Reviews

The cream of Manchester? Well probably not, but at least that will allow these doleful miserabalists to pursue those heady twin glories of fame and longevity that have so far eluded much of what has come out of Manchester. Based for the most part around the spiralling Dove-like single, ‘Further’, Longview’s anonymously titled debut album is clearly NOT drawing inspiration (or indeed, perspiration) from the break-neck vibrancy of the garage rock scene. Serene, contemplative, insular and more autumnal and showery Continue Reading

Taken from the recently released album, Waiting for the Moon, new single ‘Sometimes It Hurts’ finds the crooning, treacle baritone of Stuart Staples lubricated by the equally oiled and moist, Lhasa De Sala – she of French-Canadian persuasion. Dour, anxious, morose, bleak and so painfully, painfully tender it could bleed at any moment, it’s everything that your average art-house loving chamber-goth would have wanted for Xmas. Accompanied by a faintly amusing short film by Martin Wallace, the release pretty much Continue Reading

Everything’s in its right place. But then it would be wouldn’t it, it’s screwed down. And The Rain Band don’t have a screwdriver. We have no evidence to say they’d know how to use it even if they did. This debut album only goes on to confirm what’s already been hinted at with their preceding singles and gigs. And that is that although they approach their victim (Manchester’s revered and danceable musical output of the ‘80s) with bulbous adrenaline coursing Continue Reading

With phrases like ‘back-to-basics’ and ‘old skool’ being ferried around as quickly as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ it’s a wonder that anyone has been doing anything but in the last 3 years. But let’s end the squibbling right here: the closest these girlz come to ‘old skool’ hip-hop is the downloading they’ve been doing free from WinMX. So yeah, the claims are excessive but then so are the unshakable grooves and tunes these girls are capable of spitting up. The Continue Reading

East Coast, West Coast, Clarkesville, Tennessee, Clarkesville, Birmingham. You simply don’t know where you’re at sometimes, and for all it’s glorious Technicolor philanderings, and widescreen drama neither does ‘The Half Chapter’. And yet, in spite of all this the album is still a freakish, if maudlin’ pleasure. Tall, blond and regrettably hansom, Michael Clarke has produced a debut that whilst nodding pleasingly in all the right directions – The Flaming Lips, Richard Ashcroft, Royskopp – it also pays lip service Continue Reading

Most Americans must surely now be aware that ‘Fanny’ in Britain is to girls what ‘Todger’ is to boys, and so it’s perhaps doubly ironic that Fanny Pack have entered our lives with the wedge-shaped innuendo of ‘Cameltoe’ as their anthem. Ironic or intentional? Who knows? Who cares? Let’s tell it like it is. We’re all adults here; we’re talking pussies right? V-shaped for victory or heart-shaped for horny. We are not and never were talking about the wraparound devices Continue Reading

Last year these boys had the massive hit that was their own doppleganger reworking of Prince’s ‘I Would Die For U’. This year it looks like they may have to suffer a more ignominous fate with the lesser reworking of Detroit Emerald’s ‘Feel The Need In Me’. Clearly still enamoured by the spangly, star shaped glitteriness of the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Star Guitar’, the Space Cowboys dish up some more of the same. Only this time, it just really doesn’t get going; Continue Reading

All bands are tribute bands, essentially. And I suppose that in that case the only thing that separates one tribute band from the next is whether they’re ever likely to have their own tribute band, or fleet thereof, paying direct and shoddily named tributes to them. The Thrills will never, or should never, have their own tribute band (The Thrill-seekers, or The Trills? Anyone? No?). We’re not denying them the odd medley from a hapless Irish street-side busker, or even Continue Reading

The novelty value of Liam Lynch’s unexpected hit, ‘United States of Whatever’ may have been immense and have all but redirected any subsequent efforts to every bargain bin in town, regardless of merit, but listen up; beneath the heavy irony and the ‘loose canon’ mentality of the ‘Fake Songs’ beats a heart of genuine gold; albeit of the ‘fool’s’ variety. Brought to the attention of S-Curve Records by the Beatle-icious, Ringo Starr and his Pumpinkhead Records partner, Mark Hudson, Liam Continue Reading

Named in tribute to the Brian Eno produced New York rock scene compilation from 1978, ‘No New York’ (featuring 4 tracks each from the bands James Chance & The Contortions, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks Mars and D.N.A) comes ‘Yes New York’, and pretty predictably, it’s very, very good. Kicking off with a largely token but not unappealing live slice of The Strokes performing ‘New York City Cops’ in Iceland (the place as opposed to the exceptionally convenient Frozen Foods Continue Reading