“SPIN THE WHEEL!” No, we’re not in the audience for Wheel of Fortune, but the wheel is the key decision maker onstage with Yo La Tengo tonight. Needless to say, this tour is unlike any other, and even though the…
Category: Reviews
Album: Zervas & Peppers – Somewhere In The City
Does anyone fancy a trip through their parents record collection? Zervas & Peppers wear their influences on their sleeve, so it won’t take you long listening to this to realise that said influences are Fleetwood Mac, CSN&Y, Joni Mitchell and…
EP: Matthew P – The Breakfast EP
You won’t go mistaking Matthew P’s records for any of the other Americana bands who fit in to the same wistful bracket. For while his music recalls the straightforward ease of the Wood Brothers and others who dwell somewhere between…
Album: O’Death – Outside
Folk-rock is given a sinister spin on Outside, the third full-length record from Brooklyn six-piece O’Death. As the band’s name suggests, life – and the end of it – serves as a source of inspiration, with multiple tracks rhythmically and…
Album: Bodies of Water – Twist Again
Twist Again is a bit like chocolate with chilli in it, full of unexpected combinations: the first track, ‘One Hand Loves The Other’, evokes orchestration by Philip Glass spliced with Nancy Sinatra vocals, and the result is endearingly demented. ‘Triplets’…
Album: Chad VanGaalen – Diaper Island
I never expected Chad VanGaalen to write a song called ‘Shave My Pussy’. The artist who brought us the depressingly delicate ‘Willow Tree’ doesn’t seem like someone who would employ that sort of imagery, but there it sits, capping off…
Live: Best Coast @ Thekla, Bristol
After Kurt Cobain’s death, a gathering was held where his rival, and apparent nemesis, Eddie Vedder noted that the fame of Seattle’s grunge contingency might well be down to Cobain’s genius. Whilst Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino has the same love…
Album: Cashier No. 9 – To The Death of Fun
What do you get if you take the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Byrds, Phil Spector, New Order and stick them all into a cocktail shaker? Then serve the contents to five guys from Belfast? The result is Cashier No.9,…
Album: Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Justin Vernon returns with a more integral cast of collaborators for his second album as Bon Iver. The name is drawn from the French for “good winter” (bon hiver) and the often sparse instrumentation coupled with Vernon’s alternately hushed and…
EP: Michael Kiwanuka – Tell Me A Tale
I need to go and see Michael Kiwanuka in person. Only then might I believe he exists, at least in the form we’re told of. Surely it’s more plausible that, rather than being a 23-year-old Londoner, he’s now an aging…