Cleft are done. Wrong is their last album, a swan song full of maniacal riffs and brutal drumming. A gut punch, not a sucker punch. This album faces the doom of a band and gladly accepts it. Why cower when the end is in front of you? You could argue that this album would reflect on the past five years and submerge into meditations; … Continue reading Review: Cleft – Wrong
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Bad Grammar (both the band and in my writing style.) The duo of Lucy Brown and have been rocked my world during The Dark Days before I left England, first opening for Giant Drag, then shaking the dust off The Bowery. They also made it to one of our mixes. Noisy, slightly paranoic and sweet as an … Continue reading Band of the week : Bad Grammar
Hullo, guvs and guvnettes, this is our always late EP round up, where we trawl through the titanic troves of tinnitus-inducing music and bring you the best of what’s around. Or at least what WE think it’s the best of what’s around.
Remember: don’t adjust your opinion.
In our usual analogy form, we will be comparing each of these EPs to something cool and entertaining. For this week’s edition, I’m comparing each EP to a Titan. Yes, we’ve done this before, and I don’t care if you think we are repeating ourselves, it worked for Arcade Fire, right?
Oh, well, sigh. I’ve brought a couple of extra reviewers for this one.. Continue reading “EP Round Up : Cult of Luna, Hot Beat Repeat, Loveless, Alpha Male Tea Party, Cmn Ineed Yr Hlp, Antoine Reverb”
I’m going to start this post with a story.
In the early nineteenth century there was a young woman who worked as a laundress, travelling from remote farmsteads to small hamlets, helping the housewives with their monthly wash. Her long fingered hands were raw from lye. Her arms were mottled and powerful from the scrubbing in cold water and the wringing of sheets. At one of these farms she met a young shepherd. “That’s the man I’m going to marry” she said to herself, and four years later she did. They ran on their own flock of hardy sheep on the mountain, and took on a smallholding. They had two children, a boy and a girl. Continue reading “Review: Patti Smith @ Manchester”
There’s a real buzz about Damon Albarn‘s Dr Dee in the run up to the Olympics. He was on Jools Holland the other week talking about his opera, and I think I heard a song from it on Radio 2 when I was out and about last week. Continue reading “Dr Dee – Manchester, Myth and Magic”
#IFOWONPRO. That’s the only thing you need to think when you listen to Trojanhorse. Well, you could also think about socialism, space fights in ships resembling F-14 Tomcats (with T. Rex’s in the pilot seat, of course) or what would happen if you do an impromptu interview with a super friendly singer/guitarist with a penchant for prog loveliness, a voice like Simon Pegg in Spaced and an army of well armed finches in his beard.
So, yeah, Nicholas Wyatt Duke from Trojanhorse, a man wanted in 4 boroughs for baptising sweet lyrics and bootlegging overdubs, is sitting across me in Nexus Café, in Manchester. The coffee is excellent and the music is just the right shade of suave, so I ask him a few question while the finches steal my eccles cake. Selah. Continue reading “Interview – TrojanHorse (2012)”
Sometimes I find the connections a bit too overwhelming. Six degrees of separation and all that. Back in the early 80s, I had returned from working in Casablanca to Manchester, and I got involved in the music scene there again. I used to do the door at various venues for Alan Wise, a promoter and manager, and for Factory records. I was working on the door the night the Hacienda opened, though I don’t appear in 24 Hour Party People. Continue reading “These days (or janitor of lunacy)”
The Waterboys @ Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.
Bang on 8 the houselights go down and a hearty cheer echoes round the high ceiling of Bridgewater Hall. Continue reading “An Appointment with the Waterboys”
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