Review
by Ben Haggar
The Stuck-ups are Tiffany, Julie and Jasmine and they are automatically awarded the status of ‘cool’ for getting their record put out on current label of choice, Sympathy For The Record Industry.
They perform 14 songs in just under 20 minutes and sound like early Ramones but without the complex musical arrangemen»
Review
by Ben Haggar
(Ok, I know this gig was a little while ago, but it’s only just occurred to me that doing a review of it is not simply a good idea, but an essential step forward in the path towards human evolution..)
Melt Banana = by far the best live musical performance I have ever witnessed.
So, what is it about t»
Review
by Ben Haggar
CLOUDDEAD, so far as I know, consists of MC’s Why? and Dose One, and DJ Odd Nosdam. They’re in some way connected to the Cincinnati based Anti-Pop Consortium, and beyond that, well, you’ll have to ask one wiser than I.
This doesn’t so much stretch hip hop to it’s limits as throw out the conventions of the genre a»
News
by Ben Haggar
Joey Ramone, lead singer of legendary punk band the Ramones, passed away Sunday at the age of 49.
The towering frontman, born Jeffrey Hyman, did not respond to treatment for lymphatic cancer, a disease that attacks the body's ability to fight infection. U2's "In a Little While" was playing in his room at New York»
Review
by Ben Haggar
Before I give my review of this record, I’ve just got to quote the press release, which describes The Carnivorous Lunar Activities of Lupine Howl thus:
Nine schizophrenic tracks which chart the life experiments and transgressions of the group over the past year. Musically the record encompasses a wide»
Review
by Ben Haggar
Forget the Sex Pistols, forget the Clash, The Dead Kennedys were unquestionably the best punk band ever. As offensive and aggressive as Eminem, the pistols and Amen put together and as intelligent, purposeful and passionate as Public Enemy, Godspeed.. and Radiohead.
This archive live album was recorded 15 years ag»
Review
by Ben Haggar
It’s funny how you end up judging American bands by where they come from. If Tsar had been from New York or Detroit or Texas, for instance, I would have banged their CD on straight away and expected to enjoy it. However, these guys hail from LA, a city with a somewhat dubious rock n roll past, and thus I approached t»
Review
by Ben Haggar
My first thought of this record is that it has a really bad cover. A really crude photo-montage showing all the members of the band in corny rock star poses with a sort of nauseatingly orange computer generated sunset behind them. Surely this is the sort of thing you’d expect from some dreadful 80s prog rock outfit, »
Review
by Ben Haggar
I’ll get straight to the point.
Last night I went to see an all-female band from Brighton called Electrelane. They blew me away. I’ve never heard anything quite like it in my life before.
Totally new, totally cool and totally brilliant.
It’s difficult to actually describe their style of music, but »
In Depth by Ben Haggar
Alan Moore is a curious fellow by anyone’s definition. Born in Northampton in 1953, he can variously be described as a ground-breaking writer, a Blake-ian visionary, a poet, a political activist, a magician, a historian, a ‘drugs guru’, a gothic icon and, almost inevitably given that portfolio, both a genius and a lun»
Review
by Ben Haggar
How brilliant are Angelica? The answer is very brilliant indeed. None more brilliant! If they were anymore brilliant they’d be arrested by the brilliant police.
But I’m not going to win the Pulitzer Prize just for saying that, so here’s the review:
After some uninteresting blokes who make up the uninteresting su»
Review
by Ben Haggar
Once more unto the breach then, with a new EP from Europe’s favorite hardcore political noisemakers. Well, more of a single than an EP really, containing as it does two versions of one new song, one old song and a Video which I can’t watch cos my computer’s shite. Still, there’s not much point splitting hairs when»
Review
by Ben Haggar
Before I arrived at this gig I was a little unsure of all three bands on the bill, but by the time I left I’m pleased to report I was thoroughly taken in by all of them.
To start with King Adora, all that stuff that’s been written about them being some kind of ‘Glam revivalists’ just because they wear e»
Review
by Ben Haggar
Here friends, we have the Llama Farmer’s DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM, wherein they gallantly try to escape their teen-grunge envelope by attempting to produce an album that is accomplished, experimental and beautiful…
So do they succeed?
Well, yes and no.
El Toppo is certainly unique in the mus»
Review
by Ben Haggar
I got into this band when I first heard their previous album Slain by Urusei Yatsura, a record which more than lived up to it’s name. Like Sonic Youth trying to be the Sex Pistols, it combined all my favorite things about music into one glorious whole, taking infinitely mosh-able pop songs with knowingly cl»
Review
by Ben Haggar
After a prolonged wait and a somewhat .. worrying support act (I won’t trouble you with the details), it’s a massive relief when The Llama Farmers finally take to the stage looking like the coolest band in the world and launch straight into "Get the Keys and Go".
They’ve got the right hair, the rig»