Music
News: Shed Seven + Inspiral Carpets announce 2015 tour dates
For what has now been established as one of Decembers finer traditions, albeit on a biennial basis, this year Shed Seven are pulling out all the stops to bring a Brit-pop/indie overload to their fourteen date tour. Accompanying them as support will be none other than one of the bands that helped turned Manchester to …
Not Forgotten: They Might Be Giants – Flood
As the 90s dawned, things were restless in the musical firmament. In the UK, we were coming to terms with the fact that we were still suffering from the hangover of terrible pop songs and even worse production methods that the 80s had blighted us with, and across the Atlantic folks were taking a long …
Meet: Davey Richmond, Glamour Of The Kill Interview
Glamour Of The Kill are a band who like to keep busy. If it’s not on their own headline tour then it’s in support of other bands, making connections that have lead to many a collaboration both on their own songs and others. However in the here and now, Glamour Of The Kill are headed around …
News: Warp to reissue Broadcast back catalogue
Following the tragic death of frontwoman Trish Keenan in 2011 left fans wondering what would happen to Birmingham kitch soul popsters Broadcast, it was of some comfort that the sole remaining member James Cargill has kept the fires burning, with the brilliant scores to Berbarian Sound Studio and the upcoming Duke Of Burgundy, as well …
Album Review: Some Truths – Bliss Abyss
There is a lot that can be said for sobbing acid casualties. What might seem to the Conservative ballot-casting outsider like a drooling comatose corpse slumped in the corner of a dance floor is, in fact, a creature that has traversed the finer fragments of inner space. It has seen truths of unfathomable magnitude and …
Meet: Swervedriver interview
The Stone Roses famously took five years to make their woeful second album but Swervedriver must have set a new record taking a staggering 18 years to produce a new record. They are now back with their fiercesome new album ‘I Wasn’t Born To Lose You’ complete with their trademark woozy psychedelic guitars, but according …
Album Review: Bombay Heavy – Bombay Heavy
Reinvention of the self in the music world is nothing new. It’s been done, ad infinitum. Lennon, Bowie, Bono and Beyonce have all adopted alter egos at some stage in their careers. Reasons vary, as do results. Blur’s Damon Albarn was the unmistakable voice behind Gorillaz’ frontman “2D”, an inspired direction for Albarn heralding a …
Live Review: Wire – Unity Works, Wakefield 20.02.2015, plus gallery
I see plenty of live gigs, but I was especially excited about the prospect of seeing Wire in Wakefield last Friday. For starters, it’s been a while since I’d visited Unity Hall, (or Unity Works , as its now known) in Wakefield. Infact it’s been almost 30 years since I last made my way upstairs …
Album Review: CHAMPS – VAMALA
VAMALA is a word used by Isle of Wight fishermen for a certain type of dangerous storm that comes in suddenly off the sea. It is also the name of the new album from Isle of Wight siblings CHAMPS. released on 23rd February 2015 by Play It Again Sam. Thankfully for Michael and David Champion, their …
Not Forgotten: Guided by Voices – Motivational Jumpsuit
An overlooked rather than a forgotten classic, Motivational Jumpsuit was the first of two albums by Guided by Voices that were released in quick succession in the first half of 2014, before they once again called it a day last September. Less of a disorientating skip through Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout’s collective muse than …