LIVE: THE HANDSOME FAMILY – 09/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – “It’s kind of weird but stranger things have happened”, quips Brett Sparks, the bearded half of the critically acclaimed husband and wife duo the Handsome Family. He’s not wrong; in the world of this delightful, yet dark and twisted Alt County band – anything is possible. With his lady Rennie Sparks, […]
Saturday turned out to be a typical day for Mancunians; grey and wet and one in which you’re much happier being indoors. But I was off to meet incredibly hip two piece Phantogram, so I braved the weather. Manchester did its best at welcoming the duo from Upstate New York by ensuring it was raining […]

INTERVIEW/REVIEW: PHANTOGRAM – 10/05/2014

LIVE: JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION – 10/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Since their inception in 1991, New York based Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (or JSBX as their moniker is often shortened) have long since dispensed with traditional set lists. They are touring the 2012 release Meat and Bone, their first studio album since Damage in 2004.  JSBX’s  high energy punk blues, firmly […]
It’s been about a week since Liverpool Sound City 2014 came and went, but the three-day festival is still fresh in my mind. If you haven’t heard of it, Sound City is the largest metropolitan music and arts festival in the UK. It originally started as a showcase of the UK’s Northwest acts at the […]

REVIEW: LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 2014

LIVE: ALBERT HAMMOND JR. – 07/05/2014

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Albert Hammond Jr. – Seemingly the happiest man in music today. The question is, who can blame him? Having kicked the drug habit, the latter months of 2013 saw him marry the gorgeous Justyna Sroka, as well as put out his third release as a solo artist – the superb five […]
Fight Like Apes, or simply FLApes if you prefer, will release their first record since 2011 on Monday (May 12).  Hailing from Dublin, the band have already released two albums.  Both were nominated for the Choice Music Prize, the Irish equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, awarded for album of the year.  They launched a […]

EP REVIEW: FIGHT LIKE APES – THE WHIGFIELD SEX TAPE

LIVE: THE HOLD STEADY – 07/05/2014

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – The Hold Steady, a five-piece band based in Brooklyn, has brought its rock and roll show to Academy 3 tonight. When tickets first went on sale, I decided to head down to the student union the next working day to pick some up. Mistake. The gig was sold out by […]
– KRAAK, MANCHESTER – I’ve been to Kraak Gallery quite a lot recently, and I’m really pleased this is the case as it’s one of Manchester’s finer small venues and it’s great that more bands are stopping by to play here! Tonight we have quite a diverse line up on our hands but the focus […]

LIVE: BIG UPS – 06/05/2014

INTERVIEW & REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAD – 02/05/2014

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Backstage at The Deaf Institute, The Twilight Sad frontman James Graham leads me to a tiny room containing three bunk beds and room for nothing else. “It is like when you were wee and your pal came to play PlayStation” he says with a smile. Hailing from Glasgow, The […]
The chorus of ‘The World Could Turn’ – the fifth track on Cherry Ghost’s third studio album Herd Runners – sums up its underlining tone perfectly: “Haven’t you heard, in a heartbeat, the world could turn. For every end there’s a beginning, what’s a life if not for living, you see the way it just keeps on […]

Album Review: Cherry Ghost – Herd Runners