indie rewind
Not Forgotten: The Replacements – Hootenanny
Even this early in their career The Replacements seemed determined to represent the everyman and be utterly relatable to their audience, who by and large were kids from the suburbs just like they had been just a few short years before. While The Replacements’ 1981 debut, the gloriously sloppy Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – CSI: Ambleside
I must admit it, on initial listening on the day of its release I was deeply disappointed in CSI: Ambleside, having fallen head over heels for the hook-laden charms of its predecessor, Achtung Bono. By comparison Half Man Half Biscuit’s 2008 magnum opus just didn’t seem to have as much to offer in the way …
Not Forgotten: World Party – Bang!
Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Having served time in The Waterboys during their most consistently good period, Karl Wallinger realised that his musical ambitions would inevitably find themselves at loggerheads with Mike Scott’s own at some point in the future, so he had left that band …
Not Forgotten: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization
Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization is a cumbersome title, but then again Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization is a cumbersome album. Like its predecessor, it weighs in at over an hour, and struggles to contain the musical inventiveness of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. If you think …
Not Forgotten: Pixies – Surfer Rosa
It’s the way Dave Lovering’s drums crash in. Then there’s that Kim Deal bass line that walks in just the wrong side of sexy, and the riff. My word, that riff. And the incessant rhythm guitar that just doesn’t stop. The Black Francis’s vocals come in delivering those weird lyrics. And the whole thing sounds …
Not Forgotten: Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Sometimes an album leaps out at me from an act’s discography and captures ‘the moment’ for me. The Seldom Seen Kid was that album through the first few months of 2009. It’s not like Elbow reinvented their sound to appeal to a wider audience, they had just honed their craft to a point where their …
A buyers’ guide to The Waterboys 1981-1990
The Waterboys are an act that for too long have laboured with being associated with just one song and one album, at least by the majority of people outside their fan base. What makes it even more baffling is the fact that that song is not even on that album. It’s probably fair to say …
Not Forgotten: World Party – Egyptology
Life can be strange. 1993’s Bang had flagged up World Party as a band to watch for the rest of the decade. An intelligent retro-pop act, with a frontman that was frequently capable of brilliance, and possessed the ability to stretch his music across genre boundaries, Karl Wallinger and his bandmates should have been held …
Not Forgotten: Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
When reviewing In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, a term like ‘influential’ just doesn’t seem to cover it. Neutral Milk Hotel’s final full album (their second or third, depending on whether you include the obscure Hype City Soundtrack), the influence of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has seemingly seeped through independent / alternative guitar …
A buyers’ guide to Flight of the Conchords
I can’t remember the first I became aware of Flight of the Conchords. I had certainly heard of them prior to my friend Mark recommending their TV series to me. Although Mark has always had a good idea of what music and television I would enjoy, it would be a few years until I fully …