Indie
Track: Mercury Rev – The Queen of Swans
We’ve been waiting a long time for a new Mercury Rev album – since 2008’s Snowflake Midnight – and, if first single and album opener The Queen Of Swans is anything to go by, The Light In You will have been worth the wait when it is released on 18 September. This is a sparkling …
Album Review: Labasheeda – Changing Lights
Dutch three piece Labasheeda, aka Saskia van der Giessen (vocals, guitar, violin) Arne Wolfswinkel (guitar) and Aletta Verwoerd (drums) make this sort of experimental, unsettling music, that is often mind boggling with its constant changes of direction, often mid song. Over the years they’ve released a handful of increasingly well received records. Their latest, Changing …
Premiere: The Floodgates – Broken Kite
Tumbridge Wells three piece The Floodgates began as a folk duo, before graduating (and bear in mind that they’re still all in their teenage years) into a fully fledged indie / alt band. The trio, Martin Stenning, Alex Wane and Tim Fullbrook have today allowed us to premiere their new single Broken Kite right here …
Premiere: Mush – Machine Envy
Leeds four piece Mush have been on an upward trajectory recently, becoming something of a house band at Brudenell Social Club, and supporting the likes of Action Beat and Ringo Deathstarr. We’re very pleased to be able to premiere there rather wonderful new track, Machine Envy, right here on Backseat Mafia. It’s slow moving fare, …
Track: Frog Eyes – Joe with the Jam
It’s been almost two years, but Carey Mercers project Frog Eyes are back with a new album, Pickpocket’s Locket, which drops on August 28th via Paper Bag Records. Despite featuring contributions from Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake), Jesse Zubot, John Paton and Paul Rigby, Mercer wrote the album on his acoustic guitar, …
Track: Wild Ones – Show Me islands
We’re not quite used to heat waves here in the north of England, so when we get one, like today (the hottest July day on record, apparently) we get all giddy, kicking back in the garden and drinking beer. I’m sat between work and work, in a supermarket cafe (with no air conditioning) so I’m …
News: Thurston Moore to perform Pussy Riot’s Zona.Media event
Thurston Moore has announced that he will be headlining a guerrilla show, in support of Pussy Riot, at London’s Village Underground tonight. Moore is billed to appear along with his band, which includes among its ranks My Bloody Valentine’s former bass player, Debbie Googe. Explaining his support for the Pussy Riot cause, Moore stated that: …
Premiere: Geno Carrapetta – The Guru
We love the off kilter, psych infused Pop of Geno Carrapetta, and we’ve premiered things of his before, so when the opportunity to do so again came up, we jumped all over it. The Guru is taken from the London based Australian’s forthcoming album The Lost Wave, due out on Piscean Records later in the …
Not Forgotten – Billy Bragg – Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
Life’s a Riot With Spy vs. Spy and Brewing Up With Billy Bragg had found Billy Bragg marking out a sonic territory that was a million miles away from the synthetic sounds and plastic production methods that so much 80s music had been blighted with. Having already established his twin songwriting themes of social commentary …
See: Sweet Baboo reveals new video for Got to Hang on to you
Ahead of the release of his fifth album, The Boombox Ballads, out on August 14th through Moshi Moshi, Sweet Baboo aka Stephen Black has released a video for his latest single, Got to hang on to you, which comes out the same day as his album. Black describes Got to hang on to you as …