Indie
Not Forgotten: Billy Bragg – Don’t Try This at Home
Billy Bragg’s first full album since Workers Playtime, an album which saw him change his style to something a little more mainstream than clattering his battered Telecaster and delivering his love them / hate them vocals (personally I’ve always been charmed by his rampantly untutored vocal stylings) with assistance from a few select collaborators (step …
New Music: Dressmaker – Glass
Emerging from the London fog in 2013, Dressmaker have built up quite a reputation as a must see live act. Fearsomely loud, unashamedly menacing, their mix of rough cut, raw nerve guitars over waves of delicious feedback is a heady cocktail that will have you wrestling your comparisons between Joy Division, Jesus & Mary Chain, …
Track: Lyke Giants – Let Up
Tasmanian indie-shoegazers Lyke Gia return following the release of their debut album, with a new single, Let Up, out on August 4th. The band has been on an upward curve, gaining blog love from around the world whilst back home performing at The Falls Festival and supporting bands such as British India and Faker. The …
Album Review: A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Sea When Absent
I can’t remember the first time I heard A Sunny Day In Glasgow, but I do remember how I felt. I felt as if I’d found this wonderful musical gift. Part dream pop, part shoegaze, and yet still totally modern. They were taking the building blocks of those late-80s noise genres and turning into something …
Premiere: Will Joseph Cook releases video for “July”
Without trying to be stalkers of Will Joseph Cook, we are becoming slightly obsessed with the Tunbridge Wells singer-songwriter, as so its rather a treat for us here at Backseat Mafia to premiere (a slightly posh word for doing nothing more than previewing it, before it goes live on his own media, but you know, …
New Music: Boz Boorer “Girl From Atlanta” (featuring Eddie Argos)
Out of a long tradition of slightly tongue-in-cheek, somewhat naive, cockney-geezer ditties that I associate with ‘classics’ like Bill Wyman’s “Je Suis Un Rock Star”, Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World” and even Blur’s “Parklife” comes Morrissey’s current favourite guitarist and co-songwriter Boz Boorman with “Girl from Atlanta”. The major difference is, of course, is that …
Track: Screaming Maldini release new single, ‘Solar System’
As June draws to a close Screaming Maldini return once more to bring another offering to our ears and to our hearts. After knowing this band for so long I’m rarely surprised by their endeavours but I’m always impressed; Screaming Maldini strive to create unique and brilliant pop music that everyone can enjoy and it’s …
A Buyers Guide to XTC
For reasons I’ve never been able to adequately explain, the majority of my favourite musicians have never achieved the level of success that their talent deserved, instead achieving artistic integrity while other, lesser talents, enjoyed far bigger commercial success and radio play. Super Furry Animals, Eels, Cud, are all bands that deserved to be much …
Not Forgotten: Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born Ten Years Later
I don’t think there’s a more divisive Wilco record than A Ghost Is Born(maybe Wilco(The Album)). It was a record filled with claustrophobic silence, whispered musical intentions, and the sound of numbed pain. It was the record where people asked “What’s going on with Jeff Tweedy’s voice?” Well I asked it, anyways. It felt both pared down …
Track: Menace Beach – Tennis Court
It took what on the face of it seemed like a rash move to Leeds made by Ryan Needham and Liza Violet, that kicked things off for Menace Beach. They teamed up with MJ from Hookworms (doesn’t everyone in Leeds these days) a cast of friends including Nestor Matthews (drums) and Natt Spalding on Bass. …