Howler – America Give Up

Howler - America Give Up

By Richard Wink

A New Year comes along, and the sonic cycle spins round one more time. Howler are Rough Trade’s latest big stateside hope – Manic Pixie Indie Dream Boys for a new generation waiting for an indie rock band to change their lives.

America Give Up is a bustling bundle of burning ambition; a deliberate intention from the band to create a stir, and see a bit of the world. If you were exposed to The Strokes back in the early noughties in your teens as I was, then this is nothing new. Ditto, if Alex Turner wrote the songs that soundtracked your first pint a few years after Is This It, back when you had your first fist fight outside the kebab shop in front to the Taxi rank whilst you tried to impress the girl of your dreams; then, though you’ll appreciate Howler, you will feel this album is not much more than a nostalgic nod to your salad days. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide Singles Club: 14th November 2011

by Richard Wink

Another week, another clutch of singles desperately clamouring for our attention like eager little puppies. So without further ado, let’s see what this Monday morning has to offer, shall we? … Continue Reading

Elliott Smith – Roman Candle

Elliott Smith - Roman Candle

It’s coming up to seven years since Elliott Smith’s untimely death, and nobody is quite sure how to define Smith’s legacy. Perhaps this is because the two posthumous releases – From a Basement on the Hill and New Moon appeared to be unfinished reminders of Smith’s talents as a songwriter, leaving plenty of unanswered questions. It’s fair to see that during the sessions for From a Basement… Smith was a man entrenched in his own head, fighting numerous battles. His vision as a musician was severely tainted. … Continue Reading

Lady Antebellum – Need You Now

Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Country Music… just saying those two words causes a shudder. However recently there has been a hint of mainstream credibility creeping back into the much maligned genre. No longer are we seeing a bunch of backwoods Barbies, and generic looking chiseled jawed cowboy-types trotting out mid-tempo strum alongs about heartbreak and devouring t-bone steaks. Lady Antebellum are part of the new breed of contemporary artists that incorporate R&B and rock elements into the rigid Country songwriting template. … Continue Reading

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I probably am, maybe…..

Arctic Monkeys

I’m not really too bothered about who he’s fucking, or where he lives, or even what he gets up to outside music. He can become an actor if he wants, start painting….. whatever. I’m concerned about Alex Turner, ‘the indie icon’, about this ‘genius’ tag that has prematurely been bestowed upon his slender frame. … Continue Reading

Delphic – Acolyte

Delphic

The new Musical Season starts in December; various names are being banded about, the next big thing is about to be chosen. Could it be Delphic?

Already they’ve appeared on Jools Holland, achieved considerable airplay for their singles ‘This Momentary’ and ‘Doubt’, and significantly they are signed to the very fashionable label Kitsuné. Their sound is of the moment – ‘elecdie’ (electro-indie).

The problem with Acolyte is that it doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary. It wouldn’t be wise to get down to your local bookies and place money on this album winning the Mercury Prize, and you really wouldn’t imagine gazing into the crystal ball and predicting Delphic will light up the hundreds and hundreds of festivals next summer. But who really cares about hype? If we ignore all of the above then Delphic are just another band from Manchester; yet Mancunian bands usually, historically speaking have a bit about them. Even The Courteeners got some goodwill from critics because their postcode started with an ‘M’. I guess we get caught up in the folklore of the city, and believe that there is still some magic in the Northern air, despite the city’s radical facelift over the last twenty years.

… Continue Reading

2000: Nu-Metal, pert bums in hotpants and Craig David

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

We resume our extended nostalgia-bit with a revisit of the year 2000, courtesy of Richard Wink… we’ll be travelling forwards in time over the coming days after zipping back, so keep your mice peeled or whatnot.

The Marshall Mathers LP helped me pass my GCSEs. I remember sitting in the exam hall during a Maths exam and the lyrics to ‘Who Knew’ kept rolling through my head– “I don’t do black music, I don’t do white music / I make fight music, for high school kids/I put lives at risk when I drive like this/I put wives at risk with a knife like this”. What? You didn’t expect me to be listening to Kid A, did you? … Continue Reading

It had to be bells ringing: the battle for Christmas Number One

Rage Against The Machine

The X Factor is arguably the best thing to happen to Pop Music since the advent of MTV. Yet for the last two years a number of spiteful people have attempted to derail the fairytale, and prevent the deserved winner of the popular singing contest of becoming number one in the charts. Simon Cowell has revived Pop Music, he’s made us care again about Pop, we invest in the dreams of the contestants, and we buy into their journey.

Names like Leon Jackson and Shayne Ward roll off the tongue, before The X Factor they were nobodies. Now they are failures… popular celebrity failures. But the one thing you can never take away from them is being number one in the charts at Christmas, joining an illustrious list of artists that includes Mr Blobby, East 17, Rolf Harris and Little Jimmy Osmond. … Continue Reading

Rain Machine – Rain Machine

Rain Machine

Since his band (TV On The Radio, if you didn’t know) is currently on hiatus for a short spell Kyp Malone has decided to venture solo under the moniker Rain Machine. The album is a sophisticated form of art folk, designed for hip smoky basement bars where the whiskey is strong enough to put hairs on your chest. What sets this album apart from most other one man and his guitar albums are the subtle changes in Malone’s vocals, his voice becomes an instrument and tells the story of the song in a more concise way than the lyrics, swiftly changing from sorrow, to anger after lust and jubilation.

… Continue Reading

Katsen – It Hertz!

Katsen

On first impression Katsen resemble the sort of band that might soundtrack Nathan Barley, were Chris Morris and co to make another series of the underrated sitcom. Katsen are knowingly quirky, and they make awkward sounding electro-pop a little like Hot Chip and Ratatat minus the mojo, only more entrenched in the eighties sound.

… Continue Reading