We’ve spent the last two days unveiling numbers 50-11 in our top 50 songs of 2011, and now the time has come to unveil what Muso’s Guide’s hefty panel of writers nominated as their top 10 songs released this year. It’s been a pretty diverse selection thus far, and the top end of the chart is no different. … Continue Reading
PJ Harvey
Welcome to the fifth and final part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41, 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year next week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you! … Continue Reading
T in the Park
We bring you the round up from our next stop in an 11-festival calendar with Vodafone VIP – Scotland’s pride, T in the Park festival.
For those who presume that a festival containing 70,000 ‘revellers’ (as the local papers will have you picture it) in a giant muddy field can’t possibly have the excitement of their favourite band headlining a venue in their town, T in the Park is a strong challenger. … Continue Reading
Its Monday once again which means its time for a trawl through this week’s harvest of singles in search of something just off the beaten track worth a listen.
Reading Festival
August 27-29, 2010
When the music at Reading Festival begins on Friday (following a boozy Thursday session in the town centre), a hangover is as welcome as the evacuation of vomit that preceded it (said sickness is still being blamed on an salmonella-friendly campsite BBQ on Thursday night). As the phrase goes, time stands still for no man (even one with a hangover) and a now-successful remedy is to get a cold pint of Gaymers (other ciders are available, just nowhere near the festival site) and head off to see some bands. … Continue Reading
Standon Calling - view from the crowd
Earlier this week, I read an article about how miserable the music festival experience can be. One of their prime examples was Chicago’s Pitchfork Festival; a festival which I had the pleasure of attending last year. And whilst I had an undeniably great time, I can see where the writers of the article were coming from – it was cramped, it was hot, and it wasn’t ideal. … Continue Reading
Offset Festival
September 5, 2009
So here we are again: the first weekend of September. An autumnal chill on the darker nights, and one of the last festivals of the summer – Offset, in a beautiful country park in Essex.
Metronomy
Completely out of nowhere, Metronomy have just released a new EP. It’s the first fruit of their new line-up, and it’s a decidely different offering to Nights Out. In fact, it verges closer to the lo-fi (hell, it’s relative!) of their debut album Pip Paine (Pay Back The £5000 You Owe). Kind of. Well actually not really; the Not Made For Love EP is an interesting stopgap with not too much indication of what the future holds.
Title track ‘Not Made For Love’ feels restrained. It’s a slow-builder, with the line “you made a big mistake” repeated over an ever-building cross-section of lines into a still-pared down climax. The sound comes together masterfully, staccato rhythms dropping in and out over the top of delirious in-unison syncopation. Thoughts, hopes or fears that the addition of a drummer in the live show would turn Metronomy into a guitar band seem to have been royally dismissed. … Continue Reading
Metronomy
Woah there, MG live favourites Metronomy have been announced as the headliners of Loud & Quiet’s stage at Offset Festival this very year, taking place in Hainault Forest on September 5 and 6.
In a line-up already featuring the unchartered likes of A Certain Ratio, The Slits and Damo Suzuki amidst 2009′s tried and tested (The Horrors! Wild Beasts! Future Of The Left!), it’s lining up to be one of the most diverse billings across the year’s festival calendar.
It hasn’t even sold out! And you can check out bands just about to blow up (hopefully not really) such as Male Bonding and An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump. … Continue Reading
Standon Calling, Hertfordshire, and White Heat, Soho
A warm late July morning, clouds moving fast across the London sky, England giving the Aussies a run for their money in the third test, and a man in a grey towelling bathrobe brandishing a chisel at us as we pull away. All this augurs well – a fine day for a rock show.
man in grey towelling bathrobe
Our little Vauxhall estate is groaning with the paraphernalia of the working band – Fender Stratocasters, Vic Firth drumsticks and cherry pie. We’re not past the Archway roundabout before the little bugger gives out. We enlist the help of some burly bystanders to get the show back on the road.
Vauxhall estate + burly bystanders = back on the road again!
Knights of the Holloway Road! We salute you.
Standon Calling, out by Stansted Airport, is an eerie place at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon, in the midst of a train strike. It’s our first-ever festival set and, whilst the little bubble dome tent we’re playing in is not exactly overflowing with punters, we acquit ourselves with reasonable aplomb. A couple of Koppaberg pear ciders and we’re away – the catering pasta salad we consume before playing kicks in around midway through the set: better than red bull for sure. We make sure to catch Django Django before heading off back to London for sweet Archway Kebab Centre falafel. Good times.
So, from the empty Hertfordshire wastes of Standon to the fleshpots and fleapits of Soho – our ‘Billionaires’ single launch at White Heat, Madame Jojo’s. When Armageddon comes, it’ll be just the cockroaches and Keith Richards left. And they’ll be sharing a WKD blue at White Heat.
Launching a single is like waving goodbye to your child on their first day at school. You dress make sure they’ve tied their laces and remembered their lunchbox, and then basically they’re out in the big bad playground where other singles by the likes of The Horrors and Jack Penate and Beyonce will come and box their ears and threaten to bogwash them and throw them in the holly bushes. But it’s a step you’ve got to take, so it can make its way in the big bad world.
White Heat is like a comforter for said child – a consoling note in the lunchbox. The first band on was Frankie and the Heartstrings, who were awesome and who feature Pete Gofton, aka Johnny X from Kenickie, on guitar and keys. Basically my new favourite band. … Continue Reading
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