Indie
Album Review: Bunnygrunt – Vol. 4
Even the name has this sense of contradiction. The cutesy of the bunny, doing something rough, unexpected, with the grunt. And so it is with the band Bunnygrunt, who have spent the last forever ploughing this field between c86 indie pop and messier DIY punkish behaviour, sadly, much to the ignorance of the masses, but …
Not Forgotten: Big Star – #1 Record
Influential albums are something that I approach with trepidation, especially when they are by acts that are considered to be ‘cult’. As massively influential as albums like The Velvet Underground and Nico, Forever Changes and Horses have proved to be down the decades, they’ve never really made any connection with me. They’re great albums for …
Not Forgotten: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Behind the Music
Retro rock is a risky business. If you pay homage to your influences too closely you risk ending up in a creative cul-de-sac, where your fans don’t need to know what your new album is like, only if it is any good. In a worse case scenario you could do all you can to emulate …
Meet: Robert Hampson from legendary noise rockers Loop
Loop’s brutal riffs and brand of literate indie rock built them a cult following in the late ‘80s. Despite three successful albums and well received Peel sessions they imploded in 1991 before intense fan pressure encouraged them to reform in 2013. Ahead of a short string of dates Paul Clarke caught with the last founder …
Track: Dantevilles – It Might Be Tomorrow
There’s a crisp freshness to the new single from four piece Mancunian band, Dantevilles that recalls, for me, the effervescent and crisp guitar style of Johnny Marr mixed in with London’s Gene from the nineties. It’s a joyful fusion that is uplifting, intelligent and danceable. The single is available as a free download: This is …
Premiere: The Hadron Colliders reveal video for “Bellwether””
Sydney five-piece The Hadron Colliders today release their debut video for the single ‘Bellwether’, taken from their debut EP, ‘Measuring the Space between Us All’ which came out last year through their own Interstellar Records imprint. Its classic indie-pop, landing as it does with those gorgeous echoey twisting guitar lines and overriding sense of melancholy, …
Meet: Immingham fuzz merchants Sewer Rats
If you are to believe the hype, Sewer Rats were discovered lurking around a disused Grimsby fish market – yes, it’s grim up North, and it doesn’t get much grimmer than that. Hailed by their label, ‘Fluffer Records‘, as “the future of British rock ‘n’ roll” we needed to find out more. So we headed …
LP Review: Future – ‘Horizons’
Photograph by Arthur Weed Future were one of the many bands on ‘The Reverb Conspiracy Vol. 3‘ that captivated and left me wanting to hear more. Their track ‘Side Effects’, I described as, “an exquisite existential exercise in “sharp guitar riffs, cold melodies and fractured drums”” – as befits their “Cold Wave” self-classification. Thankfully the wait has …
Album Review: FFS – FFS
FFS are a supergroup in the purest sense. Two musical acts, seperated by a generation, combining to release an album which will hopefully combine the best bits of their respective sounds. It’s particularly interesting for me though, as I’ve had contrasting fan-relationships with the two acts. I liked Franz Ferdinand from the moment I heard …
Track: Paul Smith – Coney Island, Plus album news
As part of Maximo Park, Paul Smith was responsible for some of the biggest and most anthemic indie tracks of the noughties. Who out of us can say they haven’t been in a pub or club wailing along to ‘Apply some pressure’ or ‘Books from boxes’ at some point in their life? (Or is thst …