Collaborative Music Blogging Project
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
Melody-loving label Great Sheiks are putting on a special gig at North London’s Lauderdale House. Advance tickets are available for this event where acts from their roster The Rosemary Works, Whelligan and The A Train, will be joined by strings, woodwind, harmoniums, toy pianos, glockenspiels, theorbos (no us either, until we googled it!)….any way, you get…
Continue reading Great Sheiks presents: a night of multi-instrumental music!
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
We’re adding our message of sadness and support for all the labels and associated acts who were affected by the Sony DADC warehouse fire this week. PIAS and AIM (Association of Independent Music) have set up a fund for those who wish to help and issued the following statement earlier today: [PIAS] have…
Continue reading PIAS/AIM set up fund for labels
Cheeky Mr Malkmus & co are looking to censor their ‘Senator’ For the uninitiated, the forthcoming single features a line declaring the man from the Senate’s love of fellatio. This as you might imagine isn’t going to make the task of radio plugging too easy, so the band are appealing to fans to find a…
Continue reading Help Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks clean up their act!
