ALBUM REVIEW: NEW ORDER – SO IT GOES

It was one, if not the, best New Order gig I’ve ever been to – the band, and a backdrop resembling a climbing frame of squares, each one containing a synth player, in the old Granada Studios where their friend and label co owner Tony Wilson worked and where the band themselves had played as […]

LIVE: THESE NEW PURITANS – 13/07/2019

-HOME, MANCHESTER- Tonight, a film director is curating a concert in a theatre. It must be Manchester International Festival time! This year’s programme sees the great David Lynch putting on a series of three gigs as part of his takeover of HOME. Yesterday, Anna Calvi topped the bill, while tomorrow Oliver Coates is headlining, but […]

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Shonen Knife at Night and Day Cafe

LIVE: BLOC PARTY – 05/07/2019

-CASTLEFIELD BOWL, MANCHESTER- It’s Friday in Manchester, two boys arrive from Liverpool canned up via a perilous train journey through Widnes and Warrington, it’s time to party. The venue… Castlefield Bowl. The entertainment… Silent Alarm… But backwards! Finding out through musical wizard Dan Saleh that the London four piece would be performing their seminal debut […]

LIVE: TINFOILS / SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY / GIANT BOYS / FURROWED BROW – 29/06/2019

-FUEL CAFE, MANCHESTER- Furrowed Brow A live debut serves as the opening for this overbearingly heated evening; their approach of using a bipedal drummer, much like how I would envision a stationary marching band, is a noted distinction from your run of the mill sit-and-hit methodology. The synthesiser’s mimicry of archaic instruments (flute, accordion), the […]

EP REVIEW: HELLO COSMOS – RUN FOR PRESIDENT

It sounds as if Hello Cosmos have thrown everything into this debut EP. By that, I mean it’s an amusement park of sounds and genres, first couple of tracks in rock territory along the lines of Rage Against The Machine, The Cribs, or The Fall with the next few tracks more electro, along the lines […]

REVIEW: THE BOOK OF MORMON @ PALACE THEATRE, MANCHESTER

WHO ARE YA? ARRE! ARRE!

LIVE: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – 03/07/2019

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Belle and Sebastian have always had a devoted, loyal fanbase and they’ve turned up in their droves tonight. It’s so packed and steamy in the Albert Hall, we overhear people next to us mention that some fans can’t even get into the room, and are almost on the stairs outside, luckily we […]

LIVE: JANELLE MONÁE – 04/07/2019

-CASTLEFIELD BOWL, MANCHESTER- Janelle Monáe is an absolute, proper-off-the-scale pop star. She’s untouchable, standing there oozing pop star-ness as we all look up to her, basking in the glory of someone who’s one role in life is to be an absolute fucking mega star, and we love her for it. In the age of ‘relatable’ […]

HEAVY METAL: WHAT HAPPENED?

ALDO RELEASE NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘PAPERMAZE’

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS RELEASE NEW VIDEO FOR SOME MUTTS (CAN’T BE MUZZLED)

SPEEDY WUNDERGROUND ANNOUNCE NEW 7″ SINGLE BY SINEAD O’BRIEN

BRAND NEW TRACK FROM PLEASURE CRAFT ‘WORK IT OUT’ FEAT. MINGIJA

LIVE: METZ / USA NAILS – 27/06/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- USA Nails Awkwardly emerging from the backstage curtain-thing, the opening act favours a fast tempo, ‘angry’ guitar rock that is somewhat let down by Yes’ sound system; they might as well have put their socks in their mouths for the duration of the performance. The format of having everything excessively loud alongside enough […]

SURFBORT FEAT’ GIBBY HAYNES FROM THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS RELEASE ANIMATED VIDEO FOR ‘HI ANXIETY’

GOODSIDE RELEASE DEBUT SINGLE ‘I’VE BEEN FEELING SOMETHING LATELY’

PONYTAILS RELEASE VIDEO TO NEW SONG ‘JUST YOURS’

MAC DEMARCO RELEASES LEAD TRACK FROM UPCOMING NEW ALBUM

ALBUM REVIEW: BLACK MIDI – SCHLAGENHEIM

It’s like a rucksack of bricks superglued to your shoulders – hype. Always hard to shake off, and once you’ve been proclaimed as the saviours of new music, and the answer to life, the Universe and everything, it’s like wading through the thickest Glastonbury mud to find some escape. So, casting all the aspersions aside, […]

ALBUM REVIEW: BAD BREEDING – EXILED

In today’s swirling cesspit of politics, messed up societies and uncertain times, Bad Breeding could well be the huge stomping boot of anarchic musical expression that these times have been calling for. Loud, in-yer-face, punk rumblings mingling with lyrical themes from zero hour contracts, war, politics, the media, all delivered at a warp speed pace. […]

INTERVIEW: SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY

COURTNEY BARNETT SHARES BRAND NEW SINGLE “EVERYBODY HERE HATES YOU”

YAK? YES!

SHITKID RELEASE TITLE TRACK FROM UPCOMING ALBUM [DETENTION]

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN NEW VIDEO: ‘THE TRUCE OF TWILIGHT’ DIRECTED BY PAUL SIMONON

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