indie rewind
Not Forgotten: Weezer – OK Human, on its first birthday
By the time of OK Human’s release, its title had already bounced around Weezer’s fandom for some time. In a pre-pandemic interview, frontman Rivers Cuomo confirmed the working title referred to a “piano-based, eccentric” album, “with strings”. Weezer fans are no strangers to the band serving up sudden surprises (both welcome and, erm, otherwise), but when the US four-piece deviate …
Scratch The Surface: The Jasmine Minks – Scratch the Surface (Creation Records, 1989)
Formed in Aberdeen in 1983 by Jim Shepherd (guitar/vocals), Adam Sanderson (vocals/guitar), Martin Keena(bass guitar), and Tom Reid (drums/vocals), The Jasmine Minks were a staple on the 80s indie scene, and after sending a demon to Melody Maker, were gobbled by Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation Records. From there they released four albums and four singles …
Not Forgotten: ‘wrinkle’, the early EP from 2/3 of ‘The Cribs’
Prior to forming The Cribs with younger brother Ross, Jarman twins Gary and Ryan made a smattering of noisy goodness as wrinkle. The EP was recorded in 2001 at Springtime Studios in Huddersfield, through with Andy Briggs on drums. Gary Jarman recently discussed the band on 22 Grand Pod, a podcast celebrating seminal bands from …
Not Forgotten: The Presidents of the United States of America – The Presidents of the United States of America
The Presidents of the United States of America is a far more durable album that you might expect.
Feature: Scratch the Surface: The Wolfhounds albums Bright and Guilty / Blown Away (1989), and an interview with Dave Callahan
THE WOLFHOUNDS formed in Romford, Essex in 1984, plying their trade in the local Rezz Club before playing gigs further afield, notably at The Clarendon in West London. Debut single “Cut The Cake” arrived in February 1986, gaining single of the week status in all three of the main music papers. Sadly, early critical success …
ALBUM REVIEW: King of the Slums – Our Favourite Trainers
THEY emerged from Hulme in 1986, breathing sour fire and an eagle eye for unfashionable detail. Second cousins of The Fall in the way they filtered and spat language to reach deeper, following the grimy thread of it back through 21st-century estates and the Industrial Revolution to a lost, almost medieval rural folk tongue, as …
Feature: Scratch the Surface – 14 Iced Bears self-titled album, and an interview with Rob Sekula
14 Iced Bears: ‘14 Iced Bears’ ( Thunderball Records 1988 ) “Only the dust remains…” Background Formed in 1985, 14 Iced Bears released three excellent records on the short lived Frank label before moving to Sarah Records in 1988.There they released a three track 7” single ( two songs of which also appeared on the …
Not Forgotten: Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix
There’s a reason Teenage Fanclub, and particularly Grand Prix, have endured when so much music from the 90s just been washed away.
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – Trouble Over Bridgewater
Often over-looked and misunderstood, Trouble Over Bridgewater found itself wedged between two of Half Man Half Biscuit’s best albums, Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral and Cammell Laird Social Club. It can come across as a strangely inconsistent beast, however it unarguably contains some of HMHB’s most memorable moments, with Nigel Blackwell delivering a hilarious …
Feature: Chris Trout – tales from the outer edges of pop
So we did this thing, on Instagram and Tumblr and Spotify, where some of us made sort of an ongoing, hopefully continuing mock John Peel programme. Or at least we wanted it to be records and memories and memorabilia (posters / fanzines / tickets / magazine clippings) and photos of bands and scenes and fans …