Music - live music and CD reviews

Aireheads Leeds Music Scene

This fortnight, Larry's feeling lonely

Yeah, our job’s pretty cool. And one of our favourite bits of it is listening to up-and-coming bands in and around Leeds.

We get sent scores of CDs for our show on a Sunday night. There must be 80% of them that say something along the lines of “we’re the next big thing to come out of Leeds”.

But who will be big from the Leeds music scene in the… Read more...

Feature Leeds' Best New Bands

Our music editor, Camille Ainsworth picks eight of the best new bands coming out of our city

It’s as if music is in the water around Leeds – there’s a relentlessly healthy DIY scene that continues to grow, an array of independent record labels and a host of nurturing venues fertilising news bands day in, day out. From this environment, some large names have sprung up – the Kaiser Chiefs, Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs and, more recently, Corinne Bailey Rae and Wild Beasts have both received Mercury… Read more...

LocalFocal Tip Toe Records, Normal Man & The Cribs

Fortnightly Leeds music news

Tip Toe Records have launched mini podcast play lists via www.mixcloud.com/tiptoerecords. You can grab yourself an earful of neat bands spanning pop-punk to power-pop and indie-folk, including Mechanical Owl, Olfar, Wingman and Insect Guide.

On the advice of Blacklisters, we have also been listening to Leeds band Normal Man – introducing us to some pretty meaty punk and some pretty dark undertakings. Their tracks include a letter from… Read more...

Feature Music Happens Here

Leeds College of Music celebrate their pupils with a new compilation album

Leeds College of Music has fostered some great talents who have excelled beyond the college gates, the city and even the UK. Take a look at their alumni they’ve nurtured: Haggis Horns, the brass section that toured with Mark Ronson, electro pop sensation Little Boots, jazz pianist and composer Matthew Bourne who previously won an award for Jazz Innovation at the BBC… Read more...

CD Review Grinderman

Grinderman 2 (Mute)

Nick Cave can be quite a musical, and lyrical, contradiction. Just try listening to the beautiful ‘Into My Arms’ (from 1997’s The Boatman’s Call) and the raucously, noisy, blackly humorous desperation of ‘No Pussy Blues’ (from Grinderman’s 2007 self-titled debut).

While Cave’s career in the excellent Bad Seeds has seen him veer from the darkly romantic to the macabre horror of his Murder Ballads, Grinderman is… Read more...

Play It Again Chris Newbould, Traitors

Described as ‘effortlessly cool’ by one keen music journalist, Chris Newbould, bassist in Traitors tells us what he would listen to when he’s feeling…

Happy

‘Barbara Ann’ – Beach Boys

“I love the Beach Boys- their mastery on vocal harmonies is unparalleled. Their songs paint imagery of summer and love yet tinged with an eerie kind of sorrow too. I don’t mean to sound like a poet there but it just reminds me of relaxing and just generally been happy!”

Sad

‘My Mistakes Were Made For You’ – Last Shadow Puppets

“Again, this… Read more...