Latest News

Live Reviews

If you go down to the woods today...you may find some unlikely wild life. It all started like this ..I saw the Membranes at the wonderful Seachange festival at Totnes, and afterwards chatted with their striking, erudite and approachable front man, John Robb. John is well known as a music journalist, writer and BBC pundit, so we talked about music, until I made chance mention of one of my other interests – I am an ecologist and for 25 years have been leading wildlife tours, mainly for educational charity the ACE Foundation; I was just about to head off to Albania. John said’ Why didn’t you mention this earlier?

All the band are really interested in nature and science!’ Indeed the highly acclaimed Membranes comeback album is called Dark Matter/Dark Energy, and features interviews with CERN scientists along with tracks called The Universe Explodes into a Billion Photons of Pure White Light and catchy rock single Do the Supernova. More to these guys than meets the eye ..which is saying something, as they have a strikingly powerful stage show and look amazing. So, one thing led to another, and we agreed that when they next played near me, I would take them on some kind of nature excursion.

Turns out they were playing Norwich Sound and Vision festival in October, and I was around then. We made a plan to meet at a café in Thetford Forest, on the way to Norwich, and on the appointed day I set off early to figure out an interesting route. I had once years ago seen evidence of red deer rutting near here .. and October is the peak time. So I checked the site, with no real expectations of success...but on approaching I heard the eerie cow-like wail of a male red deer in full testosterone flow, the largest native British land mammal. I watched several stags and lots of hinds for some hours, including two subordinate males who attempted to mate with each other. Then it was time to get the band!

Everyone was as excited as I was, and asked lots of probing questions. The leather jackets, quiffs, DMs and brothel creepers looked slightly out of place, but only just; all dark colours, so good camouflage. There was a lovely mood, all laughing and joking at the weirdness of the occasion until hushed into silence as we approached the rutting grounds.

First we heard them, and had a whispered discussion about using the roaring on the next album. Then we saw the first distant hinds...then a proud male posing with head up. We watched and took photos through my telescope, slowly inching forward. To my surprise two stags actually came towards us! Craning their necks to make us out, as we must have looked like a strange multi-headed leather creature hunched together over the scope.

Everyone could have stayed there all day, but sadly soundchecks beckoned. I mentioned never having found a shed antler...and on return we found one, which the lads insisted I kept. Instant karma! Later at the Owl Sanctuary (great venue, though no sign of owls) the Membranes headlined a great gig, and I got even more rewards.

John asked the crowd if they had any questions for Viv Albertine, whom he was interviewing next day. A less than serious reply ‘What is the Latin name of the heron?’ Rob the drummer shouted ‘ Can we phone a friend? Where’s Kevin?’ and with some difficulty I dragged ‘Ardea cinerea’ out of my memory and shouted it back. A discussion on Latin names of birds ensued ..as I said, not your average band.

At the end of the night I got a signed poster, with cartoon stags and guitarist Pete adding ‘Thanks Kevin, you’re a deer!’. It was agreed that all future band riders should include wildlife experiences. My next challenge is to find badgers for them and the Nightingales (how appropriate!) at their Brighton gig in Feb 2017.

Kevin Hand
Nov 2016

And what we saw through the ‘scope...

News

Have a listen to 'The Big What If", yes Pulled Apart by Horses are back with a new song to be followed by a new album in 2017.

Tour dates

December UK Dates w/ Twin Atlantic

13 Glasgow, Barrowlands  
14 Glasgow, Barrowlands  
15 Glasgow, Barrowlands  

Catch the band live at the following dates in 2017

March
27 Oxford, O2 Academy 2 
28 London, Scala 
29 Bristol, Thekla 
30 Southampton, Talking Heads 

April
01 Derby, 2Q Festival
02 Birmingham, Mama Roux’s 
03 Norwich, Waterfront Studio 
05 Glasgow, King Tuts 
06 Manchester, Sound Control 
07 Newcastle, Think Tank 
08 Leeds, Brudenell Social 

Website

News

Spanish songstress Joana Serrat has revealed her new video for 'Cloudy Heart’, directed by MANSON. The song, taken from Joana’s 2016 album Cross The Verge, is a lovely duet with Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3) and also features The Wooden Sky’s Gavin Gardiner on guitar. Describing the inspiration behind the video, Joana explains:

“We wanted to capture the contrast of the song’s lyrics by matching them with the dark and the light in the video. I like the fact that we also shot some of it on the beach (it’s actually a really cool detail that links me to Neil [Halstead]’s home) and it’s beautiful the idea of singing to someone that you can’t see but you can feel. I love all the superimposed images that represent the chaos and doubts of the multiple people we can become when nothing’s clear. I love that dusky Lynch road. The heart’s paths are not clear and easy.”

Watch 'Cloudy Heart' HERE

 

JOANA SERRAT 2017 TOUR DATES

09 Feb – AMSTERDAM, Bitterzoet (NL)*

10 Feb – HAMBURG, Knust (DE)*

11 Feb – BERLIN, Privat Club (DE)*

12 Feb – MUNICH, Ampere (DE)*

13 Feb – COLOGNE, Blue Shell (DE)*

15 Feb – BRUSSELS, Botanique (BE)*

16 Feb – PARIS, Divan Du Monde (FR)*

17 Feb – BREDA, Mezz (NL)

18 Feb – AMSTERDAM, Helemaal Melkweg (NL)

19 Feb – EINDHOVEN, Wilhelmina (NL)

10-19 Mar – AUSTIN, SXSW (US)

*with The Handsome Family

TICKETS

photo by Elba Fernández

Facebook

News

Husky Loops are a new London-based band who have shared their new track‘Fighting Myself’ which in their own words, "is about struggle and everyday hindrance that leads to an outburst of anxiety and energy sonically represented by the final part of the song.”

Made up of Danio (vocals & guitar), Pietro (drums & samples) and Tommaso (bass), the three first met at school in Bologna, Italy. Fast forward fifteen years to a relocation to London to study at music college and the Royal College of Art, they joined forces to form Husky Loops, just over a year ago.

See Husky Loops live:

31st October - Halloween at Bush Hall, London
24th November – TGE First Fifty at Kamio, London

Website 

{https://soundcloud.com/husky-loops/fighting-myself-1}

News

The new album Skydogs by the Belgian band, Sore Losers,  is out on 4th November via Ultra Elektrik Records and rest assured, it rocks!

Skydogs was produced by Dave Cobb and is now getting a full international release. It’s the band's third full-length album, and comes bursting with energy, electric riffs and explosive songs.

Have a listen to 'Got it Bad' from the new album

 Website

 

News

Colin Newman is best known as the singer and main songwriter of WIRE. From their influential 1977 debut ‘Pink Flag’ right up to this year’s ‘Nocturnal Koreans’, Newman and Wire have always been pushing musical boundaries.

Between1980-82, Colin released a series of solo albums. From sound-tracking The Silence of the Lambs to being covered by This Mortal Coil, this solo work has been unavailable for many years.

The reissue of three of Colin Newman’s solo records, are to be made available on 28th October via his own new imprint Sentient Sonics (originally released via Beggars Banquet/ 4AD).

In 1980, Newman released his debut solo album ‘A-Z’, the album has been completely re-mastered, and is augmented with an additional disc of bonus tracks, including out-takes, alternate versions, B-sides, demos and home recordings.

The CD only ‘A-Z’ bonus disc includes an additional 17 tracks - only 4 of which have previously been released. 

{https://soundcloud.com/swimhq/09-order-for-order-riverside-demos}

You can Pre-order here

Page 44 of 133