The blurring of the lines between rock stars and movie stars has had a mixed track record of success over the years. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus collected the combined acting talents of Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and…
Category: Records
Album | Vostok 5 – Vostok 5
Vostok 5 is a collection of songs about man’s first uncertain explorations into space. Some of them are about men, both on the ground and in the rockets themselves; some who made it, some who never made it and some…
Album | Ganglians – Still Living
Californian indie-pop band Ganglians offer up a dreamy pop record; an anastomosis of The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Drums and Beach House. I would love for this band to be set apart from those artists, to possess special individuality…
Album | Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
If Alas I Cannot Swim was Marling vs Fink and I Speak Because I Can was Marling vs Mumford, on A Creature I Don’t Know Laura strikes out on her own. This album doesn’t look to its contemporaries for influence…
Album | Tom Russell – Mesabi
A new Tom Russell album is always an event, and the veteran shows no signs of slowing down as he closes in on his seventh decade. And, from the rollicking ‘And God Created Border Towns’ and the title track to…
Album | Peggy Sue – Acrobats
I first saw Peggy Sue perform in the days when they were Peggy Sue and the Pirates, wearing fancy dress and singing funny, irreverent songs about Superman and wasted teenage girls. Their powerful voices and stage presence were already blindingly…
Singles Round-up | Treetop Flyers, Dark Captain, Marcus Foster, Channel Cairo
Treetop Flyers – It’s About Time (Communion) 2011 has been good to the Treetop Flyers to the extent that the buzz surronding them has accelerated so fast their recorded body of work can’t keep up. Winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition…
Album | The Bandana Splits – The Bandana Splits
Alright, so you might say that the last thing the world needs is another post-ironic retro girl band – even if Dawn Landes is involved. That sort of thing exhausted the patience a long time ago. Remember the Pipettes? Anyone…
Album | The Jayhawks – Mockingbird Time
I’ll be the first to admit that this is the first time I’ve listened to twin cities survivors The Jayhawks. Eight albums in may be an unfair time to form a first opinion of a band, but then it may…
Album recommendation | Middle Brother – Middle Brother
First things first, this is not a review of a new album. This collaboration between Deer Tick’s John McCauley, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez came out all the way back in February. It never got a proper…