Tamara Lindemann (The Weather Station) has had to rush off for lunch, after being stuck in hours of traffic on her way to Gullivers (gig reviewed here). This makes interviewing her rather difficult – my explanation of why I’m here to the woman on the door goes down badly and I receive a lot of […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – As a Manchester based website it would be rude to ignore Mother. The last time we saw this act, there were just two of them and their broth was slightly under-cooked. Tonight though Mother have added two members to make a quartet, and their witches brew is thicker and leaves a […]
Twisted Reel, the Northern Quarter’s regular film night, is to screen Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90), the documentary film that examines the early DIY punk scene in the US Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – This is, hands down, the oddest gig I’ve been to. And I saw the first iteration of The Knife’s Shake The Habitual tour. Jenny Hval, the Norwegian art-pop-composer-sometime—metal-vocalist has brought her show to Manchester’s intimate Gullivers, and it’s full on mental. Hval has just released her best album, Apocalypse, girl, and […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – If you’re in a lo-fi shoegaze emo indie punk band, you can expect a number of your fans to be introverts. It appears they’re all out tonight – standing awkwardly, faces pointed towards the foot of the stage with hands in pockets, making sure they don’t invade someone else’s personal space. There are a […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – New Zealand folk singer songwriter Hannah Hardings’ English-accented singing voice is strong enough to have drawn comparisons to Vashti Bunyan, but it’s not as though she’s really forcing it, like Joanna Newsom. The delivery of her lyrics – which one could envisage were written on a remote farm, free from technology – seem all too natural to […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Its 10 to 11. The curfew for most Manchester venues is merely minutes away. Yet, as most bands are packing up to the sound of roars from the audience, there is one band that is just coming on stage. The band is Tops and this is not due to any lateness, […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Psych purists may tell you that, if your guitarist adjusts the sound effect on his guitar slightly, you should probably consider changing your entire wardrobe and playing somewhere else. We’ll have none of that around here. Tonight’s 3 bands predominantly specialise in shoegaze and garage, with a multitude of influences in between, and they’ll be playing while bathed in […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Ryley Walker sits alone, the added instruments on his new album Primrose Green seemingly not in attendance. His guitar case is flung wide like an open top coffin reminding us that he is not here to stay, that this is just one whistle stop on a very long tour. It’s a […]
– GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – There is sometimes a chasm between lives led, and lives we would want to lead. Most of us spread ourselves an inch thin and a mile wide, diluting ourselves to satisfy the multifarious demands of life, and lose something of ourselves in that process. Credit then to those who find another […]