Last Wednesday, the New Pornographers took the stage of a packed Electric Ballroom for the first European date of their summer tour promoting new album Together, freshly released earlier this month. Together is the band’s first release since 2007 and…
Category: Reviews
Album: The National – High Violet
There’s something frighteningly well thought out about High Violet – over its 47 minute duration every song seems perfectly well placed to create the mood that the band want you to feel. Whilst it’s certainly not a concept album there…
FFS New Bands Panel: Jason Ward
West Virginia’s Jason Ward is releasing his latest single “Bless You” as a free digital download backed by “Dark In Here”. Our New Band Panel has taken a listen to both that and tracks from his last EP, Graceful Bow,…
FFS New Bands Panel: Matthew Kilford
Singer/songwriter Matthew Kilford has been creating a strong buzz in his native Oxfordshire for some time now, and the word is spreading, not least thanks to gigs with the likes of Andy Yorke, Dawn Kinnard, Seth Lakeman and also The…
Classic Album: Joni Mitchell – Hejira
“I’m traveling in some vehicle/ I’m sitting in some cafe/ A defector from the petty wars/ Until love sucks me back that way” Hejira represented a new peak of sophistication in Joni Mitchell’s writing when it appeared on Asylum Records…
Live: FFS @ The Great Escape
On paper, Brighton’s Great Escape is a rather extraordinary proposition. Take three hundred or so up-and-coming artists, sprinkle on a dusting of more established acts and spread them across a hotchpotch of 30 venues. While that’s bubbling away nicely, throw…
FFS New Bands Panel: The Son(s)
Originally a three-piece, the Sons are now just one, who I guess we’ll call the Son. Ploughing a lonely furrow, the remaining Son is working on a new EP and our panel took a listen to the work in progress.…
Classic Album: Joni Mitchell – Clouds
Clouds was Joni Mitchell’s second album and won her a Grammy for best folk performance in 1970. I didn’t know the album’s biography before I came to write this piece because when you come to an artist with a large…
Live: Po’Girl @ Holywell Music Hall, Oxford
Po’Girl stem from Canada and comprise Allison Russell, Awna Teixeira, and Benny Sidelinger. Allison and Awna both have incredible voices and produce incredible harmonies, yet as multiple instrumentalists they bring to their showcases a wide array of instruments that include…
Live: The Antlers @ The Scala, London
Kings Cross is an area lacking identity over and above being a major travel hub. The immediate vicinity is a tableau of inner city post-industrial decline and recent attempts at regeneration which have, in the main, failed. The venue for…