Tag: jamie boyd

Over a decade has passed since the self-titled follow up to 2002’s ‘Up The Bracket‘ saw The Libertines reach the peak of their powers. Bittersweet tales of a band caught up between realising their dreams and the carefree days of pre-fame anonymity were told as the good ship Albion was…

Impromptu gigs in Marks & Spencer bakery aisles and a severance of their contract with Colombia Records due to desire for greater musical integrity set the tone for Little Comets as a band making music for all the right reasons. The release of third LP ‘Hope Is Just a State…

If Birmingham quartet Peace’s supremely promising 2013 debut LP ‘In Love‘ channelled post-punk Cure style vocals and hazy psychedelic gems such ‘Bloodshake’, follow-up ‘Happy People‘ aims to heighten the influence of modern pop jauntiness which has drawn comparison to sonically floating contemporaries such as The Maccabees and…

“Yeah, that rock’n’roll. It seems like it’s faded away sometimes but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” Alex Turner’s Brit Awards speech earlier this year now appears to be somewhat of a Mystic Meg style observation of the potential renaissance of rock’n’roll. Garage rock/blues…

Folk music in all its guises is often an unforgiving genre to enter into. Given the tendency for critics to label every contemporary iteration of a sound dating back many centuries, across a rich international tapestry, to the zenith of sleek production Mumford & Sons, or the commercialised pop leanings…

As a seasoned festival goer with a collection of heavily worn out wristbands gathered from trips to some of the UK’s biggest festivals – T In The Park, Leeds and Download alongside the godfather of all music festivals, – a visit to an altogether more humble venue in Derbyshire’s Y…

The poignancy wrapped up in the title of Morrissey’s landmark tenth solo studio album could never ring more potently than within our current war-torn age of rising military tensions and political unrest. On ‘World Peace Is None Of Your Business‘ Morrissey bookends a troubled period in his own personal…

In a tabloid driven era where instant gratification and overly saturated information streams are available at the touch of a button, Jack White stands alone in the music industry as a refreshingly traditional figure. Representing a direct link back to the mythical world of the Delta Blues, alongside the subsequent…

It only seems like yesterday when Blood Red Shoes’ debut album ‘Box Of Secrets‘ soundtracked walk-backs from college in the spring of 2008, announcing the band as one of the most exhilarating in the halcyon days of the contemporary indie movement during the latter half of the last decade.…

After a decidedly prolific release cycle which saw three albums crafted by lead singer and chief songwriter  Jack Steadman and co through summer 2009 to summer 2011, there has been an unnervingly lengthy wait for the chameleonic indie troupe to deliver their fourth studio album ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow‘,…

There are many bands that go through tumultuous periods at some stage in their career, although for Brooklyn-based Augustines the difficulties branch much deeper than any petty inter-band squabbles or creative differences. Having recently returned to their original moniker from the adopted We Are Augustines, the three–piece set up…

With another series of essential music videos, gigs, tracks and albums in the bag, now it’s our writers’ turn to pick their own favourite album of 2013 – across six selected LPs there’s a ‘head rush of pulsing punk rock rhythms and unsettling psych-pop melodies’, some ‘mastery of techno’, ‘a…

Glasvegas have forged a meandering path since their number two chart peak of the football-terrace-anthem-laden debut in 2008, with poor sales of the more dreamily contemplative follow-up ‘Euphoric Heartbreak‘ seeing the band dropped from their Colombia label in 2011. However, an uncertain future for the band subsided with the announcement…

Five studio albums and recent career defining sets at the London Olympics and Glastonbury Festival have seen the Arctic Monkeys grow into a confident live act and indisputable headline quality billing on the back of a consistently high quality sonic output. Adolescents, first introduced via 2006’s debut album ‘Whatever People…

Back in October 2007, with Harry McVeigh, Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence at the core of the band, White Lies reinvented themselves as post-punk doom-laden rockers in the mould of the visibly influential Joy Division and Interpol, rising from the ashes of the more pop inspired Fear Of Flying. Channelling…

The Crookes at the Live4ever Media Lounge , SXSW 2013 Named after Sheffield suburb Crookes in order to affirm their allegiance to the Steel City, The Crookes (guitarists Daniel Hopewell and Tom Dakin, vocalist George Waite and drummer Russell Bates) are no strangers to SXSW, having been active on the…