After their first two albums and an EP, and seeing a live show that was so loud and intense that it felt like the back wall was going to be blown at points, W.A.S.T.E. are back to sear your eardrums once again. And you have to wonder exactly what they can do next: almost like […]
It has been a while since the last ADR album – I reviewed the gloriously chaotic mash-up of styles that was The Giants From Far Away a couple of months short of three years ago now, and have been looking forward to new material for some time.
Another month already – and time for my usual monthly rundown of the best tracks of the month. As is usual, this will be the last monthly rundown of the year – December will see my end of year roundups.
In quite fabulous timing for this review, there was an intriguing article in the Guardian’s music section yesterday entitled When Bands Fall Off Cliffs. Ostensibly about how some bands find massive success and then the next release sees their fanbase simply fall away – and there were some pretty sobering and unexpected examples in the […]
Two reunions of different kinds hit the news last week, although interestingly the return of Steps seemed to be rather overshadowed by The Stone Roses. The NME in particular is treating the latter like the, er, Resurrection, the most important music news, well, ever. Which in some respects kinda shows them for what they and […]
2011 will go down as the year of nostalgia more than any other, I suspect. I’ve lost count of how many returning bands, re-issues, retrospectives and the like that I’ve seen…and while it probably isn’t doing a great deal for the future of the music industry, going on the numbers it must be helping the […]
When Left Spine Down first burst on the scene – the first track I heard was the blistering U Can’t Stop The Bomb, as I recall, and it was certainly among the best tracks of 2008 – they seemed like an awesome idea. Like someone had finally, after some years of trying, understood the idea […]
I seem to be playing catchup with a number of bands nowadays. Insofar as having missed them live in the past, I’m now taking every opportunity possible to see some of my favourite bands, even as they edge into perhaps the later stages of their career.
A new month, so my usual round-up of good new songs (and the odd old one, too). You know the drill by now, right?
I was back to DJ at Autonomy for the first time in four months. The break has been nice, actually, and the absence of my fellow residents meant that I did the whole four hour set myself. It was something of a marathon, and indeed a mightily odd night, but I got through it ok […]
So, last week I covered “Bad Sex”. This week, it is the better side. The songs that I actually see as being sexy.
Mika Goedrijk’s This Morn’ Omina have been plugging something of a lonely trail for many years now – fifteen, in fact. And with them now being long-time members of the Ant-Zen roster, it has to be said that even there they stand out. While many acts on the label are often harsh, noisy acts – […]
There is hype, and there is genuine excitement about some bands. And it is fair to say that it is often difficult to tell which is which without making the effort to find out for yourself.
It has been a long time, er, coming, this. I’d say excuse the pun, but you know I don’t mean that. Anyway, I first started working on this a few months ago, and here it is at last.
Time for another of my monthly new(ish) track roundups. You know the drill by now, right?
Like so many Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls fans, I’m no stranger to seeing her live – this was my fifth time (one Dresden Dolls show, two full AFP shows, and two “ninja” gigs), with a sixth time coming on Monday in the unusual settings of the British Library. But all of the previous shows I’ve seen, […]
When Daisy and I got together, we realised pretty quickly that we have some common ground in our music taste, but there are areas where we diverge in our tastes a great deal. Like, to the point that there are a number of bands that one or the other cannot stand whatsover. I was reminded […]
In a flash, that is Infest over for another year already. A weekend that shot by – of fifteen bands, a good many DJs, many more friends new and old, some silly moments, some serious moments, a fair bit of wonderfully cheap booze, and whole lot of fun and silliness (and thanks to assisting Tails […]
It seems to surprise everyone that I have a not-so-secret love of hip-hop. I’ve only ever dabbled, really, and certainly was never part of the wider hip-hop culture. Some of the stuff that has been released from the hip-hop scene over the years, though, has been phenomenal. There has been stuff every bit as heavy […]
Another bit of a retrospective this week, as I finally get ’round to covering the fact that MTV turned 30 years old on 01-August. As the NME noted a few months ago, whatever happened to the MTV of old? For all its faults – not least seemingly moving away from what was the whole point […]
