LIVE: DUM DUM GIRLS – 31/03/2011

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER –  I didn’t come to the Deaf Institute tonight to review  the support band for Dum Dum Girls, but the music of Mazes is so good I feel compelled to let you know about them. All the songs feel ‘killer, no filler’.  They play with boundless energy and come across […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – I’m not overly fond of the Ruby Lounge as a venue at the best of times- it might be that it’s dark and dingy, or the strange design, I can’t put my finger on it, but when I walk in and see about six people in the crowd my […]

LIVE: DUCKTAILS – 31/03/2011

LIVE: DEERHUNTER – 30/03/2011

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER –  The band are ready, lead singer Bradford Cox talks over the Foals tune that can still be heard and amusingly comments on the audiences startling red faces. The result of heavy backlighting. Technical difficulties allow him to break the ice with his natural wit as he urges the crowd to […]
– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – As one of the true oddities of the New York punk scene in the mid 70s, The New York Dolls are considered to be the godfathers of American punk. The band imploded in spectacular fashion back in 1975, and articles in various music magazines, books and punk rock documentaries kept […]

LIVE: NEW YORK DOLLS – 29/03/2011

SINGLE REVIEW: The Jim Jones Revue – Dishonest John

If you’re expecting an unbiased critique of “Dishonest John”, you’re not going to get it. The Jim Jones Revue is the best good time rock n roll band around right now.  Dishonest John sums up JJR perfectly: 2 minutes of blistering rock ‘n’ roll blues that you’ve just gotta shake your ass to. To really […]
Chopped & Screwed is being touted as Rough Trade’s first ever classical release, and is the live product of a collaborative effort between three-piece Micachu and The Shapes and contemporary orchestra London Sinfonietta. The set, recorded last May at King’s Place in The Big Smoke, came about after frontwoman Mica was invited by London Sinfonietta […]

ALBUM REVIEW: Micachu & The Shapes and The London Sinfonietta – Chopped & Screwed

ALBUM REVIEW: Bad For Lazarus – 25 EP

Bad for Lazarus is a collaboration between ex-members of The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, UNKLE and NIN. Their first release, ahead of a full-length hard-rock offering (due in May) is the 25 EP: a melange of rock-and-roll and 60s East Coast garage which occasionally verges on the psychobilly. The themes have a little of the […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Looking like she has just arrived at Trof this evening by Gothic Express, Jesca Hoop cuts a rather striking mystical figure on stage bare footed and clad in a flowing black dress. This North Californian songstress now decamped to Manchester for the past two years after persuasion from our […]

LIVE: JESCA HOOP – 26/03/2011

LIVE: JAMES BLAKE – 26/03/2011

– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – It looks like 2011 is the year that James Blake ate the pies.  I expect  the svelte foppish-haired waif that I’ve seen peer out of press photos, but the man who takes the stage alongside fellow traveller Rob McAndrews (guitar and sampler), minus Ben Assiter, who often provides […]
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Honing guitar fuzz and bright-eyed lyrics into hooky, melodic songs, The Answering Machine are a band that Manchester can be proud of. Having quietly helped restore indie pop’s good name with cuts such as ‘Obviously Cold’, ‘Animals’ and the title track of new album ‘Lifeline’, tonight’s rescheduled gig had gained […]

LIVE: THE ANSWERING MACHINE – 24/03/2011