indie
Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie, BBC FourSaturday, 10 October 2015
If there was any doubt as to the musical preferences of BBC4's commissioning arm, consider this: the whole history of funk got an hour. Meanwhile, indie music – a niche, artistic movement that somehow ended up drinking champagne while... Read more... |
Sebadoh, Ramsgate Music HallThursday, 08 October 2015
The three-toed sloth moves at a maximum – that’s maximum – of 10 feet per minute. It’s thought to be the slowest animal in the world. While on a train hugging the north Kent coast however, I reckon I could give it a, figurative, run for its money. I... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Hamburg: Reeperbahn Festival 2015Sunday, 04 October 2015
An encounter with Hamburg’s Reeperbahn is akin to assimilation into a real-life kaleidoscope where bright lights, mass revellers and shills touting bars, night clubs or strip joints combine in a single multi-sense overload. The tumultuous... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mercury RevWednesday, 30 September 2015
The Light in You, Mercury Rev’s eighth studio album, is issued at the end of this week. It is their first for seven years, following 2008’s Snowflake Midnight. In the run up to its release, main-men and constants Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper (... Read more... |
This Is England '90, Channel 4Monday, 14 September 2015
It’s been worth the wait. There’s something about the affection Shane Meadows feels for his characters; the street action that doesn’t often (in this opener especially, though that may well change) tip into overt drama; the family elements that... Read more... |
CD: Foals - What Went DownSunday, 06 September 2015
Coming to Foals without the baggage – without knowing, for example, that they’re a British guitar band of mid-Noughties vintage – is a disconcerting experience, not least where fourth album What Went Down is concerned. Opening with a huge... Read more... |
CD: Micachu & The Shapes - Good Sad Happy BadMonday, 31 August 2015
Bands that stand out live often disappoint on record: it can be difficult to capture the energy, the ferociousness, the vitality that makes a group of musicians special when you freeze it in time. Experimental pop trio Micachu & the Shapes -... Read more... |
CD: Beach House – Depression CherryMonday, 24 August 2015
Though beautiful, Depression Cherry is hard to love. The fifth album from Beach House – Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally – has the fragile exquisiteness of fine lace but is, as ever with the duo, so hazy it proves impossible to surrender to its... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Julian CopeSunday, 23 August 2015
Julian Cope: World Shut Your Mouth, FriedIt’s a fair assumption Julian Cope’s record label Phonogram was committed to the idea that he could be a solo commercial and critical success. Teardrop Explodes, the band he had fronted, had charted and his... Read more... |
CD: Frank Turner – Positive Songs for Negative PeopleMonday, 03 August 2015
Sad singers never write truly happy albums, but Positive Songs for Negative People – and was there ever a title that so perfectly summed up the work of Frank Turner? – is probably as close as this one gets to putting a brave face on it. Turner’... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Cocteau TwinsSunday, 02 August 2015
Cocteau Twins: The Pink Opaque, Tiny Dynamine/Echoes in a Shallow BayThe current fad for all things vinyl is of course, in general, a good thing. It has also meant that a column with CD in its header has, inevitably, broadened its scope. There... Read more... |
CD: Vetiver – Complete StrangersMonday, 27 July 2015
The listless Complete Strangers drifts by in such a haze that it’s impossible to maintain any concentration on it after the first 10 minutes or so. When it ends, after 43 minutes and 10 songs, awareness that it’s finished only comes when whatever... Read more... |
