Indie
Not Forgotten: Edwyn Collins – I’m Not Following You
Pity poor old Edwyn Collins. If the world were a just and fair place, we would be hailing Orange Juice as the crown princes of 80s indie, but instead it’s The Smiths that everyone remembers. Understandably peeved, Collins went off in a huff to record a string of micro-budget solo albums which failed to sell, …
Classic Album: R.E.M. – Document
Like many R.E.M. fans here in the UK, it wasn’t until the early 90s that I first became aware of them through hit singles like “Shiny Happy People”, “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts”. As a result of this, I am most familiar with the albums from their period signed to Warner Brothers Records. Sure, …
Live Review: Weirdwolf / The Claxbys / The Last Hearts, Scunthorpe Cafe Indie 14/7/2017
Spontaneity can be a risk, and a risk is something that bands – aside from those belonging to the highest, top-billing, festival-headlining echelons – aren’t always willing to take. But a triptych of Scunthorpe talent threw caution to the wind and announced an impromptu, DIY pop-up gig at Café Indie, with less than a week’s …
Meet: TULIPOMANIA
We recently discovered a band from Philadelphia, called Tulipomania. They already have quite a lot of music out there and plenty of award-winning videos to go with that, but the progressive art rock outfit will soon be releasing a new maxi-single. Following up their fourth album ‘This Gilded Age’, released last year, they are offering three …
Track: Deerhoof – Your Dystopic Creation Doesn’t Fear You (ft. Awkwafina)
There are few bands who can still bring such chaos after 20 years as Deerhoof, and they’ve shared the storming new track “Your Dystopian Creation Doesn’t Fear You”. Featuring call and response from Awkwafina, the band is introducing their new album Mountain Moves. Both immediately accessible, and yet unlike much else you’ll hear this year, …
Album Review : Grizzly Bear’s ‘Painted Ruins’
Grizzly Bear came out of the great “bands with ‘Bear’ in their name” musical gold rush of the early 2000s. Minus The Bear, Bear in Heaven, Bearnaked Ladies(okay, that’s not a real band.) Grizzly Bear always seemed to have loftier goals. From starting out as just a bedroom project of Ed Droste’s to becoming a …
Not Forgotten: Stereophonics – Word Gets Around
It is the late 90s, the Britpop bubble has just burst, New Labour has started to settle in to governing the UK and I find myself studying in Wigan, birth place of Stuart Maconie, Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls and George Formby. In terms of popular music, girl groups, boy bands and annoying dance-pop have started …
Not Forgotten: The Levellers – Mouth to Mouth
Mouth to Mouth was an almost totally unexpected return to form for the usually argumentative and finger-pointing Levellers, mainly due to the fact that they dialled down their argumentative nature and finger-pointing. Mouth To Mouth is also something of an oddity for the band, as on the whole protest songs are kept to a minimum …
Not Forgotten: Super Furry Animals – Radiator
Sometimes a band just gets it right. Prior to Radiator’s release in August 1997, only Super Furry Animals’ most optimistic and fervent fans would have put good money on the band’s second album transcending the stylistic restrictions of the failing Britpop scene that they were only tangentially associated with. Yet Radiator proved without a doubt …
Album Review: Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley
I must admit, Public Service Broadcasting had me going for a moment there. After their debut album Inform – Educate – Entertain wonderfully demonstrated that Willgoose, Wrigglesworth and Abraham could do exactly that with samples from archive footage and public information films and some cracking tunes, the more thematically linked The Race for Space disappointed …