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Colour Me Wednesday – I Thought It Was Morning
Have you seen, have you heard ? The pathetic yet terrible things that are uttered every day by misery-inducing numbers of boys and men ? The awful, sickening invocations and wishings-upon of rape and assault ? The bomb-threats resulting from a simple yet symbolic desire for equality on the banal £10 note ? The slut-shaming …
New Music: Daniel James – A Lonely Man
Northern-Irish singer-songwriter Daniel James has a new song out called “A Lonely Man”. The 23-year-old, now living in London, has recently been a featured artist on Radio 1’s ‘Introducing’ show. Daniel tells us that this soulful track aims to intertwine two stories – a more commonplace, everyday tale of struggling with day-to-day life and carving …
Comic: Monsters of Rock by Sally-Anne Hickman
Some time ago I proudly announced to Jim that I was also going to write a bit about comics and graphic novels. Since then I have done absolutely nothing on either. With the approaching promise of a family holiday, however, I took a trip to London’s two greatest comics stores to see what was on …
New Music: CatBearTree – Let’s Share Hearts
CatBearTree are a south-London threepiece made up of Zoe Konez (guitar), Claudia Mansaray (bass) and Sarah Smith (drums) who released their debut EP on Friday 2nd August, launching it through a multi-act bill at the Finsbury in Manor House, North London, up near my neck of the woods. They’ve been together since 2011, practising and perfecting …
From an old record box: Ox – dust bowl revival
What seems a very long time ago I went along to an acoustic spot in Cambridge to catch up with a friend (apologies to both Mark Day and Jon Wright, given that I can’t remember which of the two it was. Perhaps I can recoup some credit by saying I wish they had both been …
From an old record box: Cud – Robinson Crusoe
This was an early glory of my burgeoning (or so I thought) record collection and indie cred. They’d been in Peel’s Festive Fifty the year before (I looked that up this morning – back then I had no idea that Peel’s Festive Fifty existed let alone who Sonic Youth or The Fall were) with “Only …
From an old record box: Grant Lee Buffalo – Buffalondon Live
The early nineties: years of massive change in my listening habits and, really, a first proper awakening to music, fuelled by the powerful indie spirit of both UK and US alternative rock scenes. To be honest though, I probably wouldn’t have known as much about it if it hadn’t been for the huge ambitions of some of …
New Music: Heyward Howkins
No, I hadn’t heard of him either. But I think you should make the time and check out this deftly-arranged, warm pop-folk. Coming out of Philly, Heyward sings and plays guitar, backed by Severin Tucker on guitars, Charlie Hall on drums and Meg Morganelli on keyboards. They put a couple of tracks of their forthcoming second album, “Cut …
Wild Ones – Golden Twin
Love it ! Although this is beginning to disturb me. The hit ratio for music coming out of Portland, Oregon is ludicrous. I was just reading about the latest developments for Just Lions and saw that they had made it onto the PDX Pop Now ! compilation of local artists. So I figured that I …
Interview: Tift Merritt
“I’m gonna be Molotov !” (none of the images contained in this article were shot in my house…) It’s just as well that Tift Merritt came round for dinner. Worrying about the cooking stopped me being so nervous about talking to her. How did this come about ? Well, it’s a tale of jetlag, Oliver’s …