LIVE: DEER TICK – 01/02/2018

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- “Sorry we’re a couple minutes late. We were water skiing.” With that explanation out of the way, the tooth that’s all silver and shiny in the mouth of Deer Tick’s John McCauley might be a fortified one he uses to bite off his beer-bottle top before his exhaled breath propels it up […]
-THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD- Far from the Northern Quarter, the beating heart of Manchester’s thriving indie scene, lies a desolate industrial complex. Surrounded by scrap tips and disused lock up garages, in the arse end of Salford, stands the equally desolate looking White Hotel. However this desolate exterior hides a much darker secret inside… As […]

LIVE: MOON DUO – 01/02/2018

LIVE: WOLF PEOPLE – 27/01/2018

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- Drawing their name from the Margaret Greaves children’s book Little Jacko and the Wolf People, Wolf People are a psychedelic quartet formed in 2005 in Bedfordshire. Tonight, they play Deaf Institute in Manchester. As the disco ball dangling above the crowd shoots amber and violet hues across the room, four unassuming thirty […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- The modern psychedelic scene is known for its ingenuity, originality and prolificness, and with an abundance of bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Thee Oh Sees who produce fresh, hard hitting, tripped-out anthems that draw from the heyday of psychedelia whilst still managing to sound fresh and organic, it […]

LIVE: WAND / EAST SISTER – 26/01/2018

ALBUM: HOOKWORMS- MICROSHIFT

The advent of using synths in Indie Rock is nothing new, its popularity seemed to rise in conjunction with skinny jeans and I often wonder if there’s a correlation between the amount of bands like Everything Everything and Friendly Fires who howl their lyrics and the ‘close crotch’ of tight jeans. With that in mind, […]
Keeping up with Ty Segall can be hard work! Over the last few years he’s taken garage rock to a whole new level, constantly releasing albums, (around twenty in his own name at the last count), and that doesn’t include the numerous collaborations, or singles and EPs. Then there are the live gigs all over […]

ALBUM: TY SEGALL – FREEDOM’S GOBLIN

LIVE: STARCRAWLER – 17/01/2018

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- “I love L.A.” darks-out of frontwoman Arrow de Wilde’s mouth. Although restrained, the statement speaks to an unchained relationship with glamour and the grotesque that colours the 18-year-old’s presence, and when released, the words don’t simply fall, but are supercharged by an accompanying quarter-pint of blood that spills from Wilde’s lips and […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- What strikes me as I watch Lee Fields strut onto the stage, in his brilliantly blue gold toned brocade jacket, is just how brilliantly bouncy he is. Like a man half his age, his energy is infectious with most of the crowd bouncing along with him as the night goes on. I actually […]

LIVE: LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS – 24/01/2018

ALBUM: THE GO! TEAM – SEMICIRCLE

Ever since they burst onto the music scene in 2004, The Go! Team have been on my gym playlist, and that’s in no way meant as an insult. Although if The Go! Team could see me red faced, sweaty and jumping around to the throws of Bottle Rocket and Junior Kickstart, they might disagree. Yet […]
-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- It’s the first gig after the Christmas break and it’s great to be back in Manchester for an evening of live music. Tonight’s entertainers are Liverpool band The Probes, made up of Jack Greene (vocals, guitar), Ray Badger (guitar), Justin Forman (bass) and Elliot Ferguson (drums). Arriving at Oldham Street’s […]

LIVE: THE PROBES / BABYLON / PLEASURES / MARK PRATT – 12/01/2018