Blog: Muso's Guide

By Kenny McMurtrie April 22, 2013 Garage Punk is alive & well and emanating from Vienna in the guise of the man known as Wild Evel , who would be a lesser figure without his stalwart Trashbones (who, it turns out, emanate from Graz). In the run-up to Hipsville Murphy Morphine , fuzz-guitarist in the band, put that geographical faux pas aside and took time off from looking for empty crypts to perform in to answer a few questions we had [...]

  By Robert Freeman April 19, 2013 Depending on the genre of music, the percentage of the audience that has attended a cider festival increases. Your standard pop concert for example, is fairly low. Beth Orton ’s doing a tour? It’s perhaps a bit higher. Wolf People ? It’s 100%. One hundred percent. One assumes psych-halflings, Wolf People spent their teenage years in their rooms listening to Zeppelin and Captain Beefheart , before emerging blinking into the sunlight three years ago and producing 2010’s most barn-storming album of prog.  Steeple, Tidings  and now new [...]

By Kenny McMurtrie April 19, 2013 The Norvins are all set to bring their organ-drenched brand of garage punk to the first ever Hipsville weekender over 10 - 12 May. It's practically impossible to express how much you need to experience this. Pascal from the band came up trumps in responding to a bunch of questions we fired his way:- MG) What inspired you to form the band? Pascal) We’re all [...]

By Steven Dinnie April 19, 2013 Record Store Day 2013 brings with it the usual re-releases, side-things, pointless nonsense, and new releases trying to trick their way to bigger sales by dropping on a day more when people are in record shops than usual. Everything has a stench of death about it this year, as if this is an end-of-season finale for all record shops after the spectacularly unexpected demise of HMV. This year, there are exciting records dropping in the true spirit of Record Store Day, accompanied [...]

By Stef Siepel March 19, 2013 The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy. Track of the week :  ‘It’s All Over’ by Blanc 1 Blanc 1 is a new series of vinyl releases on  John Talabot ’s label. And after  Fin  he is definitely [...]

By Ryan Lake April 18, 2013 Typically difficult, Tyler, The Creator made it clear that there would be no leaks of his latest release, forcing people to form their own opinions of the album upon release. After two years of waiting, Tyler is able to maintain the darkness and brash profanity that made both Goblin and Bastard intriguing, whilst improving the quality of his production as well as his list of featured artists (including here  Erykah Badu ). [...]

By Danielle Shields 18 March, 2013 After a four year hiatus Fall Out Boy are back with their fifth studio album Save Rock and Roll . It’s an album for thrashing around and getting your feelings out (perhaps what bassist Pete Wentz needed after his divorce to Ashlee Simpson back in 2011). Since we last saw FOB there doesn’t seem to be much of a progression with Save Rock and Roll . Although the sound has changed you can still hear the pre-hiatus FOB in there, they have delved more [...]

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 By Danielle Gibson March 18, 2013 With only [...]

By Cat Schaupp April 18, 2013 Vox Box   is the new kid on the block in Edinburgh's record store scene, having only opened in May 2011. Nestled in the quirky treasure trove that is St. Stephen's Street in the city's Stockbridge district, they'll be celebrating Record Store Day 2013 in style with a 9.30am opening time that's kind to those who can't quite get out of bed on Saturdays, and a great line up of live music to keep the punters entertained. Muso's [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 17, 2013 Amsterdam’s own PITCH Festival has just announced a new batch of artists for the forthcoming two day event. Taking place Friday 5 July and Saturday 6 July, the contemporary music festival mixes live bands and DJ sets alongside stimulating visuals for an eclectic festival experience. This year will be the festival’s third run boasting an impressive line-up with the likes of  The Weeknd, Die Antwoord, SBTRKT, Azari & III, Gold Panda, Jessie Ware, Maya Jane Coles, Gaslamp Killer, Modeselektor, Jackmaster and many more on the [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 17, 2013 Vinyl-only label  Demon Records  have a selection of exclusive Record Store Day releases coming out on April 20th plus a number of classic albums re-mastered, re-cut and re-released. Starting this month they will be presenting audiophile-friendly heavyweight vinyl releases from a broad spectrum of influential and adored artists across several genres. These include:  The Jesus and Mary Chain, T. Rex, Marc Bolan, Suede, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Dinosaur L, Family, Ruth Copeland, Ashley Beedle, Tom Moulton, Sugar, The Beat, Average White Band, The SOS Band [...]

By Kenny McMurtrie April 17, 2013 In the first of our pre-weekender artist interviews Spencer Chess , organist with The Stags , put up with us sending him some questions & was good enough to get back to us with some answers:- MG) What inspired you to become The Stags and take on the world? Spencer) Murdo Gloves , our bass player went to one of the first Wild Weekend festivals more that 12 years ago and [...]

By Rob Crozier April 17, 2013 Resident Records has been keeping music lovers in Brighton happy since  2004 and was opened with love in an attempt to give music buyers of the town a record store with soul. That they have more than succeeded in their mission is proved by the fact that they were voted 'England's Favourite Indie Record Shop' and won Music Week's 'Indie Shop of the Year' award in 2011. The wonderful, award-winning store, fast approaching a decade on the scene, is now gearing [...]

By Tom Fake April 17, 2013 The Hot Five – My views on five tracks that have attracted my interest in any given week, usually with an older track thrown in the mix for something a bit different. Tracks usually concentrate on guitar-based releases, but really focusing on anything and everything that comes to my attention. Track of the week :  Queens of the Stone Age  – ‘My God Is The Sun' When there is a lack of decent guitar-driven music, you can always rely [...]

By Peri Daley April 16, 2013 It is a pleasure to see To Kill A King perform at Brudenell Social Club. A petite but amazing venue, watching anyone perform here can feel so personal and special, it is like they are performing just for you. And that’s exactly what To Kill A King make you feel. An energetic set ironically filled with lyrically depressing songs, the boys dun’ well. It takes a lot for bands to be good not only in the studio, but live also, [...]

By Kenny McMurtrie April 16, 2013 Having reviewed Hidden Masters for Muso's Guide many moons ago ( here , now with corrected picture) I am, on a personal level, very pleased with the news that they're finally bringing out their debut album Of This And Other Worlds (release date May 27, 2013). By all accounts the Glaswegian trio haven't in any way changed their sound in the years since I first saw them (the album's debut single ' Nobody Knows That We're Here ' [...]

• Hidden Masters - Nobody Knows That We're Here (mono single version)

By Rob Aldam April 16, 2013 Record Collector has been a Sheffield institution since it opened back in 1978. Situated in the busy student area of Broomhill, the store has been a haven for life-long vinyl junkies and students alike. The main shop has a wide range of new and second-hand CDs, whilst next door has an impressive array of vinyl. We popped in to have a few words with Joe who runs the store about how things are going in the vinyl world. Have you [...]

By Kenny McMurtrie April 16, 2013 'Money Grows On Your Knees' (which you have the chance to win a copy of) is lifted from Mike Tyler 's 2012 album Erection . The New York native comes across as a latter day Lou Reed / Jonathan Richman -like character although with statements such as "I believe the sound of popular music is the sound of mutts barking; frictions, and strange conglomerations, mistaken identifications, and odd-ball pairings. Not Yin and Yang but Wham and Bam!”, there's clearly a different level of [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 15, 2013 Canadian indie rock band  Hooded Fang  are set to return with their third album  Gravez  on Monday May 27. Previous album Tosta Mista  was only released in the UK in March 2012 and received critical acclaim from NME - "Hooded Fang must be mighty close to crafting the jauntiest breakup album of all time", Uncut -"Gorgeous. Fades in like a film score and then hits you with a bang" and The Independent "Canadian pop-rock n' roll designed for dancing". Based on such positivity we’re hoping for an even better follow up. [...]

• Hooded Fang - Graves

By Hayley Scott April 15, 2013 To celebrate the forthcoming annual Record Store Day this month, Muso’s Guide will be running related features leading up to the event on Saturday 20 April, including interviews and Q&A's with record store owners and employees across the country about the importance of Record Store Day in helping to spread the word that the independent record shop is still very much alive in this era of downloading and  MP32s.  With the ever decreasing circle of music shops, Leeds has managed to hold onto [...]