Ted Leo’s follow up to 2000s enormously well received (well, critically at least) “The Tyranny Of Distance“ is something of a revelation. Rather than wallowing in the furore of the ongoing rock revival and using the popular Ramone and Television blueprint against which to measure his awkward rebellion, Leo lifts licks and pulls punches from peculiarly English icons like Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, The Specials and Thin Lizzy – the working-class cream of the 80s rather than Continue Reading

Sorry, sir? You were expecting something a little more ‘now’ as a side-helping with your indie this morning? More ‘now’ than this? C’mon, The Kills are so painfully of today (of fly-by-night media obsessions, of recycled fashion, of undying rock n roll mythology, of various forms of denial) they’re practically the day after tomorrow already. They’re a duo. There’s no bass. They’re shamelessly raw and retro. They wear t-shirts and denim. They look a bit grubby and rough round the Continue Reading

This is a strange film. For those who know, only three words are needed to explain quite how so: Being John Malkovich. This is the follow-up to that film. Well, follow-up in the sense it comes after it, and even overlaps, but isn’t a sequel. But is in the sense that it’s a similarly unique product of a creative explosion between the colliding minds of screenplay writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze (yep, him of Beastie Boys, Weezer, Fatboy Continue Reading

Taken from the Krautpop duo’s second album, White Noise, Burning Up sees the band sidestepping the traditional pull of bleak, androgynous techno beatz by coming up with a crafty and enjoyably catchy tune. Not the first time too. A couple of years ago, 77 Sunset Strip managed to conjure up all the whimsical exuberance of early OMD as much as it heralded the early onslaught of electroclash: pithy, to the point and with a distinctive, running loop as downright hooky Continue Reading

It does indeed seem very strange that the artist formerly known as relevant and legitimate can now be witnessed trading thinly experimental electronica. Bob Mould, yes he of seminal alternative rock bands, Hüsker Dü, and Sugar and who was recently featured on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, is now championing the all but hopeless lost cause that is his not so cleverly disguised ‘Loudbomb’ moniker. More famous for his overdriven guitar-charged punk rock Mould is tinkering with gizmos Continue Reading

It seemed almost inevitable that I would start by throwing in casual – hell, perhaps even lazy – references to Lemon Jelly, Zero 7 – hell – even Air – but hand on heart, for every vagary of likeness there’s a candy-coloured mongrel of disparity amongst the quotes. Avoiding the frivolous detachment of the mighty Jellies, and the maverick obstinacy of the KY: collection, Nottingham’s Bent (Simon Mill, ex-giggler and Nail Tolliday, ex rave controller) follow up first official release, Continue Reading

The songwriting nucleus behind New York indie band, Madder Rose (they of 1993’s well received ‘Bring It Down’ album) Mary Lorson and Billy Cote have just released the largely (and bravely) instrumental ‘Piano Creeps’. They may have ended their formal arrangement with the release of ‘Tragic Magic’ in 1997 but the two have been virtually inseparable ever since, collaborating in part on Lorson’s Saint Low project. An innocent and pretty collection of musical vignettes, the album portrays the same sparkling innocence Continue Reading

With both hair follicles and riffs cranked up to the nines, these four pesky New Zealanders are presently shaking things up in the UK, and if the US release of their debut album, The Datsuns is anything to go by, then their hellfire brand of super-charged rock is going to doodle those damn Yankees quite squarely too. Alice Cooper riffs and a stoned out blues approach to simplicity make The Datsuns perhaps the coolest kick-ass exponents of plug-in-and-play rock n’ Continue Reading