Sonic Youth
When it was announced that Sonic Youth, having honoured their contract with Geffen Records, had signed with much-admired independent label Matador, many of us came to the same conclusion: after the concise, streamlined accessibility of 2006’s Rather Ripped, it was time for the Youth to renew their love affair with the underground and pursue the avant-garde aesthetic that first inspired them.
Our Brother The Native
Materialism? Secularism? Western consumerist culture? So overrated.
Bill Callahan
Our top panel of Musos give their verdict on Bill Callahan’s latest effort.
Scott Matthews - Elsewhere
I saw Scott Matthews in concert twice in quick succession in 2005, each time supporting Vijay Kishore.
We Were Promised Jetpacks
The album’s opening line of “Right foot, followed by your left foot†reminds us that there’s no shame in taking things back to basics.
White Rabbits
When I first heard this offering from White Rabbits I thought I was uninspired to write about it because it was around 1am and I’d had a long day of lounging, but with the help of second opinions from third parties and repeated next day listens I’ve realised it’s just because it’s incredibly dull.
Kenickie - At The Club
So it’s early 1997. Oasis are a matter of months away from strapping Britpop to their motorbike and heaving its tired carcass over the metaphorical shark. Blur have already evolved their way out of the scene by indulging their Pavement fantasies on their eponymous classic. And Kenickie, with characteristically disastrous timing are about to unleash their debut album At The Club.
Wooden Shjips
San Francisco’s Wooden Shjips emerged on their first album with a manifesto for a simpler music. They had glimpsed the truth and it had two chords. Their first album charted the path to stoner nirvana through a set of tracks which all found their groove and stuck with it. And it really worked.
Grace/Wastelands
The first sound that opens Grace/Wastelands, Peter Doherty’s first solo effort proper, is the click of plectrum on muted guitar strings and a hushed count-in. So far, so much like the various discs of demos self-released over the years since The Libertines imploded in a blaze of guardsmen’s jackets, fistfights and visions of England both crystal-sharp and pink-gin tinted. But something has changed: ‘Arcady’ is a song Peterphiles have heard countless times before, though it’s previously seemed aimless and unfocused, like it was being written and re-thought during its performance. Here, though, with producer Stephen Street and collaborator Graham Coxon, the songs have been finished, polished and rethought before recording.
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