Blog: Muso's Guide

By Joe Watson April 10, 2013 A lot can be said for gigs at the prestigious King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. But although I have frequented the venue on numerous occasions - running the eye over Glasgow’s thriving grassroots music scene - I am still yet to experience why it was voted ‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ by NME in 2011. Tonight however, suggests that one need only witness King Tut’s hosting a top line-up in order to see this 300 capacity venue come to life. Kodaline and Co. do just the trick. [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 10, 2013 Health have announced an intimate London show for this summer. The experimental noise-rockers have set the date to play at East London’s Birthdays on Monday June 3 and tickets will go on sale this Friday (April 12) at 9am. You can also catch them in Leeds the day before (Thursday May 11) at the Brudenell Social Club. The band have hinted at new material being played on this mini European tour which indicates possible  news of a forthcoming third [...]

By Tom Fake April 10, 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 :  Yeah Yeah Yeah’s  – ‘Sacrilege’ I can’t believe it’s come around to this time of the week already! To be honest I haven’t been as [...]

By Hayley Scott April 09, 2013 Live At Leeds returns bigger and bolder for 2013, over the weekend of 03-06 May. Featuring the likes of The Pigeon Detectives, The Walkmen, Darwin Deez, Everything Everything and Melody's Echo Chamber along with a veritable barn load of up and coming acts for a mere £22.50 there is also the Unconference, for those of you looking to do a bit of industry networking and the Football Tournament so you can see your musical heroes both on [...]

By Faye Ducker April 09, 2013 Four years is a long time for any band to hide away from the limelight, and Tennessee pop-rock trio Paramore had more reason than any other to do just that. After losing founding members Josh and Zac Farro after a brutal online feud in 2010, it’s easy to imagine Paramore fading into the pop punk abyss and staying there, never to return. Instead, the band dusted themselves off and set to work on their fourth studio album: Paramore . [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 09, 2013 Black Sabbath have announced a UK arena tour for winter this year. After reuniting last year, the band will be bringing their comeback album 13 to the UK this December. Starting of at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday December 10 expect them in Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow, Manchester and for a homecoming show in Birmingham to end the tour. 13 is set for a UK [...]

By Matt Jones and Tom Fake April 09, 2013 ‘Cardiff doesn’t really have any indie music festivals’, one of Wales Goes Pop! ’s organisers explains. It’s true - rock, punk and ska-punk scenes dominate the capital, whilst the indie gigs have a much smaller sphere of influence. Wales Goes Pop! is a direct response to this. The result of two passionate musicians using their own free time (outside of working for local venues) and hard-earned cash, it is an attempt to provide Cardiff with the indiepop fix it has been [...]

By Ben Gibson April 08, 2013 So who the hell are Cowtown ? Truth be told I'd never heard of them. Worse still, I'm struggling to find the proper way to describe them. They're too weird to be pop, too chilled to be metal, too much fun to be punk. Oh, I have it. They're awesome. It's a sad state of affairs when a band this talented are virtually unheard of. You're unlikely to find many other reviews of their brilliant third album [...]

By Steven Dinnie April 08, 2013 I often wonder what Hawkwind think of the contemporary psyche scene. They were a troubling nerdy sci-fi offshoot of the Groundhogs and prog-rock. Yes played along for a while but even they couldn’t keep up with Hawkwind’s ever-expanding space-weirdness. And what of their soporific bastard offspring spawned of a stoned evening recording with Amon Düül ? Do Hawkwind ever wonder just how far from them the likes of Gnod or Bong have really gone? I’m [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 08, 2013 Rough Trade Shops and Field Day Festival have pool their resources together and are set to release their first collaborative CD on Monday May 6. With both Rough Trade’s and Field Day's many years of experience and their common interest of supporting and promoting new and exciting music this collaborative CD will no doubt pique the interest of all souls looking for an introduction to a broad range of new music endorsed by two such reliable entities. [...]

By Kenny McMurtrie April 08, 2013 The Camden Crawl ( arguably one of the earliest examples of the modern urban music festival) once again comes to Dublin in 2013, over the weekend of 03 – 05 May. Weekend passes come in at £53.21 (incl. booking fee), allowing you access to over 15 venues to see music and comedy including such acts as The Black Lips, PAWS, Dirty Beaches and Big Deal . Local acts on the bill include Squarehead, Cian Nugent & The Cosmos, The [...]

By Charlotte Stones March 05, 2013 Twenty-five years since Mudhoney ’s emergence onto the 1980s Seattle punk scene and not much has changed with their ninth studio album Vanishing Point. Did we really expect it to? It's been a long time since Mark Arm and Steve Turner joined forces to form their original band Green River . So long in fact that even Turner’s beard has changed style many times. But the real mark of Mudhoney’s road to success was [...]

By Rob Aldam March 05, 2013 Until recently, a veil of mystery has enshrouded the duo behind the minimalist soul and R&B yearnings of Rhye , but one listen leaves you in no doubt whatsoever as to the theme coursing through every minute of their debut album. Woman is a love letter, a late night lament, and expression of joy and regret, a lazy day in bed with the one you love. Indeed, love oozes through each pore and sinew of each of the ten tracks which form [...]

By Stef Siepel April 05, 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:  ‘International’ (Brother J Disco Dub) (Superbreak) I’m kind of hesitant about something being called a Disco Dub, because for me [...]

By Alex Ward April 04, 2013 If we could be heroes just for one day, we would all head to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In David Bowie is , the V & A has created a startling exhibition in which all aspects of David Bowie ’s life are on display. After the man in question surprising us all by releasing a new album, The Next Day , in March, the exhibition sums up our collective love for David Bowie through a fascinating collection [...]

By Julia Stryj April 04, 2013 Seeing as we were on the ball enough to have a well handled camera with us on March 29 it's only fair that you get to see what you missed as Die!Die!Die! , United Fruit and Black International did their best to burst eardrums. [...]

By Danielle Gibson April 04, 2013 Irish band Kodaline have been revealed as the special guest’s for today’s (Thursday April 4) launch of season twelve of the Station Sessions in St Pancras International, London. Their most recent single ‘High Hopes’ reached number 16 in the UK charts and they will be will be performing an exclusive free acoustic set from 6.30-7pm ahead of their sold out gig at the Scala. They will be performing material from their anticipated debut album In a Perfect World which is [...]

By Thomas Murphy April 04, 2013 Out of the growing music scene in Leeds, a new era is being born. The electronic scene is developing through house and its variations. This in turn has given way to new clubs; Canal Mills, Mint Warehouse, and The Garage. Such venues have raised the profile of Leeds, allowing it to compete with its party rival down the M62, Manchester, and even the musical powerhouse that is London. But this growing culture has created another emerging phenomenon; the house party. [...]

By Carris Boast April 03, 2013 Afraid of Heights is the newest album from beach-grunge, surf-pop, 90s rock-inspired Californian band Wavves. Led by singer Nathan Williams , this new album takes a darker approach to their original grunge style, and brings it into a whole new dimension, where themes of death and loneliness can be seen through ominous layers of guitars and drums where dirt and grit gather and Wavves' lyrical, repetitive, nature makes its home. [...]

By Paul Stephen Gettings April 03, 2013 Birmingham's Peace have been slowly gathering a great deal of buzz over the last few years. The preeminent kings of the city's thriving music scene, the band's distinctive brand of guitar noise (a bit britpop, a bit shoegaze, a bit grunge, a bit awesome) has clearly been turning heads in high places; In Love , their debut album, comes to us courtesy of label giants Sony Entertainment. Although opening track 'Higher Than The Sun' commits the cardinal sin [...]