Reviews | MTTM - More Than The Music

Feb 14, 2012

Posted by Kimberley Manderson | 1 comment

09/02/2012 | Kina Grannis – Union Chapel, Lo...

Sitting in the pews of a packed-out, but freezing, Union Chapel, all mentions of snow were forgotten as a pretty Californian girl took to the stage, accompanied only by a guitar and a cellist. For a girl who not so long ago was singing to her stuffed animals, Kina Grannis isn’t doing too bad at all. One of the latest to breakthrough from YouTube generation, Kina gained thousands...

Feb 11, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

07/02/2012 | Boy – The Jazz Cafe, London

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. Having never set foot on UK soil, Swiss-German band, Boy, seem somewhat overwhelmed as they step onto the Jazz Cafe stage, and even more perplexed when they realise that not only are there a fair few German fans in the audience but also that people already know the lyrics to sing along. I have to confess;...

Feb 5, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny &...

Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose, really is as strange as it sounds. It fuses operatic vocals, with time changes and strange stories, culminating in a diverse and yet ultimately engaging offering. It’s odd, in the same way Regina Spektor’s early work was, which though at times leaves you wondering what on earth is going on, in the end only seems to draw you in more. It’s...

Feb 5, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

30/01/2012 | The Secret Sisters – Union Chap...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. Perhaps it should be made clear from the start, The Secret Sisters are good, both vocally and musically. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say their downfall is what comes between songs, or at least Laura’s is. When they’re singing their mix of traditional country numbers, inspired predominantly by the...

Feb 4, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

Anyone Can Play Guitar

Even as a relative newcomer to the Oxford music scene, I’m all too aware of the highs, and lows, which come with the music industry, but nowhere is this better conveyed that in Anyone Can Play Guitar. Tracking the history of a small town, from the heyday of Radiohead and Ride, to the lows of Dustball, The Candyskins and countless others who almost, but never quite made it, the...

Jan 29, 2012

Posted by Jo Cox | 0 comments

Gretchen Peters – Hello Cruel World

It’s no secret that Gretchen Peters’ success since the late 1980s has come mainly in the form of songwriting credits. Martina McBride, Bryan Adams and Faith Hill have all enjoyed far more success as recording artists by her pen than she has. Not that, as she tells it, this was accidental – Peters wanted her songs to be heard and worried that she wouldn’t be accepted as a...

Jan 29, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

28/01/2012 | Lindi Ortega – The Jericho Tave...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. ‘You’re gonna know me by my little red boots’. Actually, if Lindi Ortega is going to be known for anything it’s likely to be her ability to belt out songs without missing a note, something the album doesn’t seem to capture. Whilst the album is solid, live the songs are transformed with a rhythm...

Jan 28, 2012

Posted by Jo Cox | 1 comment

Nanci Griffith – Intersection

Nanci Griffith once sang that “no one ever knows the heart of anyone else”. Nevertheless, 20 albums in and we seem to be getting close. Intersection is deeply personal, finding this much celebrated singer-songwriter once again on top form, although fans shouldn’t expect the quiet contemplation of old. Griffith describes herself as being at a musical crossroads and the result...

Jan 28, 2012

Posted by Lisa Ward | 0 comments

24/01/2012 | Madison Violet – The Stables, M...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. It has to be said, the idea of leaving a warm flat on a cold, damp Tuesday in January to see a band I know little about seemed relatively unappealing, especially since it seems as though nothing has left me longing for more recently. That is until Brenley and Lisa strike up the first chord of If I Could...

Jan 17, 2012

Posted by Maria Turauskis | 0 comments

First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

Listening to First Aid Kit is always a slightly bizarre experience. Music by the Soderberg sisters is so irrevocably of another era that it is very easy to forget this is music by two very young Swedish girls. Like the group’s previous releases, The Lion’s Roar is awash with country folk influences from Gram Parsons to Fleetwood Mac, and each track (and indeed the girl’s...