Although my love of live music has led me to become an emotional disgrace in public many times, it’s not often I wake up and genuinely wonder if the night before was a sweet sweet dream. I arrived keen and early to my favourite Leeds live music venue and resisted the temptation to wear my get.cape t-shirt from 2006 that I had been sleeping in for the past...
Bank holidays, especially in summer, are always a great weekend , one that you can optimise further by a embracing 14 hours straight of live music! Live at Leeds seems to be growing in popularity and raising the standard/profiles of signed and unsigned acts.! I eased myself in at midday with Chew Lips, watching them for the fourth time it would be fair to...
Ideal long weekend city breaks usually involve taking in some culture, momentous artefacts of some description, chilling out with your nearest and dearest, fine dining, walking for miles without really realising it and a subjective intake of booze. If you add to that some of the best acts of the past year playing to small crowds in intimate venues and a...
Find local bands or gigs and get talking about them! The key to any good business and especially the music business is networking, trawling the internet for suitable gig venues and promoters to push you into the limelight, or replacing the drummer for the overtly keen guy who wasn’t as committed he claimed. So not only as a musician do you have to spend...
One man bands conjure images of a guy with a harmonica tapped to his face and cymbals strapped to his knees, however solo multi-instrumentalist DJ Jason Drake who forms the complex sound that is Cassettes Won’t Listen is fascinating and experimental in a different way. Long since the ignorance of mistaking electronic music for Nintendo’s this album...
As far as first impressions go, Francesca and Ian, who combine to make the duo I Am A Camera, appear as iconic art students, conjuring images of musical creation happening in their home studio full of intriguing electronic devices and surround by melting clocks and funky glasswork. My elaborated imagery may go some way towards matching their sound, however...
Ringing with haunting melodies and sweetly soft words this music can actually stun you into silence of appreciation. The single acoustic guitar is reminiscent of a music box, its metre so perfectly in time, you don’t have to be a musician to appreciate a great heart-warming sense through such intricate simplicity. His voice has echoing undertones...
In a nutshell this album is synth and guitar driven pop rock, which combines themes of reckless behaviour and fraught relationships with a purely young adolescent focus. The opening track Sins Of My Youth summarises this, presumably aimed at a future partner toying with the idea that if they were aware of past skeletons in the closet and youth driven drama...
With the rising success of Frank Turner Xtra mile records could have another prodigy on their hands. The similarity between the artists is instantly recognisably, showcasing their dedication to melodic and moody folk rock, with a healthy balance of whit, sing-alongs and socialist sincerity. Even to the extremities of having both covered ‘the distract...
On the initial listen of this band they undergo the natural process of categorising, and in this case as another modern take on traditional folk music, wistful lyrics concerning nature, mundane days then contrasting them with hopes and dreams. A generic set up of ‘ye olde’ instrumental sounds – pedal steel guitar, violin, acoustic guitar with a bit...
The striking thing about Les Shelleys, that’s before they even entered the stage, is the set up. One very tall microphone stand, the other about a metre from the ground, having only ever seen pictures of Tom Brousseau and Angela Correa I did wander what this duos appearance may be. However, from the early onset it was clear that the microphone is for...
This double CD compilation consisting of our favourite singles, B sides and album tracks is a great nostalgia trip for immersing yourself in the 90’s. With 10 years on the kids can finally have a defining decade, the time of original indie boys and ‘Britpop’. With so many skinny jeaned long haired male vocalists and guitarists bandied around the...