Sound men at music venues have to listen to so much shit that alongside my sympathy for them I always wonder how aural torture affects their tastes. I’d say they either: Detune their standards until Jedward sound like Marvin Gaye reincarnate. Can pick a cherry from a turdy fog but are so useless at admin [...]
Portland experimental rockers Menomena have released their new album Mines. It’s absolutely spell-binding. I don’t have much to add over the excellent MusicOMH review of Mines other than this is one of my albums of the year so far. I’m a big fan of experimentalism within pop aesthetics, rather like Yeasayer’s great album Odd Blood. What Menomena [...]
One of my best friends called me whilst I was on a date to tell me Dead Confederate were playing a gig, that night in London. He knew I couldn’t go. He knew how much I love them. He also knew how pissed I would get for missing them on my doorstep. He laughed mockingly when [...]
Thom Yorke performed Give up the Ghost at the Big Chill Festival during his 12 song solo set. Although he has been performing it since around February – it was only after singing this last weekend that he revealed it was in fact a new Radiohead song. Despite murmurs from the Oxford group that after [...]
Going to Seattle? Don’t go to the music museum. It’s shite. Do eat seafood, rent a boat with fishing rods or take a short drive past evergreen forests for a trip to Microsoft town. Other than the museum I struggle to come up with a reason why you wouldn’t visit Seattle – it’s lovely and also where Nate [...]
Antony Hegarty is back at last with the Johnsons. The roaming minstrel has been just about everywhere of late apart from with the group that brought him fame – well of sorts. Although I admit I was never the biggest fan when he first came on the scene – I have grown to love his [...]
I love Iceland. They may have ruined the UK’s local councils by going bankrupt and sent Europe into chaos with it’s ash cloud – but they have Bjork, Jonsi and a lesbian PM who managed to change the law so she can be fully married. Anyway Jonsi of Sigur Rós has just released a new [...]
“I play drums in Babyshambles but don’t let that put you off.” Good thing it didn’t, because whilst I adore Marmite, I’m not a fan of Babyshambles. Adam Ficek, performing under the monicker Roses Kings Castles, is a DJing songwriting multi-instrumentalist whose talents would leave any baby in a shambles. Adam says Bletchley, Milton Keynes, where [...]
Major labels should know sounds that sell – with rosters full of great artists or at least great assets. So why was I so surprised at a gig featuring two singers signed to Universal and Warner? Because the two unsigned acts also playing put the big boys to shame. I don’t care if artists are [...]
Remember when you listened to the album that changed your life for the first time? It give you goosebumps and made you shiver like you’ve just been possessed – you maybe even wanted to cry? I haven’t had that feeling since listening to OK Computer, but Wrecking Ball by Dead Confederate certainly came close. Since [...]
Isn’t it awful asking to hear someone’s music, only to feel like you’re bleaching your ears? To my great relief James Marple’s music was more like a gentle clean. Under the pseudonym James and The Jewellery Store, Marples weaves burlesque lined tracks with lyrics encompassing “the courtly-love of the Romantic poets to the dust bowls [...]
“Reminds me of gap year students smacking bongos trying to save the planet” was my friend’s reaction to world music. Sadly, a view echoed by many. But the world is big and music doesn’t only come from the US and the 51st State. Not even rock. BLK JKS are from Johannesburg. They rock. South African [...]
