart. He spent time fronting the under appreciated Oceansize, and band who made atmospheric, mathy rock as well as being a touring guitarist for Biffy Clyro, a band who make muscular rock music with big chorus’. Now finding his feet as a solo artist he’s revealed a debut solo …
Track: Gwenno – Patriarchaeth
After retiring, or at least withdrawing from the edges of the mainstream, first as a professional dancer and then as lead singer of the brilliant Pipettes, Gwenno found herself back in her home city of Cardiff. Ignoring the industry that she had previously served, she instead ploughed her own furrow, writing a new political concept …
Track: Hey Anna – Island
New Jersey / Brooklyn based quintet Hey Anna, aka sisters Anna (vocals), Erin (guitar) and Katie Rauch-Sassen (keyboard), along with Matthew Langner and Jamie DiTringo, are preparing for the release of their new long-player Run KoKo later on in the year, and have released a single, Island, as something of a teaser of whats to …
Track: Frankie & The Heartstrings – Save it for Tonight, plus new album news
Frankie & The Heartstrings return following their much lauded 2013 album ‘The Days Run Away’ with their third long player, Decency – which comes out on 10th July via the Pop Sex imprint. Recorded at the back end of last summer in Leeds with (you guessed it) Hookworms MJ at the helm, Decency also sees …
Track: Wiley – From The Outside (Special Request VIP mix)
Grime superstar Wiley has just released a new mix of From The Outside, taken from his latest album Snakes and Ladders. It comes hot on the heels of fellow Ninja Tune/Big Dada stable artist, Actress. This time Special Request aka Paul Woolford has taken hold of it, and injected it with a little bit of …
News: Steve’N’Seagulls announce UK tour dates
It’s one of those videos everybody’s seen. Well, 12 million and counting anyway. There’s these hillbilly dudes, one of them arriving on a motorised grasscutter or some such contraption in a beaver hat, playing a mandolin – who’s joined by an acoustic guitarist/vocalist; a banjo player; a double-bassist and a cajon-straddlin’ percussionionist, and they proceed …
Track: Real Lies – Seven Sisters
Out right now is Seven Sisters, the new single from London three piece Real Lies. It marks the middle of a busy period for the trio – Tom Watson, Kev Kharas and Pat King, who have been finishing off their debut album and hosting semi-legal warehouse shows in Highbury, before setting off on a European …