Monthly Archives februari 2013

Motorfinger Black Mirror EP

Wearing their modern and classic rock influences well and truly on their sleeves Oslo’s Motorfinger have their sights set on rock world domination with their new EP ‘Black Mirror’. Citing their inspiration from such bands as Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden you get what you’d expect from them. If you are partial to the slickly produced, heavy leaning alt-rock of the very late 90’s and early 00’s then Motorfinger should be top of your new bands to look out for list. ‘Bastards and Sins’ kicks off the bands 3 track offering with plenty of guitar effects before belting out a lovely chugging bass set to lyrics from frontman Maurice Adams, clearly a man who means what he’s singing with his vocals delving into the James Hetfield style of delivery at times...

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Hatebreed – The Divinity Of Purpose

Hatebreed have now been around for nearly 20 years. In a way it seemed surprising as they certainly don’t strike me as a band that have been around for “a long time”, they’ve just always been there. Always been consistent, retaining their fanbase, their sound, their record output, their integrity and of course tour schedule. They just seem to be one of those bands that keep ‘em coming and before you know it they’ve been around longer than the majority of the young and modern bands, you’ll hear on the radio, will ever hope to stick around for. This is not an easy feat in this day and age...

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John Wheeler – new album out now, and London gig on Thursday 7th Feb

John Wheeler
“Un-American Gothic”
February 4th on Cooking Vinyl

‘This straight debut from [Hayseed Dixie] front man is a welcome diversion – Uncut

‘An album of mature acoustic material’ – Classic Rock

‘While this can be seen as Wheeler’s ‘serious’ album that’s not to say it’s devoid of fun […] his wry lyrics and sharp songwriting make for a surprisingly strong debut away from the rockgrass behemoth’ – Total Guitar

“Un-American Gothic” is John Wheeler’s first solo record, written entirely on the road during 2011. Best known for the past decade as the creator and frontman of the successful Rockgrass act, Hayseed Dixie, the band had spent nearly 9 months on the road and every mile of that tour John traveled, himself, on motorbike...

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Richard Thompson – Electric

Richard Thompson has been described as one of the Top 20 guitarists of all time. He’s a songwriter as well as a guitarist, and has written songs that have been performed by an amazing range of stars including Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant, Sandy Denny, Elvis Costello, David Gilmour, REM and many more. He’s won an Ivor Novello award, won a lifetime achievement award from BBC Radio, and Mojo’s Les Paul award, amongst other achievements.

While many guitarists release their solo albums as instrumentals, Richard Thompson takes the other route – bringing in singers to work with, which means you get proper songs rather than a series of instrumentals. On this album he is joined by guests including Alison Krauss and Siobhan Maher Kennedy as well as fiddle player Stuart Duncan.

The album is being re...

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Onward chariots – This is my confession

Onward Chariots was formed by Ben Morss, a multi-instrumentalist. He’s recruited a number of other musicians to join him, and the result is an indie-pop album with a whole load of other influences thrown into the mix. The sound is made more varied by the range of instruments used which incluude electronics, Strings, Oboe, Clarinet, Mandolin and Trumpet.

Brief comments on a few tracks…

The album starts with ”Opening”, a short (a minute and a half) track that is atmospheric music with some soft high pitched vocals. It’s an interesting start to the album.

The first real song is ”This is my confession I”. It’s got a real indie-pop feel to it with the guitars.

In contrast the falsetto vocals in the chorus of ”Sisters and brothers” makes it sound more like the Beegees...

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Farmers market – Slav to the rhythm out 4th March

Twenty years in the making, the Norwegian prog ensemble Farmers Market remains as equally musically complex as they are critically acclaimed. Following their 2008 outing “Surfin’ USSR” (on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings), the new recordings on “Slav to the Rhythm” have been released by the Oslo-based label Division Records to rave reviews in Norway, and are now set to be released on an unsuspecting British audience.

The former album earned them a Norwegian Grammy in the award ceremony’s open category. A well deserved one, considering their 1991 launch as a free jazz quintet and – with instruments including accordion, kaval, gaida, pedal steel, alt sax, clarinet, banjo, guitars, drums and bass – further venturing into Bulgarian folk and other directions in music...

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Faustus – Broken Down Gentlemen, out on 11th March

FAUSTUS – Broken Down Gentlemen
11th March – Navigator Records

The award winning SUPER-GROUP cement their return with
BRAND NEW album and tour – ‘BROKEN DOWN GENTLEMEN’
An inspired collection of some of the earthiest songs in the folk cannon

‘Frill-free folk music, superbly and tastefully performed . . . a folk essential’
**** Sunday Times

‘A considered album of exceptional class’
***** Daily Telegraph

Album tour – 11th-27th April 2013 – including The Green Note, London

Nominated in the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the Faustus triumvirate are three of the leading lights of English folk music of their generation: Saul Rose (Waterson:Carthy, Whapweasel), Benji Kirkpatrick (Seth Lakeman Band, Bellowhead) and Paul Sartin (Bellowhead, Belshazzar’s Feast).

Specialising ...

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Ian Anderson Announces one-off show at Royal Albert Hall

IAN ANDERSON TO BRING HIS THICK AS A BRICK TOUR TO THE LEGENDARY ROYAL ALBERT HALL

After the enormous success of his 2012 UK tour, Ian Anderson is back for a very special one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall on 30th June; Thick as a Brick returns ‘home’ to the prestigious London venue after 41 years since it was first performed there. The gig is part of an extensive world tour taking the Jethro Tull’ icon to Europe, USA, Japan and South America; This will be the only production Thick As A Brick UK date in 2013 and tickets are expected to go fast.

Tickets go on sale on Friday 1st February at 9.00am. Ticket prices are £30 and £35 for Circle, £42.50 Front Circle, £47...

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Jettblack add two more headline shows to April tour.

JETTBLACK ADD TWO MORE HEADLINE SHOWS TO THEIR APRIL 2013 UK CO-HEADLINE TOUR WITH CRASH DIET…

UK rockers, Jettblack, have added a further two headline shows to their co-headline April UK tour with Swedish sleaze masters, Crash Diet; the first of the new headline dates will take place on April 19th at Cardiff’s Bogiez, followed by a second at Glasgow’s Audio on April 21st 2013.

Southampton’s Joiners on April 28th will now also feature Crash Diet, but remains a Jettblack headline show.

JB’s European touring schedule is now as follows:-

JETTBLACK LIVE DATES 2013:

05.04.13 DUISBERG, GERMANY – Gluckaufhalle (Shout It Out Loud Festival)
19.04.13 CARDIFF – Bogiez*
20.04.13 MANCHESTER – Alter Ego *
21.04.13 GLASGOW – Audio*
23.04...

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THE TREATMENT ANNOUNCED TO PLAY OZZFEST 2013 IN JAPAN!

UK rockers, The Treatment, will take their very first trip to Japanese shores for an appearance at Ozzfest 2013. The festival takes place over two days, (May 11th & May 12th) and sees Slipknot & Black Sabbath headlining across the weekend.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, The Treatment will guest with ex-G n’R & Velvet Revolver axe-man Slash on four shows in February & March; the dates – including one headline show in Northern Ireland – are as follows:-

February
28 Nottingham Arena, Nottingham (w/ Slash)

March
01 Empress Ballroom, Blackpool (w/ Slash)
02 The Diamond Club, Ballymena (headline show)
03 Olympia Theatre, Dublin (w/ Slash)
04 Olympia Theatre, Dublin (w/ Slash)

Tickets for the dates with Slash are available here: http://goo.gl/pWWiF

Tickets for the headline sh...

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