• Getting Re-Acquainted: Bob Dylan – Jokerman

    It’s strange how, nearly 50 years after someone shouted “JUDAS!” in the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1966, Bob Dylan still has the power to provoke a reaction. For many people, he’ll forever be the wiry, electric veined pop-provocateur of the mid 60s, re-writing the rulebook on the way to burning himself out, whilst for others, he’s still the prototype folkie, with his work boots and dirty denims, honking on a harmonica whilst calling out injustice wherever he finds it. Dylan’s 70s records are reasonably well regarded, with 1975’s Blood on the Tracks still remaining the archetypical ‘breakup’ album, and his late…

  • Stream: A Plastic Rose – Someone’s Daughter

    Currently making waves over in Nottingham, Northern Irish alt-rock quartet A Plastic Rose have unveiled the wonderfully eccentric video for their new single, ‘Someone’s Daughter’. Directed by Tom Coles and Benson Burrows, the video features a strange, friendly robot (related to Johnny Five from Short Circuit, one wonders?), who accompanies a couple of humans before an untimely demise in an abandoned tunnel. Pretty standard stuff, really. The second single from the band’s forthcoming second album Flickering Light Of An Inner War, the track was produced by Chris Coulter. Watch the video for Someone’s Daughter below.

  • Stream: Girl Band – The Cha Cha Cha

    Quite possibly the shortest track released for this year’s Record Store Day, Dublin four-piece Girl Band have made the brilliantly abrasive burst of noise rock that is ‘The Cha Cha Cha’ available to download for free. Once again evoking the likes of early Pixies and Mclusky/Future of the Left, the twenty-five second track is a fairly accurate summation of the band’s back catalogue to date: frantic, frenetic, breathless and gloriously pulverising in equal proportion. Our only complaint? You guessed it – it’s just that little bit too short. All said and done, we think you should listen to this. So do,…

  • Stream: The Wood Burning Savages – Been Anywhere Lately?

    Another highlight from this year’s Record Store Day was a rather unexpected single from Derry band The Wood Burning Savages. Having written and recorded it during last week, ‘Been Anywhere Lately?’ was released on Saturday for the annual celebration of independent music stores worldwide. The track sees the Paul Connolly-fronted four-piece jolting straight for the jugular, pounding rhythms and impassioned refrains propelled by dual harmonies and the aforementioned frontman’s rousing tail-telling. In all, yet another subtly seismic clenched fist from the fast-rising Derry act. Stream ‘Been Anywhere Lately?’ via Soundcloud below.