LIVE: BEN FOLDS & YMUSIC – 17/06/2016

– BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER – ‘Wait, this one’s got a fuck tonne of chords in it.’ Ben Folds flexes fingers, readies himself and then launches into another track and blow me he’s not kidding.  These aren’t 1, 4, 5 progressions, power chords or riffs.  These songs are complex, thought out, elegant.  And they hang beautifully […]
– AATMA, MANCHESTER – “You know we pass from death to life, because we love each other. ” sings South Carolina native Mat Cothran on Elvis Depressedly’s lethargic ballad ‘Thou Shall Not Murder’. Such a cutting introduction to the ethanolic track not only serves to highlight the honest and bare atmosphere that colours the evening, […]

LIVE: ELVIS DEPRESSEDLY – 15/06/2016

LIVE: PARQUET COURTS – 18/06/2016

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER –  When I first heard Light Up Gold, Parquet Courts’ second album, it’s half spoken half sung vocals and repetitive melodies immediately led me to draw comparisons to The Fall. New track ‘Outside’ has been likened to Pavement by many and a review described their album Human Performance as sounding not dissimilar […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Whitney is a band formed out of the smouldering ashes of Max Kakacek’s former band, indie rock outfit Smith Westerns. Their lead singer Cullen Omori went on to release a widely praised debut solo album earlier this year, whilst Kakacek pulled together a group of six musicians to carry on his […]

LIVE: WHITNEY – 15/06/2016

LIVE: EINDHOVEN PSYCH LAB DAY 1 – 10/06/2016

– EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS – It is time for the third instalment of Eindhoven Psych Lab; the experimental science tinted psychedelic experience based in the industrial Dutch city. With the promise that frontiers must be explored, crossed and questioned, I head once more to De Effenaar. Due to issues with every kind of transport known to […]
– ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER – When deciding the right time to reform a band, there are always worries of how to maintain the same altitude of interest. The question lurking is – what’s next? For The Stone Roses, this was a question needing no thought. The Manchester natives long anticipated and is-this-really-happening return gigs back […]

LIVE: THE STONE ROSES – 15/06/2016

LIVE: BEACH SLANG / WEAVES – 12/06/2016

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Weaves are  good, full of enthusiasm and an interesting set of songs get our taste buds going. Georgia, my companion for the evening, is particularly impressed and at the same time bemused by the quirky demeanor of frontwoman Jasmyn Burke. Hailing from Toronto, Canada, their self-titled EP is a […]
– FALLOW CAFÉ, MANCHESTER – Walking up the stairs into the Fallow Cafe’s gig space for the first time, you’d be forgiven for believing that you had come up the wrong way and that this was the route to the stage rather than to the crowd. Entering the room we effectively join Church Party for […]

LIVE: YUNG – 11/06/2016

LIVE: (DR) JOHN COOPER CLARKE – 10/06/2016

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – That’s Dr John Cooper Clarke, to you, son.  The bard of Salford sewers, now elevated to the rarified realms of the academy; his romancing of the gutter now held in the same esteem as, who knows… Keats ? But that’s for later.  Because before the long-haired dark lord of the […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – I’m not letting the first-world trauma of an apparent loss of 36GB of music in a file-transfer debacle half an hour ago diminish my anticipation as I make the trip over to Band on the Wall to see Spring King. Live music’s where it’s at anyway, I tell […]

LIVE: SPRING KING (ALBUM LAUNCH) – 10/06/2016