Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Apollo Theatre, Manchester Thursday, November 15th 2007 “Play Summer of 69!” someone shouts. Bad idea. While Ryan Adams may be in the mood for playing quality tunes all night long, he’s certainly not tolerating idiots in the crowd. An ongoing, mumbled torrent of abuse from Adams about the aforementioned offender [...]
Music: Reviews
Look See Proof – Local Hero
Look See Proof – Local Hero (Weekender Records) November 12th, 2007 4.7/6.0 Weekender Records deliver again, this time with Look See Proof, who have supported The Fratellis, The Pigeon Detectives and Johnny Borrell. On this evidence, things should have been the other way around. Fortunately, new single Local Hero sounds nothing like the Dire Straits [...]
Live Reviews
Good By Name, Good By Nature
Good Shoes Academy 2, Manchester Tuesday, November 13th 2007 Ambling on stage after a fairly lacklustre warm-up set from Lightspeed Champion, Good Shoes receive a somewhat muted reception from the barely two-thirds-capacity Academy 2 crowd. Bursting into the opening bars of Photos On My Wall though, heads gradually turn forward and ears prick up, and [...]
Music: Features
Your New Favourite Band!: Part 9 – Ellen Allien
I first came across the Berlin-based multi-talented vocalist and producer Ellen Allien on a compilation called Time Warp 6, assembled by the genii known to the world as Tiefschwarz. Ellen features on track 2, Down, and I still remember sticking it on and feeling the bass create ripples in the air of my cosy student [...]
Album Reviews
Details Of The War
UNKLE – War Stories (Surrender All Records) July 9th, 2007 5.4/6.0 James Lavelle and Richard File – aka UNKLE – were masters of the all-star cast long before Mark Ronson got his hands on Radiohead’s back catalogue, Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald (do the words “# Californiaaaa/Here we cooooooome…#” mean anything to you?) and a conveniently [...]
Music: Reviews
Athlete – Tokyo
Athlete – Tokyo (Parlophone) November 19th, 2007 1.1/6.0 “# I am Tokyo #”? Come on now, as opening lyrics go this isn’t exactly up there with the greats. Idiotic statements aside, the start to this track is not as grating as many of us have come to expect from Athlete. Instead of the usual pretension [...]
Music: Reviews
The Departure – 7 Years
The Departure – 7 Years (Parlophone) October 22nd, 2007 3.3/6.0 Whatever happened to The Departure? Possibly not the question on everyone’s lips but as a fan of their debut album Dirty Words, it’s something I’ve pondered over the years. Snapped up by the rather credible Parlophone at one of their first gigs, it looked like [...]
Music: Reviews
The Answering Machine – Lightbulbs
The Answering Machine – Lightbulbs (Regal Records) November 5th, 2007 4.8/6.0 The Answering Machine are currently entering a fairly crucial phase in their career; following a handful of independent label releases, and having signed to Regal’s singles club imprint for this release, here we have Lightbulbs, their first release on a major. Perfectly timed after [...]
Music: Reviews
Daggers – Money
Daggers – Money (Label Fandango) October 22nd 2007 4.2/6.0 The first listen of Daggers’ latest release Money came as quite a shock to the system. It’s about as inconsistent with virtually everything else released in recent years as you can imagine, and full to the brim with cheese. Some people would instantly write this off [...]
I'd Marry That Voice
I’d Marry That Voice: Part 9 – Roisin Murphy
I first became aware of Miss Murphy’s voice when I heard Moloko’s 1999 hit Sing it Back. I didn’t like it. But, as with all great relationships, hate turned to love with the arrival of the follow up single The Time is Now. Roisin’s voice played powerfully across the disjointed background music to utterly seduce [...]