Indie
Live Review: The Staves – The Roundhouse 9.11.15
School night out. Early start in the bar of the Roundhouse. Camden Brewery beer. Hot dogs and ale over the road at Joe’s. More beer back in the venue. Beautiful music from the Staveley-Taylors. Back into the bar for more beer. Urgh. And an über taxi home. Dirt. I think I’ve just about recovered and …
Premiere: SPC ECO – Let It Be Always
Here at backseat mafia, were very proud to be able to premiere the new video from SPC ECO, Let It Be Always. As some of you (no doubt the hipsters)may know if that the band (pronounced Space Echo) is the project of former Curve member Dean Garcia, alongside singer Eve Berlin. The track is floating, …
Premiere: Antlered Aunt Lord reveals video for Abandoned Car
Antlered Aunt Lord is the project of Jesse Stannard, a singer songwriter who’s spent the last ten years in Athens, Georgia, making music on his own terms and his own agenda. Following whatever path he feels like (his ramshackle shows are legendary in Athens) HHBTM are putting out his first official release, Abandoned Car. In …
Track: High Tyde – Glow, plus Headline tour dates
Young indie scamps High Tyde are continuing their quest to become the hottest property in the whole (indie) world right now, with the release of the title track to their forthcoming EP, Glow. Their previous single Do What You Want, found favour with the likes of Huw Stephens, who premiered it on his Radio 1 …
Album Review: Martin Courtney : Many Moons
There’s something about Martin Courtney’s voice that just gets me. He has one of those voices that no matter what he’s singing he always just sounds like him. There’s no grandiose accenting or histrionics when he sings songs like “It’s Real” or “Talking Backwards” with his main gig Real Estate. You get the impression when …
See: The Starkins reveal new video for Wasted
Sheffield quartet The Starkins are regulars on the pages of Backseat Mafia already, and quite rightly so, with their sparkling, swaggering indie rock. We loved their last single Papercuts, along with a whole host of important sounding people and websites, and now they’re back with a new single, Wasted. It opens with this almost eerie …
Live Review: Fatherson and Prides at Leadmill, Sheffield, 7th November 2015
Synth-pop trio Prides performed at the Leadmill, Sheffield, on 7th November, with support from their Scottish pals Fatherson. Although restricted to the smaller room of the venue, both bands stood upon its stage with confidence as they played to a receptive crowd who sang every word back to them with a fierce passion. From the very first …
Album Review: They Might Be Giants – Why?
Music for children is often an awkward art to master. Obviously you want something tuneful and memorable, but you also want to avoid adult themes. Another thing you want to avoid is the music itself being ‘childish’, otherwise it will inevitably grate on the nerves of the parents and therefore only get played under duress. …
Track: Tuff Love – Carbon
Ahead of the Glasgow duos EP ‘Dregs’, out tomorrow (6th November), Tuff Love have shared what could be their most refined track to dates with Carbon. The band, probably not coincidentally, have a handful of live dates starting tonight at Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavik and taking in The Harley here in Sheffield and Dalston Victorian …
Feature: The UK Free Festival Scene, 1986 – 1992
These days there is a plethora of festivals, from huge expensive ones (Glastonbury) to smaller more affordable ones (Green Man, Wicker Man), but I don’t know of many (if any) free festivals. The term itself conjures up images of halcyon days back in the sixties, of hippies sat in circles, nudity and free love. But …