LIVE: EIGHTIES MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER – 29/10/2012

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – An 80’s Matchbox B- Line Disaster gig is like cuing for a ride at a theme park. You wait ages and then you’re rewarded with a forty second or in this case, forty minute thrill. As is their want, 80MBD (sorry abbreviations necessary) like to wait for as long as […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – When Joe Jean & The Jing Jang Jong – the band more memorable for their name than their records – finally split up after a year of empty hype in 2009, you might have assumed that their members would spend their time in exile from the music industry ever […]

LIVE: TOY – 28/10/2012

Album Review: Cody ChesnuTT – Landing On A Hundred

Soul singer and funk guitarist Cody Chesnutt is back with his second album, a decade and a few EPs separating them both. Landing On A Hundred is a neo-soul and funk album with all the musical flex of a 70s classic. The sound he’s gone for is BIG in every sense –with bold melodies, a […]
It’s not for nothing that Rolling Stone magazine named The Velvet Underground & Nico the most prophetic album of all time. If the hippies hoped that universal fraternity, peace and love would be the basis for some teleological, utopian future, it is Lou Reed’s vision that – however unhappily – dominates contemporary society. 60s counter […]

Album Review: The Velvet Underground & Nico – The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary

LIVE: ROLO TOMASSI – 27/10/2012

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Rolo Tomassi are a band that have to be seen to be believed. The Sheffield based quintet have been messing with our heads since the mid-noughties, using hardcore as their base then combining it with every musical genre known to man to become one of the UK’s most eccentric […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – ‘CDs, T-shirts, Tea, Jam, Tote Bags’ is the list of merchandise on sale at Lucy Rose’s sold out Deaf Institute gig tonight, and it’s clear it’s going to be more of a tea and jam event than it is rock n’ roll as fans file in under the giant […]

LIVE: LUCY ROSE – 25/10/2012

LIVE: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING / CYRIL SNEAR – 27/10/2012

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Well. Soup Kitchen. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last. I stand a few yards from your doors at five-ish most nights waiting for the bus to take me home and frequently wonder what the venue within is like. And now I know. You’re ace. Bare, flakey-paint walls and […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I confess I don’t gravitate towards folk music on a day to day basis, but when I hear it live I’m reminded how life affirming and quite wonderful it can be. Afterwards, I’ll vow to pay it more attention in my own time, but never do. So I’m here to see […]

REVIEW: THE UNTHANKS PRESENT SONGS FROM THE SHIPYARDS – 25/10/2012

LIVE: DJANGO DJANGO – 23/10/2012

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – The night is brisk and the age range trickling into the Ritz are almost as many balding heads in number as there are sprouting ones, at least at first. Django Django are following up the release of their long awaited, self-titled album, with a UK tour. The second night of […]
– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – Since their formation back in 2008, Nottingham based outfit Dog Is Dead have certainly put the time in with several single/EP releases and a large amount of gigs under their belts. It seems that all of their hard work is paying off though, as the quintet are now signed to […]

LIVE: DOG IS DEAD – 23/10/2012