Portishead: overrated or what?

I could be committing musical sacrilege for a lot of people with this question, but aren’t Portishead a bit… dull? Now, in 2008, for some reason beyond my comprehension the band are revered and marketed as influential, provocative alchemists of cracked beats and haunting emotion whose commercially motivated reunion we should all buy into with fond [...]

Johnny Foreigner, Y’all Is Fantasy Island, Jesus H Foxx @ Henry’s Cellar Bar, 23 Jan

It doesn’t say much for the Edinburgh music scene when three certifiably up-and-coming bands – two Scottish, one Brummie – share a bill and the sole attendees consist of band members, assorted hangers-on and a handful of paying punters. But on the other hand, this is one of the smallest performance spaces in town, so [...]

random playlist - volume one

Because there are no rules for how music affects us, the way we listen can be pretty random. It’s not like we decide to listen to nothing but Canadian indie one week, then nothing but conscious hip hop the next. Instead, it depends more on the way we feel at the time than the style [...]

Sons & Daughters are mental and edgy (honest)

[Image by Pete Dunlop]
Set deep in the West End of Glasgow, the Rio Café feels like the ideal place to interview Sons and Daughters. It has that classic feel of 1950s Americana with its four-seater booths and solid, oversize bar; yet the noisy chatter of the mid-afternoon clientèle confirms to the ear that this is [...]

A month in singles: January

Plenty of new music to sample this month, but before the young pretenders come  the old-timers. But you could hardly apply that moniker to Sons And Daughters. I have to declare an interest: I’m a fan, but Darling (14 Jan, ****) is still another winner from the best exponents of Spector-meets-Cave pop. The Kills were often [...]

…And we’re back!

So: Happy New Year folks!
Christmas is a strange time of year it has to be said. There is nothing to do. Zip. Everything’s shut, no-one ventures outside, too stuffed to rise from their Baileys and chocolate fuelled stupor. Surely the ideal time to write some blog material? But no.
It’s not just physical energy that’s lacking [...]