The Independent (Free subscription) | 31/10/2008
Vocals - Mika I had this dream and there was this band in it called Dragonlight, protecting the Earth from alien invaders. On vocals was Mika, who could unleash a piercing falsetto note that burst the aliens' eardrums.
New York Newsday (Free subscription) | 14/10/2008
Keane is turning into one of those bands that gets odder as they go. The British trio's debut, "Hopes and Fears" (Island), was lovely, slightly buttoned-up, piano-driven pop. Its follow-up, "Under the Iron Sea," was more rock-oriented.Their latest, "Perfect Symmetry," though, is wild and almost giddily experimental, channeling their dramatic, still sort of mopey, lyrical themes and Tom Chaplin's soaring...
New York Newsday (Free subscription) | 13/10/2008
Keane is turning into one of those bands that gets odder as they go. The British trio's debut, "Hopes and Fears" (Island), was lovely, slightly buttoned-up, piano-driven pop. Its follow-up, "Under the Iron Sea," was more rock-oriented.Their latest, "Perfect Symmetry," though, is wild and almost giddily experimental, channeling their dramatic, still sort of mopey, lyrical themes and Tom Chaplin's soaring...
Crewe blog (Free subscription) | 02/10/2008
Where does it go from here? Is it down to the lake I fear? Ay ah ah ah ah ah... Oh yes, a bit of 1980s Haircut 100 in case you were wondering. Very apt. Yesterday I wandered around the park and grabbed a few snaps of the recent progress. Ok, so I have been party to some of the design stuff, consultation and background shenanigans, but let me tell you the park will - in about two years - be one of the...
The Plummet Onions (Free subscription) | 21/09/2008
Music Man and Earth Girl are friends of ours that, like many sets of friends, we don’t see as often as we should. Nevertheless, they were nice enough to invite us to the Howard Jones 25th anniversary show at indigO2 last night. This might seem a rather random thing to do until I remind you [...]
The Urban Woo (Free subscription) | 15/09/2008
I loathe the Daily Mail, but in the office, Graeme and I have been loving their Eighties album giveaway over the past fortnight. Today was our favourite, Haircut 100's Pelican West, but we also liked the Human League's Dare and that one by Simple Minds that's got Sanctify Yourself on it, as we thought those ones had aged quite well. However, No Parlez by Paul Young got the Graeme thumbs-down, as it...
prefixmag.com (Free subscription) | 04/09/2008
In the interest of full disclosure, the fact that he lists the Keef Hartley Band, Souled American, and Fushitsusha among his influences on his MySpace page already inclines us to ...
Skuds' Sister's Brother (Free subscription) | 13/08/2008
I have been listening to another new CD, courtesy of Amazon’s ‘Vine’ programme. Its a self-title debut album from The Virgins: a New York indie band who seem to be quite popular in France. Here is what I thought of it: There has been a bit of a buzz about this band from New York, with [...]
FHM Homepage (Free subscription) | 04/07/2008
Our tireless quest for salon-dwelling sexiness continues. Get behind the scenes on our latest shoot here.
Sound Bites (Free subscription) | 03/07/2008
As tomorrow is a holiday here in the U.S. (Independence Day), seemed only right that this week's Summer Fridays mix should come a day early. At first I thought I'd do an all-American one, then I thought about making it...
This Is This (Free subscription) | 21/06/2008
Of all the bands with numbers in their names, Blink-182 are probably my favourite. They generally don’t add up to much anyway (arf): Sham 69, Fun Boy Three, the Guilford Four, Shed Seven, Sum 41, Haircut 100, Thousand Yard Stare, right up to 10,000 Maniacs and simply 5 (or 5ive) who took a minimalist approach to the trend [...]
ireallylovemusic (Free subscription) | 17/06/2008
now this is a lot of timewarped fun. i realise that’s going to reveal a lot about my era of musical discovery, but fuck it, anyone who drops in some big audio dynamite alongside a classic landscape track is worthy of a clickety-click. 1. gonorstein step’s out 2. joe jackson step’s out [...]
silence is a rhythm too (Free subscription) | 08/06/2008
I have been rather broke these last few weeks, so as a result there hasn't been much in the way of new music. This has led to fewer posts, including two weeks in a row without Funky Friday! Today I am cleaning out my inbox, and you are getting some rather tasty tracks out of the deal. The Amplive remix of MGMT is beefed up with a rap from Mistah Fab. Cage The Elephant bring the skank on this
Hot Ginger and Dynamite (Free subscription) | 01/06/2008
Is this the best judged sax solo since Haircut 100 split up? Maybe. Influential music industry figure Alex Narkiewicz has posited that Mystery Jets’ Two Doors Down might be the single of the year. Were it not from the stiff competition from Glasvegas , it might be so. There’s been a load of hogwash about “eighties revivals” for some time. But now, at last, we have the magic combination of sloane ascendancy,...
The Allmusic Blog (Free subscription) | 08/05/2008
Best remembered for their 1990 hit “Every Beat of the Heart,” the Railway Children also produced two somewhat forgotten and hard-to-find gems of late ’80s indie pop that deserve to be reissued. Starting out as Factory Records wunderkinds, the Railway Children had little in common with the sound of their labelmates New Order and Happy Mondays [...]
