Bauhaus – In The Flat Field/Mask
A powerhouse debut and its cathartic, brooding follow-up, Bauhaus' back catalogue is remastered and revived for the masses.
Adorable – Footnotes 92-94
Review of mid-90s band, Adorable, compilation album that combines singles, album tracks from their two LPs and b-sides.
Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
Jagjaguwar, 2008 The Austin boys in Okkervil River are back with another album and like always it's filled with surprising stories, dense lyrics and great tunes that stick with you. The
Liquid Liquid – Slip In and Out of the Phenomenon
Domino Records, 2008 [6/10] Post punk, new funk, even if its old junk, it's still rock and roll to me. Call it what you want, but history shows that Manhattan's Liquid Liquid were essentially a
The Thermals – Now We Can See
Portland's The Thermals return with warm power-pop, tempered by decidedly cooler lyrical themes on Now We Can See.
Foals – Australian Interview with Walter Gervers (Static, 2011)
To say expectations were high for Foals' second album Total Life Forever would be stating the exceedingly obvious but from the grandeur and exquisite melancholy of “Spanish Sahara” to the frenetic indie-pop of “This Orient” to the dance funk of “Miami” it met and exceeded them with uncommon ease. Total Life Forever elevated Foals further from their peers and into the rare league of artists who maintain credibility with a more accessible sound and thus gaining a larger listening base whilst still remaining true to their experimental pop principles. We spoke to bassist Walter Gervers while the band was in Australia for the St. Jerome’s Laneway festivals and some recording on the sly.
Kele – The Boxer
The (Bloc) Party is over. Now, it's a dance party and there's nobody here, except Kele and a few diehard Bloc Party fans looking bored.
Belle & Sebastian – Los Angeles – 8 October 2010
On an odd rainy night in downtown Hollywood, weather befit more for their homeland than ours, Belle and Sebastian, Glaswegian art school rockers of yore, played to a sold out crowd of mostly thirty-somethings, brave enough to stand outside...in not just any ordinary venue. Instead, they stylishly bowed and plucked their instruments amongst the mausoleums and graves of some of Los Angeles’ elite. Adding to the macabre setting was the screening of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting that preceded the show. Taking the stage, B&S lead singer Stuart Murdoch asked “Did you see me? I was in the bar scene!”.
The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
SideOneDummy, 2008 [9/10] The ’59 Sound starts, fittingly, with a sound of romance and antiquity -- a needle laid to vinyl. A spindly guitar riff echoes faintly in the distance, then suddenly erupts into an
The Heavy – The House That Dirt Built
UK retro-funk n' soul act The Heavy roll out the grooves and ask the question "How you like me now?". Our answer awaits.
M83 – Saturdays = Youth
Virgin, 2008 [7/10] I have a very vivid memory of M83's previous album Before the Dawn Heals Us being played at a thunderous volume while sleeping at a friend's house early one morning, and it
Doves – Kingdom of Rust
Fourth album in from these Mancunian maestros, offering a slight return to their electro/house days as Sub Sub.
Telekinesis – Telekinesis!
A protégé of Death Cab's Chris Walla, Telekinesis, certainly has the über producer's influence all over its thirteen power pop tracks.
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
EMI/Rough Trade, 2009 [7/10] Where once The Decemberists were a modest modern rock band, albeit outsiders with literate leanings that rarely leaned toward rock's excesses, they have gradually extended their artistic aspirations into the musical
Friendly Fires – Interview with Edd Gibson & Ed Macfarlane (Static, 2009)
The friendly folks from indie-dance sensations Friendly Fires stroll into Static's studio to talk the good talk about their new single "Kiss of Life", the Mercury music prize and more -- "It’s good to kind of feed off the energy of the crowd: suck them like vampires."
Robert Forster – The Evangelist
EMI, 2008 [8/10] Robert Forster and Grant McLennan were two months into writing the next Go-Betweens album when on May 6th 2006, Grant McLennan died suddenly of a heart attack at age 48. An indescribable