Beach House – London – 2 December 2008
Beach House Cargo, London 2nd December 2008 Roughly a year since their last headline show at the Water Rat in Kings Cross, Baltimore’s Beach House have doubled their output and returned to London on the tail end
Beach House – Teen Dream
Makers of mood music for moderns, Baltimore's daydream duo return with their sweet and sombre third album, Teen Dream.
PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman A Man Walked By
We took at poll at Webcuts, and PJ Harvey is most definitely not a woman one of us would walk by.
Alela Diane – To Be Still
Nevada City's beguiling folk heroine Alela Diane returns with a white diamond of a second album. Be still, our beating heart.
Hazards of Swimming Naked, Lion Island, Mr. Maps, Hunz – Brisbane – 21 August 2010
A Brisbane bounty with trippy post-rockers The Hazards of Swimming Naked joined by Lofly math-rock legends Mr. Maps, plus the baroque charms of Lion Island and electronic wunderkind Hunz.
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Bah, it's the third Artic Monkeys album Humbug - which actually doesn't turn out to be half bad.
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
No jokes about rock dinosaurs please, Mascis, Barlow and Murph defy expectation with their ninth disc.
Pony Up – Stay Gold
Give it up, or rather give up your gold, for one of Montreal's premiere exponents of indie-pop Pony Up, and their sophomore album.
The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever
Heaven is here, and if the album is half as great as this review, then The Hold Steady should be counting their lucky stars.
Versus – On the Ones and Threes
Out of nowhere comes a near perfect album by a near forgotten band that rewrites their own history in one superlative-inducing swoop.
King Creosote – Flick the Vs
The two fingered salute is vigorously given by Scottish anti-folk hero King Creosote on new album Flick the Vs.
Magic Dirt – White Boy EP
Standing tall in the face of tragedy, Magic Dirt compile a lucky dip of new, rare and unreleased tracks to coincide with their recent tour.
Bad Lieutenant – London – 18 March 2010
As a teenage music fan, one of my prized possessions was a bootleg LP of Joy Division recorded on the same stage Bad Lieutenant are playing tonight, 30 years later. You think Bernard Sumner, guitarist in both bands, would mention the significance, or perhaps the memory has left him, like his own introduction to an Electronic song later in the set "This is called "Tighten Up", I've no fucking clue what it's about".
El Perro del Mar – Love Is Not Pop
While we love pop, Sweden's El Perro Del Mar remind us that pop is not love.
The Drones – London – 8 June 2009
Watching Gareth Liddiard sing is like witnessing a drunk arguing with his own reflection. His posture is one of vexed irritation, his face is strained, the tendons on his neck bulge, his entire frame in spasm.
Bad Lieutenant – Never Cry Another Tear
If New Order and Doves made a record, how would it sound? Something like this, we think...