Alt-Rock

Live Review: Kenny Hoopla – Manchester Academy 2, 12.07.22
Tonight saw Kenny Hoopla perform to a sold out crowd in Manchester as part of his rescheduled Survivors Guilt UK Tour. Anyone who has managed to catch Kenny live will know that his shows never disappoint – from the back flips to the crowd surfing, it is non stop from start to finish and his …

News: SICK JOY release debut album, ‘WE’RE ALL GONNA F***ING DIE’!
In tough times, music can be the way through. With an expertise in fuzzy riffs, melodic heaviness, high energy and sharp lyrics, Sick Joy are one of British rock’s most promising young bands. Today sees release of the roaring, fuzzy alt.rock explosion of their debut album, WE’RE ALL GONNA F***ING DIE. MORE ON SICK JOY Even Sick Joy’s start was a challenge …

Live Review: William DuVall – The Academy Greenroom, Dublin 25.04.2022
Words by Max Falvey. “This is a song that I wrote so that I could cry into my beer with my own song.” After going over two years without performing in front of a live audience, Alice In Chains’ frontman William Duvall took to The Green Room in Dublin’s Academy last night to (finally) kick …

Track: Salvation Jayne blast out ‘A Mouthful Of Magnificent Spite’
Salvation Jayne have released their new single ‘A Mouthful of Magnificent Spite‘ which is also the title track from their forthcoming album scheduled for release on 18 February 2022. The 5-piece have produced a blast of alt-rock which is as brash as it is bold. This is a thunderous emotive denouncement of those who would …

Track: SUUNS share the spatial melody of new single ‘Clarity’: Album ‘The Witness’ out 3 September
With their new album The Witness out Sept 3rd via Joyful Noise Recordings, Montreal trio SUUNS – Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, and Liam O’Neill – are sharing their new single Clarity, which follows on from previous tracks C-Thru and Witness Protection. The band also are set to play UK shows in London, Glasgow and Manchester …

Album Review: Wolf Alice deliver a pared back, emotive triumph on new album ‘Blue Weekend’
Wolf Alice excel at making songs that feel like a flickering light to be seen by. They have a gift for conveying cathartic musical tales of love and disillusionment- largely the product of singer Ellie Rowsell’s confessional lyricism and evocative vocals. On new album Blue Weekend we can hear not only Rowsell’s evolution as a …

ALBUM REVIEW: Tamar Aphek – ‘All Bets Are Off’: superb opening salvo from Tel Aviv power trio
Tamar Aphek takes the power trio thing and moves it forward into new psych-blues-rock territories with elegance and so much fire. She also might just be the best new noisy guitar stylist since Joey Santiago and John Dwyer. She’s potent and has a voice of real elegance, and sonic firepower, and tunes, and the future is very, very bloody bright indeed

PREMIERE: Mute Swan – ‘Sedative Sun’: dazzling Tucson shoegaze tees up for their new album
THINK Arizona, think big, big skies; and maybe we just need to amend that a little, what with Citrus Clouds carving out an impressive shoegaze aesthetic over in Phoenix, and Mute Swan a hundred-odd clicks south-east down the Arizona Sun Corridor in Tucson also wielding massive, FX-laden six strings with potency – the state is …

TRACK: Neighbourhood Watch – ‘Focus Up’: Toronto quintet telling indie-rock tales of growing up
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH are a young five-piece outta Toronto with a really simple mission: they love making music about growing up. Clear, concise and ready in your ‘hood with melody and storytelling. Singer-guitarist Tristan Surman – who’s joined in the Neigbourhood Watch, keeping an eye on your endz, by pianist Tyler Moretti, bassist Thom Elgie, lead …

SEE: Tamar Aphek – ‘Russian Winter’: power trio scorcher will thaw your January
SHE’S pretty much already Tel Aviv’s favourite guitar-wielding daughter, Tamar Aphek; and if you like your power trios full of flame and energy and neo-psych atmospheres akin to the Jimi Hendrix Experience upon arrival in London – make no mistake, Tamar, bassist Uri Ketner and drummer Yuval Garin are hellish tight – then they will …