ALBUM REVIEW – BAR ITALIA: THE TWITS

With the arrival of ‘The Twits’ at the start of November, it appears bar italia are on top of their game: the enigmatic trio’s latest offering comes just months after their record ‘Tracey Denim’ hit the airwaves and streaming services in May, which saw the group hone their trademark vocal interplay and intense instrumentation. Also heavily present in […]
This could just be my best review ever. A part of me feels like I won’t ever get enjoyment like this. It’s interesting the hallucinogenic trance of ‘Snail Mail’s’ ‘Valentine Demos’. Lindsey Jordan’s vocals are quite hard to follow at moments, it’s without a doubt something that captures a listener with an eerie but spooky […]

EP REVIEW – SNAIL MAIL: VALENTINE DEMOS

ALBUM REVIEW – BAR ITALIA: TRACEY DENIM

There is a contrariness to Bar Italia. Choosing a name that is difficult to google, more likely to lead to mid-price high street eateries than music, has a wilfulness to it. Calling their debut album ‘Tracey Denim’ shows a similar awkward streak in selecting a common name (unfairly synonymous with being naff) and denim, one […]
Having sustained my first ever moshpit injury at a Sonic Youth gig in the early 90’s at The Reading Festival, involving someone else’s Doc Marten boot, squelchy mud and my head, to seeing their last ever gig in Manchester, it’s fair to say Kim Gordon’s former band, Sonic Youth, have occupied a large portion of […]

ALBUM REVIEW: KIM GORDON – NO HOME RECORD

ALBUM: YO LA TENGO – THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON

The fact that Yo La Tengo have existed for over thirty years, with a consistently strong but still relatively underground appeal, could be one of the reasons behind the title of their fifteenth  album. Not that Yo La Tengo are in anyway riotous, well at least not in an obvious way. Theirs is a slower, […]
Belle and Sebastian have always produced the kind of music which is delicate on the eardrums, yet with a feisty rock n roll streak tearing through its core. They’re one of those bands who you think you’ve got figured out, then they go off and do something unexpected. Live, their gigs transform into a communal […]

ALBUM: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – HOW TO SOLVE OUR HUMAN PROBLEMS

LP COLLABORATION BETWEEN COURTNEY BARNETT & KURT VILE TO BE RELEASED

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile have revealed that they have completed a collaboration album for release later this year. In support of this they will be leading an all-star band on a once-in-a-lifetime tour of North America this autumn. Kurt Vile said of the collaboration: “It started out as, maybe we’ll do a split 7″ […]
Savages have unveiled the first glimpse of their new album Adore Life which will be released on January 22nd 2016 on Matador Records.  Listen to the new track below:    Savages – European Tour Dates includes a date at Manchester’s Albert Hall  November 30 – Berlin, DE – Berghain Kantine – Tickets December 1 – Paris, […]
savages adore life

SAVAGES UNVEIL NEW TRACK ‘T.I.W.Y.G.’

Album Review: Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin down…

Within the first 30 seconds of b’lieve I’m goin down… we are once again fully acquainted with the languid, finger-pickin-on-the-ranch, meandering tendencies of Philadelphia’s Kurt Vile. After a brief spell as member of The War on Drugs, he has been releasing solo albums for seven years, peaking commercially with 2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo and […]
Misissippi psych stomper ‘Pretty Pimpin’ is the lead track from the b’lieve I’m going down… album, Vile’s hotly anticipated fifth. It catches him in fine form but also in contemplative mood, and in the midst of an identity crisis. The whole ensemble reads like the rueful dregs of a drunken weekend, swilling at the bottom of […]

Single Review: Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin