Music
Say Psych: Album Review, Sunshower by Psychic Heat
Psychic Heat are a band who are new to me. A four piece from Lawrence, Kansas (USA); they are, with apologies, from a place that I’ve never heard of before either. Mapping the band’s music, however, takes me into more familiar territory. According to the band themselves they “draw…inspiration from the British neo-psych pop scene …
Not Forgotten: Frank Black & The Catholics – Dog in the Sand
The relationship between musician and listener is not always easy. Occasionally the misunderstandings are inevitable and sometimes compromises need to be made. However with the appropriate patience and open hearts and minds, you can reach a level of mutual understanding that you had not previously considered to be possible. There are times when your appreciation …
Album Review: The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect
Alex Turner and Miles Kane are back as the Last Shadow Puppets, still playing at the Riviera bad-boys like Morecambe & Wise at their cinematic best. As on their debut album, they skid on Shirley Bassey strings arrangements like dogshit in a badly-lit car park, and merge Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ histrionics with 50s pizzazz, yet still …
SEE: Lisbon announce 2016 spring headline tour dates
Whitley Bay’s poster boys, Lisbon, announce a spring headline tour across the UK beginning in May in Leeds. The boys (Matty, Gaz, Joe and Alex) have gone from strength to strength across the last few months, receiving high profile plays on Radio 1 and getting audiences across the UK bouncing along to their vibrant slice …
Say Psych: Album Review, Stellar Prophecy by Black Rainbows
I have only recently come across Italian three-piece Black Rainbows. The stoner rock band’s ‘Hawkdope’ album from last year was one that grabbed me immediately when I first heard it a month or so ago. So when I found out that the band had a new impending release I was all over it like a …
Not Forgotten: Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
Along with Soft Machine, Caravan are perhaps the definitive Canterbury Scene progressive rock act. Less jazzy than their more famous neighbours, Caravan weren’t as heavy handed as their more critically lauded peers, but what they did have was a much firmer grasp of pop dynamics and nowhere was this more obvious than their 1971 album, …
Say Psych: Album Review, Mirror by GNOD
Darkness Numbness Anger Hopelessness Emptiness Despair All words to describe how many of us have felt since May 7th 2015 as the forces of capitalism got a huge nose full of ‘fuck you’ powder as our communities and services are dismantled to make way for a frenzy of corporate greed. Meanwhile those in charge …
See: Slow Riot release Trophy Wife video + Gig news
Slow Riot follow up their very well recieved EP ‘Cathedral’ with another cut of classic sounding post-punk. “Trophy Wife” see’s the band from Limerick, a town more notorious for knife play than music (although it did give us The Cranberries ), continue to drive along the new wave style way, twisting the basics laid down …
Album Review: Gwen Stefani – This Is What The Truth Feels Like
Gwen Stefani has always been one of our cooler and kookier pop stars. Her strange fashions, and love for sampling musicals to make quirky but credible hits have always helped her to stand out from the crowd. She is a truly unique artist in her own right. Her long career as front woman of No …
Album Review: White Denim – Stiff
I’m not sure when it first occurred to me, but I’ve now spent many years coming to terms with the fact that I have a problem with rock and roll. Or at least rock and roll in the context of the phrase ‘That’s so rock and roll!’. You see, when used in that context, it …