LIVE: NOW WAVE PRESENTS CARIBOU/BATTLES – 04/06/2011

– THE APOLLO THEATRE, MANCHESTER – Just before Battles take the stage a friend of mine gets into a fight in the crowd.  Some over-priced cider is accidentally spilt over a punter which results in said punter taking issue.  Insults are exchanged, a tussle ensues where the cider spiller jumps on the back of the […]
– SACRED TRINITY CHURCH, SALFORD – Gigs in Churches are the new black. Sacred Trinity nestled on the cusp of Manchester, on Salford’s Chapel Street – which is now getting quite a reputation, of the good kind. Bang in the middle of this new creative cluster, round the corner from Islington Mill, the uber top […]

LIVE: I Am Blackbird – 03/06/2011

SINGLE REVIEW: Seasick Steve – Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

When I first saw new pictures of Seasick Steve in Elton-esque shades I did wonder if the once homeless blues player had got a bit big for his denim dungarees. But after a listen to his latest single, I realised that the OTT appearance was more than well deserved.  If his last album was a […]
With its sparse, yet super-melodic intro, ‘Girls Like You’, the 4th single from Passive Me, Aggressive You, caught me off guard on first listen. Immediately electronic, with synth sounds swelling between percussion, it is reminiscent of MGMT’s ‘Oracular Spectacular’, which is,of course, no bad thing, but it does mean that The Naked & Famous are […]

SINGLE REVIEW: The Naked & Famous

LIVE: SPARROW AND THE WORKSHOP – 29/05/2011

– THE ROADHOUSE, MANCHESTER – Three support bands have been lined up for tonight and the Roadhouse only has a handful of customers. I arrive late and manage to catch Meursault (while ordering a Guinness) who I would simply describe as The Twilight Sad, if they were a little sadder. Wire lights run along the […]
– CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH, MANCHESTER – High on my list of bands to see, The Kills caught my attention six years ago on a TV broadcast of Fashion Rocks. The duo of Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart played the minimal and raw ‘No Wow’ as models paraded around the stage. As a darker version of […]

LIVE: THE KILLS – 27/05/2011

LIVE REVIEW: Three Trapped Tigers – 23/05/2011

– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – What better way to continue City’s post-parade celebrations than with a good old gig at the good old Night & Day, eh? Well, as Advances In Mathematics are first up, there’s quite a few. As their name suggests, the local quartet dabble in twinkly, arpeggio-laden post-rock which inevitably […]
– CAPESTHORNE HALL, CHESHIRE – The Friends of Mine crew have been doing good things in and around Manchester and the North West for a while now, shoving the pick of the region’s up n’ coming acts in the shop window and giving them precious exposure. A festival seemed a more-than-logical progression, and when FOMFest […]

LIVE REVIEW: Friends of Mine Festival 2011

ALBUM REVIEW: Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts

Four years after Trees Outside The Academy, Thurston Moore has once again emerged from the little music place artsy rock stars go to hide and has come back with his most depressingly beautiful album to date. Working with legendary singer-songwriter, Beck, Moorehas managed to create an extremely moving, symphonic folk opus, well-worthy of attention as […]
– ST. MARGARET’S CHURCH, MANCHESTER – Improvised music can be a nightmare. Overwhelming in terms of scope and size as a ‘genre’; seeming to require an encyclopaedic set of references; over-intellectualised; pretentious; snobbish and cliquey; perplexingly theoretical. Just when you think you have got a handle on it, something new will fall in your lap […]

LIVE REVIEW: Okkyung Lee and John Butcher / Open Eye Quartet – 20/05/2011