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Tom Brosseau: Profile
Outside it’s a beautifully bright Sunday lunchtime, but chill in the shade. Indoors, in the snug of Paper and Cup, it’s cosy warm. Tom Brosseau, his friend Eva, his manager Mary Jones, and I are happily ensconced in Calvert Street, E2, about to reap the rewards of the coffee machine currently threatening to drown out …
New Music: Tangerine – Nothing Better
Back in late August we were helped into autumnal slumber by the gentle swells of “Feel This Way”. Seattle, Washington’s Tangerine are back in action this month with a new single. Lead track “Nothing Better” premiered through MTV’s Buzzworthy in late March and there’s plenty to justify that level of endorsement. That same sense of …
Video: Just Lions – Paper Cage
Today I have been enjoying the new video for “Paper Cage” by backseatmafia.com faves’ Just Lions’. You can follow an increasingly threatened lead singer Chandler Strutz being chased through Oregon City by his paper creations. Rotoscoped (or some such technique) alterna-Chandlers, brought to life by blue Bic biro, it would seem, are hunting our brave hero …
Joan As Police Woman – The Classic
Sometimes it does what it says on the tin – but elsewhere track sequencing and the mix mean that this album ultimately frustrates. Joan Wasser is not alone as an artist whose first shot at a full-length remains their best some years later. “Real Life” is an excellent LP and still easily bosses “To Survive” …
Track of the Day: Pool – Harm
Take this as an early spring shot in the arm. Your day needs Pool. Super-tight, crisp disco/funk that melds the snap and crackle of Electric Six’s camper moments, and the arty angular indie-pop of Franz Ferdinand into a beguiling, morning glory-inducing hit of energy and excitement. Plus, check the bassist’s shoes.
Video: Ratking featuring King Krule – So Sick Stories
A slower slice of troubling hip-hop, following the paranoid claustrophobia of “100”. NYC’s new rap heroes mix it up with London’s King Krule. The video for “So Sick Stories” puts Ratking and their British guest in a set of nondescript, alienating, brutalistic urban locales. Their cross to bear is one of sadness, anger, listlessness, lived …
Video: Maids – Bandits
Turns out that this is exactly what I needed this Thursday night: gentle, wistful electro-pop, and an aqua-aerobics video to boot. Midwest Disco indeed. Des Moines, Iowa is something of a celebrated town. And it isn’t just that it’s one of the insurance company capitals of the world; it’s also because it’s a town that …
Video: Le1f – Boom
Openly gay rappers are as rare as openly gay footballers and both fields are all the poorer for the forces that preserve their prejudices. New Yorker, Le1f, is one artist and producer trying to correct this imbalance, and making progress, judging from his recent appearance on Letterman two weeks ago. His most recent release (following the …
Track: The Twilight Sad – Untitled #4, plus tour dates and reissue news
It doesn’t seem two minutes since fresh faced Scottish indie rockers The Twilight Sad released their debut album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Taking their name from Wilfred Owens ‘The War Poems’ (sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad) there was always something dark and emotional about the band. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters …
Meet: We chat with Tim Love Lee, and his new project with Shawn Lee
I’ve got to hold my hand up – I’m one of them. ‘Them’ being crate diggers, or record collectors / sound experimenters. I have a (mental) list of records I would come close to selling my house for, most of which are obscure Jazz and Punk and Northern Soul Records. For DJ, producer, record label …