A Place to Bury Strangers – Interviw with Oliver, Jason, Jonathan (Static, 2010)
We trap the loudest band the land - A Place to Bury Strangers - in the Static studios to talk the good talk about their beginnings, effects pedals and not being labeled shoegaze, but are disappointed to learn that they aren't in fact the loudest band from New York -- "Jono: It was Time Out New York, they came to our rehearsal studio and had a decibel meter while we were rehearsing, but then they went to Music Hall of Williamsburg, which is this huge 500-capacity venue and then they recorded Black Dice and they were louder than us."
Elliott Smith – An Introduction To…
It's hard to believe that he's been gone 7 years now. This collection attempts to define one of last great songwriters of the 20th Century.
The Loves – …Love You
The final bow from London’s The Loves balances its buoyant pop against a knowing end and comes up smelling of roses.
Suzanne Vega – Close Up Vol. 1 Love Songs
A thematic collection of stripped down tracks from Suzanne Vega's songbook, beginning with the love song.
Ramona – London – 17 April 2011
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.
Castanets – Texas Rose Thaw & The Beasts
Every rose has a thorn and so too does the fifth album by Raymond Raposa's folk-beat one man band Castanets.