Biffy Clyro - Mountains

Last year, Biffy achieved great success with their album “Puzzle.” The album spured out five hit singles and the album even hit number 2. Biffy finally got they success they deserved. “Mountains” is the first bit of new material for the band since their chart success. After, a few listens I still have rather mixed feelings about the song. The song sounds like a big departure for the band with the heavy use of the piano during the track which, is something they have never really used in a track before. It was a nice change to hear the “lighter” sound. But, the lyrics are a little to hokey for me. The hook for example while it does sound so massive is just “I am the mountain, I am the sea you can’t take that away from me.” Then the line “nothing last forever except for you and me” hits you and the song officially loses me. Biffy you get an A for effort but the results are sadly nothing more than average.

By John Siwicki

Mark Moriss - Lay Low

Harmless tinkering with an acoustic guitar in 2004, paved the road for Mr Bluetones himself, Mark Morris to step out of the evergreen outfit’s shadow. Now he is starting to harness the fruits of this approach, revealing the James Morrison inside of him. He expands upon this acoustic base with feeling felt, soulful vocals that many will sink a thoughtful pint to.

He comfortingly speaks of a life in the gutter, as ‘Lay Low’ mixes abandon, melancholy and a winding accompaniment to display another accomplished offering. That is taken from his delving solo debut album, ‘Memory Muscle’. The lyrics are from the gutter, but the delivery is reaching for the stars. Oscar Wilde would be proud of Morriss.

By Dave Adair

CSS - Donkey

Brazilian five-piece CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) first appeared on the British music scene in 2006 with the release of their self-titled album (which roughly translates as ‘I’m tired of being sexy’). The success of this debut, from which the single ‘Music is my hot hot sex’ was taken for 2007’s i-pod advert, has meant that the follow-up ‘Donkey’ has been faced with high expectations.

Jager Yoga opens the album with Lead singer Lovefoxxx’s recognisable chanting-like singing, proclaiming CSS’s purpose on earth; ‘to take you out’! Showing listeners that CSS still possess the attitude that previously caused a stir in tracks such as ‘Meeting Paris Hilton’, which repeatedly refers to said heiress as ‘the bitch’.

‘Let’s reggae all night’ delivers the electro sounds so familiar with CSS, whereas ‘Move on’ is a great disco pop song, with an 80s feel. Not all of the songs are instantly likable, so it might take a few listens before the album grows on you.

‘Give up’ and ‘Believe Achieve’ are my personal favourites. ‘Believe Achieve’ is a danceable electro number, whereas ‘Give up’ shows the groups clever ability to seamlessly combine musical styles by keeping the albums up-tempo pace, but also incorporating guitar rifts to add a more edgy feel.

‘Donkey’ fails to create the same stir that came with the release of ‘Cansei de Ser Sexy’. Although it largely maintains the disco-electro sound of CSS, what’s lost is the raw edge that previously distinguished the group, and instead is a studio-polished album. That said, ‘Donkey’ is still a good album delivering edgy pop songs, with catchy lyrics and music for dancing.

By Alice Fisher

Primal Scream - Beauitful Future

This, the ninth album from Primal Scream, Beautiful Future, opens well with the title track setting the tone for good, rocky summer album. This is most definitely a summer album, invite some friends round, dust the cobwebs off the portable BBQ that’s been sat behind the shed since last year and enjoy.

On a merely personal note, I have always thought Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream’s lead singer to be a bit of a prancing tit who can cover his own questionable musical talent by surrounding himself with good musicians. Never more-so than Glastonbury 2005 when he spent the entire set abusing the crowd before being dragged off the stage like a spoilt child. But I digress…

Bonus points are awarded for the Josh Homme / Andrew Innes collaboration on the song Necro Hex Blues. Homme works together with Scream guitarist Innes on a track that is supposedly a twin guitar tribute to Thin Lizzy. You would imagine the tribute is purely the music and not the hair as well. Although less explicitly credited, it does sound like Gillespie and co have been listening to a few old Rolling Stones albums too.

On the whole there’s nothing here that is going to make you drop your coffee, frozen and slack jawed in awe at what you are hearing from the Scream as your coffee cup smashes into a hundred pieces. It lacks the inventiveness of Screamadelica or the raw energy of XTRMNTR. Although Track 8, I Love To Hurt (You Love To Be Hurt) does provide a welcome electro interlude in an album that otherwise doesn’t stray far from what you expect a Primal Scream album to sound like.

By Mark Williams

The Vines - Melodia

Following a tumultuous (but brief) history comprising shambolic gigs and television appearances, fan assaults, shifting line-ups and a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome for frontman Craig Nicholls, Australia’s Neo-grunge band The Vines seemingly called it a day in 2005 – at least as far as touring was concerned.

When the band returned in 2006 with their ‘Vision Valley’ album and an extremely limited number of live dates, Nicholls seemed to be in a much healthier place. No longer binging on junk food or alcohol, Nicholls had also given up the marijuana that he deemed responsible for many of his erratic outbursts. But the music also seemed to have been cleaned up, from both a songwriting and production standpoint – and it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. The band were still writing short and sweet rock tracks a la early highlight ‘Get Free’, but there were now less low-key, reflective tracks than on the first two albums, whose highlights included the ethereal ‘Mary Jane’, ‘Autumn Shade’ (parts I & II) and ‘Winning Days’. This time, however, Nicholls seems to have found a balance between the first two albums’ self-absorbed stoner ballads, and the third album’s polished rock (‘Braindead’ and ‘Merrygoround’ are rock highlights here). Tellingly, new highlights include the dreamy, psychedelic ‘Autumn Shade III’ – picking up from where the second album left off in more ways than one with its “part two” – plus, ‘Kara Jayne’ here is as beautiful as the similarly titled, first album highlight, ‘Mary Jane’. ‘True As the Night’ is notable for being the first low-key Vines track to sound fully formed, with a great melody, strings, colourful lyrics (it’s a love ballad), and a decent running time (at just over six minutes, it’s the longest thing the band have recorded after the Pink Floyd-esque psychedelia of old track ‘1969’). It’s also very Beatles-esque.

The Vines are still nothing particularly new – ‘Scream’’s shredded vocals and abrasive, technically sloppy guitars bring Nirvana’s ‘Scentless Apprentice’ vividly to mind, whereas ‘He’s A Rocker’ is pure Kinks, with its tight harmonies and mix of palm-muted verses, power-chord choruses and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. But The Vines are obviously huge fans of the bands they ape (Nirvana, The Beatles, The Kinks, Pink Floyd), and they do it impeccably well. Nicholls has a knack for melodies to possibly even surpass Kurt Cobain and John Lennon, although unlike Cobain and Lennon, Nicholls’ simplistic lyrics often let him down. It’s not that they’re bad lyrics – they’re perfectly functional, they’re just not as visual or evocative as Cobain’s or Lennon’s, which are clever wordplay in their own right. There’s also a feeling that The Vines are too derivative or retrospective to be truly essential. But this is still an impressive collection of songs (melodies foremost), and a definite return to form.

The Rivers - Got Something On Me

Aaaahh, the ability of rhythmic, hurried vocal driven paranoid indie to capture the attention of the ever increasing in number, bemused population is one of life’s rare remaining consistencies. For their part, this Brighton quintet uses their laconic lyrics effectively enough to draw you into to their cause.

The 70s capturing propeller rock craze, seemed to dry out when JET decided to expand their range, but the arrangement of grizzly guitars and rattling percussion spurts, could help The Rivers ensure its return. You need it, you know you do!

By Dave Adair

The Republic Tigers

Can you give us a little history and background about the band?

Adam: Sure. We all had sort of known each other from previous bands in the area. Kenn and I had worked on songs together during his stint in The Golden Republic. Back then, we were both really into sequencing and sampling but none of our bandmates were. So we would get together in the evenings when we were done with our workdays,.. or band practices,… or whatever,…and flesh out all the ideas we had at the time. Kenn had to go on tour with TGR so we put that to the side for a while. I would occasionally call Kenn to see when he wanted to start back up, or if he had heard the new Blonde Redhead record, or other things of that nature. Then, one day he called me and said that he was going to shift his energy from TGR back to the type of things that he and I had previously been working on. We then met up for the first time in about a year and a half and exchanged some demos that we had been working on. The other guys all happened to be going through similar scenarios in each of their respective bands. They wanted to do more than just play indie rock and were dissatisfied with their current musical situations. So, each of us had similar mindsets, as well as similar musical tastes, and after hanging out with one another we realized that our personalities meshed very well. We started putting together each of our demos and expanding on them under the name “the Republic Tigers”. The rest is history.

How do you go about writing your songs?

Adam: Well,…each of us has alot of ideas, and each of us has a home studio. Normally when one of us gets an idea we “sketch it out” in a Pro Tools session, a Reason file, or some type of midi workstation. We then hand those files off to one another until we all are happy with the way it is sounding. Then Kenn sits on those files until he has lyrical ideas for those songs. Once he demos lyrics and vocal melodies we then fine tune the arrangements and really hash out the “full blown” versions of the songs. We do it like that song by song until we have a stockpile of songs that are completed and then we try to figure out which songs are working best and which songs translate best live. The songs that “win” are the ones that we forge ahead with. The ones that “lose” are the songs that stay in the stockpile to be reworked at a later date.

We loved your EP around here. So, can you give us any info on what to expect from the album?

Adam: Alot more intensity. Alot more rock. Thereare still layers of texture and tiny little things that weave in and out but it is much more grand. The full length (Keep Color) hits way harder than the E.P. On top of that the E.P. was recorded and mixed in 1 week. We spent a month in the studio tracking “Keep Color” and about 2 more weeks mixing it with Mark Needham who brought alot of experience to the album that we lack.

How did the band end up on Chop Shop Records?

Adam: A young A&R person from Atlantic Records named
Brittany Warfield found us on Myspace. Justin Tricomit then brought her some demos when he was in L.A. Doing some session drumming. She enjoyed them and then passed them along to Alex and John from Chop Shop. Then they flew out to see us play. They enjoyed our show and we talked for a few hours about possibly working together. Next thing you know I’m on the phone for 2 hours a day with a lawyer trying to understand legal jargon and hashing out a recording contract. 2 months later we have and E.P. under our belt and a full length record about to be released. Needless to say…..we’re excited.

At, times you guys remind me of a young Beta Band.What are some of the influences on the music?

Adam: We’re influenced by everything. Pop culture, politics, science fiction, science fact, as well as other artists. Justin loves Phillip Glass. I love Serge Gainsbourgh, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. Marc loves Johhny Cash and Roy Orbison. Kenn loves video games and Diet Pepsi. Ryan loves puppies and outdoor sports. We all love Radiohead, Air, and Blonde Redhead as well as a ton of other artists who you may or may not have heard of.

You have a new tour coming up with Tally Hall. Are you looking forward to getting out there and do you enjoy the touring aspect of life as a band?

Adam: Yes. We are all extremely excited about getting out there and playing for people who haven’t heard us. We do enjoy being on the road with each other. It’s strange because when you get back home you think you’re not going to want to see your bandmates for months. Then, 2 or 3 days later you’re thinking to yourself,…”I wonder what Ryans doing right now?”.

What is the next move for the band?

Adam: Well,..obviously we’re doing the tour with Tally Hall. Shortly after that we’re appearing on “The Late Show with David Letterman”. Then I believe May 12th we’re doing “The Morning Becomes Eclectic”. We’re playing other dates around both of those shows I’m just not sure what they are yet.

Any other bands we should look out for from Kansas City?

Adam: Yes. Pay attention to a band named Olympic Size and a band name the Jen Say Kwah’s. They’re great.

By John Siwicki

Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Till It Was Light

Well, this is certainly different! The music itself is good; it’s lush, a whole heap of sounds going on in there, it’s rocky, fast paced, energetic music which really gives you the urge to get moving. I was however sorely disappointed with the vocals, particularly on the first track.
The second track is vaguely reminiscent of a Pendulum track though I can’t put my finger on which one it is, but again the vocals kill it, screeching is bad enough, female screeching is far worse. Track four is different as the lead vocalist actually opens this by singing but all too soon this is trashed by the female voice, the tune on this track is dire it’s like having a thumping headache. Track ten is surprisingly soft with tinkles aplenty, but again the vocals interfere far too much. This album, had it been purely instrumental would have achieved a much higher rating, as the music on the whole is excellent, for me the vocals killed it.

By J.Greenwood

Nat Kendall Presents - Songbird Sing

Songbird Sing’s self-titled debut release is undeniably unique. The band is made up of two members, Paige Rasmussen and Nat Kendall, and offers an interesting fusion of hip hop, soul, funk, and soft rock. While the result of that blend should be exciting and overwhelming, it somehow ends up being simply boring.

When most bands attempt to do too much at once on an album, the result is just chaotic, which although is not necessarily good, ends up being entertaining and quite often, hilarious. This is unfortunately not the case with Songbird Sing; there are no signs of chaos or hilarity and the album is far from entertaining.

“All I Got” and “Last Words” are great examples of the dull and tedious sound that is heard throughout the album - or rather, that IS the album. With so many styles of music that are portrayed, it is a wonder how Songbird Sing produced something so monotonous. On the bright side, it is great music to fall asleep to. In fact, I dare you to listen to “All I Got” and not doze off – it simply cannot be done.

By Souzan Michael

The Music - The Spike

Leeds’ The Music are back with an atmospheric four-minute rock track with a great chorus melody and retro elements. ‘The Spike’ is the band’s second release from their new album ‘Strength In Numbers’, and it’s just as strong as the flagship song (also called ‘Strength In Numbers’. What is perhaps most refreshing about The Music’s latest tracks is that they ooze confidence and a contemporary edge without being overly retrospective, and without sounding like anything else that’s popular at the moment. Not a million miles away from The Verve’s new incarnation (complete with background “ahh-ahh”’s), ‘The Spike’ features more understated, almost feminine vocals. Singer Robert Harvey (now a skinhead!) employs the loud-to-quiet grunge aesthetic to craft a compelling, although actually quite linear piece of alternative rock music that still manages to evade familiarity, and will surely be a staple of this summer’s festivals.

By Ryan Daff

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