Articles
brucespringsdean has written the following articles:
Nas - Untitled
With or without the pre-release fuss, this should be the album that promotes Nas back up into the super leagues that 1994’s Illmatic originally shot him into»
She & Him - Volume One
Volume One is a collection that proves She & Him's Zooey Deschanel has a talent that's eluded other movie stars turned singers»
The Epstein - Last Of The Charanguistas
The press release for Oxford’s The Epstein informs us that the band came from an idea hatched by lead singer and singwrter Olly Wills while working on a farm in Wyoming. It doesn’t say what the idea was, so we’ll have to infer that it was “I think I should start an alt-country band”»
Chris Schlarb - Twilight And Ghost Stories
Chris Schlarb’s debut album is out on Asthmatic Kitty records, home of the peerless Sufjan Stevens and the lovely Castanets. Yet it features nothing as deliriously lovely as anything those two artists have recorded. Ever»
Cat Power - Jukebox
Chan Marshall’s last record The Greatest elevated the 35-year-old Georgian to the attention of the record-buying public, via a Brit nod. An interesting facet of Cat Power’s career so far, then, is why she hasn’t crossed over to the critical/dinner party mass appeal of a Nora Jones or Amy Winehouse»
Interpol at London Alexandra Palace, Fri 30 Nov
For a band that neither looks nor sounds like they’re enjoying themselves, it seems that tonight - at the second of Interpol’s shows at Ally Pally - Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, Carlos D and Sam Fogarino might be allowing themselves a smile or two»
!!!, Holy Fuck at London Koko, Wed 07 Nov
After the last song, !!!'s Nic Offer leads his bandmates in a goodbye from the road that sounds ominously like a final farewell, although we’re assured it isn’t. Let’s hope they do make it back»
The New Pornographers at London Koko, Thu 04 Oct
“We're doing, like, four countries in four days – which can fuck you up more than any drugs.” AC's not complaining mind, but it does go to explain the New P's slightly subdued on-stage presence...»
Bevel - Phoenician Terrane
You probably know about as much about Bevel as I do. Nadda. Zilch. Etc. But, ooh, bloody hell, the man better known to his mother as Via Nuon has made quite a lovely canvas (wait for it) of Tindersticks-esque music...»
Passenger - Wicked Man's Rest
Last Saturday morning I was woken up my neighbour who lives in the flat above. He started playing music at about 5am and when I got up at seven to catch a train to the Midlands it was still going on. I figure Neighbour got in from a lairy night out and decided to hold his own afterparty. Which is fair enough I guess – gives me more leverage to make noise in the future...»
Menomena at London Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen/Bar and Grill, Mon 24 Sep
Well blow us if 'Muscle ‘N Flow’ by Menomena wasn’t one of the best tracks of the year. And continue blowing if the record that birthed it, Friend And Foe, isn’t also a highlight of the annum...»
Rooney - Calling The World
Like Phantom Planet without the famous drummer (albeit with Phantom Planet’s ex-drummer’s brother), like Phoenix without the Gallic charm, like U2 sans guitarist: Rooney lack edge. In fact there’s less edge in Rooney’s second LP than a cliff struggling against the indefatigable power of salt water erosion – this stuff wouldn’t get on the One Tree Hill soundtrack, let alone The O.C.’s...»
Rufus Wainwright at London The Old Vic, Fri 01 Jun
At some point in time Rufus Wainwright went from being a pretty decent singer-songwriter cut from vaguely similar cloth to his once-estranged father, Loudon Wainwright III, to a grand dame of pop-operatics (poperatics?) who could sell out Carnegie Hall singing Judy Garland covers...»
Mendetz - Future Sex EP
Tongue-in-cheek pop music that references something called the 'Or-Gas-Ma-Tron': what more could you want...»
Envelopes - Smoke In The Desert, Eating The Sand, Hide In The Grass
Released in time for Envelopes’ assault on NW1 at this week’s Camden Crawl, ‘Smoke in The Desert, Eating the Sand, Hide In The Grass’ (us neither) is the latest single from the world’s biggest and bestest Franco-Swedish band...»
Murder By Death at Cardiff Barfly Club, Tue 10 Apr
Part of the charm of smoke-filled wee venues is that the lingering carcinogenic puff that surrounds all and sundry gives the place a bit of atmosphere. Smoking’s cool, y’all. Well it’s not really, is it? But the new smoking ban in Cymru means that, without a cloak of smoke, the Barfly toilets smell like a urea bomb has just exploded. It’s T-shirt-over-your-face horrible. Yuk...»
iLiKETRAiNS - Spencer Perceval
Trains are alright, providing they're empty, run on time and don't smell of chemical toilets. So, most of the time, it's fair to say I don't like trains. Nor do I like the weird upper and lower casing in iLiKETRAiNS' name (that took me about 53 seconds to type out correctly). It's a shocking moniker, it really is...»
Mark Ronson - Stop Me
Oi, Ronson, get off my radio. You’re on it way too much. Gerofff...»
Willy Mason - If The Ocean Gets Rough
Say what you like about Martha's Vineyard's fairly one-dimensional Willy Mason, but he, like a successful business, does his one thing very well. The one thing in this case is edge-of-the-porch folk that evokes camp fires more than anarchic bonfires. And he's such a lovely boy, too...»
Foals at Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach, Tue 06 Mar
It’s a testament to the appeal of Foals that they’re back in Cardiff again. They played here just over two weeks ago and have managed to fill the bottom floor of the venue they played at then, the capital’s wonderful Clwb Ifor Bach...»
Los Campesinos! at Bristol Louisiana, Wed 28 Feb
Growth is an odd thing. You go to see a distant nephew after a few years and he’s suddenly turned from a little boy into a hulk of a man. You go to a school reunion and everyone has swelled, gone bald and got bitter...»
Duke Garwood - Emerald Palace
Emerald Palace is 18 tracks of free-indie-jazz that range from the sublime to the absolutely turn-this-nonsense-off-it’s-making-my-face-go-red terrible. In other words, it's a bit of a slog...»
Forget Cassettes - Salt
Salt, is the bitter story of broken beds, twisted hearts, deception and loathing. It’s pop melodies built on top of a brutal foundation of cadaverous bass lines, dripping snatching, guitar lines and waterfalls of cymbals. It’s rock music is what it is...»
The Horrors - Gloves
All I’d garnered about The Horrors before last week was that they were poshies who went to art school and appeared on the front cover of NME with their big hair and that. I also knew that they looked like the Worst Idea Ever...»
Esiotrot - Schmesiotrot
Remember when you first start to read proper books? When you left Puddle Lane behind and began to realise the full multi-coloured wonder of fiction... »
!!! - Heart Of Hearts
Is there a more fun band on the planet than !!!? Their name is fun. Fun to look at. Fun to say. "CHK CHK CHK. CHK CHK CHK!!!"»
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime
Here’s a conundrum for you pop-pickers. Tokyo Police Club’s A Lesson In Crime has eight songs on it (including a bonus track - ooh!), but only lasts for 18 minutes. There’s no title track, so it’s not a single; it’s too big for an EP and too small for an album. Yet it's nine quid on Amazon. Oh (writer reaches despairingly for press release)... it’s a mini-album. What’s the point in that, then...»
Bloc Party, Metric at Cardiff University, Tue 06 Feb
A lot can happen in two years. Amongst other things: Katrina, Milosevic, World Cups, earthquakes, Top of the Pops, two Ashes, and Arctic Monkeys to name just a few things. »
The Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres (Rough Trade release)
The Long Blondes, apart from being favourites of the Guardian’s brilliant Over-by-Over cricket coverage, haven’t quite banked their critical capitol yet. Perhaps supporting the Kaiser Chiefs over the next month or two might push Kate Jackson and co’s Sheffield five-piece into the giddy stratospheres of the charts...»
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at Bristol Colston Hall, Thu 25 Jan
It looks (hopefully) like 2007 might be the year the beard makes a welcome comeback. Andrew Flintoff got started on his early – perhaps fuelled by jealousy of Monty Panesar and the beard count is certainly high tonight. Will Oldham's fans have obviously honed in on their idol’s penchant for fantastic facial hair, the ratio of beards must be about 1:4 among the chaps in the crowd tonight...»