CODEFENDANTS LIFERS THIS IS CRIME WAVE/REGIME MUSIC GROUP Trying to define the essence of a Codefendants release is akin to trying to nail jelly to a wall. They’re openly ‘genre-fluid,” and they seem to have set out to make each song as [...]
BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY IRREVERSIBLE ATO RECORDS Navigating a second album is tricky business, especially when your first release and follow-up tour were received with such acclaim that you’re being tipped as the next big indie band. Such is the [...]
KIM GORDON PLAY ME MATADOR RECORDS It’s difficult to know what to expect from a Kim Gordon solo record, given her avant-garde aloofness over her years in music, but I had no idea just how strange it would be to spend my next 40 or so minutes in [...]
CASHIER THE WEIGHT JULIA’S WAR Cashier’s first full-length release is the Lafayette rock band throwing a marker down to all those who listen to them – this is heavy, unapologetic, shoegaze rock. It works, too, at least in parts; there’s some [...]
EVERYTHING IS IRREVERSIBLE A CONVERSATION WITH WES LEAVINS OF BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY You get the sense that Wes Leavins, singer/songwriter extraordinaire of Brigitte Calls Me Baby, can’t quite believe he finds himself here. The story of how his [...]
THE MAD MILE LEGROOM INDEPENDENT There seems to be an interesting explosion of shoegaze and post-rock bands popping up lately, and The Mad Mile are no exception. There’s something exceedingly strange and dark about this whole album, yet it’s [...]
GENERATIONS LATER: FOUR DECADES OF UNSTOPPABLE RHYTHM AND LEGACY A CONVERSATION WITH PHILIP OAKEY OF THE HUMAN LEAGUE It’s oddly reassuring in today’s topsy-turvy world to note that, more than 40 years after he became a megastar, Philip Oakey, [...]
THE MOLOTOVS WASTED ON YOUTH MARSHALL RECORDS The Molotovs look like being 2026’s ‘chosen’ band, with the hype burning like a petrol fire as Wasted On Youth gets set to come down the pike. So, having finally got hold of it, does it live up to [...]
LESS THAN JAKE BORDERS & BOUNDARIES (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) FAT WRECK CHORDS I really wish pop-punk bands would stop making me feel old. The latest in what seems to be a raft of anniversary releases, Borders & Boundaries is a portrait [...]
SAM FENDER PEOPLE WATCHING (DELUXE VERSION) POLYDOR Was the world really crying out for a deluxe version of an album that only came out in the early knockings of 2025? Initially I felt not, perhaps because I didn’t really like the initial cut of [...]
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP The latest in a series of anniversary releases that make elder millennials really feel their age, Mellon Collie And The Infinite [...]
OUR ONLY EXPECTATIONS ARE TO PLEASE OURSELVES, RIGHT? A CONVERSATION WITH CESCHI RAMOS OF CODEFENDANTS From my first moments with Ceschi Ramos of The Codefendants, a few things are obvious. One, he’s got a genuine passion for music, and two, [...]
FRANK TURNER THE NEXT TEN YEARS UNIVERSAL/POLYDOR There’s a chance that something has got Frank Turner feeling nostalgic of late. Discontented with reforming his previous hardcore band, Million Dead, he’s now releasing another boxset compilation [...]
CHARLATANS UK WE ARE LOVE BMG The latest in a series of 90s indie bands making new material, Charlatans UK open We Are Love by sounding like they’ve gone in a similar direction to The Farm, with “Kingdom of Ours” a suitably-trippy and [...]
JOHN BORRA LAST DANCE AT THE E ROOM COUSIN JEB RECORDS Being that I’m not of Canadian shores, this being my first listen to the four-decade legend that is John Borra was something of great happenstance. Last Dance At The E Room is a love letter [...]
FALL OUT BOY FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE (20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) UMe You know how old you’re getting when formative albums of your youth are receiving 20th Anniversary releases! Still, From Under The Cork Tree is probably one of the most seminal [...]
KIM GORDON – GIRL IN A BAND (10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) DEY STREET BOOKS BOOK REVIEW BY JOHN PORTER It doesn’t feel like 10 years since Kim Gordon’s witty, acerbic Girl in a Band first made waves in the rock world, but such is the various [...]
WOLF ALICE THE CLEARING RCA RECORDS It’s been four years since we’ve heard something of substance from Wolf Alice, and they’ve had their fanbase on tenterhooks, particularly since the much-trailed single “Bloom Baby Bloom” showed off the band’s [...]
NO OVERPRODUCTION, NO OVERTHINKING A CONVERSATION WITH DUNCAN LLOYD The first thing you learn about Duncan Lloyd is that he’s a man that isn’t in a rush, and that’s something of a relief given our meeting is delayed by at least 10 minutes by [...]
THE FARM LET THE MUSIC (TAKE CONTROL) MODERN SKY/ROUGH TRADE Just what is happening in British indie at the moment? After recent releases by The Cure and Pulp, the latest band to emerge from a long on-record hibernation is The Farm, who have [...]
SAVE THE RETRO A CONVERSATION WITH MANCHESTER’S RETRO BAR OWNER MARK ARMOR This July, roughly a quarter of a million Oasis fans, over four days, will make a pilgrimage to Manchester to see the resurrection of a band thought long dead. [...]
MATT BERNINGER GET SKUNK CONCORD RECORDS With The National’s recent resurgence, there’s an increasing demand to hear songs from Matt Berninger’s pen, and that’s prompted a second solo album, following 2020’s Serpentine Prison. What follows is a [...]
BUTTHOLE SURFER LIVE AT THE LEATHER FLY SUNSET BLVD RECORDS There can’t be many weirder bands to try and capture the essence of than the crazy-named Butthole Surfers. That said, this album succeeds where many live albums fall down, by mixing [...]
REAL ESTATE THE WEE SMALL HOURS: B-SIDES AND OTHER DETRITUS 2011-2025 DOMINO RECORDS Following on from 2024’s reinventive effort “Daniel”, Real Estate attempts to bless our ears with this collection of oddities and deep cuts, and it’s a [...]
