Indie
Album Review: Beirut – No No No
At its best ‘No No No’ is cheerful, breezy, spirit-lifting. But that same lightness is also what holds it back from being anything more than a solid, ultimately not-very-remarkable listen. There’s plenty here that is nice, and pleasant, and I can imagine looking out of a bay window onto autumnal parkland enjoying this record as …
Not Forgotten: Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump
A few days ago, a section of social media broke. There was no huge public outcry, and certainly, the vast percentage of users barely noticed and those that did notice, simply didn’t care. For those of us among that smaller percentage, it was important. It was big. Jason Lytle mentioned he was working on a …
See: The Crookes – Before The Night Falls
It’s been a quiet year for The Crookes. February saw the departure of their drummer Russell Bates but the boys were back and recording their 4th studio album before we’d seen too many April showers. It wasn’t until July when the band returned to live shows – a warm-up gig in sunny Scunthorpe before their big Tramlines show …
EP: Christa Vi – Makeshift Happiness
Dropping some Indie/Electronica this September is Christa Vi, a Australian/German singer and songwriter. With previous collaborations with artists such as Box of Wolves from Canada (Electronic Rumors) and Australian songwriter Ben Salter (ABC Music) we can expect a well crafted release with added twists on the remixes. The title track is co-produced by Andrew McDonnell who has worked …
Not Forgotten: The Waterboys – This Is the Sea
Following a number of false starts, A Pagan Place had finally established The Waterboys as not only an act of great promise, and had come tantalisingly close to establishing them as one of the key acts of the decade and masters of the sort of epic and emotional Celtic rock that was poised to fill …
Premiere: Presents for Sally – Wishawaytoday
Taken from Colours & Changes, the second album from Bristol indie/shoegazers Lresents for Sally, we’re delighted to premiere the video for Wishawaytoday here on Backseat Mafia. The track opens with this jangly, angst ridden guitar and soon unfurls into this shoegazey slice of glorious pop music, propelled by this thundering bass and these echoey, obscured …
See: Everything Everything release video for Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread
Taken from the acclaimed ‘Get To Heaven’ album by Manchester quartet Everything Everything comes a new single, the third taken from it, in the shape of Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread. Produced by singer Jonathan Higgs, he says about the new video the band have released to accompany it “The song talks about …
Album Review: Foals – What Went Down
The pressure is on for Oxford-based art rockers Foals. With such a flawless back catalogue of albums, can their forth and latest effort stick to the same high standards of its predecessors? When their debut ‘Antidotes’ was released in 2008, it was a completely new sound to anything around at the time. It inspired a …
Album Review: Mammoth Penguins – Hide and Seek
Cards on the table before we even start this review. I love Emma Kupa. Well, her songwriting at least. It was lucky that her six song mini album Home Cinema lifted me from my depressive slumber following the split of Standard Fare, one of,if not the first, group ever to appear on Backseat Mafia. A …
Meet: The Telescopes
In the many turbulent winters that enveloped our delicate island since the formation of The Telescopes in 1987, Stephen Lawrie and Co. have sought to plant subversive little seeds into the tortured soil of our cultural landscape. Each seed could be differentiated from its sisters by her shape, weight and age, as well as by …