LIVE: THE NATIONAL – 22/09/2017

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- I first listened to The National’s music at my brother’s place in Leeds not long after the band’s third album Alligator had come out. Heading out afterwards into that Saturday afternoon’s bright sunlight I couldn’t stop singing the “sunglasses” line from the record’s opening track ‘Secret Meeting’. And that’s how it is with […]
-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- For a harmonica-playing psych-enthusiast, Melbourne band The Murlocs were essentially a dream come true.  I immediately fell for Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s snarling vocals and classic bluesman swagger, and the garage guitars. They were also my introduction to the wonderful Flightless record label – an introduction that led me to King Gizzard and the […]

LIVE: THE MURLOCS – 20/09/2017

ALBUM REVIEW: ZOLA JESUS – OKOVI

Nika Roza Danilova, better known as Zola Jesus, returned to her native woods of Wisconsin, built a house mere steps away from her semi-dilapidated childhood tree-fort and watched it slowly give itself back to the earth while raising her sixth offering in ‘Okovi’. Over the course of what she describes as “a profound meditation on […]
“I always remember things better than they were and miss people more than I should,” explains Austin Getz, frontman of  amber-drunk sun-seekers Turnover, when speaking of the mournful thinking behind the band’s fractured, Will Yip-produced breakthrough ‘Peripheral Vision’. Hyper-confessional meditations on sex, obsession, and loss ran through the self-crucifying offering, but where Turnover sourced ‘Peripheral […]

ALBUM REVIEW: TURNOVER – GOOD NATURE

LIVE: CHARLY BLISS – 19/09/2017

-THE EAGLE INN, SALFORD- The only people in Salford’s hidden pearl The Eagle Inn tonight who are shocked by the high turnout are the band themselves. Several times throughout their brisk, whistle-stop set, the Brooklyn quartet appear charmingly elated by the fact that a hundred or so strangers from such a faraway place know about […]
-STORE STREET WAREHOUSE, MANCHESTER- Now and again I can be prone to hyperbole when talking about music, such is my enthusiasm for certain bands. But, dear reader, hear me out here: LCD Soundsystem have just won music with their first night (of two) opening this year’s Warehouse Project season. Everyone else should just pack up […]

LIVE: LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – 16/09/2017

LIVE: RYAN ADAMS – 14/09/2017

-APOLLO, MANCHESTER- WARNING: I am a Ryan Adams fan boy, so this review will mainly be a gushing fan letter to one of the greatest songwriters of the last 20 years. With that out the way, and you duly forewarned, let’s continue… I love Ryan Adams. There, I said it. He came into my life […]
Some questions are easy to answer, some not so, but some are so easy to answer they are referred to as a no brainer, and this was the case when I was asked if I’d be interested in talking to Russell Mael, one half the sibling duo Sparks ahead of their first album in eight […]

BIT OF A CHAT: RUSSELL MAEL OF SPARKS

LIVE: ALVVAYS – 07/09/2017

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- On the eve of the release of their second album ‘Antisocialites’, Canadian dream-poppers Alvvays (pronounced “Always”, as you would imagine) are stopping off at the wonderful Gorilla to give us a preview of their new material. Not having heard anything from the new LP but the couple of singles they’ve released over the […]
Los Angeles three-piece LA Witch’s initial aspirations were humble: “We never really thought we would or could release an album, we were really just finding each other and finding our sound.” But following touring non-stop for the last three-years and a slew of singles on underground labels, their eponymous debut has now arrived and a […]

ALBUM: L.A. WITCH – L.A. WITCH