neilho27@sky.com - The Ginger Quiff

Lockdown Ramblings

December 10, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I recently almost killed the Ginger Quiff website. I had reached a point where it wasn’t giving me any joy, it wasn’t serving the purpose I first started it for. It felt like a chore and I was putting myself under stress and pressure to get some content up. I began to see it as an unimportant “nice to have”. And in many ways, it is. Nothing I write is going to change the world or have a massive effect on anyone’s life. Well, that’s not entirely true, it has made a massive difference to my life since I started writing.… Read the rest

Vulpynes – US Against Them EP review

November 1, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Irelands answer to L7, Vulpynes, released their latest 4 track EP on Halloween. Molly and Kaz the visceral power grunge duo preceded this EP with one of its track Sister earlier in the year.

The EP leads off with the remarkable power and ferocity of One Horse Mind. And Vulpynes journey continues apace. Molly’s formidable vocal more than a match for the sheer wave of intense noise they produce – no matter how much it “fucks with her brain”.

This Motor is Me has a highly infectious riff running throughout. Judging by the non-stop crashing drums and cymbals Kaz must have expounded a tonne of energy in the playing – her motor certainly in overdrive for this one.… Read the rest

Songs and Snippets

October 31, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

As a lover of albums, one off tracks and singles sometimes pass me by, it would be remiss of me though not to highlight the plethora of quality stand-alone tracks, singles, or album teasers that have been waved temptingly in front of me over the past weeks and months.

In no particular order…

Deer Leader

Deer Leader follow up the absorbing Four Deuces with new single Crocodile. The single is an epic taste of what the band can do and fairly whets the appetite for more from this remarkable trio. An enigmatically engaging elegiac start to the song, hypnotic rhythms, soothing and reassuring, becoming softer and lulling you into a safe quiet place ….… Read the rest

The Cundeez – Teckle & Hide – album review

October 16, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve been immersing myself in some Dundonian culture lately thanks to Teckle & Hide the latest, and strongest, album from The Cundeez

An Intoxicating Heady Brew

100% proof claims the album cover, and its claims are not wrong. The sixteen tracks served up are an intoxicating heady brew. The Cundeez cementing themselves as a North East Scotland powerhouse. One minute offering an ultimate good time party anthem, guaranteed to have any party jumping as they provide the raw unfiltered craic, once again promised on the album cover. I’m not going to lie though, the party might get messy, there are no guarantees how things might end up.… Read the rest

IDLES – Ultra Mono

September 27, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not sure if you’d call this a review. Its more me trying to rationalise why I’m finding it so hard to love the new album from IDLES…

I’ve swithered about writing anything at all about this album. It is a total conundrum for me. I’m having a strange relationship with this one. The first time I listened, I was underwhelmed. The second time I began to appreciate some of the tracks. Appreciate – wow even that sounds like damning praise. The next time again, I found myself picking holes. Time and again I changed my impression on various tracks.… Read the rest

More Pandemic singles…

September 27, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

The Filthy Tongues – Pandemic Pete

The real-life apocalypse that 2020 has become has fucked with The Filthy Tongues schedule of recording the third album in the apocalyptic trilogy they started with the darkly magnificent duo Jacobs Ladder and Back to Hell. To keep Tongues fans satisfied the band have just released the second of their global epidemic related tunes, following up Gas Mask Blues with the mighty Pandemic Pete.

The song is a microcosm of everything you could want or would expect from The Filthy Tongues. Colourful storytelling and characterisation. Biting lyrics with a wry dark humorous edge. The opening couplet drolly listing the ways in which an disaster that writes off a whole year might have announced itself…”I wanted zombies and diamond dogs, I wanted triffids and a plague of frogs….”… Read the rest

Letters From Lockdown – Natalie Pryce

September 12, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

If you like your humour a bit close to the bone you could do a lot worse than listen to the (so far) four Letters from Lockdown from the enigmatic Natalie Pryce. Increasingly darkly humorous bizarre snapshots of how some desperately odd and sinister characters are dealing with 2020.

While you’re at it check out their tremendous 2020 album Humans of Late Capitalism for some eerie futuristic space rock n roll. Definitely one of my albums of the year.

Letters from Lockdown 1

Letters from Lockdown 2

Letters from Lockdown 3

Letters from Lockdown 4

… Read the rest

Lou Kyme – What’s the Worst That Can Happen? – album review

September 11, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Straight out of the deep south comes the melody packed debut mini album from Lou Kyme. I should point out, the deep south I speak of is deepest darkest Southampton. However, you would be forgiven for thinking these seven radiant slices of Americana/country same straight out of the USA.

Chuck magic

In fact, that isn’t so very far from the truth. Despite Lou’s English roots, and wealth of experience treading the boards with her dads’ band, the Okeh Wranglers, there are several American rootsy factors at play here. None more so than an appearance from legendary Green on Red axe man, and general guitar slinging legend Mr Chuck Prophet.… Read the rest

Mt Doubt – Doubtlands – album review

September 10, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

One of the advantages of membership of Last Night From Glasgow is getting your sticky mitts on the glorious recordings ahead of their release. As the date for the official launch of the latest album, Doubtlands, from the magnificent Mt Doubt approaches (18th September) this stirring collection of songs, which manages to be both darkly melancholic but at the same time upliftingly enriching, feels like it has been spinning on my turntable for years such is the welcoming radiance it exudes. A sound that feels like the missing link between the dark storytelling and deep velvety resonance of antipodean troubadour Nick Cave and the multifarious textures of Glasgow’s own Blue Nile and The Bathers.… Read the rest

Emperor of Ice Cream – No Sound Ever Dies – album review

August 31, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Hailing from Cork, a breeding ground for such acts as Sultans of Ping FC, Microdisney/Fatima Mansions and Cyclefly, Emperor of Ice Cream is a band out of time. Their debut album has just been released. Some 28 years since the band formed back in 1992 and 25 years after they split having been dropped by their record label. This release should have been rubbing shoulders with releases from contemporaries from The Frank & Walters to Whipping Boy, A House to Into Paradise. Fast forward to the release in 2020 and instead they are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital.… Read the rest