Music
Live: Crown The Empire, Set It Off, Dangerkids and Alive Like Me: Leeds Mine, 8.02.15
The Mine venue, right in the bowels of the Leeds University Student Union, is the ideal place for an intimate show. Amongst the warren of different sized venues in the same building, this is the smallest with wood panelled low ceilings and a barrier within jumping distance of the stage. It’s perfect for tonight’s plethora …
News: Tramlines 2015 Line Up Announced
For one weekend every year the streets of Sheffield fill up as it turns in to the venue for one of the UK’s most exciting music festivals. As well as the outdoor stages, pretty much every pub and club has a live act to be seen. And that’s not to mention the performers on the …
Not Forgotten: Teenage Fanclub – Songs from Northern Britain
Having carved a career critically acclaimed career during the peak years of BritPop, by all rights Scottish power-pop guitar-slingers Teenage Fanclub should have been huge and the fact that they have achieved one solitary top 20 single in the UK (the utterly lovely “Ain’t That Enough”) and a trio of top 20 albums, including the …
Classic Compilation: A Testimonial Dinner – The Songs of XTC
By the mid 90s XTC must have felt distinctly unloved. Neither critical darlings, nor a massive commercial success, they’d had a career-stalling set-to with their record label and had no choice but to down-tools and go one strike. What Virgin records didn’t take into account was the fact that although XTC’s fanbase was small, it …
Live review: King Charles, Hebden Bridge Trades Club. 13/2/15
It might have been Friday the 13th, but for King Charles’ hardcore band of fans it wasn’t unlucky as he turned in a powerful greatest hits set with some new tracks thrown in. There’s some serious money behind Charles Costa – who has one minor hit behind him – as there is a double decker …
Album Review: The Dodos : Individ
The Dodos have been doing their thing now for a few years. It seems like we’ve gone from their 2008 album Visiter to their new album Individ in the blink of an eye. I know that’s not the case, as Meric Long and Logan Kroeber have put out some truly great music in the years that followed that defining 2008 …
Not Forgotten – ZZ Top – Tres Hombres
The couple of previous albums had been an effective run-up, but Tres Hombres is where the career of ZZ Top really took flight. This is the album that saw them morph from solid but unspectacular Southern-friend boogie rockers, to one of the finest rock bands on the planet. Of course, “La Grange” remains a staple …
See: Alex G – ‘Proof’ Music Video
Continuing with the idea of releasing a music video for every track from the debut album, Alex G has just released the video for ‘Proof’. What makes this one stand out is that it’s performed live from one take, although visually edited together from different takes, the audio represents the song in the best way …
A Beginners Guide to Bob Dylan
Over the last fifteen months we here at Backseat Mafia have been publishing a series of Buyers Guides on a number of musical acts. Sometimes these guides have covered a specific period in an act’s career, sometimes it has been a more general overview. There are some acts though, where an exhaustive overview can be …
News: Dead Kennedys announce EU Tour
Although still Jello Biafra-less, legendary punks Dead Kennedys have announced a string of dates across the UK and Europe this coming June. Legendary for their social commentary and fiercy anti-fascist lyrics, all wrapped up in a strange combination of almost Zappa like experimentation and humour, as the band passed through a variety of styles as …