5 June, 2011
If I’m being brutally honest, as I walk towards The Wee Red Bar (it is actually wee and red) I am expecting to be in the minority, that there would be more band members than audience. This is not to belittle Neil Sturgeon & the Infomaniacs, far from it. The sad truth is the band aren’t widely known and a gig far from their comfort zone of Glasgow on a Sunday night is not the recipe for a sell out.
25 May, 2011
Holy Ghost! come to Hoxton’s Bar And Kitchen with an almost impeccable modern disco pedigree. They’ve remixed Phoenix, MGMT and Cut Copy, have featured on a Kitsuné compilation and have worked their way on to James Murphy’s DFA to release their eponymous debut album. … Continue Reading
May 24, 2011
The multi-national folk rockers Sparrow and the Workshop stopped by Edinburgh for their second Scottish date in support of the forthcoming album, Spitting Daggers. Sneaky Pete’s is easy to miss, sitting on Cowgate in Edinburgh, about twenty seconds walk from the popular Grassmarket. It’s not a venue to win any aesthetic awards, with it’s small, functional feel. In short, it’s ideal for seeing a good band. … Continue Reading
Seems that spring is a good time for those sprawling multi-venue potpourri festivals that celebrate the oft-overlooked fresh faces as much as they do the more established acts. Since March, we’ve already seen the Texan behemoth SXSW roll out another endless line-up of live music, and here on our own turf both Brighton’s Great Escape and Liverpool Sound City have applied the same formula in their promotion of new music in the past month. Over the course of the bank holiday weekend though, this concept gets expanded as the annual Dot to Dot hosts it’s hectic venue-hopping one-day party in no less than three separate cities.
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21 May, 2011
A selection of photos from Villagers‘ show with Michele Stoddart at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. All photos taken by Jason Williamson. More of Jason’s work can be found here. … Continue Reading
21 May, 2011
On it’s third trip outside of London, Stag & Dagger feels a bit jaded. Possibly it was the wet weather dampening down enthusiasm but even wristband collection is a downer (and where is the mention of the free shot?). Times may be hard too as I’m convinced the wristbands were left over from last year seeing as they were the same colour and didn’t think Firetrap were a sponsor this time round. Free ad for them then if they weren’t. … Continue Reading
18 May, 2011
Eccentric is one of the first words that springs to mind when you think of Connan Mockasin. And it’s fair to say even that is a bit of an understatement. In the crowded room at the HMV Institute, there are murmuring questions as to who tonight’s support act is. People don’t seem to know. Not that knowing helps; just watching the video for album title track ‘Forever Dolphin Love’ is enough to tell you that this is someone quite bewildering and out of the ordinary. The New Zealander, formerly of Connan & The Mockasins, real name Connan Hosford, takes to the stage to a few scattered cheers. Dressed in a black silk shirt, a wild mop of blonde hair covering most of his face, he steps up to the microphone, addressing the mainly male audience with ‘As the support act we don’t expect you to be polite or clap or anything. We just hope you enjoy the night’ and it’s difficult to tell if this is some kind of self-deprecating humour, or a sarcastic jibe at the slightly unenthusiastic welcome onstage. Whatever the intention, the audience pull their socks up and applause and cheering ripples across the room, before the set is opened with the rousing Egon Hosford. The heavy rhythm of drums seems to catalyse more of an interest from the audience. … Continue Reading
13-15 May, 2011
We live in hard times, friends. Not hard like it was back in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s obviously, or even the early 80s of course but you know, bread is pricey these days, so pretty damn hard. The enforced economic cutbacks are far reaching and have inevitably spread to everyone’s favourite indie-cred festival, ATP. Now down to just one May festival from the previous years’ 2, one will become none in 2012 due to a big dip in ticket sales caused by all manner of possible reasons; a perceived lack of quality in the curators and invitees of recent years, too much choice in the festival peak season, general overkill and that phrase much used of late: ‘tightening of the belt’. … Continue Reading
11 May, 2011
Prior to seeing And So I Watch You From Afar in live performance tonight, I only really knew three things about them: they had a powerful live reputation, they played sorta-kinda post-rock music, and their newest album Gangs is getting people talking about it as if it’s the answer to something. That’s about the sum total of my knowledge of this band up until tonight’s gig. It can be quite intimidating for a reviewer (if I may be permitted to allow my personal shortcomings to speak for us all) to be expected to pass judgement on a band who you have very limited background knowledge on; no ability to easily contextualise them; no frame of reference, nor any points of comparison with prior work or studio output. Thankfully, however, And So I Watch You From Afar are startlingly and blisteringly immediate. Allow me to pass judgment with conviction: this was ace. … Continue Reading
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