Squalor Victoria and Albert
The National are the American Elbow (or, for the Americans amongst you, Elbow are the English The National1). Purveyors of heartfelt, grandiose music, with a touch of prog in amongst the melancholy....
View ArticleLive – Joanna Newsom, Royal Festival Hall
Joanna newsom is a genius. There, I said it. The G word. A proper, certified, unambiguous genius. There is no-one, but no-one out there (except perhaps Sufjan Stevens) who writes music so perplexing,...
View ArticleImperialous – Metric at Shepherds Bush Empire
The more I think about it, the more I’m starting to believe that the real brains behind Broken Social Scene isn’t Kevin Drew and the beardy one, but Leslie Feist and Emily Haines. Just check the...
View ArticleTotally Wire-d
Music, in case you hadn’t read the memo, is as much about tribalism as anything else. Some music – like gospel, Welsh close-harmony singing – brings people together. Others, such as the massed choirs...
View ArticleSwans Live – Koko, London
Nothing, but nothing can prepare you for standing at the front at a Swans gig. Being locked inside a blast furnace might help, or standing on the rim of an exploding volcano could do it, to some...
View ArticleSpooning
“Hey, were you at the Broken Social Scene gig last night? My boyfriend says he saw you there” Oh dear. Please don’t say that you saw me yelling at anyone. “Oh, did he say that for any particular...
View ArticleWe Hate It When Our Bands Become Successful – Arcade Fire at the O2
God, I hate corporate venues. I hate Ticketmaster, and I hate the way fans of bands get screwed every time their band plays somewhere like the O2. Why? Because you get forced into trying to buy tickets...
View ArticleLaura Veirs Live
Going to see an artist live that’s got a hefty back catalogue – you know, four or five highly acclaimed albums which are, as far as these things are worth these days, sort of commercially successful,...
View ArticleMogwai and The Twilight Sad Live
A man of my rapidly advancing years will, on his fourth consecutive night out (following on from, in order, Laura Veirs, football, stupid beer drinking), find himself feeling somewhat jaded. What...
View ArticleTWOAG Part Two – Sufjan Stevens
“So how was the gig?” “I don’t know” “What, you mean you didn’t go?” “No, I just don’t know what to make of it. I’m confused” “But it was three days ago!” Such is the problem with trying to review a...
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