Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Melbourne Soundwave had been inked in to my mental calendar for almost a year. The excitement brewed as I pulled myself from the comfort of bed and into the shower, fighting a hangover from the previous night’s exploits. I hit the ground running, trying to make it to the festival in time for one of my fave bands Steel Panther.

Despite the long queues to get in to the venue, and early start times for the bands I actually made it in time to catch some of their set. Between the high Kicks, hair flicks and amazing stand-up comedy they had the crowd jumping. They played songs from both “Feel the steel” and their latest album “Balls out”. Definite crowd faves being “Community property” and “Death to all but metal”, with which they closed the show with...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Artist: AtomA
Album: Skylight (Napalm Records)
Genre: Apocalyptic Post Rock/Metal

AtomA såg ljuset för lite drygt ett år sedan och består av fyra musiker från Stockholm. För att måla upp stämningen på debutalbumet lyder en del av presstexten såhär:
”AtomA sets the environment for its debut in outer space, where a few astronauts are lost and travelling through planets, searching for a refuge. The songs and lyrics picks up moods/atmospheres in these astronaut’s minds and emotions, as they’re drifting through space to ultimately find a unique anomaly on a strange planet, the monolith symbol of AtomA.”

Låter det intressant? Och kanske lite flummigt? Det är det. Att beskriva AtomAs musik är närmast omöjligt...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Universal Music Catalogue’s new “Re-presents” label takes well known and loved albums from decades gone and releases them in a new form. This release is Nik Kershaw’s 1984 album ”Human Racing”. Human Racing was released in February 1984 and achieved platinum sales and a nomination for “Best Album” at the 1985 Brit Awards. The album reached number 5 in the UK album charts and spent 61 weeks in the chart – an impressive figure.
The album includes the massive hits ”Wouldn’t it be good” and ”I won’t let the sun go down on me”, both of which reached the top 10 (numbers 4 and 2 respectively), as well as the top twenty hit ”Human racing”.

It’s been digitally remastered from the original tapes to ensure it sounds as good as possible...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Following the release of their latest album, Love Catastrophe, in July 2011, the band have decided to release a six track EP which contains three brand new songs, a Christmas single that was released online in December, a Flamenco version of the song “Falling Rain” and a piano & vocals version of the track “We Run”.
Singer Chandler Mogel says, ”We wanted to give the fans a little something extra this time around. These songs pick up where the last album left off and at the same time serve as a road sign as to where we’re going. Hopefully this will hold everyone over until the third album is ready, which we’re currently beginning to work on.”

The release of the EP comes as a surprise as its only seven months since the album was released, but I’m certainly not going to complain – m...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Prick kl.21 så drar introt till Patient Zero igång. KB är infekterat av HammerFall-sjukan!

HammerFalls nya fläskiga ljudbil slår rakt mot en som en taskig käftsmäll. Ljudet är rent och tydligt. Cans sång hörs riktigt bra och är väl mixad med instrumenten. HammerFall är ute på en intensiv klubb-turné för att komma sina fans riktigt nära. Det finns inget kravallstaket och det blir en fantastisk känsla av gemenskap mellan band och publik.

Det är en fröjd för ögat att se Anders jonglera med trumpinnarna och gitarristen Pontus Norgren gå fram till scenkanten och dra ett solo och får det att se hur enkelt ut som helst då han ser helt avslappnad ut. Oscar står som en mindre virveltornado i sin läderrock medans Fredrik Larsson står bredbent och piskar skiten ur sin bas...

Posted in Press Releases

Multi-platinum American rock band, Counting Crows have announced they will be releasing their first new album in over 4 years on 9th April 2012. Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a collection of songs, both familiar and obscure, interpreted by one of the most soulful and recognizable bands of the past two decades.

Underwater Sunshine is a testament of a band geek-obsessed with music. “There’s a million great songs written every day that you discover, and wish your friends could appreciate as much as you do,” says singer/songwriter Adam Duritz. “These songs come from bands young and old, stretching from the early 60s to last year. They’re all great and will hopefully be heard by a few more people now.”

Produced by Counting Crows and Shawn Dealey, U...

Posted in Press Releases

“Chasing The Night” is Leeds singer/songwriter Rupert Stroud’s accomplished follow up to his debut album. Mixing alternative, indie, rock and acoustic sounds the album is confident in its eclecticisms. It truly showcases his versatility as a writer and highlights his growing maturity as an artist.

Rupert began writing his debut self titled album in 2008 backing it up with regional tour dates. By 2009 Rupert had found eminent British producer Will Jackson (a member of 80’s band Magna Carta. Will’s previous credits include The Kaiser Chiefs, Embrace, The Cribs, The Music… to name a few). After listening to Rupert’s music Will was adamant in bringing him into the studio to record. Yet it was only a tentative step towards this, the highly refined and gripping follow up album.

C...

Posted in Press Releases

An evening of classic songs by Sandy Denny featuring Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Policewoman, Maddy Prior, Jerry Donahue, Dave Swarbrick, Green Gartside, PP Arnold, Thea Gilmore, plus members of Bellowhead, Lavinia Blackwall (Trembling Bells), Sam Carter, Blair Dunlop (The Albion Band), Ben Nicholls (Dennis Hopper Choppers) and more…
In the years since her tragic death in 1978, folk icon Sandy Denny is now widely regarded by musicians and critics alike as Britain’s finest female singer songwriter and one of the greatest singers this country has ever produced. Her signature song Who Knows Where The Time Goes has been recorded by a diverse range of artists including Cat Power, 10000 Maniacs, Eva Cassidy, Nina Simone, and most famously Judy Collins...

Posted in Press Releases

Following the news of their new studio album Bag of Bones, released April 30th, Swedish rockers EUROPE have today announced a nationwide November 2012 UK tour.

The Bag of Bones tour follows 2011’s hugely successful Balls ‘N’ Banners tour, which included a sold-out concert at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire (where Europe filmed their recent live DVD).

A 48-Hour Ticket Pre-sale will take place on Wednesday 7th March at 9am via www.planetrock.com. Tickets will then go on sale on Friday 9th March via www.ticketweb.co.uk and www.eventim.co.uk.

BAG OF BONES – UK TOUR DATES
Birmingham 02 Academy – Wednesday 21 November
Glasgow 02 ABC – Thursday 22 November
Manchester HMV Ritz – Friday 23 November
Newcastle 02 Academy – Sunday 25 November
Leeds 02 Academy – Monday 26 November
Nottingham Ro...

Posted in Press Releases

”Tomos Lewis, mines lilting folk melodies similar to Irish balladeer Damien rice. The amiable singer’s voice soars on these introspective tunes.” – Big Issue

‘Excellent’ – The MMP

This four-track EP showcases Tomos Lewis’ exceptional vocals, fiery guitar skills and sweetly sensitive hook-filled tunes. It is an EP to sway, dream, smile and weep to.

After leaving home at 17 years old to work at the foot of the Snowdonian Mountains in Dolgellau he found there was very little to do – that was until he was given a Washburn guitar with 3 strings at the end of one summer. Thankfully he qualified to six strings by Christmas and went on to learn from as many local musicians as possible in exchange for a sofa to sleep on and if they were lucky a few beers too.

At 22 he did some recordin...