Category: Indie
-
The National: The World’s Biggest Unknown Band – live at O2 Arena, London
When telling colleagues and friends that I was going to see The National last night, for their final show of their “Trouble Will Find Me” world tour, almost all of them gave me the same one word answer. “…….Who……???” On this evidence* it seems that The National might just be the World’s Biggest Unknown Band.…
-
Time For Another Vinyl Challenge: The New Oasis Box Set Costs £116.99. What Could You Buy Instead?
White vinyl. Limited edition of 300 copies. Ultra-vinyl. Picture disc. All wonderful. All valuable (well, sometimes. That Bon Jovi picture disc might just be past it’s sell by date – and you’ll never shift those Gary Glitter and Rolf Harris records now). And they all tend to be very expensive too. Some are nearly as pricey as…
-
More Cowbell: London Two Piece Bear Their Skeleton Soul
Stoke Newington duo Cowbell are set to release their second album, “Skeleton Soul” on Monday 29th September. Their debut LP “Beat Stampede” was one of my albums of 2012, and was a sixties-tinged garage rock classic. Let’s do a quick recap for the uninitiated and for those with poor memories and/or short attention spans: Cowbell…
-
Richard Hawley’s Cole’s Corner: £150 on Vinyl, 99p on CD…
One of the by-products of iTunes, mp3s, downloads, streaming and so on is that the price of second hand CDs has fallen lower than the spirits of Brazilian football supporters. Music fans on a budget, or tight-wads generally, are able to rip a CD to their hard drive and then sell it on eBay to…
-
Parquet Courts Stoned and Starving at Glastonbury: Friday – The Park Stage
After the rain-enforced break that threw Jimi Goodwin offstage, on came four punks / stoners / who knows? in the form of Parquet Courts. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Parquet Courts were perhaps one of the most highly anticipated bands to play Glastonbury this year. They arrive fresh from a brief tour of the UK…
-
Check out: The Hosts
They say if you remember the sixties, you weren’t really there. Well now there’s a new band who definitely weren’t there, but have solved that problem by recording a modern album that brings the sixties sound into the 21st century. A couple of months ago I heard a song on the radio that sounded like…
-
Jesus And Mary Chain: We Weren’t Goths: We Just Wanted To Be On Top of the Pops!
A couple of weeks ago I talked to author Zoe Howe about her new Jesus and Mary Chain Official Biography “Barbed Wire Kisses” which is being released this month, and is the first ever account of the band, some thirty years after their 1984 debut single “Upside Down”. Rock’s annals have a long history of…
-
The Real Highlight of the Oasis Definitely Maybe Re-Releases: The Demo Cassette
Anyone living in the UK over the past few weeks and not trapped under something heavy cannot fail to have noticed it is the twentieth anniversary of Brit Pop this year. Polls, documentaries, radio shows and news articles have all been reflecting / wringing hands / celebrating What It All Means, What Brit Pop’s Lasting…
-
Sweet Billy Pilgrim New Album News
Studio news reaches my ears from Every Record Tells A Story favourites (and ERTAS Album of the Year 2012 winners) Sweet Billy Pilgrim. Sweet Billy Pilgrim are looking towards crowd-funding to help raise the funds needed to produce their fourth album (no working title yet, just a hashtag of #SBP4). Given that the band made…
-
The Best Records of 2014 So Far: Embrace – Refugees EP
A Tale of Two Bands… It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… In 2000, a young Chris Martin must have been feeling good about life. After his band Coldplay had released three EPs without troubling the charts, latest single “Shiver” had broken the top 40. Moreover, Coldplay had been picked…
-
The Best Records of 2014 So Far: Damien Jurado
Damien Jurado’s Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Sun is a barking mad “dream” concept album – but a great one. I have a mixed view of concept albums. At best, they are all-encompassing and wonderful things. At worst, well – they’re just about as bad as it gets. I think of all musical theatre…
-
The Best Records of 2014 So Far: The Horrors – So Now You Know
“So Now You Know” is the second track to be revealed from The Horrors’ fourth album “Luminous” which is out on May 5th. Whilst the first preview from the album “I See You” was a seven and a half minute epic awash with atmospheric synth work from Tom Cowan alongside singer Faris Badawan’s trademark vocals,…
-
The Best Records of 2014 So Far: Augustines
In August 2013, We Are Augustines announced to the press they were changing their name, after the successful conclusion of a legal dispute. “From henceforth, we are Augustines, not We Are Augustines”, they said. There then followed a certain amount of confusion. “Isn’t that what you were called already?” asked the world’s press. “Are you…
-
The Best Records of 2014 So Far: Beck – Morning Phase
Back in 1999 Beck Hansen released the funky Midnight Vultures. Songs like Sexx Laws and the fantastic “Debra” with its chorus of “I want you / only you…. / …and your sister / I think her name is Debra” were as much clever pastiche as anything. Beck’s one-liners, it seemed, were as good as his…
-
The Best Records of 2014 so far #3: Elbow – The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
You probably want to know about Elbow’s latest release, so here’s a review: It has a slight American influence, whilst remaining distinctly British. It’s better than their last one. It’s bittersweet. It’s also amber coloured and 4.25% by volume. Well, you didn’t think I was talking about the new album did you? When there’s a…
Every record tells a story 