Music
Review: The Thrills – Let’s Bottle Bohemia
THE THRILLS LET’S BOTTLE BOHEMIA Virgin The Thrills debut So Much for the City was greeted with so many fantastic reviews, awards and a wallop of hype that you’d think they’d invented rock’n’roll. I was unimpressed. For Let’s Bottle Bohemia I wiped the slate clean, ignored the inevitable hype and the result? They’re a good
Review: The Shore – Self-Title
THE SHORE THE SHORE Maverick In a time when labels are scrambling to capitalize on the space Coldplay has left while they record their new album with UK bands like Snow Patrol and Keane it seems fitting that the most suitable replacement should be from California. Not that The Shore are going to be confused
Review: NamelessNumberHeadman – Your Voice Repeating
NAMELESSNUMBERHEADMAN YOUR VOICE REPEATING The Record Machine Quite frankly this is an experiment that at any given moment threatens to go awry. A dose of the Flaming Lips’ bizarre atmospheric kookiness, occasional afternoon drinking binges with acoustic guitars and quiet pianos that from time to time explode into New Order’s rock-electronica before crashing into the
Review: The Waxwings – Let’s Make Our Descent
THE WAXWINGS LET’S MAKE OUR DESCENT Rainbow Quartz Although you can hear the garage influences Detroit’s The Waxwings pull a few tricks from the glory days of the Rolling Stones by way of the Dandy Warhols rather than jumping The White Stripes bandwagon. Not that there isn’t any blues to be found, there’s more than
Review: Communiqué – Poison Arrows
COMMUNIQUE POISON ARROWS Lookout Had Duran Duran grown up listening to themselves and pop punk rather than the glam appeal of Bowie, T-Rex or Roxy Music and stole their image from a less fashionable Interpol over David Sylvian they would have looked and sounded like Communiqué. Well you might also have to add a bit
Review: Singapore Sling – Life Is Killing My Rock’N’Roll
SINGAPORE SLING LIFE IS KILLING MY ROCK’N’ROLL Stinky Singapore Sling’s debut album, The Curse of Singapore Sling, was greeted by over-anxious critics who hailed this Icelandic import as the rising sun. I was numbered among those critics. This isn’t to say they weren’t worthy of a little attention. Their sonic wall of distorted haze was
Review: Skinlab – Nerve Damage
Skinlab Nerve Damage Century Media As a thank-you to their fans and to mark 10 years as a band, Skinlab are releasing Nerve Damage. What started out originally as an EP of unreleased songs soon turned into a full album of unreleased material, which ultimately morphed into the double album Nerve Damage. This two-disc set
Review: Bad Acid Trip – Lynch The Weirdo
Bad Acid Trip Lynch The Weirdo Serjical Strike Even your worst acid trip isn’t as bad as Bad Acid Trip’s Lynch The Weirdo. This band is a signing of Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) on his Columbia imprint label. My first impression of their music reminded me of a cross between Green Jelly and
Review: Therion – Lemuria
Therion Lemuria Nuclear Blast The last time I received a Therion release, it was a slipcase promotional copy. As if that’s not bad enough, there were only two full songs on the slipcase; the rest were edited to fade out after about a minute. I took the slipcase out of my mailbox, brought it in
Review: Chastain – In An Outrage
Chastain In An Outrage LEVIATHAN I’ve been listening to David Chastain’s music since his ‘87 solo album, Instrumental Variations. By 1987, David was already well into his recording career, having released albums with Spike, CJSS (as David Chastain—solo albums—and as Chastain). Albums released by his band Chastain were more of a band effort and up