Music
LIve Review: New Model Army. Holmfirth Picturedrome. 24.04.14
In the 30 years since the release of their first album, ‘Vengeance’ , New Model Army have built up an ever increasing and very loyal fan base, and a reputation for staging fierce live performances. Their 2013 album ‘Between Dog and Wolf’ has been their most successful for 20 years. It was time to see …
Psych Insight: Brown Brogues, Live at Detestival, Sheffield, 19/04/14
Brown Brogues aren’t really a psych band, but I’ve included them under the ‘Psych Insight’ banner because they are headlining the Bristol Psych Fest on May 10th. Brown Brogues are more of a garage band. They are a two piece, Mark Vernon (guitar/ vocals) and Ben Mather (drums/ vocals), who make one heck of a …
Psych Insight: Cult of Dom Keller, Live at Detestival, Sheffield, 19/04/14.
It is not very often that I get to see bands a couple of times in short succession, I’d rather see as many as possible rather than a few many times. So it was interesting for me to see Cult of Dom Keller (CODK) at Sheffield’s Detestival Festival so quickly after having seen them in …
Album Review: Eels – The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
Released just over twelve months after the well-received Wonderful, Glorious, Eels’ latest offering has one of those album titles that gives fair-warning about what exactly to expect from its content. E has straight out said that The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett is an album about his own failures in relationships, so anyone expecting …
News: Blackberry Smoke announce October UK Tour
It should be no surprise that Atlanta, Georgia rockers Blackberry Smoke are out on the road, on average they spend most of their time touring, on average playing in excess of 200 dates per year. That hard work is reaping its rewards with their debut UK album ‘The Wippoorwill’ gaining plaudits just about everywhere and …
New Video: The Horrors “So Now You Know”
I am an unabashed fan of The Horrors and already enthusiastically reviewed the first release off their much anticipated fourth album “Luminous”, the seven minute long epic “I See You“. The Horrors have now released a new video for another song off the new album, called “So Now You Know”, a visual epic filmed in a deserted …
Live: Ben Watt/Bernard Butler. The Greystones, Sheffield 15.04.14, plus Gallery
A full three decades after the release of his first, and until now, only solo record, North Marine Drive, it’s been something of a renaissance of late for Ben Watt, better known as a DJ, producer, and, of course, the “other one” from Everything But The Girl.Following on from the critical acclaim heaped upon his …
DVD Review: Wrinkles
Based on the award-winning comic by Paco Roca, Wrinkles is a very unique kind of European animated film. It reminds me in tone and structure of the wonderful When the Wind Blows, and left me feeling equally melancholy. The Spanish film is possibly the closest a Western animation has come to capturing the magic and …
Listen: Stillwave ‘Modes of Transport’
You can get bogged down with trying label stuff. But it can also go the other way. Post-punk, new wave, whatever you want to call it, has been a term applied to an ever increasing number of bands, effectively broadening the genre to a point that it becomes almost meaningless (just check out the list …
Not Forgotten – The Divine Comedy – Fin de Siècle
Neil Hannon (the man who effectively is The Divine Comedy), cut a unique dash through the British music in the mid 90s, as his almost imperceptible rise to near-fame ran parallel to the Brit-pop movement, meant that he sometimes got lumped in with the unwashed masses. Foppish, louche and possessing a more sophisticated musical mind …