post punk - The Ginger Quiff

Sequence 3 6 9 – Gatefever – album review

January 12, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

First review of 2020 and it is the impressive debut from Sequence 3 6 9, hotly anticipated around these quarters. The band features some well-kent faces from around the Scottish alt/punk scene featuring in its line up luminaries with backgrounds in acts such as The Media Whores and Nine Bullets among others. This album ticks all my boxes musically and lyrically, so it is a cracking way to bring in the new year

I have enjoyed many crossover bands in the last few years. Bands like Rats From a Sinking Ship, the aforementioned Nine Bullets and Glasgow’s The LaFontaines adding their own marks and twists to the genre.… Read the rest

Goodbye Mr MacKenzie – Live in Barrowland

December 23, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Its Monday. I’ve just about finished peeling myself off the ceiling after the festivities of Friday night. No, it wasn’t Christmas night out madness on the last Friday before Christmas, trying to avoid the once a year drinkers and unbearable queues at bars where people don’t have a clue what they are ordering. No, although there were a few beers involved, this was a far more cultured affair. It was the return of all conquering heroes, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, to the world’s greatest music venue, the legendary Glasgow Barrowland.

Who knew 12 months ago, this would be the last gig I attend in 2019.… Read the rest

The Armory Show – Live: King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow

October 18, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Now and then a gig creeps up on you, one you have been looking forward to it, but has been slightly under your radar, life takes over and the night arrives without you really realising it. You’re expecting a good performance, but then the band strike up the first chords…

Last night was a case in point, The Armory Show (not a mis-spell) surpassed all expectations, speaking to several others after the gig, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Mystify

It had already been a week of revelations and back stories. Having already attended a preview of Mystify, a revealing documentary about INXS frontman, the charismatic Michael Hutchence, which filled in several blanks, revealing the tragic events which subsequently led to his behaviour changes and triggered the chain of events that led to his sad and untimely death.… Read the rest

Def Robot – Sabbatical album review

October 7, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

5 months, 5 albums

I’m playing catch up with a burgeoning inbox of new music, and in doing so I am too slow for prolific band Def Robot. As I prepare to write some words about their 4^th album, Sabbatical, they have announced the release of their 5^th album, Play This When We’re Gone next week.

Based on the album release rate by other bands you may be forgiven for thinking I am way behind with this one, but if I tell you that their first album was released on 24^th of May, with the 5^th due on 18^th of October, you can maybe cut me some slack…

Filler or killer?

… Read the rest

Pixies – Live in Glasgow, O2 Academy

September 23, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

I may recently have been less than complimentary about the latest Pixies album Beneath the Eyrie. I mean, it isn’t a bad album, it just kind of washed over me on the first few listens, it was undoubtedly Pixies, but just didn’t move me.

Sunday night, 22^nd September, Glasgow O2 Academy was an altogether different beast. If you were there and you didn’t feel moved, you are possibly Ed from the opening track of the band’s epic set.

Epic

The set time was listed from 9pm until 10.45pm with a curfew of 11pm. Black Francis and Co pushed the timing to its outer limits, ending their set almost bang on 11pm and I don’t mean, leaving the stage and returning for encores.… Read the rest

The Bikini Bottoms – Bikiniland – album review

September 20, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

What are you up to this weekend? Me? I fancy a trip to Bikiniland…

It just so happens, Bikiniland is the stonking new album from the frantic maestros that make up duo The Bikini Bottoms. The album saw its official release last Friday at the Graveyard Bash in McChuills, by all accounts a rocking great night of frenzied hellraisin’.

The Bikini Bottoms have been around for a while now, building up a cult following , honing their edgy rockabilly sound and creating the full immersive package with their furiously paced live show, trademark fringed cowboy shirts and a sideline in natty merchandise.… Read the rest

ElectraJets Transatlantic Tales album cover

ElectraJets & Fur Dixon – Tarbeach Records new releases

September 2, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Vox

I have just finished reading a disturbing novel, Vox by Christina Dalcher, a frighteningly dystopian view of a future America where men have taken away all women’s rights, limiting them to speaking 100 words per day in the process.

Thankfully, we are currently in a place where strong women are celebrated, a situation reflected in the latest two releases on New York’s own Tarbeach records.

Fur & Cynthia – Bass legends

Bass playing legends of the alternative music scene Fur Dixon (The Cramps, The Hollywood Hillbillys) and Cynthia Ross (The “B” Girls, New York Junk) feature front and centre and as usual both are loud and proud, Fur on a new 7” single, preceding the vinyl release of her magnificent WTFukishima/Return 2 Sender album later in the year and Cynthia on the imminent Electrajets debut album release.… Read the rest

Fragile Gang - A Plausible and Desirable Future

Fragile Gang – A Plausible & Desirable Future (album review)

August 23, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Fragile Gang is a band from El Paso, Texas, their new album A Plausible and Desirable Future takes its name from the novel Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. The songs on the album share some of the book’s topics. As you may expect from a band from their location, the socially conscious songs are influenced by a number of subjects, including migration.

Indie/Noisy Pop/Shoegaze…

The band describe themselves as “indie/sometimes noisy pop/shoegaze” a description that pretty much accurately sums up what I hear when I listen.

Good to Go opens the album opens with a vibrating electric hum, pulsating with energy, building and crackling before it bursts into a mellifluous combination of driving guitar, crashing drums and sonorous melodic vocal.… Read the rest

The Kaplans – Sesiones De Primavera – EP review

August 21, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Hot on the heels of reviewing their album, Urban Elephants, for Razur Cuts (street literature magazine) the latest EP from The Kaplans dropped through my letterbox recently.

A very welcome addition to my CD collection it is too. As a recent convert to the music of the band, I find myself lapping up every new tune I hear from them. The three tracks on this EP provide me with much more to love about this band.

Yes Means No

The first track is introduced with a sample from (what I assume to be) an intro on a Mexican radio station to the playing of one of their songs – I base this purely on the words Mexico and Glasgow in the sample.… Read the rest

Friday I’m in Love… The Cure live in Glasgow

August 17, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

What follows is part social commentary, part mental health awareness and part gig review…

Life’s Rich Tapestry

Friday the 16^th of August was a stitching together of several threads of the complex tapestry that makes up life.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having a job that, for the most part you enjoy and get an element of satisfaction from what you do, however, it can be also infuriatingly frustrating and stressful. One that involves weeks where you put in hours of extra effort that involves massive inroads into your personal life. But you do it because it is who you are, you are the type of person who want to do a good job and have a dedication to doing the best you can.… Read the rest