ALBUM: EELS – THE DECONSTRUCTION

When Eels first emerged in 1995, they were lumped in with all the ‘slacker’ bands around at the time, and although Mark ‘E’ Everett’s vocals do lend themselves nicely to that laid back categorisation, Eels have always been uniquely different. Eels’ songs have been used in tons of films and TV shows, and I’ve got […]

The fact that Yo La Tengo have existed for over thirty years, with a consistently strong but still relatively underground appeal, could be one of the reasons behind the title of their fifteenth album. Not that Yo La Tengo are in anyway riotous, well at least not in an obvious way. Theirs is a slower, […]

ALBUM: YO LA TENGO – THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON

ALBUM: THE MEN – DRIFT

Formed in 2008, The Men are one of those New York bands who just keep up their hard working ethic with every release, gradually gaining more admirers each time around, yet without necessarily having any massive singles. That’s not to say they don’t have amazingly catchy songs in their back catalogue as they’ve got them […]

Formed out of dark times, but with melodies to lift the heaviest of hearts, welcome to the bizarre world of the Insecure Men. They’re another band comprising members of the Fat White Family, either current or ex members (it’s often hard to tell with that lot, who’s in and who’s out!), but all maintaining the […]

ALBUM: INSECURE MEN – INSECURE MEN

ALBUM: WILD BEASTS – LAST NIGHT MY DREAMS CAME TRUE

In late 2017 Wild beasts (the 4-piece indie band from Kendal) announced that they would sadly be ending their journey after 14 years together, in which time they have released four studio albums. After their first album 2008’s enthusiastic, fresh sounding Limbo, Panto, they seemed to really polish their sound and refine their direction, defining […]

Belle and Sebastian have always produced the kind of music which is delicate on the eardrums, yet with a feisty rock n roll streak tearing through its core. They’re one of those bands who you think you’ve got figured out, then they go off and do something unexpected. Live, their gigs transform into a communal […]

ALBUM: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS

ALBUM: HOOKWORMS- MICROSHIFT

The advent of using synths in Indie Rock is nothing new, its popularity seemed to rise in conjunction with skinny jeans and I often wonder if there’s a correlation between the amount of bands like Everything Everything and Friendly Fires who howl their lyrics and the ‘close crotch’ of tight jeans. With that in mind, […]

Keeping up with Ty Segall can be hard work! Over the last few years he’s taken garage rock to a whole new level, constantly releasing albums, (around twenty in his own name at the last count), and that doesn’t include the numerous collaborations, or singles and EPs. Then there are the live gigs all over […]

ALBUM: TY SEGALL – FREEDOM’S GOBLIN

ALBUM: THE GO! TEAM – SEMICIRCLE

Ever since they burst onto the music scene in 2004, The Go! Team have been on my gym playlist, and that’s in no way meant as an insult. Although if The Go! Team could see me red faced, sweaty and jumping around to the throws of Bottle Rocket and Junior Kickstart, they might disagree. Yet […]

BRMC aren’t a band who like to make it easy for themselves, they seem like the kind of band who throw their entire existence into making music and giving it their all at every live gig, as this writer witnessed a few years ago in Manchester, where they played for almost 3 hours! Yep, BRMC […]