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Showing posts with the label IWD

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Dry Cleaning: Rescue Rooms, Nottingham [Live]

on March 09, 2022

alternative Dry Cleaning indie IWD live music Nottingham Rescue Rooms

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Dutch Mustard + Lemondaze + Alex Jayne: The Lexington, London [Live]

on March 03, 2022

Alex Jayne alt-rock dreampop Dutch Mustard indie IWD Lemondaze live music London shoegaze

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Wolf Alice + Matt Maltese: UEA LCR, Norwich [Live]

on February 28, 2022

alt-rock alternative indie IWD live music Matt Maltese Norwich Wolf Alice

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Chloe Lorentzen + Mali Faraz: The Old Town Hall, Bourne [Live]

on February 22, 2022

acoustic Chloe Lorentzen indie IWD Lincolnshire live music Mali Faraz singer-songwriter

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Minerva Daisy: Something Strange

on February 16, 2022

alt-pop alt-rock indie IWD Manchester Minerva Daisy singer-songwriter

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Grace Calver: Zombie Conversations

on February 11, 2022

alt-rock alternative Essex Grace Calver indie IWD singer-songwriter

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Carpark: The road ahead [Interview]

on February 02, 2022

alt-rock Carpark exclusive grunge indie interview IWD London

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Peggy Sue: The Tin, Coventry [Live]

on November 27, 2021

alt-folk alternative Brighton Coventry indie IWD live music Peggy Sue

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Lanterns On The Lake + Hilang Child: Rescue Rooms, Nottingham [Live]

on November 24, 2021

alternative ambient Hilang Child indie IWD Lanterns on the Lake live music Nottingham Rescue Rooms

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Five O Fives: Had To Do It

on November 19, 2021

Birmingham Five O Fives indie IWD rock

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BLAB: Gemini

on November 14, 2021

BLAB Essex indie IWD pop punk

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Alice Robbins + Greysha: The Musician, Leicester [Live]

on November 02, 2021

Alice Robbins alt-pop alternative Greysha indie IWD Leicester live music The Musician

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Jen Dixon: Pretty Face

on October 29, 2021

indie IWD Jen Dixon singer-songwriter

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JJ Lovegrove: Things Only The Dark Knows [EP] [Live]

on October 26, 2021

Album alternative Charles cinematic electronic IWD JJ Lovegrove live music Nottingham

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New release horizon scanner:

11/1/25 - Rosie Gault: Dim lights
29/1/25 - Dictator: Middle of the road (EP)
7/2/25 - Arliston: Disappointment machine (Album)
28/2/25 - Hachiku: The joys of being pure at heart (Album(

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Music Observer Friday highlights - 03.06.22

I haven't done one of these posts for a while and this is a bit of a hybrid, mopping up some music I've heard in the past couple of weeks but haven't had chance to write about yet. Hope you enjoy. Remember, a ll of the songs I write about (as well as lots of others) feature on my May 2022 and June 2022 playlists. Frances Gein - All I've Loved A song released today (3rd June) but which I've been listening to for a few weeks (thank you for the early preview Frances!). This is a slow paced, minor key folk tune, with a simple, calming and strangely comforting beauty. The song is centred around a picked-out guitar riff, which - couple with Frances' muted and mysterious vocals - gives it a satisfying grungy feel. But there's also some great use of strings, which start as a barely-there backing and build into something a little unsettling (matching closely to the lyrical progression). The ending is brilliantly done thanks to a surprise, low piano note which pu...

Grace Calver: My Life and Its Disasters [EP]

It’s just over a year since Grace Calver released arguably one of the best ever songs related to the undead - her debut single, ‘Zombie Conversations’ - pivoting from popular music blogger to accomplished artist in a way which felt natural and preordained. And now, here’s her debut EP, building on the success and catchiness of that first release. The brilliantly named 'My Life and Its Disasters' is five tracks of Grace Calver's well polished, finely honed brand of dream-pop-meets-grunge, sugar-coated angst rock. It’s an infectious, deceptively innocent style of writing - like a rainbow with a pot of boiling oil at the end. And let's also not forget that Grace plays all the tuned instruments, too, leaving only the drums to be outsourced (in this case to Oscar Liddiard). Two of the tracks on this EP are brand new, and perhaps best represent where Grace is now as an artist. She’s come a long way in a very short time, playing countless live shows, including several festiva...

Chris Greig & The Merchants: Silent Disco

"One of Glasgow's most energetic indie-rock bands" is how Chris Greig & The Merchants have been described, and it's hard to argue with that when listening to their newest release, Silent Disco. The track absolutely exudes energy: from the sparkling, attention-grabbing opening solo guitar riff right through to the cheeky slapped-bass in the outro. This energy is well supported by the strong, chunky drums throughout - I've always enjoyed that feel of the rhythm pushing things forward purposefully and firmly, and this is a big feature here. And then, the drum sound really opens up with loads of cymbals leading into the chorus. Silent Disco is pretty short - just over two-and-a-half minutes - but this may be a calculated decision to end on a high, and keep the listener wanting more. It definitely works here. This is a track that you'll be tempted to put on repeat just so you can keep singing along to the ridiculously catchy chorus. You could be fooled into t...

BACKSPACE: Come Round

Like many of you reading this, I'm guessing, I’ve been listening to music for most of my life. But I’ve only been listening with the aim of writing and sharing my observations for a couple of years. Over that time, I seem to have unwittingly blundered into developing a sixth sense for music that has that indefinable ingredient which triggers emotion in me. It usually only takes the first few bars of a song for that element to jump out at me. This track, ‘Come Round’, by Leeds-based band BACKSPACE, must have that secret quality; it’s one of those song I pressed play on and within a few seconds had added to my “must write about” list. It starts with an instantly and beautifully infectious bass riff, joined by muted sounded guitars and then drums. The band give this little theme a bit of time to develop and settle in, allowing us to get comfortable with what they’re presenting before they start telling the story proper. This cleverly sets up lovely sense of anticipation – perhaps wi...

William The Conqueror: Move On

I woke up this morning with Move On in my head. It's the first track from William the Conqueror's most recent album (Maverick Thinker). This sort of occurrence is usually a good sign of a perfect candidate for the blog, so I had no choice but to follow the guidance of fate. I was tempted to write about the whole album, but having just done an album post yesterday, I thought I'd stick to just a single track, for now (although I've include a link to the whole LP below). But I think I need to put this in some context. As mentioned, this is the opening track (of 10), and what an intro this is - it brings energy and drive immediately, and really sets the scene for what's to come on the rest of the record perfectly. I can also imagine how well this would work as an opener to a live show. William the Conqueror purveys exceptionally good quality bluesy rock, which in some parts turns a bit rootsy, with a Southern US twist. And these guys are from Cornwall. There are influ...

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