Another year, another Eurovision. It’s faced controversy this year for including Israel, and justifiably so. Indeed, last year saw the UK host in Liverpool, in lieu of winners Ukraine, for obvious reasons. The seventies heyday was pure camp, so bad it was good. Funkless songs with questionable lyrics, uncoordinated dance routines, even worse outfits. IContinue reading “Favourite Cover Versions: Shane MacGowan – What’s Another Year”
Category Archives: Music
Overlooked Classics: Nick Drake- Pink Moon
Everyone seems to like the other two Nick Drake studio albums- Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter– but as much as I like them, for me it’s all about the quiet, sad, low-key gem from 1972, Pink Moon. Drake’s music, for me, reveals the kind of torpor of country life. It’s a paradox, a senseContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Nick Drake- Pink Moon”
Drinking Boys And Girls Choir Are Touring!
Some exciting news from Damnably: “Following a successful 29-date North American tour supporting Otoboke Beaver, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir now have their own. Drinking Boys and Girls Choir announce thier first headlining tour in North America as their February KEXP session goes live on YouTube. https://youtu.be/rC893u7OH0Q?si=kX0NOY-C1bdBTloT Following a successful 29-date North American tour supporting OtobokeContinue reading “Drinking Boys And Girls Choir Are Touring!”
Album Review: Ora Cogan- Formless
The Canadian artist’s eighth album is a real labour of love, with contributions from Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba on the mellifluous, twisty duet’Ways Of Losing’ and LANKUM’s Cormac Mac Diarmada playing violin and viola on ‘Feel Life’. ‘Dyed ‘ feels like a folky jazz incantation with a psychedelic undertow and her newContinue reading “Album Review: Ora Cogan- Formless”
Film Review: Tramps!
The natural reaction to a conservative era is to reject it, subvert it entirely and aim higher. So it was with the “New Romantics”, the movement which gave us Boy George, Michael Clark, Duran Duran, Leigh Bowery, Marilyn, Visage and Spandau Ballet. These stylish, freaky rebels were part of a loose “family” of club kidsContinue reading “Film Review: Tramps!”
Overlooked Classics: Common Holly- Playing House
There are some artists who make albums that should have been huge. Better known by her stage name Common Holly, Brigitte Naggar is a Canadian musician from Montreal.As Common Holly, Naggar has released two full-length albums, but her debut is so underrated it beggars belief. It’s so fully formed, it’s astonishing. Naggar’s first album, Playing House, was releasedContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Common Holly- Playing House”
Album Review: Man Of Moon- Machinism
With issues around Artificial Intelligence very much becoming ubiquitous, this brilliant second studio album from Glasgow duo Man Of Moon is timely. As the title, Machinism, suggests, there are songs that allude to humans and machines, sometimes in symbiosis, sometimes not. There’s a sense of unease, throughout, as themes of societal problems in our dividedContinue reading “Album Review: Man Of Moon- Machinism”
The Power of the Sad Banger
As Sophie Ellis-Bextor once observed, “It’s murder on the dancefloor”. But it’s sometimes fun to wallow in a little drama. This is where the sad banger comes in. It’s an anthem for the dumped, the disillusioned, or simply the thwarted romantic. Abba probably started it, these Eurovision winners with their Scandinavian melancholy in the verses,Continue reading “The Power of the Sad Banger”
Album Review: Broadcast – Spell Blanket -Collected Demos 2006-2009
When we lost Trish Keenan in 2011, we lost one of indie music ‘s most beloved singers. Her hushed, wide -eyed voice radiated a calm that felt disconcertingly eerie. Broadcast’s retro-futurism both soothed and disturbed in equal measure. This compilation of 36 tracks, from ‘The Song Before The Song Comes Out’ to ‘Spirit House’ showsContinue reading “Album Review: Broadcast – Spell Blanket -Collected Demos 2006-2009”
Album Review: Mammoth Penguins -Here
You just can’t keep a good indie trio down. Cambridge scamps Mammoth Penguins ‘ new album fizzles with effervescent energy. Emma Kupa, Tom Barden and Mark Boxall have returned with music that is irresistible, straight out of the traps, racing forward and never looking back. Their trademark grungy indie, and Kupa’s sweet, youthful voice, hasContinue reading “Album Review: Mammoth Penguins -Here”
Hit The North 