LIVE REVIEW: PAVEMENT – 20/10/22

It’s been twenty-two years since Pavement last played Manchester, in the intervening years, social media has taken off, the way we consume music has changed, yet for many bands the two-way street of appreciation between band and audience remains as vital as ever. I was lucky enough to witness Pavement in the early years, after […]
Being old enough to have seen The Lemonheads plenty of times in the early 90’s, the fact they were returning to play the whole of one of my favourite albums, was a gigging opportunity which was not to be missed. Last time Evan Dando and his band toured the seminal ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ […]

LIVE: THE LEMONHEADS – 08/10/2022

ALBUM REVIEW: KRAMIES – KRAMIES

Kramies is a Dutch singer songwriter from Ohio, who on his latest album has created eight tunes which he states are a like a “polaroid scrapbook of his life”. With inspiration for each song originating in the different life stages and situations he’s encountered over the years it could have made for a disjointed listen, […]
The name may conjure up smoky wood panelled rooms and hushed conversations, or loafing around on hazy Sundays, yet this lot couldn’t be further from that imagery if they tried. Lounge Society hail from Hebden Bridge and Todmorden and are the latest band to emerge on the wonderful Speedy Wunderground label. Not fitting in and […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE LOUNGE SOCIETY – TIRED OF LIBERTY

INTERVEW: OISIN MOD – BILL RYDER-JONES PRODUCED HIS DEBUT ALBUM, A SERENE YET CAPTIVATING COLLECTION OF SONGS FROM THE NEW GALWAY BASED SONGWRITER

Hailing from Galway, Oisin Mod has created a debut album that brims with a calmness and sense of serene yet vibrant melodies. It’s no wonder that Bill Ryder-Jones liked his songs so much he ended up producing his debut album, as the two operate in the same realms of gentle vocal sounds mixed with dreamy […]
Just when you think you know Ty Segall as the modern king of psych rock, he blasts any preconceptions you have of him into outer space, as the ‘Whirlybird’ soundtrack released earlier this year demonstrated. Hot on the heels of that epic, comes his latest studio album ‘Hello, Hi’. There’s always been a touch of […]

ALBUM REVIEW: TY SEGALL – HELLO HI

ALBUM REVIEW: HOWL IN THE TYPEWRITER – THE SOUND OF MUSICK and THE RED ALBUM

During ‘Vietnam Tabloid’, the closing track on ‘The Sound of Musick’, Stan Batcow launches into a spoken description of what it takes for a piece of music to become popular, arguing that it merely has to become familiar. In safe, formulaic music, the listener can easily predict the chord changes, where the chorus and instrumental […]
Anyone who writes a song about a gannet called Nigel, which starts with the opening lines “They’ve all been making plans for Nigel, and by them I mean the ornithologists”, is already on to a winner. ‘Nigel The Gannet’ is a catchy tale of the natural world complete with The Burning Hell’s brilliant take on […]

ALBUM REVIEW: THE BURNING HELL – GARBAGE ISLAND

INTERVIEW: LUIS ROBERTS – NEW WELSH WONDER RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM: A DELICATE FEAST OF FOLK POP WITH HINTS OF TALK TALK AND ELBOW, A WELSH LANGUAGE ALBUM WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ALBUMS YOU’LL HEAR ALL YEAR

Luis Roberts is a Welsh wonder! A songwriter who sings in the Welsh language, yet his songs have a universal appeal, steeped in a gentle folk psych pop forest of lush melodies, delicate guitars and pianos. His debut album ‘Cloeon’ has hints of Talk Talk’s expansive soundings, mixed with Elbow’s subtle melodic ways, and is […]
Placebo have always walked the line between clever lyrics, and a dark melodic edge, with guitarist and singer Brian Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal being  the two original members who have kept the Placebo flame burning bright for over twenty five years. Molko has always had an astute lyrical wisdom, which thankfully is still as […]

ALBUM REVIEW: PLACEBO – NEVER LET ME GO