Album Review: Flies Are Spies From Hell

Album Review: Flies Are Spies From Hell
Album: Red Eyes Unravelling
Label: Unsigned

It is notoriously hard to stand out when you’re tarred with the ‘post-rock’ genre. Most listeners only have the patience to dip into the assured highlights of the genre: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, its offshoots and Mogwai amongst a few others. When you do try to explore the tag further, it’s hard to find anything that isn’t either a re-hash of what GY!BE perfected years ago, or isn’t bland movements polished with an unhealthy dose of pomposity. It’s a difficult genre to get into, rarely disposable and often demanding patience and attention from both musician and listener, a fundamental relationship that is rapidly dissipating in modern society.

Album Review: Untied States

Album Review: Untied States
Album: Instant Everything, Constant Nothing
Label: Distile

It’s difficult to know with this kind of experimental music where the line between shite and genius exists. One person could listen to this and envisage the second coming of Jesus in musical form, whilst another will hear it and run for the hills (I appreciate this is a poor metaphor – if I knew Jesus was coming I’d do my best to get out of his way too). Perhaps it’s only possible to fully enjoy a record such as this if you spend you’re clued up on the technical vocabulary of rhythm and timing – a bit like how you can only ever fully appreciate a The Big Lebowski if you’ve indulged in an unhealthy amount of the green herb.

Live Photos: Brand New/Glassjaw/Thrice @ Wembley Arena [24/01/10]

Photos from Brand New‘s one off arena show with support from Glassjaw and Thrice. Read a review here.

Live Review: Brand New/Glassjaw/Thrice

Artist: Brand New + Glassjaw + Thrice
Venue: Wembley Arena, London
Date: 23/01/10

Probably the biggest arena show of the year so far, it would be difficult to fathom a better line-up for those in their early twenties. After all, all three bands on the bill tonight have grown and matured side-by-side with their audiences, soundtracking a decade of trials and tribulations, of fumbling advances and broken hearts, and of faith and doubt.

Album Review: Boots With Spurs

Album Review: Boots With Spurs
Album: The Sun Never Sets on Andy Griffith Pt. 1 & These Boots Were Made For Moonwalking
Label: Unsigned

According to their website, Boots With Spurs were “formed from stardust as a direct result of the Big Bang” and “raised on wolf’s milk, raw meat, and rock and roll religion.” This is the kind of introduction to a band that gets you searching for the phone number of the closest mental asylum. Everything about Boots With Spurs and their debut, self-released album, points towards a collection of unhinged minds indulging their wildest fantasies. Let’s put it this way: ‘The Sun Never Sets’ is full of the kind of grandiose ideas that would make The Mars Volta seethe with jealousy.