Anyone who knows this blog will know of my love for The End of the Road Festival. But it’s not just a festival. Luckily for us Londoners, the organisers also put on monthly gigs at The Social which both provide the capital with a dose of fine new bands, and possibly give a sneak preview [...]
I’ve just had a bit of a realisation. Swedish singer-songwriter Emil Svanängen actually records under the name Loney, Dear. That’s not Lonely, Dear as I had previously thought (no ‘L’ you see). That may not seem like a big deal, and it’s not. But it seems that I’m not the only one making this mistake. [...]
So I have a new project on The Daily Growl. One that was precipitated by last week’s project – that of decorating my lounge. As part of the clearing-out process prior to painting, I moved all my CDs upstairs, and now I have several cases and baskets of them lying around. One of these [...]
There was an article on The Hype Machine in the Guardian yesterday. Nothing that interesting, and nothing that regular blog-readers don’t already know. But I was interested in the portrayal of a world where “James Yorkston is more popular than James Blunt”.
So I thought I’d put it to the test. Is this really true? [...]
I’m a whole week, late with this, but then again, I’ve got an excuse…
Arcade Fire are making up for lost time. Back in 2005 when they first arrived on these shores riding waves of critical acclaim and internet hype, they only played three London shows – the now legendary gigs at King’s College and ULU [...]
Sorry for the lack of posts of late (and any lack of responses to emails). I’m in decorating hell. I hate it, but I should emerge, hopefully relatively unscathed, in a few days with more music-related posts. I have stuff to write about, honest. It’s just that right now, my developing lounge needs more attention.
So [...]
Here’s the first in what will probably be a very occasional series. Whatever happened to… isn’t intended to tell you amusing anecdotes about what happened to various indie bands after their prime. I haven’t suddenly discovered that the former Menswear bass player works in my local hairdressers. Not yet anyway. No, it’s going to be [...]
Another week, another decent band from Leeds. Only I’ve been on about these guys before. The good news is that iLiKETRAiNS have gotten round to releasing their debut single for Beggars Banquet. It’s called Spencer Perceval, and it’s no ordinary single.
Why? Well, for a start it continues their interest in obscure historical events as subject [...]
The nation’s independent music shops are slowly closing. I know people have been talking about this for years, but the last six months have seen the closure of Reckless Records and Smallfish in central London alone. A big shame.
Thankfully there are still great shops like Rough Trade. And also thankfully there are people like the [...]
Here it is at last. The delayed final edition of my Disco Pogo for Punks in Pumps series, this time volume 11 from Jockey Slut’s October 2003 edition. Again I have James from Yer Mam! To thank for these tracks, because although I still have the magazine and CD case, somehow the CD has gone [...]
