Guest Column: Brainlove's Holiday Reading
John Brainlove selects a few albums new & old to help usher in the Autumn.»
Articles
John_Brainlove has written the following articles:
Audio Borealis: Win a trip to Iceland for 'You Are In Control' event
The IMX organisation, dedicated to helping the development of Icelandic music worldwide, are giving away a trip to their annual creative industries conference 'You Are In Control'.»
Win: trip to La Route Du Rock to see MBV, Horrors, Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear & more
One of the festival lineups of the summer has to be that of leading French festival La Route Du Rock, who this week announced a UK festival party at London's Luminaire... plus, win tickets to the festival.»
Wicked Wisdom: Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes talks festivals + Win Tickets!
Ahead of next week's Shepherd's Bush Empire show and performances at Latitude and Oxygen, of Montreal linchpin Kevin Barnes talks about the festival experience, and why you should always take, along with your handwash and sunscreen, a mask. Plus, win tickets to the gig.»
Deerhunter, Extra Life at King's Cross Scala, Islington, Mon 18 May
Reverb piles up, forming loops that skate over the swathes of guitar. Deerhunter's self-styled "ambient punk" sound has never made more sense.»
BRNLV Column #2: Adventures on Music Island
Here on the island, there's not much to do between shows. We sit by the glittering sea, kick through the singing surf and stare at the horizon. We gather ephemera from the high tide line and save the best things we find. At night, we light a crackling fire, sing harmonies and look at the stars. And in the stars, there is music.»
DiS meets Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife to discuss Fever Ray
Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife discusses her new solo project Fever Ray.»
DiS meets Of Montreal - part #2
In the second part of our in depth interview with Kevin Barnes, Brainlove & Alcxxk talk Barack Obama, lampshade vs CD vs vinyl, 70s funk, dancing buddhas, and what comes next for Of Montreal.»
Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes turns agony uncle - plus exclusive live video
John Brainlove and Chris Alcock caught up with Kevin Barnes on the eve of Of Montreal's sold-out Heaven gig with Franz Ferdinand. In part one of the interview they seek some advice from the hyper-sexual, cross-dressing indie-glam icon on the problems being DiScussed recently on the boards...»
Napoleon IIIrd tames Wild Beasts for February tour
Napoleon IIIrd is back with a much-anticipated new release and a February tour with Domino Records' Wild Beasts.»
Guest column: Brainlove
DiS has invited John Brainlove of Brainlove Records and many messageboard posts fame, to contribute an new irregular column about a certain strand of mathy, crowded, syncopated, hi-speed avalanche-of-notes cross-genre stuff that's going around at the moment... »
The Young Republic - The Girl From The Northern States
Located somewhere between the intelligent blissed-out US indie sound of Galaxie 500 and the scruffy, tuneful UK indie of Belle & Sebastian, Hefner or Bearsuit, ‘Girl From The Northern State’ is another deliciously melodic offering from End Of The Road Records’ first signings The Young Republic...»
Lightspeed Champion - Galaxy Of The Lost
‘Galaxy Of The Lost’ kicks off with a pastoral strings arrangement and a vocal melody with a warm, classic kind of feel to it, as if these sounds and words are being inked onto crisp brown antique paper for posterity...»
Eugene McGuinness - Monsters Under The Bed
This is a pleasantly odd one: underpinned by driving acoustic guitar, Eugene McGuinness’ debut single 'Monsters Under The Bed' skitters all over the place...»
Parenthetical Girls - Safe As Houses
Whether or not it officially qualifies as a 'concept album', Safe As Houses, by Washington State's Parenthetical Girls, has an unusually strong thread of subject matter running through it. From the twinkling-chime introduction of opener 'Love Connection II', the cryptic, conflicted lyrical content is overwhelmingly engaging; Safe As Houses is an album full of vivid, visceral, emotional tales about sex, labour, blood, death and (maybe) even some glimmering glimpses of love.»
DiScover: Team Brick
Team Brick is a powerful and unique musician from Bristol. His performances incorporate all kinds of instruments, equipment and techniques. Together, these sounds create an evocative, resonant and mysterious body of work that offers a half-glimpse into an intriguing world of its own... »
DiScover: Fuck Buttons
Sometimes, a band makes such a joyful noise – such a euphoric, huge, perfect sound – that they can not only change your mood, but inform your entire world view whilst doing so. Fuck Buttons are one such band...»
CocoRosie - The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
CocoRosie have always been quite an ephemeral musical presence, pulling together evocative, minimal collections of found sounds with plucked strings, sampled toy noises and semi-abstract lyrics...»
The Ponys - Turn The Lights Out
Turn The Lights Out has a pervasive sense of boredom, which again reminds me of summer. Of long summer days when you're a kid and you've done everything you wanted to already, or the long hour you sit in the exam after it's finished, not allowed out even though you’re done...»
I love Aela - Icelandic puke punks invade England
ÆLA, Iceland's premier punk-rock-noir band, are touring the UK for a week at the end of March...»
!!!, Maximo Park, Blood Red Shoes at London Astoria, Wed 21 Feb
!!! draw together a mulchy feel-good tonic of musical enthusiasm - total commitment from all concerned mixed with their unstoppable, endlessly danceable, juddering bass-heavy dance-pop (punk-funk?) make them one of the best live bands I've seen in recent years...»
Trans Am - Sex Change
Sex Change, Trans Am's sixth studio album, is an album with momentum. From the off, it drives onward with Kowalskian forward motion. Dynamic changes emerge out of the smoky synth fug, and driving bass rumbles up out of distant treated cymbals...»
Kristin Hersh at London Arts Theatre, Thu 11 Jan
Kristin Hersh looks out intently into the middle distance, her attention seemingly somewhere far outside of the venue. Her head bobs and weaves like a cobra curiously eying potential prey as she sings softly in that unique husky drawl...»
Kristin Hersh announces free London instore
Ex-Throwing Muses frontwoman and 50 Foot Wave singer Kristin Hersh is to play a free gig at the Tottenham Court Road branch of the Fopp chain store this January 16th at 7pm...»
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Ys, the second full-length album by prodigious folk musician Joanna Newsom, sounds like it has come from some dimly remembered past - like old wives’ tales, these autobiographical myths are built from grains of truth and wisdom, a vivid, living, textured account of a memory glimpsed or forgotten, like a dream upon waking or a fable from a faraway place written a long time ago...»
Silent Shout, Holy Shout
Having gone from relative obscurity to universal acclaim with their recent 'Silent Shout' long player, The Knife have gone all festive (in a self-promotional kind of way) and decided to give away a free Christmas song...»
Izumi know it's Christmas
Izumi Records are releasing a charity Christmas album, to be made available through iTunes from December 6th...»
Oom, Duels and Napoleon IIIrd hit the road this winter
Brighton-based 'dead analogue' band Oom are to tour England at the beginning or December, with Napoleon IIIrd in tow. Napoleon will then go on to do a series of dates with Duels.»
Missy Elliott - We Run This
The press release gleefully screams out that this single is tied in with a Disney movie about female emancipation, starring Jeff Bridges. And I am led to wonder, is that what Missy is? A Disney-esque caricature of today's Strong Woman, some kind of ABC-simple symbol with a suitably sympathetic life story, full of hardship; the eternal underdog turned hip-hop queen, marketed just right so everyone feels like they are part of that success, willing her on...»
Fluorescent Grey - Lying on the floor mingling with God in a Tijuana motel room next door to a veterinary supply store
Rumble click RUMBLECLICK fizz fizz fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (ramble) rumble mumble bzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzz FUZZBUZZ ommmmmmmRAAAAAAAAA ommmmmRAAAAAAAA rumble BANGBANG raaaaaaaaaaaaaamble bipbip BIP bipbip baaaaaaaaa...»
In Photos: Arctic Monkeys @ Wembley Arena, London
In Photos: The Flaming Lips @ The Academy, Manchester
In Photos: Moby @ The Palace Theatre, London
In Photos: Tegan & Sara @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
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