Music
A beginners’ guide to The Beatles
For me there is one genuine great body of creative work from the 20th Century which is beyond criticism. It towers above the collected work of artists like Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The collected writings of JRR Tolkien finds itself overshadowed by comparison. The original trio of films in the Star Wars franchise looks …
Reissue: George Jones – Cold Hard Truth/Live With The Possum
Even people who hate country have heard of Dolly or Kenny, but ironically the late, great George Jones outsold the pair of them despite hardly anyone on this side of the pond having heard of him. Cold Hard Truth is late period Jones recorded after years of drunken hellraising that put him in the same …
Track: Flowers – Everybody’s Dying to Meet You
Flowers return with their second album ‘Everybody’s Dying To Meet You’ and as one person who falls in love easily, I’m not ashamed to say I’m in love with this LP. If you spent your youth shoe gazing in the indie clubs on a Friday night to Cocteau Twins and Galaxie 500 this will be up your …
Meet: The Scaffold’s Mike McCartney on the reissue of the McGough & McGear album
Most novelty number ones are rubbish but a notable exception to this rule is The Scaffold’s flower power classic Lily The Pink which still raises a happy smile five decades on. The Scaffold’s nucleus of comedian John Gorman, poet Roger McGough and songwriter Mike McGear emerged from the fertile early 1960s Liverpool theatre scene before …
Live: Bowling For Soup, Leeds O2 Academy, 3.2.16
‘Hey, we’re Bowling For Soup, the band you can wave at!’ As the time gets to about February, the excitement of Christmas has subsided somewhat and spring is just around the corner- yet winter still seems to be going on forever. So what better to take your mind off those winter blues, than spending the …
Track: Alfred Hall – Safe and Sound
Norwegian duo Alfred Hall might be a new name to some of us here in the UK, but the that’ll more than likely change very soon with the release of their Safe & Sound EP on March 25th, the first time their music has come out here. The pair, engineering undergrad Hans Thomas, and medical …
Track: Dear Tatiana – Staycaytion
Orlando, Florida quartet Dear Tatiana mix things up with their rhymes and raps working in tandem with their pop-punk attitude. With their new single Staycation, they’ve mixed up some warm, summery synths, with a good helping of RnB infused pop to make something that floats into your senses. One of the quartet, Thayne explains the …
Track: Witching Waves – Pitiless
Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Crystal Cafe’, out on February 26th via HHBTM Records (US)/Soft Power (UK), London trio Witching Waves have released a second single, Pitiless – aka Emma Wigham, Mark Jasper, and Ed Shellard. Opening with this twisting guitar line, it soon unfurls into this driving indie rock gem, mixing up elements of …
Album Review: The Callas – Half Kiss Half Pain
Brothers Lakis and Aris lonas started The Callas in Athens, Greece back in 2005. Both filmmakers and musicians, the brothers lonas took a more dissonant and theatrical approach to their music by taking inspiration from both Sonic Youth and The Fall. The Callas, who also feature Chrysanthi Tsoukala (guitar, vocals) and Marilena Petridou (Drums) have recently …
Album Review: Field Music – Commontime
Sometime in the gloriously messed up late 80s I remember a friend playing me the ’25 ‘O Clock’ mini-album by ‘The Dukes of Stratosphear’, a blast of fabulous neo-psychedelia, that even in our stoned state, a few tracks in, we collectively began to realise was XTC getting their rocks off under an alter-ego. Their follow-up …