Everything Everything – Man Alive

Everything Everything - Man Alive

Here is a conversational exchange (done via The Email) between our Albums Editor Greg Salter and our Overlord-of-sorts Natalie Shaw, about the sparkly-fresh new album Man Alive by hot young things Everything Everything. It’s because we couldn’t contain our excitement in the space of a conventional one-person-to-a-reader format, so needed to gather heads and take a metaphorical trip to the sweet shop and back home via magic carpet. … Continue Reading

In The City announces new additions…

The line-up for this year’s In The City (the UK’s own SXSW-style industry/bands mega-fest, if you’re not in the know – in Manchester) has just expanded… and it’s looking just marvellous. … Continue Reading

On Margate Sounds: a preview

On Margate Sounds

Well here’s something that caught MG’s eye… it’s a one-dayer in Margate, by the name of On Margate Sounds – and it’s taking place at one of the smallest theatres in the world.

There’s music and audio-visuals too, and the audience are also encouraged to become collaborators, bringing their own recorded contributions or noise-making offerings to be used by the artists. What a treat! And the end goal? An online sound library – attendees will be given a CD-R memento of the day with the sounds collected, forming the library’s start-point. Fancy. … Continue Reading

Urban Music Awards nominees revealed

Urban Music Awards

The Urban Music Awards announced the eighth annual set of nominees, to be revealed on September 18, 2010. The chart-topping accolade-winners include Tinie Tempah, Rihanna, JLS, M.I.A., Chipmunk and Alexandra Burke.
… Continue Reading

New London venue on the radar…

The Mothership Group – the people behind London’s Book Club and the Queen of Hoxton – are opening something new and exciting, which looks like this:

Pop-up bar - in progress...

They’ve got some exciting stuff coming up in the next few days too. Dubstep and reggae and all sorts, our spies have told us.

This is where it’s located… ^ …

EXCITING, right? Mysterious too. We’ll be playing Inspector Gadget there next week.

Over and out.

BBC announces plans for cuts: our open letter

BBC 6Music

The BBC has just confirmed its plans to shed 6Music, the Asian Network and 25% of its online budget. Here’s our writer’s letter, summing up the dire situation. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide introduces… Performance

Performance

Here at Muso’s Guide, we particularly enjoy introducing you to new bands. And today, we bring you another of our favourites, Performance – think of us as your ever-convivial host, as the lead singer Joe Stretch tells you a little bit more…

I’ve taken a crap in every toilet venue from The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen to The Joiners in Southampton. I sat on the seat or, if there was no seat or the seat was broken or had piss on it, then I hovered above the bowl. I did this at The Castle in Oldham, The Cluny in Newcastle, Fibbers in York. I did this all over England.

My name is Joe Stretch and I am the lead singer in a band called Performance, a three-piece, hailing from Manchester in the north-west of England. We formed around 2003 and signed a record deal with Polydor in December 2004. We were, in no particular order, a gambling addict, an anorexic, a drug addict and a depressive. We made pop music. I dropped out of university and signed the record contract with a Ladbrokes betting pen. Like everyone else, I regret nothing. … Continue Reading

Cate le Bon on Syd Barrett’s Barrett

Cate Le Bon

Cate Le Bon is one of our brightest stars, releasing her debut album Me Oh My in 2009. The boy Gruff Rhys done good when he found her, as our ears are now all the more grateful – her music is waify like Nico and all wyrd-claustrophobia , centred on a fascination with mortality. We’re only too pleased to have Cate here writing about her discovery and love of the late, great Syd Barrett. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide presents… woo.: Queen of Hoxton, February 18th, FREE!

We’re launching a brand-new free-entry clubnight called woo. at the Queen of Hoxton in London on Thursday February 18th [Gmap], featuring The Power Trio DJs (ooh, mysterious!) on the decks, playing:

My Bloody Valentine, Air France, Yo La Tengo, Memory Tapes, The Ronettes, Air, New Order, The Shangri-Las, Neon Indian, Vivian Girls, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Summer Camp, Beach House, TV On The Radio, M83, The Knife, Iggy and The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, The Radio Dept, No Age and more.

The PR has this bit of parodial wankery so we’re sticking it in here too:

woo. [wu?]
interj & n & vb
A less sycophantic and more authentic version of its descendent, ‘woo!’.

Do come. … Continue Reading

The rising stars of 2010: our picks

Top top tips

The Quality Streets have long since been polished off and our NYE hangovers have just about gone. Yup, it’s time to look ahead at the bands and fads that could be coming our way in the world of music in 2010.

Mitchell Stirling: The Glo-Fi genre

It’s a movement that started to really move into people’s perceptions in early autumn this year but a good, hot summer and a few of these acts putting out full albums could see it build on what’s gone already. There’s also the tantalising prospect of a European response from the likes of Air France who come from a chillier, but similar, place. In a sense, the main players are taking the ’80s revivalism that is shown in acts like Cut Copy, Ladyhawke, La Roux etc but eschewing the high concept glossy finish. There is also a thread running through this scene in that a lot of the material is DIY cassette copies with homemade artwork and small runs. There’s also a sense, with the lo-fi quality of the music that there’s a sense of the not-to-recent, half-remembered August nights on the beach evoked in the dreamy lullabies. It’s also a scene that is unravelling in front of us right now. Best of all, though, it amuses me that Memory Tapes’s ‘Pink Stones’ has a passing resemblance to the outro of Henry’s Cat.

… Continue Reading