Beth Jeans Houghton – London – 26 September 2012
Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny Kings College, London September 26, 2012 A little face paint and a rummage through the fancy dress chest has the potential to turn even the dreariest of
Plants and Animals – La La Land
For a band who call their music "post-classic rock", Canada's Plants and Rags have at least one thing going for them.
Deerhunter – Microcastle
4AD, 2008 [10/10] It's refreshing to listen to a band riding on a wave of no hype. No Myspace campaigns, no sycophantic hipsters attempting to crystal ball the next Vampire Weekend. Bradford Cox could probably
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.
Factory Records – Communications 1978-1992
Long-overdue retrospective from the label that brought you the Happy Mondays, but don't hold that against them...
Cold Cave – Of Dark Days and Light Years (2011)
Cold Cave's debut album of 2009 Love Comes Close was a unique display of synth-oriented mood disorder, venturing out from the bedroom to the dancefloor, filled with idealistic tales of romance and disillusionment. Band leader Wes Eisold’s spin on the world appeared to share a voice (in both dour baritone and content) with Magnetic Fields Stephin Merritt, if he'd spent his adolescence listening to The Cure and Depeche Mode instead of showtunes. On their second album, Eisold moved beyond the testing of the waters that was Love Comes Close and turned its successor, Cherish The Light Years into his dark dream made manifold.
Dean Wareham – London – 8 December 2010
Long before he cleared the air/dished the dirt (whichever way you look at it), on his band mates in his autobiography Black Postcards, it was widely known there would never be a proper Galaxie 500 reunion. In the intervening years since their disbandment in 1991, both Dean Wareham and the unit known as Damon and Naomi have gone their separate musical ways to moderate degrees of success. With Wareham’s post G500 outfit Luna winding up in 2005, he’d now put to pasture two bands presumably allowing him time to reflect on past glories with a renewed desire to not let that youth go to waste.
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Many a rock band have experimented with electronica but can Scotland's most successful export since kilts and haggis pull it off?
My Morning Jacket – Circuital
Album number six for these free-wheeling long-haired holdin' on to black metal giants of Southern Rock.
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
"Bitte Orca is an album for the background of a high concept coffee shop on your hipster street". I'm getting that Reality Bites feeling...
Zola Jesus – Her Dark Materials (2011)
From her isolated upbringing in rural Wisconsin, combined with a passion for opera, philosophy and industrial music, Nika Rosa Danilova aka Zola Jesus has created a name for herself as being a successor to the
The Fall – Your Future, Our Clutter
The Northern white crap that talks back are... back. Smith and Co. hit the 21st Century in style with album number 277 or thereabouts.
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Sounding more like a theme park ride than a band, Ariel Pink pulls off both with a little 70's funk and 80's new wave self-exploration.
Peter Murphy – Ninth
Ex-Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy returns with his first new solo album in 7 years, proving that there's still life in the old goth.
1990s – Kicks
Get your Kicks on route 1990. Jackie McKeown and the boys return with their second album of more of the same pop-punk.
Metric – Fantasies
Canadian/American synth-rockers Metric return with their fourth (or third) album. Fantasies. Will it be yours though?