Music
Album Review: DZ Deathrays – Positive Rising: Part 1
It would appear some of my fondest memories of Auckland (New Zealand, Aotearoa) have managed to follow me to Backseat Mafia. I recall there was a buzz about a band from over the ditch (Australia. Just Australia) about a noisy three-piece who were of the Blood Brothers ilk. A little bit dance-punk, a touch of …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – Under Wraps
The mid 80s were a fascinating and fractious time for what would become known as classic rock. The two giant super bands of the 70s were no longer with us, with Pink Floyd having imploded in acrimony around Roger Waters’ ever more despotic tendencies, and Led Zeppelin coming to an end following the sad death …
Say Psych: Live Review: Fuzz Club Eindhoven Day 1; Friday 23.08.2019
Following the success of last year’s event, the news that a second Fuzz Club Eindhoven festival would take place this year was greeted with great fanfare. As the line-up has trickled out, excitement has built and now the day is finally here expectations are high. Huge queues are outside the Effenaar as the doors open …
Album Review: Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie
How many subsequent releases after hiatus subjugate the lineage of a band? Is it one? Two? Three? Should they even reform and create new material anyway? What if it’s bad? Does it then dim the historical importance of a back catalogue? These are questions some Pixies fans, including myself, have asked since the release of …
Interview: Mark Gardener (Ride)
The legendary Ride are back in Australia and New Zealand after more than a twenty-five year gap as well as a long hiatus in the intervening time. During this time, Andy Bell joined label mates Oasis on bass while other members pursued their own projects. Ride reformed in 2014, playing live across Europe and North …
Album Review: Cassels – The Perfect Ending
Cassels are woke. That’s at least what the media surrounding their new album, The Perfect Ending, centres on. Climate change, victim-blaming, the far-right, millenial liberalism, sexual assault. These are all lightning-rod topics in today’s climate and can either be addressed with a certain nuance, an unbridled rage or, more worryingly, a clumsy heavy-handedness. Thankfully, it’s …
Classic Album: Iron Maiden – Powerslave
Few acts in the long and often fractured history of Heavy Metal have been able to achieve the sustained hot-streak that Iron Maiden managed to pull off during the 80s. From 1980 to 1988, Iron Maiden released seven studio albums, as well as a live double, that still stand up to scrutiny today. Thanks to …
Not Forgotten: The Cult – Dreamtime
By early 1983 Bradford’s goth rockers Southern Death Cult had called it a day, having released a solitary single. An album consisting of said single, as well as a bunch of radio sessions and live recordings was released after their split, however by that time frontman Ian Astbury had already started to lay the foundations …
Album Review: Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes
So, if you’re going into this, you need to prepare yourselves. You need to brace yourselves for the rawness, the thunder, the desperation, the tenderness, the rage, the love, the abyss, the hope. Don’t expect to be comfortable when you listen to this. Furman gives us one break – the remarkable lovesong ‘I wanna be …
Wayne Hussey UK Tour
Perhaps best known as the frontman of totemic goth rock outfit The Mission, Wayne will be embarking on an extensive UK tour in support of his autobiography: ’Salad Daze’, released earlier this year. The 16 date run will see Wayne spinning yarns of a legendary life in rock’n’roll, plus performing many of the unforgettable tunes that …