Indie
Meet: The Kitchens of Distinction, and news of their new album
Sometimes you have your head turned. By money, by people you find attractive, by a job offer. For me it was much more simplistic. It was by records. So when I saw something made by the impossibly named Kitchens of Distinction (named, unsurprisingly I suppose on thinking about it) after a shop the band drove …
Carnabells – The Ramshackle Rattle EP
Until I met my wife, I’d never heard of skiffle. To me, Lonnie Donegan was a weird name that cropped up with disconcerting regularity in the Mojo crossword. I first heard “Rock Island Line” when her Uncle Joe unleashed it on stage at a dinner dance. From there it has been a slow introduction to …
Not Forgotten: XTC – Nonsuch
In the latter half of the 80s the combined successes of Skylarking and Oranges & Lemons had saved XTC and they had re-established themselves as mature and intelligent pop-rockers that could appeal to all ages. The conceptual grandeur of Skylarking had initially been a commercial failure, but a freak hit on American College Radio with …
Track: Blood Sport release new track Palomar, plus album news
When I came to Sheffield, I got told that people had said it was the largest village in the country. This (for those that don’t know) is one of the biggest cities in the country. Rubbish I thought on arriving here, but since then I have found it to be one of my favourite cities …
New Music: MT Warning – Youth Bird
And so we propel towards the end of the Summer. Here in the north of England, it’s especially important to try and grab any chance we can to sit in the Sun, as we don’t get that many of them. It’s those rare times that we can relax and let the mind wander, usually (for …
Album Review: Franz Ferdinand-Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
How many of you like me were enamored with Franz Ferdinand back in 2004? It’s hard to describe, but something about that debut album lit a post-punk fuse in me. I’d just begun listening to Gang of Four and had dabbled in The Jam as well. These cats were just the right modern take on …
See: Editors reveal new video for Formaldehyde, plus November tour news
Sometimes, as much as I love music, the way things look is the thing that makes them beautiful. When I was at University I had a poster of (this might seem a little sad) Edvard Munch‘s The Scream. To me it was scary and comical and cool and meaningful and, well, just brilliant. He himself …
Meet: We chat with The Magic Numbers, with new album news
You know sometimes you get this sort of blinkered memory of something, or somewhere. Like when I first went to Whitby and I thought it was this fantastic place where I had literally had the food of the gods (well, the best fish and chips ever), but every other time I’ve been I’ve so looked …
New Music: Seawaves – Born To Fly
I’ve just come back off holiday. I went to the little Channel Island of Alderney. It’s this small bit of rock, where everything happens, well, whenever. I sort of love the Island and its charms, but one of the thing i don’t like, even a little bit, is getting there. Firstly, I had to fly …
ALBUM REVIEW: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE – YES, IT’S TRUE
Ten years ago I got hugely into what was being referred to as the ‘Cosmic Americana’ scene, a loose sub-category of American alt-rock that had given us such instant classics as Deserter’s Songs, The Soft Bulletin and The Sophtware Slump. An act I had initially lumped in with the likes of Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips …