California
CD: Mazzy Star - Seasons of Your DayThursday, 19 September 2013
Some people are lucky enough to have the sort of friends that, no matter how rarely you see them, you can call them up and instantly pick up right back where you left off. Some people are even luckier, and have the sort of friends that they see even... Read more... |
Maria Stuarda, Welsh National OperaSaturday, 14 September 2013
Last week Anne Boleyn, this week Mary Queen of Scots. Donizetti’s trawl through the Tudor monarchs and their victims was more a recurrent obsession than a systematic exploration. WNO, on the other hand, seem to be implying some Ring-like continuity.... Read more... |
CD: Arctic Monkeys - AMSaturday, 07 September 2013
There’s something about the Arctic Monkeys that calls to mind the Rolling Stones. Not now, obviously - it might feel like it’s been forever since four messy hairdos and northern accents burst out of Sheffield, though in truth it’s only been about a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Beach BoysSunday, 01 September 2013
The Beach Boys: Made in CaliforniaMade in California is a fantastic thing. Six CDs slot into the inside of the back cover of an LP-sized, full colour hardback book with a padded cover. As an artefact, it’s a triumph. As a career-spanning... Read more... |
CD: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the KingWednesday, 21 August 2013
There is no guarantee of success in any area of rock and pop but those who wish to succeed through sheer graft might look to metal as their main chance. While multiple bands in other genres have fleeting, unpredictable moments in the sun, a decent... Read more... |
Pipe Dream, Union TheatreSunday, 04 August 2013
Rodgers and Steinbeck: sound unlikely? Well, self-proclaimed “family show” man Hammerstein may have baulked at words like "whorehouse" when he created a play for music out of Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. But by 1955 the R&H duo... Read more... |
CD: Deap Vally - SistronixSunday, 23 June 2013
It is unfortunate that those who hate Deap Vally find it way easier to articulate why than those who love them. There’s little new in the bluesy, garage-rock riffs that pose and swagger their way through debut album Sistronix, and it’s not as if -... Read more... |
CD: Middle Class Rut - Pick Up Your HeadMonday, 17 June 2013
For starters, Middle Class Rut is a great name for a band. It sounds irritated, punky, full of fighting spirit. Happily the duo from Sacramento California, live up to it. Their second album is an impassioned roar, occasionally a howl of disgust,... Read more... |
CD: Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like ClockworkSaturday, 01 June 2013
Reasons behind the prolonged absence of Queens of the Stone Age are legion, including line-up turbulence, successful side projects and the near-death experience of band linchpin Josh Homme. As if to acknowledge and compensate for the lengthy gap in... Read more... |
The Eagles at Sundance - History in the MakingSaturday, 27 April 2013
The Eagles recorded their first two albums in London in the early Seventies, though they couldn't have imagined they'd be back 40 years later to present their new documentary, History of the Eagles Part One, at Sundance London. There is, as you may... Read more... |
CD: Cold War Kids - Dear Miss LonelyheartsWednesday, 27 March 2013
Cold War Kids remain all mixed up. The Californian band appeared in 2006 bearing tasty blues-rock indie that leapt about in the same places Jack White hangs out. There was lots of media blather about their being a Christian band since most of them... Read more... |
CD: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Specter at the FeastWednesday, 13 March 2013
There was a common theme to overheard discussions about Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. Whether in cinema doorways, school playgrounds or pubs, the consensus seemed to be that it laid out Tolkien’s tale in a suitably epic fashion and was no less a feat... Read more... |
