Take on me a slightly critical reviewer
Hell, it seems, hath no fury like an A-ha fan from Derby scorned - or at least upset by a perfectly reasonable live review...
View ArticleAlive and kicking (out the jams)
When Spillers announced in the summer that they'd be leaving the premises on the Hayes in Cardiff that they'd occupied since the late 1940s, the future didn't look too bright for what is officially the...
View ArticleQuote of the day
"Ever heard howling at the moon like the mongrel dogs of Comets of Fire? Yeah, it’s everyday for me too, rock fanatics, gorging myself on their errant aberrant muse. A solar wind blowed through the...
View ArticleJust Philling in
Nice to see Spillers staff getting a helping hand last week - from Phill Jupitus. I suspect there might just have been some Blockheads played over the course of the day...
View ArticleKnow Your Enemy
"I suppose anything that keeps Pete Doherty quiet for four-and-a-half minutes can't be a completely bad thing."My friend Matt on the news that the visionary poet of Albion and assorted other no-marks...
View ArticleUnlucky for none: Truck 13 2010
My fourth summer in Oxfordshire: high time this festival fun-seeker paid a visit to the one right underneath his nose. Truck is held in one of the two villages my bus passes through on the way to work...
View ArticleBowlie II: one-liners
All Tomorrow’s Parties: Bowlie IIMinehead Butlins, 10-12dec10Continuing this site’s tradition of half-assed commentary on musical events, we present one-line reviews, in chronological order, of the...
View Article2010: 21 gig salute
My top 21 gigs of 2010 run-down can be found over at Vanity Project.
View ArticlePopping up, early doors
Shellac.Highbury Garage. 01jan11.Shellac are not indefatigable tourers by any means, indeed playing live often just means a little time away from the office for guitarist and vocalist Steve Albini and...
View ArticleHere Zea gear
ZeaDalston Café OTO. 30jan11. Sweat surges from Arnold De Boer’s forehead and scalp, dripping from his chin with such regularity that a stalagmite begins to form next to his floor monitor. When I first...
View ArticleBehind the counter
Veronica FallsIslington Flashback Records. 25feb11.The time not to make an in-store appearance at a record shop that deals only in second hand merchandise is about a year after releasing an LP. Seeing...
View ArticleHere's the science bit...
Matt & Kim.Highbury Garage. 23mar11.Matt Johnson & Kim Schifino first sprung out of the Brooklyn scene in 2004 and it’s hard to imagine that they’ve changed much in the past seven years. After...
View ArticleHouse music
No Babies, MeddicineDalston Lane house show. 23apr11.With galactic projections ebbing and flowing on the back wall of what was once someone’s lounge, one might expect an ambient swirl from Meddicine...
View Articlegoodbye dry eyes...
Notes from the Departure Lounge:John Maus died over the weekend at the age of 67 after losing his battle against cancer. The name might not mean much to you, and it's possible that his stage name of...
View ArticleNimble round the neck
Meaghan Burke, Dead Western.Vienna Rhiz. 04may11. Despite being a native of New York, Meaghan Burke is, as a result of living in Vienna for a number of years, being asked to represent the city’s pop...
View ArticleArticle 9
DonaufestivalKrems, 05-07may11The donaufestival plays out over two consecutive weekends in Krems, a town sixty minutes away from Vienna by train. Krems has been transformed in recent years with...
View ArticleShout, shout...job done
Bearsuit.Old Blue Last. 14aug11.Time was there were six of these bears, with flutes, horns and all kinds of caper that clattered about like prodigious toddlers high on sugary contraband. They had a...
View ArticleDrum lift me up
Charles HaywardShoreditch Catch. 25aug11In the mid-70’s, This Heat provided a bridge between the German progressive rock scene and UK post-punk, incorporating loops to advance a pre post-rock, eerie...
View ArticleAfter the wheel
Blurt.Deptford Bird’s Nest. 28oct11.Given that guitarist Steve Eagles and Ted Milton (vocalist, saxophonist and the sun around which the world of Blurt orbits) have turned out in suits (albeit with...
View ArticleLet's have a party? Go on then
Wanda Jackson. Kings Cross Scala. 07nov11.“I’m ready to rock. I know you are” purrs rockabilly grande dame Wanda Jackson as she glides on in a tassled jacket of eye-gouging pink and beneath a...
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