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 [...]
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 [...]
Denmark is home to the worst band on the planet – Alphabeat. Maybe thats why it took me longer than usual to open Veto‘s album Crushing Digits. Damn Alphabeat. The Copenhagen 5-piece, Veto, create electronic rock driven by massive hooks, synths, bleeps and pounding beats. With Troels Abrahamsen‘s soaring vocals lushly complimenting the textured landscapes. [...]
Ok. Maybe premature. A month into 2009 and I might have already found my song of the year. Peter Bjorn and John is made up of 3 Swedes called, Peter, Bjorn and er, John. I bought their previous album, Writer’s Block (iTunes) after stumbling on the track featured in this post. It’s a lot more [...]
Basel, Switzerland – a town of culture, the pharmaceutical industry and permanent frowns. No one smiles in the birthplace of LSD. Basel was pretty, but my holiday was like a trip to a mental asylum. Clinical, regulated and dull. We needed to escape. To Germany. Freiberg, a beautiful town with great food and smiles, was worth the [...]
“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 [...]
Apparently I’m of “Generation Y”. This means I’m a geeky yuppie born after 1979. Yeah – can’t complain with that. It also means I lived through the 80s, but being brought up in Hong Kong I missed out on all the psychedelic British kids TV. Rod Thomas clearly got a fair dose as his video [...]
Is anyone else becoming addicted to Born Survivor with Bear Grylls? He eats caterpillars and cuts the heads off skunks. Double hard. I’ll never be that adventurous, but I’m always up for New Adventures. Especially ones destined to fill arenas around the world. The four men of New Adventures began playing together at university, but [...]
Serbia’s music has had a strange journey to holeytonal – beginning in Lebanon, via Brooklyn and Hammersmith. Well it didn’t strictly start in Lebanon, but I fell in love with Gulag Orkester, Beirut‘s debut album. I was completely lost in Balkan brass and indie fusion for a year. Excitedly I introduced Beirut to my Serbian [...]
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 [...]
