Music

Track: Fat Freddy’s Drop’s Clean the house available on free download
Damn those free offers. There’s always, always a catch. It’s those term and conditions that always do it. You know the bit that says, to the effect of – when it says free, what it means is free when you’ve spent about half your monthly wages on our other (slightly less well selling) stuff. Or …

Meet: From Florence With Love…The Psych-Pop Sounds of The Vickers
Once in a while you have to look beyond what your know to find that next great album. Sometimes in order to expand your mind you have to say the hell with what you do know and open that noggin of yours and let something you don’t know soak in. Around May of this year …

Meet: Melbourne singer-songwriter/ producer Tom Day, ahead of his collaborative EP with Monsoonsiren
I sat here thinking what I should write for the introductory paragraph to this contribution. I was going to write something clever about how some composers don’t give the listener any insight into their personality, but Tom Day does. Then I thought I might write about how some music only fits the mood, whereas Tom’s music creates …

Track: Hudson Taylor release their new indie folk track, Care
How I loved playing football. I was reasonable, but had been injured for a long time on this particular occasion. I had moved down about eight leagues in standard to try and get back fit, on a Sunday morning league full of thugs, kickers and downright terrible players. On the plus side, I got a …

Track: Goldfrapp – First song from new album, Drew, premiers.
My father used to drag us around the countryside. He was (and still is) the kind of father that knows the names of all the plants, all the ferns, all the birds. He found us dock leaves when we stung ourselves (why dock leaves? Couldn’t it be a more readily available in hedgerows placebo, you …
New Music: Alpine – Gasoline (High Highs Remix)
I sat out on my decking tonight. Me and the decking fell out disastrously last year when slippy steps caused me to nearly rip the rebuilt cruciate ligament out within a couple of weeks of it. Surprised as I was, I reached out with my hand, and promptly fell on it, ripping out various things …

See: Boys Noize release new video for Starwin
Oh, how I remember those days of Acid House with affection. (Yes, I remember – that surely tells you something, I was far too straight-laced for any of that sort of thing) I was still dressing as though I were in the Smiths, despite my hair not doing a Morrissey quiff, however much I teased …
Preview: Ten bands to see at Tramlines Festival, this weekend 19th – 21st July
One of the best things I discovered when I moved to Sheffield was Tramlines. I’d never really heard of it (it was, to be fair, in its infancy then) but now it’s returning, this next weekend for its fifth and biggest year. Last year saw 80,000 turn the city centre into a huge (family) friendly …

New Music: Perth synth duo Greyjoy release new single, Strangers
Why is it children’s body clock isn’t in synch with their parents. They do take significant bits of our DNA, right? So just when I really want to lie in, my four-year old son wants to watch Spiderman, asks me if ghosts are real, sings one…two…three, four, five – once I caught a fish alive, …