LIVE: MARISSA NADLER – 03/09/2014

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – I have to confess, there was a period where I fell out of love with Marissa Nadler. I was pretty obsessed with her 2009 album Little Hells which, in my eyes, is about as perfect as a singer songwriter album can possibly be. Then she released a couple of so-so albums […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – Perfume Genius, or Mike Hadreas as his friends probably call him, has the audience of a sweltering Band On The Wall in the palm of his hand. Every person in the room is silent, in absolute awe of the beautiful, frequently devastatingly show he’s putting on tonight, and […]

LIVE: PERFUME GENIUS – 02/09/2014

LIVE: THIS WILL DESTROY YOU – 02/09/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – So I’ve just spent the weekend traipsing around a field in Bristol for ArcTanGent festival, geeking out over riffs, reverb pedals and weird time signatures; that’s right, ArcTanGent is the UK’s only math/post rock festival. I’ve been pretty much on a post rock binge since returning back to reality, […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Good grief. Even the most seasoned gig-goer would be forgiven for taking an extra moment to process proceedings when Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (to give them their full title) roll into town. The veteran free-form progressive psychedelic experimental rock group, or as they would have […]

LIVE: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE – 26/08/2014

EP Review: Mark Lanegan Band – No Bells on Sunday

For anyone who doesn’t know who Mark Lanegan is, you’re an idiot he co-wrote Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘No One Knows’, one of the best rock songs of the noughties. And that’s just one of a myriad of activities he has undertaken since his Seattle rock band Screaming Trees petered out. Indeed, it’s hard […]
The supergroup: a lazy term for a generally dirty concept in rock music. It brings to mind egotistical, indulgent, short-term projects comprising disparate musicians operating on different wavelengths. But after 15 years and six full length albums, The New Pornographers have found a way to circumvent these problems, chiefly by only convening every few years. […]

Album Review: The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers

LIVE: PROTOMARTYR – 18/08/2014

– FALLOW CAFE, MANCHESTER – Despite being scheduled for the Ruby Lounge, tonight’s festivities instead take place at Fallow Cafe. The stage at Fallow Cafe is tiny, last time I was here even the two piece bands on the bill looked a bit cramped. The people of Fallow Cafe have tonight extended their stage slightly, […]
– 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 […]

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

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

– 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 […]
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 […]

Album Review: Sex Hands – Pleh