ALBUM: METHYL ETHEL – TRIAGE

2019 could not be off to a better start than with the release of one the most anticipated Australian albums of the year, Methyl Ethel’s ‘Triage’. Fresh off the success of 2017’s ‘Everything is Forgotten’ which reached #16 on the Australian charts and #28 on NME’s Albums of the Year awards, big things are expected […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Bleach Boy We start the evening with what I assume is a Seattleite-redux; the guitars and drums shine the brightest (I suppose being the loudest helps), all the while their brand of militant distortion devolving into a kind of sonic mush, whereby the vocals and bass suffer in the sense that… you […]

LIVE: SURFBORT / BLEACH BOY – 13/02/2019

LIVE: JIMOTHY – 10/02/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Inadvertently on a mission to prove you don’t have to be a lyrical miracle to be a rap god, London’s number one alternative son Jimothy is setting the scene alight. Recently announcing on the Romesh Ranganathan podcast ‘Hip Hop Saved My Life’ that he was ditching the Lacoste section of his quirky pseudonym, […]
The Lake District has inspired many artists over the years, the most surprising recent convert being Californian garage rocker Tim Presley. After relocating from LA to San Francisco, he then upped sticks again and ended up in Stavelely, in the Lakes, in the depths of winter, with fellow songwriter Cate Le Bon. While she was […]

ALBUM: WHITE FENCE – I HAVE TO FEED LARRY’S HAWK

LIVE: DAMMIT I’M MAD – 06/02/2019

-THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- We have a wealth of support acts in store at the Peer Hat tonight, and some excellent craft beers to accompany us. It’s a nice place for a drink as well as a gig. Chaos LOL gets his five-minute warning and hastily drops some super-heavy gabba before throwing down some polyrhythmic […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- I came here to review a critically-acclaimed US group who rose to fame in the 1970’s, who appeared in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV, who released over forty albums, nearly as many compilations and created dozens of multimedia projects. What I am seeing, at a packed, sold out Gorilla, is […]

LIVE: THE RESIDENTS – 05/02/2019

LIVE: HEAVY LUNGS / VULGARIANS – 31/01/2019

-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- After hearing much hype over Heavy Lungs over the past six months, supporting Idles and listening to their two EPs, I felt like this was the last time I would see them in a small intimate venue such as the Castle Hotel. The hype before the gig is great, I have […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- FEMUR: The introduction manifests itself into a 4 piece that seemingly make inflicting moderate hearing damage on the spectators present their goal for the evening. The synopsis for this band features a lumbering, somewhat heavy-handed approach (doom metal?) to drumming, guitars that screech, zzzzzzzzzzzzzuzzzzz and just about do everything else […]

LIVE: PHOBOPHOBES / FEMUR – 31/01/2019

LIVE: THE DANDY WARHOLS / JUNIORE – 31/01/2019

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Tonight’s a rather special night and the Albert Hall is dressed up for the occasion. It’s been 25 years since Portland’s indie rockers The Dandy Warhols burst on to the stage and to celebrate they have embarked on an epic tour and released a new album, Why You So Crazy? Opening proceedings […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Tonight The Wave Pictures pull off a rare feat. Without introduction the four piece take to the stage and launch straight into their opening number which begins with a solid minute of vocals accompanied only by David Tattersall’s gentle and deliberate flashes of guitar. Usually this would result in thirty seconds of […]

LIVE: THE WAVE PICTURES – 01/02/2019