LIVE: MR. BEN & THE BENS / DOG DAISIES / FAMILY SELECTION BOX / SUNDRIFT – 23/03/2018

-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- Manchester’s place as the hub of Northern music has never been in dispute and it’s a well known fact that The Castle Hotel in the Northern Quarter has seen its fair share. Bands from all over will come to play in our prestigious venues and Friday night is no different as […]
-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- “I don’t think I’m a Goth, I like pastel shades too much…and GAP tops. I do like Depeche Mode though. Does that count?” These musings came from me, bored at work, before the Tune-Yards gig last Friday. I love Tune-Yards. Their music is spiritual without being annoying and anthemic, without being cheesy. […]

LIVE: TUNE-YARDS – 16/03/2018

LIVE: PHOBOPHOBES – 16/03/2018

-EAGLE INN, SALFORD- Phobophobes are strangely fearless. As they take to the Eagle Inn tonight, they are ready to take on whatever this Friday night might throw at them, and in short order they have the Eagle Inn bouncing to their quirky, jagged indie psych nuggets. They only just about manage to squeeze their six […]
The fact that Yo La Tengo have existed for over thirty years, with a consistently strong but still relatively underground appeal, could be one of the reasons behind the title of their fifteenth  album. Not that Yo La Tengo are in anyway riotous, well at least not in an obvious way. Theirs is a slower, […]

ALBUM: YO LA TENGO – THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON

LIVE: FIELD MUSIC – 16/03/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Not an awful lot has come out of Sunderland apart from my Grandpa, the fabulous Andy Dawson from the Athletico Mince podcast and St Bede, the monk. To that list we have now been able to add Field Music. Ostensibly formed of the Brewis brothers – David and Peter – by the time […]
-THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD- Hookworms have made the best album of 2018. It’s a provocative statement, especially at the start of March, but right now I believe it to be true. Great albums often come with a backstory, their own built-in folklore, something that can be easily distilled into a short conversation that the record’s […]

LIVE: HOOKWORMS – 10/03/2018

PIRATE STUDIOS LAUNCH INCREDIBLE NEW TALENT COMPETITION

We chat to the studio’s co-founder to find out more. The clever swashbucklers over at Pirate Studios have recently launched a new talent competition Pirate Prodigies Programme, designed to kick-start the careers of three lucky acts. On top of the incredible prize of promising to ‘break’ each winner (in a purely music industry way of […]
Tune-Yards started 2018 with a bang, that bang being the new album I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. Thematically, the twelve new songs tackle race, politics, intersectional feminism and environmental prophecies head on but is probably Tune-Yards’ most immediate and upbeat record yet – this is music to dance to! Bandleader Merrill […]

TUNE-YARDS – MANCHESTER SHOW TICKETS GIVEAWAY

LIVE: GWENNO – 09/03/2018

-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- According to the 2011 National Census, there are 577 people that name Cornish as their first language. A small number, but not so bad when you consider that as of the late 18th century, the language was officially extinct. The resurgence has been going for some decades now, and one of the leading […]
Formed in 2008, The Men are one of those New York bands who just keep up their hard working ethic with every release, gradually gaining more admirers each time around, yet without necessarily having any massive singles. That’s not to say they don’t have amazingly catchy songs in their back catalogue as they’ve got them […]

ALBUM: THE MEN – DRIFT