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Click Images or Titles to read whole review....
Live
Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong
After much hype and hyperbaly london fashion band of the moment able on to the tiny southend stage on the first night of their latest tour.
These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid
These new puritans are from southend, spawned from the same club that gave the horrors to the world and they share a similar dark, gothic vein but take a totally different musical approach
Single
Red Track – Pretty Boy
Essex indie bods Red Track delivery a fine slice jagged pop fodder.
Live
Green Velvet - Friday 30th November 2007
Manchester on a Friday night is taut and ready to party. You can hear the thundering bass from the warehouse project (not to be confused with the sounds of overhead trains) long before you can see the entrance....
Radiohead - In Rainbows
There are a number of images and words you associate with Radiohead - pretentious, adventurous, difficult, progressive, smart, depressing, awesome, to name a few. and along with such pronouns you get all manner of interjections of a band embrassing or abusing the media of the 21st century, or maybe you think they just look like a group of insomniac bank workers on a monday morning.
Single
The Delta Fiasco - Paperhouse
This is the debut single from liverpool trio the delta fiasco who count ladytron among their fans
Single
The Loves - One - Two - Three
A new ep from the welsh band with 60’s coloured shades, and its more of the same, toe tapping jangly pop, and the title track, one-two-three is marc bolan doing surf-rock, it’s infectious and sunny.
Album
The Ladybug Transistor - Can't Wait Another Day
This is the sixth album from brooklyn based indie-popsters the ladybug transistor, and features guest apperances from architecture in helsinki, the clientele, jens lekman and vetiver amongst others.
Joanna Newson
There’s an empty seat next to me that was meant to be for someone very special but she can’t be here and I’m missing her terribly, but for two hours Joanna newsom takes us by the hand and leads us into her world where you forget everything else outside.
Lightspeed Champion
It was only a couple of years ago that if you said to anyone that rave would make a come back, only the rapture would be up for it. now you can’t move for new-rave this and new-rave that. I tell you who i blame, those noisey boys testicicles, remember them?
no? oh well, nevermind.
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
In the center of the sleeve notes for Sheffield troubadour Richard Hawley's new album is a photograph. In that photograph is a wooden barrier with a simple sound bite, graffiti'd on in thick black spray paint. It reads 'macho music is stupid'. If that is Hawley's moto, i hope he's being ironic as 'lady's bridge is one of the manliest records i've heard in quite some time.
Single
The Pigeon Detectives - Take Her Back
Back when i was 18 i probably would have loved this, now 10 years on, i’ve heard it all before, I ’ve found there’s more to music than four blokes with guitars....
Dinosaur jnr
Taken from their first album in 10 years the reformed Dinosaur jnr (complete with Lou Barlow) do exactly what it says on the tin!
Brights Eyes
This is the seventh time i’ve seen Bright Eyes and they’ve never let me down yet, tonight they play a set full of Cassadega songs with a few other gems thrown in.
The Dears – Gang Of Losers
Well this is dull. Not that bad, not that good, just dull. It’s got that modern American Dawsons Creek type thing going on which is always a little sickly....
Remi Nicole – Fed
God this voice is annoying. It’s that horrible Lilly Allen style “mockney” accent that’s oh so credible at the moment. It might well be her real voice....
Grace – Slowly
This sounds suspiciously like boy-band indie to me. If they are a genuine band then they have a worrying demographic. It’s the average tale of love....
Parka – If You Wanna
A nice lively start is always good for a single, the vocals are okay and the chorus should get less cynical types moving. It’s indie pop rock by numbers but it’s worked....
Friendly Fires – On Board
Little bass driven funky tune this one. I quite like it at first but it gets stale quickly. I think the vocals let it down. The music is quite good....
The Ripps – Holiday
You think they might like Blur? Nah, I doubt it, they can’t have even heard of them surely! Small Faces? Nah, definitely not. The quote says “sarcasm is the lowest....
Harrisons – Dear Constable
The vocals on this occasionally wander dangerously close to sounding a bit like a sober Shaun Ryder but other than that I quite like it....
Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow
It's pretty good actually and I'm not a natural Klaxons fan. I tend to think of them, along with The Horrors, as a kind of nouvelle cuisine of the music world.....
The Mitchell Brothers - Solemate
What a really fucking clever title. Can you see what they've done there? I hate it when bands do this. Punning has no place in song titles, unless you're Morrissey.....
Kings Of Leon - On Call
Slightly pretentious intro, but then they're a slightly pretentious band. I don't really get the appeal of Kings Of Leon, I find them very boring and this isn't about.....
The Hours - Love You More
He says he loves whoever it is more than his record collection. Presumably, it's a mediocre collection if it inspired this song so he's not really saying much.....
The View - The Don
This is the radio edit apparently, so I assume the bit where he explodes in a tourettes rage has been taken out, shame. It's a bit oompa loompa....
Pepe Deluxe - Pussy Cat Rock
I like the keyboard bits in this, they're kind of 50's in some way I can't really describe, almost B-52's I think. The vocals have that scratchy sound on them but it works okay....
1990's - 1990's
I love the band name, and therefore the track name. I was a teenager in the 90's and was hoping for lots of cultural references and talk of Super Nintendos....
Ash - You Can't Have It All
Pretty much just another Ash song this one. It's one of their better ones though. It's good single fare and should do well for them but it's not really anything new.....
Chungking - Love Is Here To Stay
Ha! Yeah right, just wait and see it'll all be over one day. It's quite a good tune though, if a bit too positive for my misanthropic soul....
Travis - Closer
Oh God, not Travis! Acoustic guitar - check. Whiny, sad vocals - check. It's just so boring. Your mum will like it. She might even buy the album and play it at that barely audible volume......
The Blood Brothers - Laser Life
This is quite good. It has a really nice, upbeat keyboard part going on and the vocals are crazy enough to be interesting and catch your attention....
Fallout Boy - Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
God, as if the nations youth weren't illiterate enough already! This is even worse than punning in the title - as mentioned in the Mitchell Bros review....
The Enemy - Away From Here
They sound a bit like The Futureheads and mention Richard and Judy in the first verse. I think they're trying a little hard to affirm that they're British.....
The Priscillas - Gonna Rip Up Your Photograph
Dolly Parton does grunge! Nice enough punky sounds from the guitars are offset with a strangely country-esque vocal style. You get the feeling that....
Bloc Party - I Still Remember
I still remember Bloc Partys' last album. It was pretty good, exciting in places. If this is meant as an indication of the second record then the signs aren't good.....
The Little Flames - Isobella
Sounds a bit like the Long Blondes. That's the problem I think. I like The Long Blondes, but as soon as there's one band doing something another hundred feel the need to crop up......
Little Man Tate - About What You Know
The Question has to be - Does the world need more songs about kissing behind the bike-shed’s and smoking fags sung by seemingly ‘cheeky chappies’ or is Sheffield already producing.....
John Peel
I could (or rather should) have cut this interview down in length, but leaving out as much as i have already pains me. John Peel has a story and an anecdote for almost everything in life.....
Album
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
Ah The Shins, we all know them, “Chutes too narrow” was the most cheerful album of 2005, able to put a smile onto the face of the most ardent miserablist from 20 paces......
Live
Joanna Newsom
This is a little retrospective now having sat in my 'drafts' folder for nearly a month, but i thought that what with her playing at All Tomorrows parties and green man festival this year......
Single
Howling Bells – Low Happening
Listening to this song, you can imagine lead singer Juanita Stein to have the presence that turns heads the minute she walks into any bar. On "Low Happening", her vocals are effortlessly sexy....
Single
Candie Payne – I Wish I Could Have Loved You More
Were Mike Myers to write a new Austin Powers movie any time soon, he would need look no further than Liverpool's Candie Payne......
Live
Modular Party
Secret gigs eh? never really that secret... If they were, then there wouldn't be about 3 million people queuing outside a gated up metal door, and if indeed this modular party (featuring the one and only mstrkrft..
Single
The Rumble Strips – Alarm Clock
For anyone who likes the Future heads or just a great sing along with trumpets included, this is a refreshing change from the cynical lyrics and brooding self pity of people like the Arctic Monkeys......
Album
The Good, The Bad And The Queen – The Good, The Bad And The Queen
Damon Albarn must be so fucked off right now. over the last 17 years blur have led the britpop revolution, experimented and grown......
Single
The Black Keys – You're The One
This is the most chilled out song I think I’ve ever heard by The Keys, and considering that they are a band so laid back that they’re pretty much horizontal, that quite saying something....
Single
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly – I Spy
Southend's premier acoustic minstrel Sam Duckworth returns with another slice of bittersweet angst-folk. Like the ridiculously happy "Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager Pt. 1".....
Interview
Camera Obscura
Camera Obscura are Scotland’s contribution to underground indie, the band who produce a sixties-influenced resonance with sardonic soprano. The six-piece have just played......
Album
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Some Loud Thunder
The Brooklyn/New York based five piece’s follow up to 2006’s undeniably awkward yet utterly charming self- released eponymous debut......
Album
Do Make Say Think – You, You're A History In Rust
It appears that reports tha post-rock is ‘dead’ are pretty exaggerated, what with Mogwai still releasing good material, a new “Explosions in the sky”album......
Interview
The Rapture
let’s be honest - last year’s nme tour belonged to the rapture, cementing their rep as one of the most vital bands in rock. prior to the date at Norwich UEA, Loz... caught up with......
Album
The Loves – Technicolour
The Loves are a Welsh band in thrall to all things 1960’s - The Monkee’s, Velvet Underground, even Serge Gainsbourg by the sounds of it. and there’s some great pop music here.....
Single
Tilly And The Wall – The Freest Man
Tilly? Who in God’s name calls their child Tilly? Names aside, young Tilly sounds like across between Beth Orton and Sophie Ellis Bextor, hmm......
Single
Mark Ronson – God Put A Smile On Your Face
How does one remix a Coldplay song? They don't particularly leave themselves open to reinterpretation, but Mark Ronson has the answer....
Interview
Charlatans
The term legend is oft bandied about when it comes to music, but Tim Burgess, lead singer with The Charlatans, one of Britain’s longest serving and most respected bands.......
Single
Arcade Fire – Keep The Car Running
How do you follow up an album that was declared brilliant by pretty much everyone who heard it? Do you push your music as far as it can go, incorporating strange new instruments and styles?.....
Live
Nina Anastasia
This line-up captures diverse aspects of the folkier side of New York. Jeff and Nina have both made their way from East side to East Anglia for the beginning of the twisted folk tour.....
Single
The Horrors – Gloves
If you've heard The Horrors before, specifically "Count in Fives", then you already know exactly what this sounds like, you've probably made up your mind about them......
Single
Cold war kids – We used to vacation
A discordant mess of piano, guitars & stuttering drums, that echoes alt rock, country, emo and bar room blues, it reflects the lyrical subject of the song - alcoholism.......
Single
The Bronx – Shitty Future
It starts well - the sound of a snaking, insistent bass and pounding drums - and doesn't let up for 2 minutes. Recalling Queens of the Stone Age, early Foo Fighters or an uglier Hives......