Music - live music and CD reviews

Live Review Wild Flag

Four-piece who include two ex-members of Sleater-Kinney play a storming set at The Cockpit

Wild Flag delivered a master class in US alt rock full of passion and great tunes. That’s hardly surprising as this indie supergroup bring together former Sleater-Kinneys Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein, plus Helium guitarist Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole from The Minders.

From the off this band of 40-something riot grrrls were taking no prisoners, ripping into a no-nonsense ‘Electric Band’ from their critically acclaimed debut album. The centrepiece of their sound is the wild drumming of former Elliott Smith and Steve Malkmus & The Jicks band member Jane Weiss, who launches assault after assault on her kit.

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Live Review M83 Stylus, Leeds University Union

Shoegazing electro-types keep the Stylus audience in raptures

The bar area was deserted. The dance floor was full. Those who couldn’t fit on the dance floor stood around the edges and on the upper level, every head turned towards the stage.

There were a few mumbles but no one looked like they were attempting conversation. The air was filled with anticipation.

As a detached observer, it was a powerful scene. There was an acute sense that something really special was about to happen. And to all of those M83 fans on Friday 20^th January standing jam-packed in Leeds University Union, pushed against one another to make sure…

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Preview Band of Skulls

After three years of touring and enjoying the success of their debut record, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, Band of Skulls will be back in Leeds with new material. We chatted with drummer Matt Hayward about the Southampton band’s sophomore effort, their post-gig rituals and how much they love Leeds

Although we haven’t heard anything new from Band of Skulls since their 2009 album Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, the blues rock trio have been able to keep themselves fresh in our minds through other means. From placements on various films and TV programmes including True Blood, Skins and My Soul to Take and appearing on The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, fans don’t have to wait for the band’s next gig to hear their music. And with music sales decreasing each day, the band welcome these opportunities to expose Band of Skulls to people who normally wouldn’t listen to…

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Preview The Men + Hookworms

Reinvigorate your faith in guitar music with this gig at the Brudenell Social Club on 21st February

Whilst members of a couple of mainstream indie bands (specifically The Enemy and the Kaiser Chiefs) have recently voiced their opinion that guitar music is in a sorry state, seemingly unbeknownst to them, the underground scene currently feels more alive than it has for decades. Probably since 1991.

Take Brooklyn’s The Men for example. Their 2011 album Leave Home, released on Sacred Bones Records, packages up several approaches to how to write guitar music and hits you over the head with them, repeatedly, like a jackhammer. Stuart Berman, reviewing the record for Pitchfork, said, “You’d be hard-pressed…

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Preview tUnE-yArDs

The New England act return to the UK and play their only date outside London at The Cockpit on 13th February

Merrill Garbus (AKA tUnE-yArDs) will only appear twice on her forthcoming UK tour, somewhat inevitably one is in London but her other show will be at The Cockpit on Monday 13^th February. The Leeds gig is not an arbitrary choice – her record company 4AD’s website describes her previous show, at the Brudenell back in June, as “triumphant”. If anything that is actually an understatement.

Garbus’ last appearance came in the wake of the release of her second album, w h o k i l l, and her first recorded in an actual studio. The record would go…

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Preview SBTRKT

Masked DJ returns to save British RnB from the mumbling supervillains.

Upon release, SBTRKT’s (pronounced subtract) self-titled debut album wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Reviewers in the NME and The Guardian were united in their opinion that the album was little more than a disappointment, failing to live up to the hype that they had helped to create. They scored the album 6/10, with The Observer going one stage further in their review suggesting that with the release of this album electronic music had entered “its coffee-table phase”.

The album actually ended up on both Pitchfork and NME’s Top 50 Albums of 2011 and also won DJ Magazine’s Best of…

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