Collaborative Music Blogging Project
The Fleece is packed tonight, condensation running down the walls. It’s fair to say St. Vincent, previously often described in relation to the Polyphonic Spree or Sufjan Stevens, is a star in her own right. On her third album, Strange Mercy, Annie Clark’s aggressive, choppy guitar playing comes to the fore, with wig out a-plenty.…
Continue reading [Live Review] St. Vincent, The Fleece, Bristol November 11th 2011
London-based Scots Dave McLean and Vincent Neff’s bedroom project has blossomed into one of KV’s favourite live shows, and the chance to see them on a boat for free was too good to pass up. The band play rhythms like no other, part Arabic, part spaghetti western, part stabby guitar twang, embellished with retro synth…
Continue reading [Live Review] Django Django, Thekla, Bristol November 3rd 2011
It’s a Thursday night and there is an autumnal chill in the air; so I head out, cardigan-clad into the Camden night to see Veronica Falls. The London via Glasgow four piece deliver a set of their spirit of C86 sound to a bustling room. The much-discussed nods to 80s and 90s indie like The…
Continue reading Veronica Falls, Barfly, Camden 27.10.11
In 2007, Brian Wilson and his band came to do a special show at the then newly-reopened Southbank Centre. I was fortunate enough to go along to review it, I danced in the aisles then pondered how it could be that I can be reviewing a legend. Over-used a term as it is, it…
Continue reading Brian Wilson @ Southbank Centre, London, 16.09.11
tUnE-yArDs aka Merrill Garbus likened playing live to going into battle in a recent interview, and there’s definitely something of the tribal in her face paint and musical arrangements. This intimate club gig is no battle ground though: in fact I defy you to find a warmer, less affected live performer at the moment. Garbus…
Continue reading tUnE-yArDs @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, 15.09.11
It’s fair to say that Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam is adored by the Green Man/ End of the Road crowd for his easygoing humour, his outstandingly well-crafted songs and, perhaps most of all, his magnificent beard. The Sunday night headliner, immediately before the burning of the Green Man, there’s an almost spiritual air about…
Continue reading Iron and Wine @ Green Man Festival
Lia Ices’s 2011 sophomore album ‘Grown Unknown‘ is an absolute delight which I’ve grown to adore, so I was rather excited for this perfomance. Live, Lia’s voice is every bit as beautiful as on record. The instrumentation is (understandably) a little more sparse than the album, but the overall effect is still spellbinding. The set…
Continue reading Lia Ices @ Green Man Festival
Lafayette, Louisiana quintet Givers have been making waves with their disarmingly positive brand of indie pop. Tonight they’re living up to their name by performing a free(!) show in Bristol. Live, the band’s perfectly matched boy + girl vocals and seamless tempo changes are flawless, and reveal that the band make music that is far…
Continue reading [Live Review] Givers @ Start the Bus, Bristol, 11/8/11
Image courtesy of Justine Louise Photography Much has been made of the sound issues at today’s event, but I’ve yet to go to a large scale outdoor show or festival where this hasn’t been a problem. While sound levels certainly dipped in and out, it didn’t seem to stop Arcade Fire delivering on…
Continue reading Arcade Fire + Mumford & Sons, Beirut and The Vaccines @ Hyde Park, London 30.06.11
Another gig in the refurbished Dalston drinking hole; another hipster crowd. This time people are gathered to *ahem* lose themselves to the sound of Mazes. The blog/BBC 6 Music friendly London and Manchester band are playing the back-room venue to launch their new single ‘Summer Hits’. Having heard a handful of songs from their debut…
Continue reading Mazes @ Shacklewell Arms, Dalston. 15.06.11
