Album by Album: Kelly Jones on the Stereophonics' back catalogue
There’s a new Stereophonics album out - a really good one. Time was when that sentence would be barely conceivable.»
Articles
MarcBurrows has written the following articles:
Peace - In Love
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of Nineties revivalism, but there’s a point during Peace’s debut album where it starts to get ridiculous.»
Kate Nash - Girl Talk
It’s basically Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman set to the Clueless soundtrack.»
Parenthetical Girls - Privilege (Abridged)
This is by turns a wonderful and deeply irritating record, charming and frustrating in equal measure.»
Palma Violets - 180
Palma Violets get a pass this time, their lack of focus and their naivety balanced by their charm.»
The Cribs - Payola 2002-2012
Grouping these songs together is a happy reminder of how consistently great The Cribs have been, and if you’re a newcomer this is the best possible introduction to a band that have been keeping indie-rock very much alive and kicking for a decade and counting.»
"My guitar...It’s a machine to make pop music" - DiS meets Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is quite clear that what he does is pop music. And pop, emphatically, is no dirty word.»
10 Things we've learned from Dave Grohl's documentary about Sound City studios
Last night, I saw the first UK screening of Dave Grohl's directorial debut, Sound City. The documentary tells the story of the legendary Sound City studio in LA where Nirvana's Nevermind, Fleetwood Mac's classic Fleetwood Mac, Rage Against The Machine's debut and several thousand other albums from Barry Manilow to Arctic Monkeys' Suck It And See were recorded across decades of scuzzy mayhem. It's essentially a love story, in which the main character is a 40 year old mixing desk with a great sound, and where all the sex scenes are 50-something rock stars having a bit of a jam together, a view given credibility by many of the faces they make mid-solo. »
Tegan & Sara - Heartthrob
Heartthrob is more than just a brilliant pop album, it’s unarguably a brilliant Tegan & Sara album and it’s very, very close to being perfect.»
DiS does Eurosonic: seven things we learned at Europe's best new music showcase
Once a year the European music industry decamps to the pretty Dutch town of Groningen to load their expense accounts with beer and fancy dinners, attend increasingly panicky conference panels about illegal downloads, have endless meetings and, eventually, go and see which ever band has the most effective PR and claim they're checking out the 'buzz'. Although in this case 'see' actually means stand at the back of the room talking to someone else.»
Pure Love - Anthems
Few groups in the last decade have had the bollocks to go for the popularist jugular quite so effectively and so credibly.»
Biffy Clyro - Opposites
What we needed was an album half as long, or twice as interesting.»
The Pictish Trail - Secret Soundz Vol. 2
Secret Sounds Vol 2 is mostly an accomplished delight and in The Pictish Trail we may have the glimmerings of a genuinely exceptional talent from which we will hopefully see great things.»
Time to put the dog down? Why I'm going to miss HMV...
A couple of years back I found myself jobless and took a part time gig in the Bromley branch of HMV to cover the Christmas period. It was mental; hugely busy every day, but everyone there was lovely and I genuinely enjoyed myself, particularly as working in a record shop had been one of those things I always felt you had to do at some point. The problem is, I wasn’t working in a record shop. Not really. This wasn’t High Fidelity; it wasn’t even Empire Records.»
DIS does Eurosonic: Nooderslag Tips + Finnish playlist
There’s a Finnish focus to this years Eurosonic Noorderslag event, which kicks off today in a far flung corner of the Netherlands. The festival, which is a bit like SXSW if you substitute the Texas sunshine for Holland in January, acts as a superb annual showcase and cross pollination of some of Europes best and most hyped new acts, attracting industry bods from across the continent. John Peel was a regular attendee, and that’s as glowing an endorsement for a focus on new music as you could find.»
Yo La Tengo - Fade
It’s 2013, there’s a new Yo La Tengo album, and everything’s going to be okay.»
Science Fiction & Sylver Tongue: DiS meets Charlotte Hatherley
Charlotte Hatherley likes her science fiction. “Look at Blade Runner,” she says, sat in a deserted Islington bar. “I mean, what’s the story in Blade Runner? It’s so fucking simple. 1984? it’s just a love story really. That’s the thing with the great scie»
Green Day - iTré!
A failed experiment then, all the more painful for the potential it showed.»
"It’s the album I’ve always wanted to make" - DiS meets Andy Burrows
It’s fair to say that Andy Burrows never expected to be promoting a solo album. The self confessed “kid from Winchester whose never travelled and never lived anywhere else” was content to sit behind the drum kit, whether it be for a teenage garage bands, or mega selling chart-botherers Razorlight. In the eight years since he joined Johnny Borrell’s crew, he’s experienced a gradual flowering of confidence that’s taken him from the drum stool to front of stage, and culminates in the recent release of Company, his first full-length solo album, and a beautifully accomplished half hour of minor key, melodic pop which Burrows wrote in its entirety, played nearly all of the instruments on and co-produced.»
Lost 12 of 12: Martin Rossiter The Defenestration Of Saint Martin
Distance. Separation. Sadness. Pain. A spark of wit, a soaring voice and a lonely piano. Ladies and gentlemen, the great lost masterpiece of 2012.»
Sufjan Stevens - Silver & Gold
This is a collection of songs you’re only going to listen to once a year, and nothing here is going to enter the mass-consciousness of the Christmas canon. It’s very odd, varies wildly in tone and has its fair share of clunky bits, but it’s all done in the spirit of fun and is always endearingly sincere.»
Willy Mason - Carry On
A solid, if rarely remarkable work, showcasing an artist maturing at his own pace.»
El Perro del Mar - Pale Fire
This is an odd, chameleonic mood ring of a record.»
"Record Labels are run by deviants. Moral vacuums in mid-priced suits" - DiS meets Martin Rossiter
This month Martin Rossiter. formerly of Gene, returns with a new album, The Defenestration of St Martin, a beautiful record of melodramatic, witty torch songs performed almost entirely as naked voice and piano, self released and funded through crowd-sourcing site Pledge. We ventured to a Brighton boozer on a windy Autumn afternoon to talk reunions, record company politics, expectations and slipping through the cracks of the music industry.»
I_Am_Ampersand - Grave Goods
A rather lovely mix of Syd Barrett, late-period Beatles/George Harrison and the Beta Band that rarely soars, but is never less than charming.»
Green Day - iDos!
Two down and things are still looking pretty good for Green Day’s triple album experiment. »
Manics Monday: Rain Down Alienation - Generation Terrorists’ key tracks.
As part of our 'Manics Monday' to mark the reissue of the Manic Street Preachers' first album, Marc Burrows talks us through the key tracks on Generation Terrorists»
Tilly and the Wall - Heavy Mood
For a better or for worse Tilly and the Wall are a band that sound completely comfortable with their position in the music world. But contentment, alas, doesn’t always bring excitement»
Waves of Fury - Thirst
Waves of Fury’s debut is much like hooking up with someone in a nightclub toilet - it’s fast, thrilling, a bit awkward, a bit messy and at the end you smooth down your ruffled hair, check your reflection and go back to dancing to ‘Louis Louis’.»
Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on American Idol and Aerosmith's 15th studio album Music From Another Dimension
Aerosmith’s one-time ‘toxic twins', Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, were in London last night to premiere their first full album in eleven years. The duo, who are older than time and have amazing hair, cracked jokes and answered questions about their career, their time off and fifteenth studio album Music From Another Dimension, released here on November 5th.»