LIVE: TINFOILS / CHUPA CABRA / PAGANS S.O.H. / BLANKETMAN – 07/03/2019

-THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- Blanketman Entering the all too familiar Peer Hat basement, I learn this evening has something memorable and exclusive for all spectators present; acting on instinct, I forsake my typical rule of live reviews (to the detriment of my cellular battery). Taking the front compartment in this limited edition anthology packaging, Blanketman […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Charlotte Cannon Deciding early on to remain seated in the school gymnasium-type ‘bench zone’ gives me a chance to observe the rather theatrical lightning setup, in conjunction with the gaudy, oversized disco ball looming over the growing audience (imagine the impact). It actually provides a rather fitting backdrop for the opening act; […]

LIVE: SNAPPED ANKLES / CHARLOTTE CANNON – 06/03/2019

LIVE: BAS / AUDIO PUSH / LUTE – 06/03/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Bas is a New York-raised rapper and disciple of the Dreamville hip-hop troupe, and his fellow teammate J.I.D recently said that collectively, they are striving to go toe-to-toe with Top Dawg Entertainment, the front-running label in the genre this decade. The statement makes sense, especially considering how well the match-ups align: Dreamville head […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- For the celebration of International Women’s Day, Gorilla and The Deaf Institute have come together for SHE PWR, an event to celebrate women artists of every kind: visual arts, spoken word and music. The Deaf Institute welcomes four bands/artists on stage tonight: ILL, WITCH FEVER, Current Mood Girl (who I missed, unfortunately) […]

LIVE: SHE PWR (ILL / WITCH FEVER / JULIA BARDO) – 08/03/2019

LIVE: CALVA LOUISE / KID KAPICHI – 06/03/2019

-NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER- So when I rock up at Night People, Manchester, a venue filled with character, I find myself mildly disappointed by trying-too-hard-to-be-angsty, slightly pretentious, Radiohead wannabe support band Sugarstone, (who, I strongly believe are clinging onto the ‘moody band who haven’t slept in years’ bandwagon just for the trend of it) showing no […]
-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- Free Vibes is a (who would have guessed!) free-entry event at Band On The Wall that seeks to introduce new and emerging artists a few times every month. For this week’s edition, Band On The Wall teamed up with Shell Zenner from Amazing Radio to bring Sugar, Spengler, Haha Sick, […]

LIVE: SUGAR / SPENGLER / HAHA SICK / CYNTHIA’S PERISCOPE – 07/03/2019

ALBUM REVIEW: MEAT PUPPETS – DUSTY NOTES

  Legends of the American underground rock scene and catapulted into more mainstream attention after backing Nirvana on their MTV unplugged gig and album in 1993, songwriters Curt Kirkwood and Cris Kirkwood have been mainstays of the U.S. rock scene for years. Starting off as a hardcore band in the 80s, Meat Puppets evolved into […]
How to fit five albums worth of music into one moderately sized review?  Not an easy task, as there’s one hundred and fifteen songs on this box set compilation, but it’s an aural feast for anyone with even the slightest interest in punk and indie! Although there’s been other compilations pulling together the origins of […]

ALBUM REVIEW: BIG GOLD DREAMS – A STORY OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENT MUSIC 1977-1989

SINGLE REVIEW: TINFOILS – ROYAL BABY MACHINE

Typically I don’t normally care for socio-political jabs in rock n’ roll; the commentary almost always finds itself doing a literal moon walk straight into the sanctimonious tavern of raised eyebrows (a real venue = nope). In this instance however, the Tinfoils pull an evasive manoeuvre on the aforementioned metaphor by the injecting the lyrics […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Sweet baby Jesus, The Twilight Sad (TTS) are an astonishingly good live band. Scrap that; they’re just an astonishingly good band full stop. Here to support their ridiculously great new album IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME (which, annoying punctuation and capitals aside, is their best effort since their peerless debut […]

LIVE: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 27/02/2019