Indie
Album Review: The Polyphonic Spree-Yes, It’s True
The Polyphonic Spree has always had this air of overwhelming positivity. Even on their darkest album, 2007s The Fragile Army, despite the black jumpsuits and black eyeliner they came across as pensive, yet hopeful. I think that quality has always endeared me to them. Tim DeLaughter and Wayne Coyne are like the opposite sides of …
New Music: Wild Swim – New Dawn
It’s one of those quintessentially English places, Oxford. The writer William Butler Yeats, in a letter to fellow poet, and possible unrequited love interest Katharine Tynan, said “I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is …
News: Canterbury four piece Broken Hands announce UK tour dates; full details here
Canterbury (UK) four piece, Broken Hands, are about to embark on a UK wide tour kicking off in Bristol on the 18th September. To wet your appetite with a taste of what to expect, the band have released a video of ‘Pulled Under’ from their recently released EP, ‘Down By The Current’. No strangers to …
New Music: The Hics, Little Death Machine, Steve Rich & The Hills
Rounding up some new sounds for you, first we have The Hics, a band manufactured in one of my old stomping grounds – the music factory that is… Pimlico, south London. This six-piece met taking the classical/jazz course at the quirkily-shaped Pimlico School and they release their first EP, “Tangle”, today on SQE. Mellifluous instrumentation …
ALBUM REVIEW – NEKO CASE – THE WORSE THINGS GET, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE MORE I LOVE YOU
Its her voice that strikes you at first. It’s a clear voice, an honest voice, a strong voice. A voice that’s compelling whether you like alternative country music or not. The first song I heard her sing was “Margaret Vs. Pauline”, the stunning opener to her gorgeous Fox Confessor Brings the Flood album and since …
Meet: The Kitchens of Distinction, and news of their new album
Sometimes you have your head turned. By money, by people you find attractive, by a job offer. For me it was much more simplistic. It was by records. So when I saw something made by the impossibly named Kitchens of Distinction (named, unsurprisingly I suppose on thinking about it) after a shop the band drove …
Carnabells – The Ramshackle Rattle EP
Until I met my wife, I’d never heard of skiffle. To me, Lonnie Donegan was a weird name that cropped up with disconcerting regularity in the Mojo crossword. I first heard “Rock Island Line” when her Uncle Joe unleashed it on stage at a dinner dance. From there it has been a slow introduction to …
Not Forgotten: XTC – Nonsuch
In the latter half of the 80s the combined successes of Skylarking and Oranges & Lemons had saved XTC and they had re-established themselves as mature and intelligent pop-rockers that could appeal to all ages. The conceptual grandeur of Skylarking had initially been a commercial failure, but a freak hit on American College Radio with …
Track: Blood Sport release new track Palomar, plus album news
When I came to Sheffield, I got told that people had said it was the largest village in the country. This (for those that don’t know) is one of the biggest cities in the country. Rubbish I thought on arriving here, but since then I have found it to be one of my favourite cities …
New Music: MT Warning – Youth Bird
And so we propel towards the end of the Summer. Here in the north of England, it’s especially important to try and grab any chance we can to sit in the Sun, as we don’t get that many of them. It’s those rare times that we can relax and let the mind wander, usually (for …