ALBUM REVIEW: DRAIN – CALIFORNIA CURSED

In the year of 2020, seeing a release by a band called Drain is just oh-so relatable. With the future of new releases facing its own dilemmas, it’s time to plough through every new release, in hope one is going to stick with me. After my first listen through I discovered that my face ached! […]
Chanelling the spirit of Teenage Fanclub, The Beach Boys and Slowdive, dream pop with an effervescent jangle comes blasting out of the speakers on Yakima’s debut EP ‘Go Virtually’. The Glasgow quartet have already toured with the likes of Pottery and their woozy laidback sounds are captured in all their Big Star-esque glory on this […]

EP REVIEW: YAKIMA – GO VIRTUALLY

ALBUM REVIEW: MOANING – UNEASY LAUGHTER

Moaning. I know the concept very well. I have crafted it to a fine point, that it can transcend and become an entirely new life force from its mere rumbling of my ‘thoughts’. Moaning the band, have unleashed their full debut ‘Uneasy Laughter’ and second release on fabled label, Sub Pop. Just like the album […]
Guess who’s back? Kvelertak. Kvelertak, tell a friend! (worked better in my head) Kvelertak had found themselves sailing to the unknown. Their last release ‘Nattesferd’ was a fine advancement in their sound, moving away from shorter bursts of fright, to a progressive, aggressive lengthier song run. Was great but didn’t quite catch on like previous […]

ALBUM REVIEW: KVELERTAK – SPLID

ALBUM REVIEW: SOCCER MOMMY – COLOR THEORY

Ah the difficult second album, it’s something every artist either embraces or dreads, it usually goes one of a few ways, you either make something too similar to the first album or you go in a completely different direction and alienate your fan base. It is a difficult tightrope to walk for any artist, but […]
‘G Stands For Go-Betweens’ is the recently released boxset from the group that helped to define the sound of indie guitar bands, Sadly with the passing of founder member Grant McLennan, The Go-Betweens ceased in 2006, but the phenomenal songwriting partnership of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan is immortalised in the latest edition of the […]

INTERVIEW Q & A: ROBERT FORSTER – THE GO-BETWEENS

ALBUM REVIEW: ASH – TEENAGE WILDLIFE

‘Kung Fu, do what you do to me. I haven’t been the same since my teenage lobotomy.’ It’s been twenty five years now since Ash released their first full album ‘1977’. The band have had some up’s and downs throughout their career so far. Although considering the three Northern Irish punks practically walked out of […]
Talking to sheep whilst making your ninth album, probably never crossed the mind of Nada Surf’s guitarist and vocalist Matthew Caws when he started writing the demos, yet for this quintessential U.S. indie band apparently that’s what he did on country walks during recording at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and the serene farmyard surroundings appear […]

ALBUM REVIEW: NADA SURF – NEVER NOT TOGETHER

ALBUM REVIEW: VUKOVI – FALL BETTER

As Vukovi’s guitarist Hamish Reilly says “There’s not a lot of atonal stuff on our record. I guess I’d call what we do melodic heavy pop-rock.” Personally, I’d go one further and start any description of Fall Better with “pop”, given how strongly front-and-centre Janine Shilstone’s vocals are, and how pure breathy-bubblegum-pop her sound is. […]
Despite the word ‘dream’ being closely associated with the music of Sir Was, the opening track of ‘Holding on to a Dream’ begins with a sense of urgency; the pop element of his ‘Dream Pop’ being most apparent. The pop that Sir Was does purvey isn’t annoying and has the right amount of reflection too, […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SIR WAS – HOLDING ON TO A DREAM