Though their previous album, The Bairns, was Mercury-nominated in 2008, I hadn’t heard The Unthanks until I stumbled across Here’s The Tender Coming in a second-hand record shop, spied the pensive-looking girls on the cover, recognised My People and took…
FFS New Bands Panel: Thiago Pethit
Thiago Pethit has racked up some pretty impressive gigs in his homeland of Brazil, opening for the likes of Will Oldham, Beirut and Nouvelle Vague, but can the singer-songwriter’s quirky folk, with his eclectic range of influences, catch on in…
Editor’s picks… Jens Lekman, The Beach Boys, Stealing Sheep, Ödland, Guided by Voices, Villagers, Boy & Bear
1. Prolific cult band Guided by Voices have announced they are to tour in the US in October and November. Having been enthralled by Roddy Woomble’s stories of GBV’s live show when we interviewed him last year, I’m desperate to…
Festival: Secret Garden Party 2010 – Fact or Fiction
After a journey to secretdom (somewhere between Cambridge and Norwich), the garden unfurls itself all centred around a huge flying machine anchored in a giant lake. This years theme was ‘Fact or Fiction’ and no effort was spared with the…
Brian’s Mixtape #40: New York, New York
Brian’s recently gotten to thinking about how much of the music he loves is about the cities, suburbs and plains of the U S of A. He was going to do you a playlist about the whole darn country, but…
Laura Marling speaks out about tough India gigs
Twice Mercury-nominated folk star Laura Marling has spoken out about the difficult gigs she played in India on tour with Mumford & Sons. On a mini documentary Goodbye India, now playing on her website, the 20-year-old says: “India was totally…