ALBUM REVIEW: BELLE & SEBASTIAN – DAYS OF THE BAGNOLD SUMMER
Having recently performed in a cruise ship as part of their ‘Boaty Weekender’ festival, the ever evolving Scots band release their second film soundtrack album. Sadly I didn’t take the indie rock n’ roll cruise, but apparently there were people there for the bands (Belle and Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub and tons more) plus bizarrely enough, a lot of random tourists who were there just for the cruise around the Mediterranean, and who had no idea who Belle and Sebastian,... Read More
INTERVIEW – MOON DUO
Rejoice! Moon Duo have a new album out, ‘Stars Are The Light’ and it’s an absolute masterpiece of hypnotic melodies mixed with electronica and pulsating beats. I first fell in love with their sounds after hearing ‘Circles’ back in 2012, with its fuzzed psych guitars and entrancing melodies, many bands try to do a similar thing, but no one does it with such flair and raw rockin electro fervour as these two. All Moon Duo albums have a thread of psych hypnotic rhythms matched... Read More
LIVE: EELS – 15/09/19
Eels – ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – “Don’t think twice ‘bout whatever keeps you itchin’. Ice water, flyswatter gonna get you through the day.” Lyrics I could not relate to anymore, after a summer of working in a pub in the middle of nowhere, getting bitten by insects daily. Flyswatter is the first of the band’s original tracks to get a response from this sold out Albert Hall on a Sunday night. It is the last date of the tour for E and his gang and they start... Read More
LIVE: MODERN NATURE – 17/09/2019
Modern Nature – YES BASEMENT, MANCHESTER – Modern Nature who take their name from the late film director Derek Jarman’s garden diaries arrive at Manchester’s Yes venue on the back of their recently released debut album ‘How to Live’. A flowing and at time meditative record which is destined to feature in many end of year critic lists. The band formed around Jack Cooper a member of former Mancunian indie favourites The Beep Seals, Mazes and more recently, the... Read More
LIVE: TANGERINECAT / SLOW KNIFE / FACTORY ACTS / TIN MOLE – 07/09/2019
Tangerinecat -GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- Tin Mole Experimental is a label difficult to define, but it appears Deco have rummaged the attic for a few of the more warped figurines you’d be wise to inspect before touching. Dominated by menacing bass lines, Tin Mole succumb to the irresistibility of synthesisers as they purge onward, almost as though a mystic has given them the necessary formula to help them apply agitated sing-speak, Jaz Coleman-esque vocals to a Sega Dreamcast-era... Read More
LIVE: GLOVE / CHINA MOON / FURROWED BROW – 06/09/2019
Glove -THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- Furrowed Brow With additional personnel and two months of gigging since their live debut, Furrowed Brow has (much to my predication) significantly gained in confidence and cohesion, akin to a unit of conscripts surviving the very skirmishes that would make or break their service. Having a more technically proficient guitarist (albeit with some awkwardness) in turn allows the vocalist to Howard Devoto his way through rather charming lyrics about... Read More
LIVE: SASAMI – 04/09/2019
SASAMI -YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- Sweet relief. The basement in Manchester’s finest establishment Yes is a safe haven tonight, a place to take refuge from the bonkers weather that has plagued this city on this early autumn day (and plagued the England cricket team all day across the city at Old Trafford), and a place to forget and escape the never ending omnishambles of the goings on in Parliament. There is a roof over our heads to shelter us from the wind and sideways... Read More
LIVE: MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST 2019
Manchester Psych Fest 2019 -VARIOUS VENUES, MANCHESTER- As the title shows, the event primarily caters towards a genre half a century in age, although that didn’t stop the promoters from cherry picking enough non-psych bands to give off the impression it was a name only title. I mean understandably you need a healthy balance of differing styles and realistically festival organisers are often hard-pressed to find idyllic people-pleasing line-ups, but it does appear a little on... Read More
LIVE: THE BETHS – 31/08/2019
The Beths -GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Gorilla is sold out for The Beths tonight. We arrive a little later than most and the crowd is already one pensive mass of energy and anticipation. Managing to find a corner at the top of the stairs, we have a clear view of the whole scene, the stage and audience. Jackpot. It is the perfect reviewing vantage point, just outside of the ‘no go zone’ staircase patrolled by the bouncer. The Beths’ debut album Future Me Hates Me is fast and... Read More
V FEST 97 – LEEDS 2019: A LOOK AT FESTIVALS THEN AND NOW
V97 When Dave Grohl tells 2019’s Leeds Festival audience on Friday night that some of the “old school” Foo Fighters fans had seen him before at Leeds, he was referring to people like me who saw them at V97 – and the fantastic, high-energy set they played sandwiched between Beck and Prodigy. For a lot of the 2019 set, I am watching a different band to the one I saw 22 years ago, not least of all when Grohl’s daughter, Violet, joins Foo Fighters on stage for My Hero.... Read More
