Album Review: Public Service Broadcasting – Inform – Educate – Entertain
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when this début album from Public Service Broadcasting popped into my inbox recently. Frustratingly, it turns out that I missed them playing in Bolton by a week or so (review here), and I’m certain that the added live audio visual dimension would’ve enhanced my feelings towards it. From the couple of lines of blurb that come with the review listing, I was thinking maybe something along the lines of the Ghost Box Collective or the... Read More
APRIL 2013
We have trawled through the forthcoming gigs in and around Manchester so you don’t have to. We believe that if we are going to recommend a gig to you, then it should be exactly that, a recommendation. There are many other sites out here on the internet that have a gig guide, but how many of them can say they have actually listened to every single band/act they have listed? Well to be honest we don’t know the answer to that, but we’d guess not many, if any at all. Anyway,... Read More
NEWS: SONGS FOR WALTER – NEW SINGLE / FREE DOWNLOAD ‘FAMILY HOLD BACK’
The profusely prolific Laurie Hulme keeps on pumping out those hits, his alter ego ‘Songs For Walter’ has committed himself to giving away a free track each month. His last singles ‘Tougher Than A Soldier’s Boots’ and ‘Moon / Two Out Of Ten’ gained multiple radio plays by Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq and Tom Ravenscroft. Having spent the last eight months furiously bringing his last single and debut EP to life with numerous live performances around the country... Read More
LIVE: BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB – 24/03/2013
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – There is an undeniable feeling of heaviness in the air tonight at The Ritz as San Francisco alternative rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are about to begin a sold out gig in Manchester in promotion of their seventh studio album Specter At The Feast. At best, the new record has been a bare-all emotional effort for the band after the sudden loss of producer and sound engineer Michael Been, lead singer for the 1980’s new-wave band... Read More
LIVE: KID CONGO AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS – 22/03/2013
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Oh what a sexy night. From the moment the first chord reverberates through the dark, expectant air Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds are on a trip to crazy town, and they’re taking no prisoners. Brian Tristan of The Gun Club, The Cramps and The Bad Seeds infamy is a most alluring frontman, with an elegant pencil moustache atop the longest, sleaziest smile you’ve ever seen. He’s sexy and, yes, he knows it, captivating... Read More
Album Review: Port St. Willow – Holiday
Port St. Willow is the poetically named brainchild of Nicholas Principe, a solo multi-instrumentalist working out of Portland, Oregon. He released his first EP, entitled Even // Wasteland in November 2010. It was a record that, albeit only an EP, carried and conveyed the ambition that we would come to expect from Holiday. This is Principe’s self-released début that quietly revealed itself in May 2012, but will be reissued in April 2013. A lush 25-minute suite entitled Soft... Read More
Album Review: Cold War Kids – Dear Miss Lonelyhearts
American Indie also-rans Cold War Kids have been knocking around for a while now; long enough for them to be considered veterans by any rate. 8 years have passed since they first emerged onto the scene with their spiky yet soulful début EP Mulberry Street, in which time they’ve… well, they’ve continued doing just that: putting out new releases which could all be classified as ‘spiky’ or ‘soulful’ on a metronomically regular basis. In recent years however, they’ve... Read More
Single Review: Charge Group – Run
Sophomore releases are a thing of beauty. They can either make or brake a fledging act – whether it’s a disappointing follow up to a smash record or a momentum builder which keeps the fans on side. It’s been over 4 years since they dropped their début record Escaping Mankind, but Sydney 4-piece Charge Group are back in business with the forthcoming release of new single ‘Run’. The track is being released in time for their European tour, which kicks off at the... Read More
Happy Birthday Surfer Rosa!
What can you say about Surfer Rosa that hasn’t already been said? That the Pixies seminal album is one of the most influential releases of all time is well documented, but it’s a statement that doesn’t really fill you with joy. An influential album is often something that you have to love, whether or not it strikes a chord with you. If you don’t you’ll be forever banished from the often boring and predictable realm of established opinion where dogma... Read More
LIVE: WILD NOTHING – 19/03/2013
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Nocturne was one of my favourite albums of last year, and is certainly my favourite jangly-American-indie album of 2013. I only heard it in about October, so for such a summer-y album the climate at the time felt a bit at odds with the tunes within, but I fell hard for it, and rinsed it to near death, clinging on to memories of that one sunny day we had in July. ‘Paradise’ has quickly become one of my all time favourite songs;... Read More
