So Interpol’s frontman Paul Banks has joined the growing ranks of blokes in bands releasing solo records, but does the world need another outlet for his creative juices?
On first listen, and particularly on first track Only If You Run, you’d have to say a big fat ‘no’. It plods, it whines, and it lacks any of the tense energy of Interpol at their best.
In 1986 Sam Baker was blown up Peruvian terrorists. He spent days in hospital unable to move, he underwent weeks of surgery including on his brain and treatment for shrapnel and gangrene. After the explosion Sam had to learn to walk and talk again. He’s deaf in one ear and the loudest sound in the other is ringing.
Bellowhead’s cellist, singer and violinist Rachael McShane takes us through her first solo album, No Man’s Fool, track-by-track.
The folkstars were out in force on Monday night for the Stars of Sunday League’s launch of EP ‘The Boy’s Got Prospects’.
First up were I Said Yes, who came from all over the UK to play just two tracks. FFS has been looking forward to hearing them for some time. And – despite having to switch around parts thanks to a singer with no voice – they didn’t disappoint. I Said Yes play lovely and rousing folk pop with accordion and violin.
She & Him are not a band willing to live by clichés. By all means, the first collaboration between a guitar-wielding bluesman and a Hollywood starlet should be equal parts dull and self-indulgent. Volume One breaks the formula effortlessly from the heartbreaking opening vocals by actress Zooey Deschanel, one half of a team completed by M. Ward. The key is the wide range of influences audible in every track – there is as much room on Volume One for the softer side of Motown as there is for the livelier side of Les Paul and Mary Ford. ‘Why Do You Let Me Stay Here’ takes its leaf out of the latter’s book, a charming and energetic track in which one can hear every ounce of joy that the band have squeezed out of putting together their album.
Before this debut album arrived to review, I already had 12 Slow Club tracks on my iTunes, which gives some idea of how prolific they’ve been already. So here are 12 more (13 if you include the secret track), and, mostly, they’re a very welcome addition to the Slow Club cannon.
Stephen Wilkinson, AKA Bibio, is one hell of a busy guy, only six months after releasing Vignetting The Compost, his fifth release on Mush Records, he’s back on a new label (Warp) with Ambivalence Avenue a fascinatingly beautiful hybrid of folk and electronica.
How gorgeous is the new Beth Jeans Houghton EP? Still relatively new on the scene, Newcastle’s BJH brings an air of 1920’s to her understated alt-folk.
Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman jerks around the stage like Chris Martin. Which is a bit weird. It is good for the band, though, for without his eccentricity, a four-piece who’s debut album is a glorious indy-blues stomp would look distinctly out of their depth in the live arena.
Domino records are never happy. Already having given us superb stuff from the likes of Eugene McGuinness, Lightspeed Champion and Cass McCombs, they now have released King Creosote’s latest album Flick the Vs. No One had It Better is taken off this album which is roughly Creosote A.K.A Kenny Anderson’s fortieth release.