Indie
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – 90 Bisodol (Crimond)
Even after all these years I find there’s something very admirable about Half Man Half Biscuit and the way they have conducted themselves throughout the last quarter of a century. Remaining on the miniscule Probe Plus label since their debut release, they remain singularly anti-career in their approach. They do not tour, but play one …
Meet: Goodbye Van Occupanther – Tim Smith and life after Midlake
In the fall of 2007 I read an article in Spin Magazine about this band named Midlake. Denton, Texas boys with a penchant for dark, folksy songs that had the feel of both Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, and a Ray Brandbury story. It was a review of a live show and the journalist put them …
Hard at work: Altadore in the studio
The fact is that I am a pretty impatient man. It’s something that I struggle with on a daily basis and I can end up expressing it in various ways. Fortunately for you one of those has been repeatedly harassing David Katz of Altadore to give me updates on new music. Well, the band have …
Album Review: Yuck- Glow & Behold
Yuck dropped one of the most surprising and enjoyable chunks of music nostalgia in 2011 with their debut album. There was plenty to sit back and get reminiscent about on that record. My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Lush, and even bits of Pavement’s DNA were found all over that ratty, scrappy record. But the nice …
EP: Just Lions – Paper Cage
A heavy, heavy sound. Juddering with bass and muscle, particularly from the guitar. This isn’t the sweet, wishful Just Lions of “Monsters” from earlier this year. Perhaps it’s the basements and bedrooms in which they’ve been tracking their latest EP influencing what is a more claustrophobic sound on this new 3-track EP. Title track “Paper …
See: Weatherbird release new video for Johnny Strange
What’s that? Is that a guitar jangle I hear? Is that that “loud-quiet-loud” thingy I used to hear so much back in those magical times called “the early 90s”? There’s something quite comforting in the Fender jangle and power-smashed drums with a strong vocal presence that harkens back to a time when ‘alternative’ in music …
New Single: Amber – Heaven
It must be cos they’re young. And that I am beginning to get middle-aged. I mean, I was interviewing some people at work a week or so ago and in an unwary moment described the 22-year-old applicants as ‘kids’. Well Amber are that fresh-faced and we’ve already featured them three times. They put themselves about …
New Music: Blessa – Between Times
The American poet John Ashbery once said “Most reckless things are beautiful in some way, and recklessness is what makes experimental art beautiful, just as religions are beautiful because of the strong possibilities that they are founded on nothing.” Sometimes, the things people say, whether or not you agree with everything in it or not, …
Track: Pete Fij / Terry Bickers – Downsizing
I’ve tried to write songs, with no success at all. I can play music all right, but every time I try and write songs, they sound, at best, faintly embarrassing. So I have the utmost respect for those who carve a career in this most mysterious of skills (to me at least). It seems like …
See: Cold War Kids new video for Tuxedo
I’m not like Cold War Kids. I go days without noticing messages my wife has left me around the house, you know the sort of thing, Can you make sure there’s a babysitter for so and so, or we need more milk – that sort of thing. Or I see this new shop that’s opened …