MAXÏMO PARK STREAM OF LIFE LOWER THIRD/[PIAS] Perhaps the late 2000s greatest indie survivors, Maxïmo Park return with their eighth album, and if there are any lingering doubts about their remaining power, they dispel it pretty quickly with [...]
THE WAR ON DRUGS LIVE DRUGS AGAIN SUPER HIGH QUALITY RECORDS Some bands often bemoan a record producer’s lack of ability to record ‘their live sound’, but perhaps no band benefits more from being captured live than The War On Drugs. There’s a [...]
STEVIE VAN ZANDT: DISCIPLE HBO JUNE 22, 2024 When you’re best known for being part of a cultural phenomenon like the E Street Band, it can be hard to get your individual story told. Disciple sets out to redress that balance by focussing on [...]
JOE GITTLEMAN HOLD UP BAD TIME RECORDS After many years being the backbone of many bands on the ska scene, not least the ‘Bass Fiddleman’ of the sadly-missed Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Joe Gittleman takes a step forward into the limelight himself. [...]
FRANK TURNER TALKS UNDEFEATED, LOST EVENINGS AND WORLD RECORD ATTEMPTS A CONVERSATION WITH SINGER/SONGWRITER FRANK TURNER Carving out some time to talk to Frank Turner wasn’t easy, but that’s probably understandable given his infamous punishing [...]
FRANK TURNER UNDEFEATED XTRA MILE RECORDINGS Frank Turner is famously prolific. This is now his tenth studio album, and it’s a defiant and typically sing-a-long howl from Turner, particularly on songs like the opener “Do One”, but perhaps best [...]
MANCHESTER PUNK FESTIVAL 2024 @ MANCHESTER (UK) MARCH 29-31, 2024 When Easter weekend rolls around, it means only one thing in my home town of Manchester – the punks are coming. Now in its ninth year of existence, the Manchester Punk Festival is [...]
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN GLASGOW EYES FUZZ CLUB After two recent releases, first the live album Sunset 666, then the anniversary release Munki, The Jesus and Mary Chain continue their unlikely resurrection with Glasgow Eyes, their first album of [...]
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB FANTASIES ARTS & CRAFTS Following the success of last year’s My Big Day, Fantasies sees Bombay Bicycle Club linking up with indie-pop titans Matilda Mann, Liz Lawrence, Lucy Rose, and Rae Morris to produce a four-song EP. [...]
REAL ESTATE DANIEL DOMINO RECORDS Real Estate’s sixth album aspires to be a radio-friendly pop record, and that much is obvious from the opening tracks of the album. “Haunted World” has a nice late-R.E.M quality to it, full of shimmering pop [...]
FUTURE ISLANDS PEOPLE WHO AREN’T THERE ANYMORE 4AD It’s been a long wait for Future Islands’ latest effort, with it being four years since their last release, the acclaimed As Long As You Are. Thankfully, it only takes a few bars of title [...]
PLUNGING INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH A SMILE A CONVERSATION WITH NECK DEEP As openers go, it could be a motto for any pop-punk band looking to launch itself into the stratosphere. “If Blink-182 can do it, why can’t we?” smiles Ben Barlow, just seconds [...]
GEDDY LEE ASKS: ARE BASS PLAYERS HUMAN TOO? PARAMOUNT PLUS/BANGER FILMS/MTV ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS DECEMBER 5, 2023 Geddy Lee’s amusingly titled Are Bass Players Human Too? is a fun romp through the unseen lives of that most unheralded of [...]
PETER JESPERSON – EUPHORIC RECALL MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS BOOK REVIEW BY JOHN PORTER If the old idiom that “we all have a book in us” is indeed true, then it must be truer for Peter Jesperson than most. Jesperson, after all, [...]
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN MUNKI FUZZ CLUB Hot on the heels of surprise summer live release Sunset 666, Fuzz Club now bring us a 25th anniversary re-release of Munki, simultaneously The Jesus And Mary Chain’s most powerful album and their epitaph [...]
SIERRA PILOT PHANTOM PAINS INDEPENDENT Sierra Pilot makes its entry into their native Canada’s alternative rock scene with this impressive, ballsy debut, Phantom Pains. Indeed, after the opening barrage by the trio of “Alive”, “Adrenaline”, and [...]
THE NATIONAL LAUGH TRACK 4AD You wait four years for a new album from The National, and two come along at once. Hot on the heels of the excellent First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, Laugh Track is a surprise release from the Brooklyn-based gloom [...]
MUSTARD PLUG WHERE DID ALL MY FRIENDS GO? BAD TIME RECORDS At a time when ska goliaths like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish have disappeared into the ether, it’s a welcome shot in the arm for the ska scene that Mustard Plug return [...]
JALEN NGONDA COME AROUND AND LOVE ME DAPTONE RECORDS Every once in a while, an album comes across a reviewer’s desk that heralds the arrival of a significant new talent into the music scene. Come Around and Love Me is one such album, taking the [...]
DIZZY DIZZY ROYAL MOUNTAIN RECORDS Dizzy’s third album, self-titled but with no hint of self-importance, would be easy to dismiss as simplistic pop, particularly when one hears the opener, “Birthmark”. Indeed, lead singer Katie Munshaw’s vocals [...]
The Jesus And Mary Chain Sunset 666 Fuzz Club Recorded while supporting Nine Inch Nails on tour, Sunset 666 credits its existence to the serendipity of a USB port on the mixing desk, and the unusual recording mechanism ultimately is what gives [...]
The Arrogants Brainwash Dirty Water Records There can’t be many bands who start their second album cycle by opening for The Who and gaining an endorsement from Pete Townshend. When one puts on Brainwash, though, it’s not hard to see why, as this [...]
The Aquadolls Charmed Enci Records Charmed is Los Angeles-based femme-punks The Aquadolls’ third album, and from the start, it’s noticeably more punk than their previous efforts. This album also marks the first time the trio have written as a [...]
