Blogging for blogging's sake is kind of pointless. I don't write this stuff for the potential career benefit of accidentally stumbling upon a band before they become successful, and I certainly don't do it for the hits - I write about a band for the love of the band. I guess this is just me explaining why the blog hasn't been as active lately as it could have been. That's not to say I'm not finding lots of excellent new music that gets me excited, but I am finding increasingly less time to shout about it. Hello quiet Saturday. Hello [...]
About 18 months back (fuck I'm old) I blogged about garage rock Toronto three-piece Stacey Adams . You probably don't remember. I barely do. Anyway, Thomas Mazurkiewicz of that band recently got in touch about a solo project he was working on. "It's alot different from stacey adams, but im alot happier with the music," he says in the email - and he's not wrong. The title of the debut EP - 'Teddybears & Weed' - from Home Alone probably tells you a lot about its sound. It's sweet and cutesy while pretty laid-back and a bit [...]
Always listen to your editor. DIY boss Stephen Ackroyd sent me Menace Beach ages ago. 26th June 2012. I listened. I liked. I forgot to listen again until a few months ago, and have taken this long to post them on the blog. Yeah, I actually get paid to write about music. Menace Beach are great. Their lo-fi grungy, poppy, 90s-ish sound combines everything I love about Joey Fourr with everything I love about Gross Magic . That's a pretty fucking great combo. It's mucky but it's catchy as hell. They've recorded with [...]
The point of a new music blog: to point people in the direction of new music they might like that they otherwise might not have heard. It's fun, I like doing it, but I tend to not find enough time to commit to it properly which results in a blog updated sporadically featuring music that turns out to be not that new after all. Still, let's ignore that this album from the Yawns has been on bandcamp for a good few months. Let's ignore that the band have been around since 2011. Let's ignore that I've been listening to it [...]
London's Giant Burger kind of defy genre and description. There are vocals and drums and guitar and bass and keys. There are melodies and there is noise. It's kind of experimental but it's also kind of pop at the same time as being kind of rock and prog and punk and blah blah blah. But then, being made up of a good few members of the now deceased BAANEEX , this kind of skullfuckery is to be expected really. All that really matters is that I like their songs and hopefully some people who frequent this blog [...]
When I was young, I was pretty vocally defensive of Plymouth, the city I was born and raised in, to anyone who ever criticised it. Only when I went to university in Cardiff and visited places like Brighton, Manchester, Bristol, and London did I realise just how shit Plymouth was. There is no live music scene, there are (or at least were, thanks to The Last Shop Standing ) no indepdent record stores to buy new music, and there are even very, very few bands from or based in Plymouth - especially now Gorgeous Bully has pissed [...]
I like the internet. Bands from hundreds of miles away can send me their music and then I can listen to it and then sometimes I really like it and write words about it and other people who might be hundreds of miles away again might read it and like it and then they might tell their friends to listen to it and stuff. That's pretty cool, right? Bananacondas are a Lansing, Michigan-based "not-so-typical punk" three-piece who write songs with riffs and licks and melodies and choruses that make me want to be at a house party with [...]
Sauna Youth's 'Dreamlands' was without doubt one of my favourite albums of 2012 (better than Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective, and Grizzly Bear in my opinion, which isn't bad going) so an email about a new single from the London band was always going to be a pretty great way to start the day - especially when half of the single is a cover of Pissed Jeans. 'False Jesii Pt II / Oh Joel' is set to be released on 7" single through Static Shock Records on 21st January and sees the band taking a somewhat surprising [...]
Earlier this year, Cold Pumas guitarist and Faux Discx label-boss Dan Reeves released a debut solo album under the name The Soft Walls. The self-titled record was a delightful blend of Krautrock-ish loops and minimalist noise rock comparable to the likes of Deerhunter that was so impressive that Tough Love also offered to release it. Today sees a brand new song from the Brighton-based musician and, as you'd expect, it's bloody ace. 'Never Come Back Again' (again comparable to the work Bradford Cox) slowly builds like a developing polaroid snap - electro din and [...]
I bloody love Joanna Gruesome. I love their old songs. I love their new songs. I love their live shows. I love their faces. 'Do You Really Wanna Know Why Yr Still In Love With Me?' is their newest of their new songs, and I love that too. I love the sinking guitar line. I love the crackling guitar sound. I love the crashing drums. I love the harmonies. I love the chorus melody. I love the breakdown. I love the filthy ending. I love this band. The song is being released on 7" by [...]
It's almost 18 months since I first stumbled upon and wrote about Stonehaven noise-monsters Dolfinz. Since the days of those early rough recordings, the two-piece have been fairly busy - touring the UK and Europe with Slowcoaches; releasing a 7" with Tuff Wax; featuring on a Song, By Toad 12" split along with the likes of PAWS and Sex Hands; getting played on Radio 1 and 6Music. But it's been a while since we heard much new stuff from them. So it's good to see that the band have finally unveiled some new(er) material in the [...]
I went to Cardiff for Swn Festival on the weekend. It was fun. I drank lots of beer and watched lots of bands and saw many friends. Despite being a Cardiff band, Totem Terrors weren't on the line-up for Swn, which is sad because they are good. Their latest song, 'Unkind' is an example of this. Jerky guitars rallies with bass while vocals bounce between male and female, all coming together to sound slightly The Fall-style post-punk/art-rock. Facebook | SoundCloud | Bandcamp | Twitter
I probably shouldn't do this as a blogger, but do you really care? I doubt it. I 'manage' a band. They're called Playlounge (that's their beautiful faces at the top of the screen there). I posted about them last year . Then I put them on as a support band in Kingston. After that, one thing led to another, and here we are. On Monday they announced the release of their debut 12" record, 'Thrash Magic'. It's going to come out digitally and on vinyl through Fear & Records on October 22. You can hear 'Sweet [...]
Sometimes you have to stop and applaud raw talent. Brighton/Oxford-based Max Levy is unlikely to get playlisted on Radio 1 with his work under the King of Cats banner, but he has an undeniable gift for writing bloody excellent songs - and he seems pretty accomplished in performing them live with a certain charm going by these videos. Lyrically, musically, vocally it's entirely captivating, interesting, and - dare I say it - unique. For his recorded stuff, check out the previous post on this blog here . You [...]
Given their name, you'd be excused for thinking that MYSTRYS were another one of those bands going for the whole anonymity thing to create a sense of, well, mystery. They're not, as it happens, but that's not to say the internet is awash with information about the London band. Though folks like The 405 first posted about them last November - and though they have support from Soft Arrows and Rough Trade DJs at their upcoming single launch party for Normals/Shadows (released through Psychic Healing Network on 27 August) - the three-piece seem to play their [...]
Black Seas are a London band who have been "playing around south east london for years". They have two songs on their SoundCloud page . They have no hint of a Facebook page. They have a Tumblr with just two posts - one of which is a song posted a fortnight ago, the other of which is a YouTube video 'removed by the user' posted on 1 March. They have a YouTube channel with their two songs on. They seem to have a fondness for aged pictures of naked women and skeletons. And that's pretty [...]
Most people won't like this. It's not the best way to start a blog post, but it's true. There's lo-fi, there's noisy, and then there's Yucky Slime bringing it to a whole new level. For those that can handle the fidelity (these demos were recorded in a shed...) and the feedback and the shouting, though, there's lots to love about the London band. For instance: it's fun, it's urgent, it's exciting, it's energetic, it doesn't really give a shit, it'll make you want to jump up and down and spin round round round, and - much like Jay Reatard or [...]
Undoubtedly the best perk of writing about music is that bands send you their songs. What makes it even better is when something you have low expectations for turns out to be ace. "A 'noise pop punk' duo from Serbia? Okay..." I thought. But it turns out that VVhile are almost as good at selling themselves short (some might call it being modest) as they are making music. Their songs are noisy, punchy, catchy, scruffy, in-your-face, care-free and, most importantly, fucking excellent. It reminds me of first album Japandroids and it makes me want to punch the [...]
Starting out as what could be the intro to an M.I.A. song, London two-piece Yola Fatoush's 'Celine' turns into something far more dreamy and ethereal as it progresses - blending experimental electronic beats with delicate vocal layers to interesting and strangely trance-inducing effect. It's taken from a 7" due for release through Parlour Records on June 25. Here's hoping the other three tracks to feature on the EP are just as good. .co.uk | SoundCloud
"The eccentric creativity of Daniel Johnston with the voice of a dying cat" is how I recently described the sound of King of Cats for a gig listing (although the second part of that description was duly edited out) and, for a rushed one-liner, I think it gives a pretty decent idea of what to expect from Oxford/Brghton-based 19-year-old Max Levy. With a guitar in hand and his unique and oddly effective voice, Max crafts interesting and intelligent - if slightly weird - songs that feel honest and born out of a need to just make music. [...]
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