Music
Psych Insight: Cult of Dom Keller, Live at Detestival, Sheffield, 19/04/14.
It is not very often that I get to see bands a couple of times in short succession, I’d rather see as many as possible rather than a few many times. So it was interesting for me to see Cult of Dom Keller (CODK) at Sheffield’s Detestival Festival so quickly after having seen them in …
Album Review: Eels – The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
Released just over twelve months after the well-received Wonderful, Glorious, Eels’ latest offering has one of those album titles that gives fair-warning about what exactly to expect from its content. E has straight out said that The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett is an album about his own failures in relationships, so anyone expecting …
News: Blackberry Smoke announce October UK Tour
It should be no surprise that Atlanta, Georgia rockers Blackberry Smoke are out on the road, on average they spend most of their time touring, on average playing in excess of 200 dates per year. That hard work is reaping its rewards with their debut UK album ‘The Wippoorwill’ gaining plaudits just about everywhere and …
New Video: The Horrors “So Now You Know”
I am an unabashed fan of The Horrors and already enthusiastically reviewed the first release off their much anticipated fourth album “Luminous”, the seven minute long epic “I See You“. The Horrors have now released a new video for another song off the new album, called “So Now You Know”, a visual epic filmed in a deserted …
Live: Ben Watt/Bernard Butler. The Greystones, Sheffield 15.04.14, plus Gallery
A full three decades after the release of his first, and until now, only solo record, North Marine Drive, it’s been something of a renaissance of late for Ben Watt, better known as a DJ, producer, and, of course, the “other one” from Everything But The Girl.Following on from the critical acclaim heaped upon his …
DVD Review: Wrinkles
Based on the award-winning comic by Paco Roca, Wrinkles is a very unique kind of European animated film. It reminds me in tone and structure of the wonderful When the Wind Blows, and left me feeling equally melancholy. The Spanish film is possibly the closest a Western animation has come to capturing the magic and …
Listen: Stillwave ‘Modes of Transport’
You can get bogged down with trying label stuff. But it can also go the other way. Post-punk, new wave, whatever you want to call it, has been a term applied to an ever increasing number of bands, effectively broadening the genre to a point that it becomes almost meaningless (just check out the list …
Not Forgotten – The Divine Comedy – Fin de Siècle
Neil Hannon (the man who effectively is The Divine Comedy), cut a unique dash through the British music in the mid 90s, as his almost imperceptible rise to near-fame ran parallel to the Brit-pop movement, meant that he sometimes got lumped in with the unwashed masses. Foppish, louche and possessing a more sophisticated musical mind …
Live: Bang Bang Romeo – The Leadmill – 19/04/14
When I first encountered Bang Bang Romeo, I had no expectations of them, as I was supposed to be reviewing another band. That night they absolutely blew me away and I’ve been relentlessly enthusiastic about them and their stunning We Were Born EP ever since. A few weeks later and I’m back in The Leadmill …
See: Five Finger Death Punch release video for “House of the Rising Sun”, plus US dates
Let’s get this straight from the start, firstly – yes it is. Secondly – it is nothing like any version you’ve (probably) ever heard. The folk song, famously a hit for The Animals in 1964, but recorded before that by the likes of Josh White and Leadbelly, is given a complete reworking, moved into …