I’ve been a bit behind with The Young Republic. A few bloggers, particularly Another Form of Relief have been banging on about them for the best part of a year now. But somehow, I only got round to listening to them recently. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that they’ve been recently [...]
It seems fitting that I follow up yesterday’s post on A Hawk and a Hacksaw with another piece of Eastern European folk goodness. This time it’s real gypsy folk. That is, played by real gypsies.
This album I’m posting from here is by legendary gypsy singer Romica Puceanu, who performed with the even-more-legendary Gore Brothers in [...]
Last year some of the phrases on the lips of many bloggers were ‘Balkan folk’, ‘gypsy folk’ or (perhaps more correctly) ‘Eastern European folk’. In almost all cases, they were referring to the rise and rise of Beirut, the project of Zach Condon, formerly of Albuquerque, now of NYC. In some other cases there were [...]
You either love it or hate it. It’s a Marmite kinda song. But now there’s a third option creeping in – getting tired of it. You see, Thou Shalt Always Kill by Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip is a bit like a great joke. It’s brilliant the first time you hear it. And the [...]
Expectations. They can go a long way to determining your enjoyment of a gig, can’t they? Have you had high hopes, only to see them frustrated? Or low hopes only to have them blown away? Well, I had both the other night.
The disappointment came in the shape of Devastations. I’m not sure what it was. [...]
My posts of late have been a bit thin on the ground. That’s because I’ve been mad busy with home improvements and a heap of other stuff going on. But hopefully now something resembling normal service will be resumed.
Here’s some things that were keeping me type faster at work last week, as I combined working [...]
When Arcade Fire cancelled the rest of their European tour lately it wasn’t just a shame for their fans from Norway to France, it was probably also a bit of a blow for Electrelane, who Win Butler and co. had invited to support them on the tour. With their new album No Shouts, No Calls [...]
At the start of the year, when I was doing my list of singer-songwriter tips for 2007, I kept getting recommended Laura Marling as another good ‘hopeful’. But I never really got round to checking her out. Until the other night. On Monday she was in the Xfm studio, playing a live session for John [...]
Today I’ve been listening to The Delgados’ album The Great Eastern for the first time in what seems like years. I’d forgotten just how good it is. An indie classic that really should have been massive. Then my mind turned to what the band were up to now. I’ve no idea what the three blokes [...]
Here’s a new band today. Or rather that should be a new artist. For Magic Arm is really just one guy – Marc Rigelsford from Manchester – who is pursuing a very pleasing and interesting line in psychedelic alt-folk music.
Unusually for a British artist, I first found out about Magic Arm from an American source [...]
