What was really great and what was really wrong about this gig was perfectly encapsulated in the version of Born Secular that Jenny Lewis, the Watson Twins, and their band played just before going off for the encore. On Jenny’s debut solo album Rabbit Fur Coat, it’s a gorgeous song – with plaintive, painful [...]
…and not just back on this blog, after yesterday’s celebration of Give Out But Don’t Give Up. They’re back proper. Of course we already knew this, but I’ve finally got my hands on a copy of Country Girl (thanks Some Velvet Blog), so to celebrate, I’m posting it with a live version of the [...]
Do I love the new Primal Scream single Country Girl? As ‘The Dude’ in The Big Lebowksi would say “Does the Pope shit in the woods?” After the average-ness of Evil Heat, this is a blistering return to form. The Scream do rock ‘n’ roll again! And there was a great feature on [...]
I’m glad I left it a while to write about the Rogers Sisters. I’ve had their new album, The Invisible Deck, for a while now, but have never got round to doing a review. But I’m glad, because my opinion has gradually changed over the past couple of weeks. After a cursory listen or [...]
We’re privileged. Jemima Pearl has just told us that Be Your Own Pet have treated us – me and all the boisterous kids in ULU – to their longest ever set. Not that it’s long – at about 40 minutes, you’ll never be able to accuse them of being prog. But heck, they pack [...]
My friend Dan has been getting way too much exposure on this blog lately. However, here’s one more. I’m giving him another big up because I think it’s pretty cool. He’s doing an audio-visual presentation this Sunday evening at his church in Shoreditch, on Guided By Voices, a band he has a minor obsession [...]
I officially love BBC 6 Music. Yeah, I’ve listened to it off and on on the online listen again, but since I got my shiny new digital radio last month, it’s been my main station (as well as John Kennedy on Xfm and a steady dose of Radio 4). I always seem to end [...]
Just to be clear right at the start, and avoid confusion. There is a band called Battle and a band called Battles. I was confused earlier in the year too. The singular one I missed supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in February, but after checking them out on myspace I realised I wasn’t [...]
How do you hear about good new bands? For me it’s a variety of ways. These days mostly through the internet and blogs. There’s still the old-fashioned media of radio and print, which alert me to stuff I might like. And sometimes there’s gigs. You may often, unexpectedly, catch a great new band in a [...]
