LIVE: THE 99 DEGREE / GOA EXPRESS / MANALISHI / THE ATTIC DOCTORS – 05/08/2017

-NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- It’s another cool Summer evening and the Night & Day Café awaits us, tonight playing host to a few of the North-West’s freshest and exciting bands. Kicking off tonight’s proceedings are The Attic Doctors, who embody a strong indie aura, with all the traits and sounds reminiscent of the many […]
-CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- No excuse is needed for Manchester’s best band to put on a show at a top venue like the Castle Hotel on a Friday night in early August. Friday nights that don’t have False Advertising gigs can only be described as a waste anyway. But on this occasion, there happens to be […]

LIVE: FALSE ADVERTISING / PEAKS / GRACES / HAPPY ANIMAL – 04/08/2017

LIVE: KATE NASH / SKATING POLLY – 04/08/2017

-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- Ok. I’m just going to put it out there. I want to be best mates with Kate Nash. Seeing her live has only cemented this and I am now convinced we could be total #squadgoals. Heading along to The Ritz for her Made of Bricks 10th anniversary show on Friday night, I […]
“We as a band went from worrying about the record to worrying about the person,” speaks The War on Drugs bassist Dave Hartley of Adam Granduciel during the making of ‘Lost In The Dream’, the band’s critic-aligning breakthrough – birthed in the grip of a mountainous, sleep-fearing depression. However, sourcing its strength from obsessive insularity, the […]

ALBUM: THE WAR ON DRUGS – A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

LIVE: SILVER APPLES – 02/08/2017

-BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER- It’s not often that an artist comes to town who can boast that they have performed live in six different decades: Silver Apples, AKA Simeon Coxe, is one of them. Slow Knife open proceedings, with an interesting blend of krautrock, ska and jazz ensemble. Atonal lyrics read from sheets are […]
-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- The midsummer months are pretty barren ground for us gig-aholics, with bands spending most of their time on the festival circuit. But in the absence of the established names, this time of year provides a perfect chance to explore some of the local artists plying their trade, hoping for their lucky […]

LIVE: HIGH WYRE / MADA CRAM / LUKE STEINMAN – 28/07/2017

SINGLE: ALVVAYS – IN UNDERTOW

The heartbroken patience of ‘Red Plantet’ closed Alvvays’ self-titled debut – spinning a web of waiting, and gesturing towards endless cycles of temporary distraction and emptiness. Although a fitting end to an album littered with semi-mid-life beginnings and endings, the final act of the starry-eyed darling’s exploration of the “pathetic perspective” offered more of a […]
“I felt really good writing the music,” speaks Katie Von Schleicher of gloom-laden lead single ‘Life’s A Lie’ – taken from her self-produced and co-engineered debut that was recorded on Tascan 488 tape-machine in her childhood home. The Brooklynite and Ba Da Bing Records signee is infamous for her own brand of bleak, lo-fi piano […]

SINGLE: KATIE VON SCHLEICHER – LIFE’S A LIE

ALBUM: BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – HUG OF THUNDER

For almost two-decades, the Toronto-hailing army-of-indie that is Broken Social Scene have been traversing their counter-cultural anxieties with visions of familial community and refreshing doses of celebratory sound-collage – ushering in some of our darkest political hours with defiant, unabashed joy. 2010’s ‘Forgiveness Rock Record’ closed with a two-minute ode to the loneliness found in […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- What’s going on here, then? It’s not even 8pm and the merch table is 4 deep with t-shirts and records flying from one side of the counter to the other at a sweatshop pace; this isn’t normal. Then again, neither are Sheer Mag. A quintet formed in upstate New York (in Purchase, […]

LIVE: SHEER MAG / TV CRIME – 23/07/2017