From the category archives:

Music Reviews / Previews

CD Review: Souls She Said, As Templar Nites

by Stuart Heritage

If someone handed you a CD and told you it was made by an offshoot of frightening rawk beasts The Icarus Line, what would you expect it to sound like? Like the sort of thing the CIA plays a terrorists to make them confess their crimes, probably.

And you’d be wrong, because that Icarus Line offshoot is As Templar Nites by Souls She Said, and – thankfully – it’s a whistlestop, nine-track, 25-minute tour of the most scuzzily exciting places in danceable vaguely art rock indie around. And that means As Templar Nites by Souls She Said sounds like every band you’ve ever liked, you lucky beggars.

0 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: The Blood Arm, Lie Lover Lie

by Stuart Heritage

Hey there, every other indie band in the world. Listen, we need to talk. We had a good old crack at things, didn’t we? Gave it our best shot. Look, we’re just going to come out and say it – we’ve met someone new. You probably haven’t heard of them – they’re called The Blood Arm.

We didn’t mean to cheat on you; it’s just that, you know, you’re kind of dull. And you could probably do with washing a bit more regularly. The Blood Arm, though, they know how to treat us right. We just met The Blood Arm, listened to their new album Lie Lover Lie and we couldn’t help but realise that its just much more sexy, confident, funny and exciting than you are. So, every other indie band in the world, it’s over. We’re with Lie Lover Lie by The Blood Arm now, and – although it’s early days – we think it might be love.

0 comments Read more >>>

Free New Crap: Chips – Chicken – Banana Split By Jo-Jo And The Fugitives

by Stuart Heritage

It’s October now, traditionally the month of putting on a woolly jumper, sitting round a campfire drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the beauty of autumn. Only, no. It’s even more sodding summery than August was.

Free New Crap knows this, and Free New Crap will reflect this by giving you to download – legally and for free – one of the most bonkers soul/reggae songs we’ve ever heard: Chips – Chicken – Banana Split by Jo-Jo And The Fugitives. As is becoming tediously familiar, we don’t know the first thing about Jo-Jo And The Fugitives, bar the fact that – since Chips – Chicken – Banana Split comes from an album called Jamaica To Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974 – Jo-Jo And The Fugitives were a Jamaican band who lived in Toronto somewhere around 1967-1974.

But the fact we don’t know much about Jo-Jo And The Fugitives shouldn’t put you off downloading Chips – Chicken – Banana Split, because Chips – Chicken – Banana Split is awesome; imagine Toots Hibbert fronting The JB’s and you’re halfway there. Chips – Chicken – Banana Split by Jo-Jo And The Fugitives has got the fattest breakbeat you’ll hear all week, punchy brass, the most furious organ in the history of recorded sound and a lyric that sounds like a man ordering lunch at a Little Chef. Chips – Chicken – Banana Split by Jo-Jo And The Fugitives will hit you like an injection of Red Bull, and – even better than that – it’s yours for free. You’re welcome.

Download Chips – Chicken – Banana Split by Jo-Jo And The Fugitives

Buy at iTunes Music Store

0 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: Kathryn Williams, Leave To Remain

by Stuart Heritage

Not so long ago, Kathryn Williams was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize with her album Little Black Numbers. But a few years have passed since then, and Kathryn Williams has made Leave To Remain – an album that surpasses Little Black Numbers for sheer aching loveliness in every possible way imaginable.

Leave To Remain by Kathryn Williams is an album that drips with restrained autumnal beauty, from the songwriting to the production to the crystal whisper of Kathryn Williams herself. We’re loopy about Leave To Remain by Kathryn Williams, can you tell?

3 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: Juliette And The Licks, Four On The Floor

by Stuart Heritage

Forget the constant threat of World War III or imminent environmental collapse – you know that the planet is screwed when the band of the 33-year-old girl from What’s Eating Gilbert Grape makes an album that rocks harder than a swarm of burly bikers at a wrestling match.

Four On The Floor is that album, and Juliette And The Licks is that band. Yes, Juliette as in Juliette Lewis from Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers. And, just to add to the demented brilliance of Four On The Floor by Juliette And The Licks, it looks like Juliette Lewis has taken up rocking out while dressed up like a red indian now.

0 comments Read more >>>

hecklergigs: Goldenhorse, Water Rats, 19/09/06

by Stuart Heritage

There’s a decent sized crowd filling Water Rats tonight, and a relaxed buzz of anticipation. We’re here purely to see one of our favourite New Zealand bands, Goldenhorse, who have just finished touring all over Germany, and are here to play their second and final London gig this year.

It was great to see them again after so long, last time we caught them was just over a year ago at London’s Toast festival, where the combination of hot sunshine and wine being sold by the bottle had resulted in the rare sight of a Goldenhorse mosh pit. For those unacquainted with the gorgeous, well crafted pop rock gems of this band, let this be your introduction.

0 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: Sound Team, Movie Monster

by Stuart Heritage

It’s a surprising rare thing for hecklerspray to be pleasantly surprised by an album; they usually confirm exactly what we expected from them or disappoint us hideously – we were once sent a thrash metal album containing a song called Ignominious Slaughter that we mercifully decided not to inflict on you.

So when Movie Monster by Sound Team dropped our laps, we couldn’t figure it out at first. A band we’d never heard of with an almost deliberately vague name bringing out an album with a completely inscrutable sleeve – Movie Monster by Sound Team didn’t exactly fill us with hope. Then, about two and half seconds after slipping the CD into our hi-fi, the strange sensation of actually being impressed by something came over us. And it grew. And it grew. Now we’re under the impression that Movie Monster by Sound Team is a monumental, catchy, textured album that deserves to be heard by absolutely everyone.

0 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: Say Anything, …Is A Real Boy

by Stuart Heritage

The world is drowning in vaguely skatey-sounding pop-punk bands who all seem to think that having one of their songs on the menu screen to EA NFL Street 32 is a high career watermark.

Superficially, Say Anything are one of these bands, since they tick all the requisite boxes; thrashy guitar numbers containing somewhat rebellious lyrics sung with a strong, almost cartoonish American accent. However, let Say Anything …Is A Real Boy into your life and you won’t be able to help finding its twitchy, eccentric, subversive, restless music just a teeny bit endearing.

0 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: Goose, Bring It On

by Stuart Heritage

Put yourself in the place of Skint Records. The music that people identify you with is now deeply unfashionable and your biggest signing Fatboy Slim hasn’t made a decent record in years. What do you do?

Simple, you head to Belgium and sign a band that’s named after a bird that honks. That’s the only logical reason why Skint signed Goose and is releasing the new Goose album Bring It On. And it’s good job it did, too, because Bring It On by Goose is a dirty great hunk of filthy electro sleazerock that we didn’t even think Belgians were capable of.

2 comments Read more >>>

CD Review: The Bronx, The Bronx

by Stuart Heritage

OK, lets get the facts out of the way first; The Bronx recorded their album The Bronx in a coverted methadone clinic into a microphone that Hitler once used, and they have song titles like Shitty Future, Transsexual Blackout and Rape Zombie.

Still with us? Bloody hell, you’re doing well. Consider that first paragraph a test, because once you’ve waded through The Bronx’s – let’s face it – pretty tedious attempts at being different and scary, you’ll be presented with an album of pure stripped-down energy that you’d be a fool to ignore.

0 comments Read more >>>

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →