Ahhhh. I love this.
When Jenny Tuite of the Dirty Dishes emailed us at Artrocker.com, there was no extended press drivel or desperate pleadings for promotion, just a simple "Hey there! Review us? Hope you dig it." along with a download link. Beautiful.
This could have gone either way mind you - such confidence is usually an indicator of an arrogance that often comes along with crap music. Occasionally though, it’s from people who know what they’re doing is damn good, who won’t be all that offended if you don’t want to have a listen.
photo: Jorge Stride
This may come from being a Scot myself, or more simply a backlash against the Twin Atlantic-ism of sounding very fucking Scottish when singing, but I’m really not a fan of over-enunciated accents on recordings. Although back when I was in a band I remember being criticised for not sounding Scottish enough, so maybe it’s Freudian. I’m also very aware that I should be more cautious about slagging my fellow countrymen, as I may end up being chibbed in the street by an enraged Glaswegian.
Despite the initial revulsion, I’ve found that the debut EP from Spaghetti Anywhere is infact quite delightful to listen to. The smiley, happy sunny sound of summer days comes through in each of the four tracks.
Not content with sitting on their laurels after we awarded them our number 1 record of 2009 for Ballin Outrageous, The Zookeepers have returned to the studio and biffed out another LP. Holy shit. I guess when you’re on a roll…
I must admit, part of me wanted to find something to dislike with their new LP - Good Looking Out. If I wrote another glowing review, perhaps people would start thinking I worked for the band, or was related to them, or fancied the drummer.
But I have to tell you guys the truth, and the truth is they’ve come up with another winner.
While I was very bummed to hear that Sigur Rós were taking an indefinite baby-making hiatus, I’m getting more and more excited about the debut album from the band’s frontman, Jón Thor Birgisson (who we all know as Jonsí). I was a big fan of the direction that Sigur Rós was taking with their last album, and Jonsí’s new track, “Go Do” is an explosive, triumphant fulfillment of all the pop sensibilities hinted at throughout Með suð i eyrum við spilum endalaust.
Merrill Garbus aka Tune-yards. Photo: Brian Doherty
Think about Life are a good time band. While their equally charming and chaotic musical palette of funk, electro and synth pop does have its moments, they simply don’t have enough to completely pull it off. It’s hard not to like front man Martin Cesar and co - their attempts at synchronised dancing, interacting warmly with the crowd and above all the energy they bring to their set deserves recognition and respect. Its just that tonight I don’t think its happening.
To say I was filled with excitement and anticipation at the release of this film would be an understatement. I wholeheartedly believe that the UK trailer (embedded above / the American one is a bit pants) is one of the greatest trailers ever made. If you need proof, here is an excerpt of me waxing lyrical on my own blog: "The juxtaposition of Matthew Goode’s character lying dead on the snow surrounded by blood, with Colin Firth in bed surrounded by black ink is one of the most spectacular things ever committed to screen. Plus it has Julianne Moore! JULIANNE MOORE! The woman is a goddess." You get the gist. The film is about expat professor, George (Firth), who is still struggling to come to terms with the death of his partner (Goode) eight months previously. The narrative takes place within one day, with flashbacks to their life together filling in the blanks.
‘The Wolfman’ is nothing that viewers have not seen before. The image of the werewolf running wild by night and the man reconciling himself to this fate by day is hardly new to our screens, leaving the film with quite a challenge - how do you do something new with a tired genre? While the story isn’t brilliant the superb crafting of this film saves it from becoming another low grade horror film. In fact, it would be doing the film a disservice to lump it in to that particular genre. Instead, this is storytelling at its most gothic and macabre, although still full of plenty of gore for horror fans.
Waiting for The Thermals’ next (and 5th) LP - ‘Personal Life’ - is a slow process, with September 7th 2010 the scheduled release date on Kill Rock Stars. To ease the pain, the band have released the new single.. ‘CANADA’.
We get a lot of submissions from unknown bands in the artrocker.com inbox. Too many to feature, or even to reply to everyone. There’s also the fact that a lot of them don’t send us any images, MP3s, or even use any sort of discernible grammar.. and all this before we even get to err.. ‘enjoy’ what seems to be a mash-up of the latest indie-chart bands in a different package.
"You only get to appreciate what you do when you're not doing it," says bassist Rob Canning, slurping on a tea. "and now we're back, we're buzzing to go."
PART ONE: WELCOME TO 2008
ARTROCKER:...
Legendary rock photographer Steve Gullick has a retrospective at Manchester’s KRAAK Gallery running from March 12th til March 27th, featuring shots taken for NME and Melody Maker as well as his...
To accompany the review of Tune-yards’ Monday gig at Cargo, a few tasty shots of Think about Life, Trash Kit and New England native Merrill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs.
Read the review of the night...
We have collected some truly heinous examples of recent album covers, from Empire Of The Sun’s Star Wars travesty to the banal evil that is Razorlight’s Slipway Fire. Discretionary...
Album art in this gallery was selected based on several simple traits: strong concept, fine graphics including creative typography and general lushness. The first three of ‘The Best Record...
Placebo pictures: just in - some photos of Placebo and Brian Molko from last week’s gig at the Glasgow SECC.
Also check out the review here
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