Nick Biggs February 14 will have been noted in most people’s diaries as Valentines Day. For those in the know, however, it was the night that Spoon played King Tut’s, a surprisingly small venue for such an indie heavyweight. With sixteen years of experience and seven consistently high quality studio albums to draw on, this [...]
Nick Biggs Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip divided opinion in 2007 with their energetic, ideological debut single Thou Shalt Always Kill. Their debut album, Angels, continued along the same axis, spurting direct, idiosyncratic narratives over a tapestry of samples and inventive rhythmic compositions. Together, they planted a flag in previously unoccupied musical territory, somewhere [...]
Nick Biggs Over Christmas and New Year it was nearly impossible to pick up any music publication and not encounter an end of year list. Journalists everywhere were overwhelmingly generous in their endeavors to share with us what they considered to be the year’s best new live acts, the worst album covers, the shortest nu-metal [...]
Nick Biggs Many bands feel the need to constantly reinvent themselves — not Spoon. The Texan indie outfit’s seventh record picks up where they left off. The band’s sense of humour remains salient, but in a more mature form. Guitar, bass, drums and keyboard are again the only instruments utilised, but they draw out considerable [...]
Nick Biggs Live albums are all too often ham-fisted affairs hashed together as the result of an over-inflated ego or an under-inflated bank balance. Such albums tend to contain little of value and nothing original. This live album however, is more than just an after thought, and can be considered essential listening for all Waits [...]
Nick Biggs New Jersey newcomers Real Estate are a beach-pop quartet that fuse playful guitar riffs with drowsy vocals. Their eponymous debut album fizzes, gurgles and splashes for nearly forty sun-drenched minutes, whilst hinting at greater depth behind the sea, sand and sunshine facade. The guitar riff to album opener Beach Comber meanders in as [...]
Nick Biggs I wanted to like Passion Pit, I really did. Their particular brand of electro-dance-pop is appealing on a very basic, instinctive level. Their EP, Chunk of Change, and their album, Manners, are very tight and certainly well polished. The band’s sound has a certain quality to it that can only be described, somewhat [...]
Nick Biggs If you’re male, under the age of thirty, and you escaped early teenage angst by listening to popular rock music, there’s a good chance you were a fan of Weezer. I was. I like to think that those moments of awkward self-awareness and fumbled first kisses are behind me. I like to think [...]
