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Continuum Books 33 1/3 – Elliot Smith – XO, Big Star – Radio City

By |January 24th, 2010|Categories: Book Reviews, Reviews|Tags: , , , , |

A look into Continuum's must-read 33 1/3 series of books that investigate the history and stories behind some of the greatest albums ever made, including reviews of the most recent releases in the series -- Big Star's Radio City and Elliott Smith's XO.

Ramona – London – 17 April 2011

By |April 28th, 2011|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , |

It's easy to love Ramona, even though everything about them is so flawless and en pointe, unheard for a scruffy bunch of Brighton by-way-of-New-York rockers. Picks in hand, they transform a handful of chords into polished punk perfection, fronted by the coquettish bleach-blonde tomboy Karen Anne, a second generation Edie and Debbie who knows how to hang from a mic stand like she was hanging from your shoulder. Absent from the stage this year so far, they cycle through their set in a brisk half hour, including encore, and you're crying out for a flubbed note, an unrehearsed run through a song they just wrote in the van, or general indifference to whether anybody is listening.

Noah and the Whale – London – 16 May 2011

By |June 18th, 2011|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , |

It’s a little known piece of Webcuts folklore that Noah And The Whale once played in my living room. Gladly, it was before my time, otherwise a compulsion to head downstairs and have words would‘ve been hard to resist. A sell-out show at the Camden Roundhouse is not to be sneered at, but if commercial success or the ability to fill a room is the barometer in which all great music is measured, we’re on (and have been for decades) very shaky ground, and when superlative-inducing American folk-rock act Okkervil River are playing across town, clearly in the wrong place.

Jonneine Zapata – Brisbane – 7 October 2010

By |November 18th, 2010|Categories: Live Reviews|Tags: , , , , , , |

Jonneine Zapata's Cast the Demons Out came out of nowhere and managed to do what it said on the tin. And all indications were that live was where she excelled. Comparisons were bandied around from PJ Harvey and Patti Smith for there strong vocal ranges to Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger for their bold sexual stage presence. Apart from the smoldering mic stand gripping, her onstage persona also alternates between standing still with an ice cold stare, holding her arms aloft swaying like an eagle, and my favourite, lurching around the stage like a drunken marionette. Unsettling? Maybe but never boring.

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