Fast-Forward – The World Cup Goes Indie – Final Knock-out Stages

I can’t contain it, the excitement is reaching fever-pitch: I am going to a music festival on a Mediterranean beach in July. On an unrelated and much less exciting note, I am also going to find out which one of 32 plinky little indie tunes I dislike the least. But to make it interesting, and […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Floating into the ether on the same cloud (i.e. Pitchfork) that brought us The Fresh & Onlys, Real Estate and Woods, Ganglians pedal a very ‘now’ sound – scuzzy yet sparse guitars, a little bit surf-y, a little bit Pavement-y, with generous overtones of psychedelia. There is however, something […]

LIVE: GANGLIANS – 24/05/2010

SINGLE: Moulettes – Horses For Hearses

Debt Records are stirring up some serious shit – that was my conclusion from their open night a few months back. An exciting label I had only seen peripherally, took centre stage (literally and metaphorically) with a stalk and a walk that left an indelible impression on my psyche. But these guys are performance artists, […]
I picked this CD out as the one that was likely to be the worst single release this week. Any band tipped as one of XFM’s top 20 artists to watch in 2010 is likely to be shit. Just check out their list of the greatest songs of all time. Here are the top 5 as voted […]

SINGLE: Run Toto Run – Hater

LIVE: DENIS JONES/TO SOPHIA – 21/05/2010

– ABODE, MANCHESTER – Chorlton has a fairly rich musical heritage – the Bee Gees grew up here, the Stone Roses were formed here, and previous and past residents include Badly Drawn Boy and Shaun Ryder. There has been a music scene here for years, with the Beech Road Festival, Big Green Festival and venues […]
– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – St Philips church Salford provides a stunning backdrop for tonight’s gig with the sun shining through the stain glass window behind the altar/stage and the instruments adorned with flowers. Everything is perfectly set for Brooklyn based act the Antlers to perform the moving and poignant tracks about love, loss […]

LIVE: THE ANTLERS – 20/05/2010

LIVE: DEAD MEADOW – 27/05/2010

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – This Led Zeppelin/Neil Young sounding rock band with stoner vocals are incredibly laidback unless launching into an epic instrumental. Unfortunately, a lot of their fans are too laidback to even turn up tonight. Academy 3 is disappointingly less than half empty. GNOD are onstage when I walk in the hall. […]
Morcheeba’s latest single, “Even Though”, sees the original three back together with Skye Edwards joining Paul & Ross Godfrey for their seventh studio album “Blood Like Lemon”. This latest single stands as a prelude to the album which is out on the 7th June. In my eyes, seeing these three back together is a return […]

SINGLE: Morcheeba – Even Though

LIVE: THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE – 17/05/2010

– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Anyone who has seen the documentary ‘Dig!’, which follows the relationship between The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, will know a BJM gig has the potential to implode. I saw them a couple of years ago at this very same venue. They played to a half full crowd […]
The knock-out stages are ready to begin. The rules are simple – I think most of these tunes are the musical equivalent of those horrible world cup flavoured crisps, so I don’t want to listen to them any more than I have to. It’s a simple contest – two songs play, the best one goes […]

Fast Forward – The World Cup Goes Indie [Round of 16]