LIVE: DEAFHEAVEN / CHELSEA WOLFE -16/08/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – We had to wait less than a year to to see one of the most active underground bands nowadays. The San Francisco quartet Deafheaven, loved, hated and criticised by the media and public, is unique in style. Their look seems to be the one for a standard indie band, but their […]
– THE STAR & GARTER, MANCHESTER – I’m still unsure about gigs at The Star & Garter. To me, that venue is The Smiths Disco. First Friday of the month, a gang of folk young and old gather upstairs in the (let’s be honest) grotty venue to sing and dance along to classic Smiths/Morrissey tunes. It’s not […]

LIVE: FALLS / THE HYENA KILL – 16/08/2014

Album Review: Sex Hands – Pleh

When you talk about slackers, the glamorous, Americanised image is of beautiful surfer dudes smoking lots of weed and making lovely, reverb-heavy music about being sad. Best Coast, basically. The British equivalent isn’t nearly as cool. With a climate like ours, it’s nicer to sit in and watch telly all day and eat biscuits and […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Back in 2006, one Zach Condon started his own solo musical project which soon expanded into a band, now known as Beirut. Fast forward to the present, the American band has three studio albums under their name and a massive fan base with their multi-elemental indie folk rock music. The […]

LIVE: BEIRUT – 14/08/2014

EP Review: Baby Brave – King Horse

King Horse presents a very different Baby Brave to their clumsily titled 2012 debut EP (deep breath) The Hornet’s Nest of Unrequited Ambition That Was 1960s Vogue. They’ve since lost a singer and the suffix “…and the Love Bites” but gained an affection for some noisier influences. That’s not to say there’s none of the […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Possibly the best band currently signed to Sub Pop, although that might depend on your preference for angular, heavy, noisy, punk rock or Fleet Foxes. Pissed Jeans seem able to create sonic landscapes, themes and soundtracks to the irritations of life and the minutiae of the daily grind. They create an […]

LIVE: PISSED JEANS – 14/08/2014

LIVE: EASY STAR ALL-STARS – 07/08/2014

– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and it is said that at any given moment, someone, somewhere is listening to the album. The purveyors of this fact haven’t mentioned whether any of these people are under the age […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Believe it or not, tonight is my first time watching a gig at Soup Kitchen. Almost deceived by the two separate entrances, I manage to make it downstairs in time to grab a beer before the live music begins. First to the stage are James Graham and Andy MacFarlane, two […]

LIVE: OWL JOHN – 05/08/2014

LIVE: PERFECT PUSSY / JOANNA GRUESOME – 01/08/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The rumour that Joanna Gruesome were forged in the midst of anger management classes may or may not be true, but it seems a fitting beginning based on their performance tonight.  Careering from gleeful pop to controlled aggression across an 8 song set, they appear simultaneously self-deprecating yet certain, with a […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – It’s a funny notion that as I grow older, I much prefer watching something loud and noisy than something more hushed and acoustic – you’d think it’d be the other way around. But tonight is an exception, mainly because I’ve spent my day seeing how long I can stay in bed […]

LIVE: KEVIN DEVINE – 02/08/2014