Music
See: Savages announce tour details
Savages. You had us with your darkly brilliant debut album. All that post-punk Magazine and Gang of Four type stuff, dragged into the modern, and given that feminine touch. Somehow it seemed somewhat cooler, somewhat darker that their predecessors. Certainly it got us and a lot of other observers excited about it. Savages themselves formed …
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 …
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 …
Album Review: White Hills-So You Are…So You’ll Be
White Hills are one of those bands that are pretty much fearless. They’ve run the gamut on their records over the years from Sabbath gut busters to spaced-out Hawkwind to Tangerine Dream-esque ambient interludes. And the crazy thing is that they can pull them all off quite well. Their 2010 double album H-p1 seems to have …
Album Review: Justin Currie – Lower Reaches
It’s an inevitable result of the relentless passage of time that our social circles change as we grow older. As jobs evolve into careers and relationships develop into families, your life shuffles into a new shape and you inevitably lose touch with some of the people that, in your younger days, you felt would always …
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 …
Remembering: Archie Shepp interview, 40 Years on from Attica Blues
Let’s get the background out of the way first. Archie Shepp is a jazz legend. Maybe not one of the big names of jazz, but a browse of the mans discography shows this guy could, and did, mix it with the very best. Born in 1937, his early collaborations included work with Don Cherry, legendary …
Track: Son of Dave – new single and kickstarter campaign
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable, so said Janis Joplin, before she went ahead and gave her audiences the blues by administering a reportedly strong batch of heroin into her own veins and promptly passing away. But Blues audiences have never really seen anything like Benjamin Darvill, a.k.a. Son of Dave. Although he’s …
Meet: Ranking Roger interview and The Beat’s ‘Wha’ppen reissue’
Following on from the critically acclaimed ‘I Just Can’t Stop It’ released via Demon Records in April earlier this year, Demon Records have released The Beat’s ‘Wha’ppen?’. Recorded from the original cassette tapes, it will be strictly limited to 500 copies and comes with the download card that includes bonus tracks. The Beat’s second album …