Reviews

Despite the moderate success of the 1996 single ‘Guilty’, Gravity Kills has yet to make a splash compared to other contemporary metal/industrial acts such as Godsmack, Filter, or Stabbing Westward.  Perhaps it was the band’s overt admiration for Trent Reznor and company’s music that caused the backlash of comparisons and accusations of unoriginality.  While Superstarved might possess similar tones as the groups’ previous two records, Gravity Kills seems to have finally broken away from the obvious and expected to create Continue Reading

Reviews

We may be backtracking into the last century a bit here, but you remember mix tapes. Don’t you? Throwing down your favourite tracks with primitive technology that back then seemed like the future had come to your bedroom and honing a knack for squeezing your choice cuts snugly onto one side of a C90 to suit your mood, or just to force your superior tastes that week onto a mate. And right now it is summer – c’mon, the sun’s Continue Reading

Reviews

As soon as you play this album, you just know that The Warm Guns possess every Beatles record ever written. Their own album, ‘Blown Away’ contains the kind of upbeat pop psychedelica and ‘socially aware’ lyrics that are rarely produced on these shores anymore. It’s the memory of the original Britpop invasion filtered back through an American West Coast sensibility – shiny guitar stabs and soaring backing vocals singing about time travel and Mao Tse Tung, with a liberal sprinkling Continue Reading

Super Furry Animals Interview
Features

Live and direct from Cardiff, Wales, the Super Furry Animals, Macca and you. Allan Martin Kemler interviews the UK’s lefty anti-heroes on the eve of the US release of “Rings Around The World”. Photo by Matt Greenberg.22/07/2002 The Super Furry Animals are not related to the Teletubbies. They aren’t a spin-off of Pokemon and you won’t find them in the candy aisle next to the root beer barrels and Gummi Bears. However, they could be any or all of these Continue Reading

The Beatings and The Black Madonnas, The Metro Club, London, 18th July, 2002
Live

With US bands currently driving the burgeoning garage rock scene, Marc Sallis checks out two of the UK’s hottest prospects for world domination.22/07/2002 Sold-out within days of going on sale, the prospect of seeing two of London’s elite garage rock bands playing together at one of the capital’s most intimate venues had been billed as the ‘gig of the week’ by many in-the-know. With The Beatings kicking off their first UK tour to promote the release of their debut single, Continue Reading

Reviews

The latest in a series of split singles from Sorted records, ‘So Easy’ and ‘Subway Sex’ are two neat slices of punky guitar anthems. Circa 1983 – Kyle Hill (vocals) Sam Walker (bass and vocals) and Ash Sommerton (drums) – have spent the last year establishing themselves on the Midlands’ live circuit, and their track ‘So Easy’ sounds like it could be a  favourite at gigs with its spiky guitars and a sneer of a vocal, joined in the chorus Continue Reading

Reviews

Familiarity breeds… well, it breeds a mixed bag for two particular Gallaghers. It breeds reaction from the lowest common denominator, it breeds nostalgia, ticket sales and most importantly to them it breeds number ones. And then of course there’s also the contempt. So a no win situation then? Well, hell no! It’s all win, you must have read a paper recently; Oasis are back on top of the world, on top of the charts and selling tickets like you’ll get Continue Reading

Reviews

All bands grow older, either with each other or bickering amongst themselves in icy seclusion. Both of these behavioural patterns affect the music that the groups make. Either, like R.E.M., the boys are bashful enough with each other to just carry on regardless of anything but self-motivation and that they like spending time together. Whereas the Rolling Stones seem to prefer mutual exclusion and meeting every so often to complain about Ronnie Wood’s haircut and to discuss Mick’s latest conquests. Continue Reading

Reviews

“Next On The Misery List” almost succeeded in melting my stereo like a Tofutti Cutie on the July sidewalk with drums that make Squarepusher sound like downtempo trip-hop. How is he hitting the ride cymbal that fast? Uphill Battle won’t be doing battle with The Pleasure Seekers for The World’s Most Decelerated Band any time soon. Following in the volcano-pissed, highest-octane, crack smokin’, triple-bass, caffeinated footsteps of Napalm Death, Repulsion, Extreme Noise Terror, Final Conflict and Dropdead, these guys make Continue Reading

A Jackknife To A Swan ~ Mighty Bosstones
Reviews

“A Jackknife to a Swan” is pretty un-ska. They’re busy writing songs about Mafiosos, and the whole affair sounds more like anthemic chorus-metal to me. The horns do come up from a triangle in Bermuda to affect the choruses, but the band seems sick of all that silly skanking business. Good for them, but we’ve got this whole Bosstone legacy to put to bed, don’t we? The up-strokes on the guitars framing “Everybody’s Better” reach artificial realms previously populated by Continue Reading