Alternative live music reviews http://soundblab.com/ http://soundblab.com/images/soundblab.png http://soundblab.com/ editor@soundblab.com (Rich Morris) Copyright 2012 Soundblab Ltd support@soundblab.com (Nick Honer) http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4509 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:56:00 GMT Peggy Sue are from Brighton and possess a fairly bewitching live presence. However, their brand of riot grrrl folk-rock gets a little repetitive over several songs, despite some innovative drumming and an interesting use of dynamics. Occasionally, they break into some bracing atonal noise or a spot of monster riffing... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4509 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4494 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:09:00 GMT At the very back of a record store in East London, behind the aisles of CDs and vinyl, a bespectacled and ordinary looking man gets on stage with a light-looking acoustic guitar. This rouses the ageing, slightly hipster crowd. The man on stage is Craig Finn, leading man for The... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4494 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4475 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:17:00 GMT Tonight Wolf People will help the audience at the Brudenell Social Club collectively forget that they're in the early stages of 2012. No, tonight we'll be transported to a smoky bar, sometime in the 1970s. You'll want to grow your hair and buy a Neil Young-esque plaid shirt before the... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4475 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4468 Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:13:00 GMT Sunday's curators are Caribou, Canadian resident Dan Snaith and his backing band, who along with the previous days' headliners also commence proceedings with an afternoon set. Emerging dressed almost entirely in white, they provide sonically enhanced beats with the aid of two drummers and a brass backing. As all Sunday... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4468 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4466 Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:51:00 GMT Day two's curators are Battles and their afternoon set is as math-tastic as expected, with unconventional, driving bass and drum rhythms, echo-drenched guitar and fleeting glimpses of keys. Perhaps taking cue from the dressing up of the previous day's curators, Les Savy Fav, the guitarist/keyboardist is sporting a giant Beastie... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4466 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4407 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:59:00 GMT All Tomorrow's Parties' annual festival, A Nightmare Before Christmas, at a windswept Butlins complex in Minehead is this year curated by three North American bands of contrasting styles. While none of them quite have the draw of previous recent curators Pavement, My Bloody Valentine or The Breeders, which could have... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4407 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4369 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:09:00 GMT I think it's safe to say that when a frontman walks on stage half an hour late with a coat draped dramatically over his shoulders, reading a book, he is going to have to fight to convince the audience that he is not a complete idiot. This is what Fred MacPherson,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4369 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4361 Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:57:00 GMT The Silent Bells Tour pitches three wildly varying artists from Leeds' superb Gizeh Records, on a mini UK tour of some unique venues. Tonight we are deposited in the Left Bank, a church buried on the edge of the student heartland of Leeds, a beautiful, faintly Gothic venue, though sadly... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4361 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4356 Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:03:00 GMT Joining the terrible teens could hardly have been more fun for this much-loved, eclectic, all-encompassing record label. Celebrating the momentous occasion on the same day as the small matter of two million people going on strike over a long-running pension dispute, the need for a touch of levity to raise... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4356 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4296 Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:58:00 GMT Halloween, Alaska have some interesting elements to their music. Their tightly controlled funk rhythms recall Japan's less overtly synth-pop moments, while the constant throb and ebb of organ underpinning their music puts me in mind of Dance Disaster Movement. However, for the most part they just sound like some horrible... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4296 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4294 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:07:00 GMT London-based dream-poppers Novella are already strummin' away when I get to the venue. Their sound is thick, feedback-heavy and very shoegazey. Underneath the sludge, of course, are sunshiny, bittersweet melodies, trembling vocals and (I'm guessing) lyrics of chaste, unrequited love. It's a neat, if utterly unoriginal trick and you are... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4294 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4284 Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:40:00 GMT It's two in the afternoon and it's a rather lovely autumnal day in Leeds. The perfect kind of day to take things easy and relax, maybe sit in the garden with an ice-tea and a copy of the Independent while watching a neighbour's cat chase butterflies across the freshly cut... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4284 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4285 Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:14:00 GMT Shark Teeth (née Blood Oranges) are a ballsy indie-pop proposition. With their two geeky boys and two glamourous but tough girls, they look like they should be propping up the bar in a John Waters film. Their songs are all as accessible and melodic as can be, which is to... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4285 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4275 Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:40:00 GMT There's something about the prospect of seeing the Melvins live that causes a kind of barley suppressed excitement in heavy-rock fans. Most express this joy by beaming like idiots while staring adoringly at the band onstage and drinking copious amounts of ale, others lose the plot a little but more... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4275 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4217 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:22:00 GMT Just when we thought all existing Indie bands had jumped ship into synth territory, Pete and the Pirates proved us wrong. I myself feared for the existence of simple story-telling and melancholic melodies, but good old fashioned indie-rock was back; back in the form of these cheerful chaps from Reading.... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4217 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4185 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:00:00 GMT I wasn't sure whether Koko's recent Dubstep vs Electro night meant dubstep artists and electro artists on the same bill, or more ambitiously dubstep mixed with electro. But although the night comprised the former and more realistic option, with performances this good it exceeded all my expectations. After a long queue... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4185 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4100 Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:48:00 GMT A quick word on the Worst and Greatest Show in the World. Last Wednesday I set out to see a small, fairly unknown band at the MEN just for kicks. They were called Archway Blaze or Fire at the Amusements or something.... No wait... It was only bloody ARCADE FIRE! As... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4100 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4095 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:15:00 GMT If Tom Marshallsay aka Dam Mantle has a problem playing to an near-empty room he's good at not showing it. The electro whiz, responsible for some of 2011's best music, is positively convulsing as he hops from laptop to synth, synth to drum machine, then back to laptop, constantly tweaking,... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4095 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3964 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:50:00 GMT Flametal opened last Saturday night at La Peña with a traditional flamenco rumba that quickly spiraled into a mix of heavy metal head-banging and virtuoso guitar progressions. The band, led by lead guitar Ben Woods, blends a unique mix of metal and flamenco to create a sound that, although rooted... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/3964 http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4063 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:53:00 GMT Indietracks is one of the nicer, but more musically unadventurous festivals around, populated almost entirely by twee indie-pop kids playing to other twee indie-pop kids. But everyone is well-behaved, there aren't any 17-year-old Slipknot fans setting fire to the toilets and Pendulum have never played there. So, overall, total win. Saturday First... http://soundblab.com/content/content/view/id/4063