Collaborative Music Blogging Project
Sunday night in Islington’s Union Chapel, and we are gathered to watch retiring 60s chaunteuse Vashti Bunyan; and what appropriately lovely surrounds we’re in too. Despite her shyness, Vashti Bunyan is a gracious, self deprecating hostess whose voice is enough to still the sternest of critics. Not that I am one, as I sit…
Continue reading Vashti Bunyan, Islington Union Chapel, London 11.04.10
There’s something strangely 1940s about DM Stith. Maybe it’s especially apparent in the retro movie theatre surroundings of the Cube, but I like it. Stripped of the multitracked voices of album Heavy Ghost (well, almost stripped, opener ‘Morning Glory Cloud’ builds up with sampled hand claps and guitar knocks), I’m aware how complicated some of…
Continue reading [Live Review] DM Stith, The Cube, Bristol, April 8th 2010
There are perhaps 12 people on this ship who aren’t either venue staff or members of one of the two bands, and it’s a real shame as I doubt those 12 or so people will see a better show this month.Openers are Coventry’s Don’t Move, who certainly do move a lot, putting on an energetic…
Continue reading [Live Review] The Young Republic + Don’t Move, Thekla, Bristol, November 1st 2009
Tonight, I’ve ventured out into the cold Brixton night to enoy an evening of folk-ish Americana and whispery Scandinavian lo-fi pop. I’m already a Tom Brosseau fan, having had the pleasure of seeing him in a beautiful Theatre in Brighton at last year’s Great Escape Festival. The Windmill is a much smaller, ‘sticky floor’ venue…
Continue reading [Live] Tom Brosseau + Lay Low + Taxi Taxi! Brixton Windmill, London 22nd October 2009
There are some odd contradictions at work here: firstly that despite the famously opulent and showy aesthetic of Bat for Lashes, Natasha Khan is looking very low-key and almost seems, well, shy; and secondly that such an intimate performance should be delivered in such a cavernous and stark space as the Great Hall of Cardiff…
Continue reading [Live Review] Bat For Lashes, Cardiff University, 16th October 2009
Above: Video for Kill It Kid’s new single, Heaven Never Seemed So Close The first date of a double-header tour is in Kill It Kid’s old university town, and the small but friendly Moles Club is full and welcoming. Sparrow and the Workshop are new to me, but have a name that will stay on…
Continue reading [Live Review] Kill It Kid and Sparrow and the Workshop, Moles Club, Bath, 2nd October 2009
KV and chums headed down to Victoria Park for the 3rd annual music festival- meets -village fete in Hackney. My first impression is how much more organised this year’s affair is: the toilet and bar situation of Field Days gone by have been rectified and there is a decent array of food stands on display:hurrah!
Audience participation is often an unpredictable affair: when it works it can enhance the enjoyment for both performer and crowd, but when it doesn’t,it can really derail a gig. It’s understandable then that Yo La Tengo walk on sedately (although as a fan for some years, and having seen them multiple times, it’s not like I…
Continue reading The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo@ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 15.06.09
Tonight’s gig could have been disastrous for The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. If rolling news bulletins are to believed: the London tube strike has seen fighting at bus stops and travel times akin to those of the Victorian era. Fortunately, this gathering of indie-kids are not allowing pesky travel disruptions to ruin their…
Continue reading The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Cargo, London 10.06.09
As the opening band on a bill of gloomy indie rock (they are on tour with popular press darlings, White Lies) New York’s Violens (pronounced Vy-Lenz, phonetics fans) offer a slither of light in the haze of this cavernous club. Clad all in white, they deliver a set of melodic and occasionally ambient indie pop. It’s never easy warming a…
Continue reading Violens, Heaven (night club), London 8/5/09