It seems a strange thing to say about a band that has been making records for well over 20 years now, but The Melvins’ time may have finally come. Historically best known for their association with the nascent Nirvana, perhaps the time is now right for their Sabbath influenced sludge rock to get the recognition they deserve. Read More…

Endless Boogie - Never will a bands name describe them so well, unless The Feeling changed their name to Insipid Gash. The main problem with the 'Boogie' is that they're more endless than they are boogie. What starts of as a promising sound with the opener 'Smoking Figs In The Yard' - take the Stones, add a pinch of Kings Of Leon southern fry them and sprinkle with a hint of ZZ Top, quickly becomes tiresome. Each song is one good idea / riff repeated indefinitely and interspersed with meandering guitar solos and gravelly singing. Read More…

Post Rock, where’s it going? I ask the question after listening to this album by The Ascent Of Everest because it’s a rerelease and remaster of a recording from 2006 and I can’t quite work out why they’ve bothered. Whilst it is an enormously accomplished album, the 5 tracks blend seamlessly, each ebbing and flowing with glorious crescendos following peaceful troughs, it brings very little that is new to the table so are they just trying to cash in on the relative ‘success’ of Post Rock over the last few years or do they genuinely believe they are contributing something…

Another day another facsimile of Arcade Fire. Booooooooooooooooring!!! But wait, don't run so swiftly. Give said water features a chance. Despite the obvious comparison with Montreal's favourite, the opening of 'A Certain Feeling' is a thrilling ride. 'Gold, Tan, Peach and Grey' is a rousing jaunt, with call and response vocals that pull you in on their journey - a call to arms. This is followed by 'Under The Pines' which includes an awesome prog-folk guitar riff, that wouldn't be out of place on an early King Crimson release, and another massive chorus. Read More…

Links:
Bodies Of Water

Tue 24 Jun – Sigur Rós

On the insurance advert Joanne Lumley and Nigel Havers smugly ask; 'Are you privileged?’, at which point I throw my shoe at the bastards on the screen; 'NO, I most certainly am not privileged. I have an overdraft bigger than the Grand Canyon, I don't own a house, I have spots', etc, etc. But now when they ask in their nefarious way, I'll be able to turn around and say; 'Yes, yes, I most certainly am privileged, because I saw Sigur Ros at Central Hall, Westminster. So fuuuuuhuck you'. Read More…

Sun 22 Jun – My Bloody Valentine, Le Volume Courbe

Once upon a time, there was a band called My Bloody Valentine. They made very pretty music, performed it very loudly for their fans and then disappeared for sixteen years. Now they’re back to delight us all again. But the world has moved on; young pretenders have come (many have gone again). Will these old-stagers be able to keep up? Can they still cut it with the kids? Does the world still need or want them?

Yes.

Fuck, yes.

Read More…

‘With Our Arms Wide Open We March Towards The Burning Sea’… To be honest, with a title like that I don’t even need to listen to this album to know that it’s going to be my cup of tea. Portentous, melodramatic, gothic, all of the necessary ingredients to get my juices going! Read More…

Links:
Glissando

Something has stirred in the northern wastelands. A thawing, a warming perhaps? Green shoots have poked their tender heads from beneath the snow. Whatever it is that has happened this, the sixth album from Sigur Ros, is different. Read More…

Links:
Sigur Ros

Wed 4 Jun – Bon Iver, Port O'Brien

I have been trying to write this for 14 days. 2 weeks lost, or 2 weeks distance? I have barely listened to “For Emma, Forever Ago” since. The main reason is it makes me feel like crying, for some inexplicable reason, all at once this record feels so painful, so raw. It used to help me sleep; now it haunts me … Read More…

Bon Iver

Fri 13 Jun – My Bloody Valentine

To say I felt privileged to be attending My Bloody Valentines’ first show in 16 years is the understatement of the century. To see such a gig at Wembley Stadium would have been a treat, but to see it at the ICA, which must only hold a couple of hundred people, gave me a distinct feeling that I’d helped a lot of old ladies cross the road in a past life, whilst simultaneously converting them to the path of righteousness. Maybe it was a big trick. Maybe my tickets wouldn’t be valid.…