So you’ve done a festival. Of course you have. You’ve ticked that box. You’ve squinted at your favourite, over hyped band through a sea of random flags, bobbing heads and a shower of piss and branded beer. You’ve queued for loos. Waded through mud (well, you hoped it was mud) and made it on to [...]
Seedy synth outfit Cold Cave have remixed Belle & Sebastian‘s “I Didn’t See It Coming”, to appear on a forthcoming B&S 12″ single for “Come On Sister” released through Matador on July 26. Cold Cave frontman Wes Eisold had this to say about the remix: “In 1998 I lived on a street called the Eastern [...]
Congratulations are in order for The Kills Jamie Hince, who became Mr. Kate Moss this weekend and was serenaded down the aisle by the sultan of suave, Bryan Ferry (the ‘down the aisle’ bit, not entirely true). One wonders what he sang to the happy couple…. “Let’s Stick Together”? “Kiss And Tell”? More importantly, just how much does it cost to hire the Ferry? Getting back to business, The Kills have just released the echo-chamber stomp of “Future Starts Slow” as the next single from Blood Pressures. The accompanying video directed by Philip Andelman follows the band on their travels from earlier this year, with a few sweet kissy-kiss and hand-holdy moments thrown in to make you go ‘awww’. The single is released on 7″ this week (July 11) and is backed with the new track “Blue Moon”. The Kills are set to tour Australia in late July with shows scheduled in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, including an appearance at the Splendour In The Grass Festival.
London ex-garage-goths The Horrors might’ve caught doubters by surprise with the career redefining and lifespan prolonging wonder that was Primary Colours, but this time we’re ready for you. Their third album Skying is out next week via XL records, and finds the band self-producing the album, and retaining the same sonic thrill that ran the [...]
It’s been something of a long time coming, but the first fruit from London cinematic psyche-pop outfit Still Corners signing to American label Sub Pop records take shapes in the form of a new 7″, “Cuckoo”, released in the UK this week (June 28). But you can just mosey on ahead and immerse yourself in [...]
Forget Glastonbury, I mean, really, just forget it. With the recent addition of Prince to the Hop Farm Festival line-up, expanding the event from two to three days, and a guaranteed U2 and Coldplay free zone, Hop Farm has become a firm contender as one of the quintessential UK festivals of 2011. The event, which now takes place from July 1-3 at Hop Farm in Kent, will also mark Prince’s first UK show in four years, following on from his mammoth run at the O2 arena in 2007. The other headline slots already taken up by the aforementioned royal family dissing Morrissey and American legends, The Eagles.
With the UK having weathered quite a few festivals already this Summer, there’s still the main all-encompassing indie and alternative maelstrom that is the Reading and Leeds Festival. The Reading festival has been a long standing event on the English festival goer’s calendar for many a decade and a right of passage for music fans which takes place on Friday 26th to Sunday 28th August at Little John’s Farm in Reading and Bramham Park in Leeds.
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.
The mainstream too often consumes the alternative and throws up a diluted dream but Truck Festival has avoided such a safe, repackaged fate. Since 1998 rural Oxfordshire has hosted a festival where the music and the music fan really does matter. The festival is now a three day affair and includes a new Clash stage curated by Transgressive Records, Bella Union and Heavenly Recordings. Truck 14 is on at Hill Farm, Steventon from July 22 to July 24 2011. A brief run-through the line-up includes appearances by Gruff Rhys, Bellowhead, Graham Coxon, Jonny, The Young Knives, St Etienne, Philip Selway, Edwyn Collins and many more.
Why hello, Wendy James. It’s been a while. Almost 20 years since I saw Transvision Vamp play at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. A mostly unremarkable show except for the amount of intimidating drunks in attendance and the fact they played their current ‘hit‘ twice. Australia loved Transvision Vamp, almost in the same way it loved Blondie, decades before. Stick a blonde wig on a mop, put it in front of a bunch of guys in leather jackets and you’re set. Transvision Vamp at that time were in their career descent with Little Magnets Versus The Bubble of Babble (my head still shudders at the idiocy of this title) and this was their last roll of the dice.
The Too Pure Singles Club returns in 2012 with a bang (or is that a rattle) with the sound of Icelandic mantra magicians Dead Skeletons. For the uninitiated, Dead Skeletons came into existence in 2008 when band member Jon Saamunder needed music for an art installation in the Reykjavik Art Museum. Enlisting the help of friends Henrik Bjornsson and Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt the trio penned the songs which would eventually become the Dead Magick album, a 72 minute, 12 song journey through space and time, life and death. “Om Mani Peme Hung” is the sound of Neu! on a meditation retreat engaging in a spiritual hypno-chant. Now repeat after me… Om Mani Peme Hung, Om Mani Peme Hung, Om Mani Peme Hung… (subscribe to the Too Pure Singles Club here).
