indie video
NEWS: The Peacers return with March set for Drag City; see ‘Irish Suit’
SIC ALPS were one of those bands which, with the amount of the talent in its ranks, could only burn bright and, like an unstable isotope, emit members to spin off into other musical pursuits, eventually to transform itself in a musical half-life. Tim Hellman went into the ranks of Thee Oh Sees; Mike Donovan …
ALBUM REVIEW: Tamar Aphek – ‘All Bets Are Off’: superb opening salvo from Tel Aviv power trio
Tamar Aphek takes the power trio thing and moves it forward into new psych-blues-rock territories with elegance and so much fire. She also might just be the best new noisy guitar stylist since Joey Santiago and John Dwyer. She’s potent and has a voice of real elegance, and sonic firepower, and tunes, and the future is very, very bloody bright indeed
SEE: The Wedding Present feat. Louise Wener – ‘We Should Be Together’
I MEAN, it’s just isn’t stopping, is it, this viral ice age that has a grip on our music scene; but at least musicians are out there creating, bringing us new aural joy to keep us going through the grind. And at the forefront of all that are indie legends and darlings in equal proportion, …
SEE: Ailsa Tully – ‘Parasite’: a bass-led tune with masked lyrical steel
HAILING from Welsh border country, Ailsa Tully is a singer-songwriter whose instrument of choice, the bass, brings a new slant to the crowded sphere of singer-songwriting. We fell pretty hard for her first single for Dalliance Recordings, “Drive”, back around Hallowe’en, noting that bass-led thing it possesses evoked “… a sweeter Breeders … her bass …
SEE: The Underground Youth – ‘For You Are The One’: dark romance and the swing of the violin
THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH, Manchester-forged and currently Berlin-based – and can’t you so hear that city bleeding through their sound? – have today released the video for the gravel-voiced, folksy swing of “For You Are The One”; untucked collars and suits, late-night card tables and spirits, cigarette smoke and dark romance in the veins. You can …
SEE: Tape Runs Out – ‘Hospital’: sheer indiepop brilliance on Austerity
AUSTERITY RECORDS down in Brighton is one of those grassroots labels with a nose for coming excellence – doing, to paraphrase the Creation compilation – god’s work. And boy oh boy, have they ever hit the ground running in 2021 with recent signings, Tape Runs Out. Tape Runs Out are a seven-piece who formed in …
SEE: Swansea Sound – ‘I Sold My Soul On eBay’: railing against the royalty rate with pop concept
INDIEPOP with the most resonant of political points for an industry beleaguered by the pandemic and one in which anyway, let’s be frank, artists are being screwed all ends by the dominant digital business ‘models’. Now that kind of indie is a wholly good thing. Step forward Swansea Sound: Amelia Fletcher of Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, …
SEE: Tele Novella – ‘Paper Crown’: The Great American Songbook remade in absolute sweetness
WITH their wholly seductive new album Merlynn Belle just around the corner now – eeep! exciting, it’ll be out on Kill Rock Stars on February 5th – Texas psych-European-retro-country duo Tele Novella have decided to lift the tasteful drapes on the record one final time and reveal “Paper Crown”. (And a very lovely long player it is …
SEE: Kalbells – ‘Purplepink’: cosmic psychedelic disco to the max
KALBELLS are one of those fun, creative side gigs, an adjunct to another band which, having animated with the spark of lifeforce, has gained a vitality all of its own. The band was conceived as a little place for Kalmia Traver to shake a solo thang, outside of the cute-as, lo-fi Brooklyn pop outfit Rubblebucket …
SEE: The Telescopes – ‘Strange Waves’: languid, dirty and all the good things
STEPHEN LAWRIE’S The Telescopes are old hands at this beautifully dirty, scuzzy psych-rock game – but don’t think for a second that means they’ve lost an ounce of potency, as illustrated by their forthcoming album Songs Of Love And Revolution, out at the beginning of February. You would be so wrong, so wrong. The band …