by Ed Biggs Highly acclaimed by Kerrang! magazine and backed by a fiercely devoted fanbase in their hometown of Wolverhampton, the ferociously loud duo God Damn unleash their debut album after three years of admirably hard work. Taking their cues from classic heavy rock and indie influences ranging from Nirvana to Neutral Milk Hotel, their powerful yet complex sound is all the more impressive when you consider they’re just a guitarist/vocalist
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by Ed Biggs I Should Coco, the first album by Oxford three-piece Supergrass, is not only one of the crown jewels of the Britpop era but is usually thought of as one of the most deliriously fun debuts in pop history. Seriously, without listening to the album, just think of all its joyous moments: ‘Caught By The Fuzz’, ‘Strange Ones’, ‘Mansize Rooster’, and ‘Alright’… and you’re grinning already, aren’t you?
by Ed Biggs After beginning life after Joy Division with a slightly shaky start in the form of Movement (1981), an understandably downcast and introverted record, New Order began to spread their wings and capture the public’s imagination with 1983’s Power, Corruption & Lies, which is one of those peculiar records that is not only admired in spite of its flaws, but precisely because of them.
by Ed Biggs Since their 2005 masterpiece Z, My Morning Jacket have been enjoying a status in America similar to that of The Cribs in Britain – probably the country’s biggest ‘small band’. They’ve got a significant cult following, critical adoration and a small impact in wider popular culture, even once appearing in an episode of Seth Macfarlane’s ‘American Dad!’, but they’ve never really broken through into the mainstream.
by Ed Biggs Following the breathless reviews of their signature song ‘Best Of Friends’ that put them on the radar at the end of 2012, Palma Violets scrambled to capitalise on the exposure with the rushed release of their debut album 180, a record that displayed promise but was low on original ideas and ultimately undercooked.
by Ed Biggs Unless you’ve been marooned on a desert island for the last two months, you can’t fail to have noticed all the talk about old-timey folk impersonators Mumford & Sons “going electric” with their third album. The formerly self-identified ‘gentlemen of the road’ have ditched the accordions, banjos, waistcoats and tweed and opted for leather jackets, electric guitars and keyboards.
Lauren James and Ed Biggs present a review of the biggest and best album releases of April 2015, and a handful of classic LPs from years gone by – click here to listen now! Includes reviews of the following albums: Blur – The Magic Whip Drenge – Undertow The Wombats – Glitterbug East India Youth – Culture Of Volume We’ve also got a brand new track from The Vaccines ahead of their third album next month, and
by Ed Biggs The last decade’s trend for bands to reunite has accelerated to the point where groups that hardly anyone has heard of or cared about the first time round are getting back together to chance their arm at the nostalgia dollar. But at least Scottish rabble-rousers Baby Chaos can point to a brand new record to lend their reformation some artistic credibility.
by Ed Biggs The announcement of the first Blur album in over a decade, and the first with Graham Coxon since 1999, was one of the biggest music news stories of the first part of 2015. We’d had the big reunion (two of them), the emotional catharsis, the burying of hatchets, and for many, that would have been enough. But the existence of The Magic Whip seems to have solidified the
With only a couple of days to go until the release of The Magic Whip, their first album in 12 years and first since 1999 with Graham Coxon, what better time to look back at the history of Blur. Starting life at a shambolic yet entertaining art-rock band called Seymour, they signed to indie label Food Records and released their first single ‘I Know / She’s So High’ in October
