The Hold Steady: Q&A with Craig Finn
DiS talks to The Hold Steady's Craig Finn about the Brooklyn band's acclaimed Stay Positive LP, and how they want to be like Husker Du.»
Articles
DomPassantino has written the following articles:
Nick Catchdubs & Mr Ducker - Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter is an online mixtape; Girl Talk for people who aren't insufferable cunts. And it's free. There really isn't an excuse for not downloading this»
Asher Roth - The Greenhouse Effect (aka The Greatest Mixtape Ever)
The Greenhouse Effect is not a hateful album by any stretch of the imagination - it’s just weak. Asher Roth never convinces as either a lyricist or a deliverer»
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Hold Steady, nutshell: a bar band trying to discover the mid-point between The Replacements and John Cougar Mellencamp»
Ashlee Simpson - Bittersweet World
There’re dudes out there who will try and tell you Ashlee Simpson's latest has some relevance, that it’s good. They’re wrong»
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
Call Angles the first album that’s catered for the dudes who spend their days posting to the BBC’s ‘Have Your Say’ forums. Then forget it ever existed»
DiS Missive: Punks, critics, and why not to trust anyone over 30
A return, welcome or not, for DiS Missive. Here, the axe to grind is directed the way of music journalists making a pretty penny from the rep of punk, applying the term to whatever suits. Or, rather, doesn't»
Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI:Ambleside
Half Man Half Biscuit's eleventh album CSI: Ambleside isn't their best, but as tracks like ‘Lord Hereford’s Knob’ and ‘National Shite Day’ prove, it's the one that best illustrates what makes them great»
eMC - The Show
eMC aren't reinventing any hip-hop wheels here - lynchpin Masta Ace has produced the classics already - but the NYC collective still deliver the enjoyable goods on an album full of pop-culture punchlines»
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster
There really isn’t anything wrong with Los Camp!'s debut album. It’s just the most amazing sugar rush you’re going to have this year, and sounds strongly like the best debut album by a British indie band since Tigermilk»
DiS Missive: hype gripes and the other side of the Adele argument
In the first of our new DiS Missive columns, one of our number takes a look at the phenomenon of January hype and questions: with all that's out there for discovering, is the best we can come up really a kitchen sink soulstress? Then again, it's not her fault argues our man; the finger of blame points elsewhere»
Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans - Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
For those who don’t know the name, Corb Lund has been behind some of the best insert adjective country albums of the past decade. Fill in the adjective yourself, because this sure as hell ain’t the desperate-for-credibility alt-country movement - Corb grew up on the ranches of Southern Alberta, he got his solo career popping by serving time on the Nashville toilet circuit»
Majik Most - You Got Jokes?!
Majik Most is a straight up punch line rapper, and the songs on You Got Jokes?! don’t really have much in the way of concrete structure. But what they do have is more laughs than Del Boy falling through the bar»
Dizzee Rascal, Babyshambles, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong at Wembley Arena, Brent, Tue 27 Nov
Babyshambles are all about Englishness, sure. But it’s an Englishness that’s never existed»
Girls Aloud - Tangled Up
Tangled Up, the third album by critically acclaimed reality pop act Girls Aloud, will not receive a single negative review in the mainstream press. Except, maybe, here»
Army of the Pharaohs - Ritual of Battle
The Army of the Pharoahs roster comprises a mixed bag of MCs and producers from pretty much every other mid-tier underground clique of the past decade»
The Mitchell Brothers - Dressed for the Occasion
The Mitchell Brothers make for a fascinating case study, because they mark the synthesis between the last two false revolutions to happen to the idea of ‘Brits’ ‘rapping’»
The Hoosiers - The Trick To Life
The Hoosiers believe that we all need a good cheering up. This may be true, but DiS kinda doubts that the nation is gonna be raised by a dude who sings like he's been crowbarred in the balls»
Los Campesinos! - The International Tweexcore Underground
Man, it's just been a month to forget for Ian MacKaye. A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of punk websites (inaccurately) reported him dead in a car accident. And now the dude from Los Campesinos! openly declares that the he "never cared about" the erstwhile Fugazi frontman...»
Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience And Grace
You know who’s a funny guy? That Dave Grohl. That whole ‘dressing up as a woman’ shtick he pulls out for Foo Fighters videos? Man, that always brings a smile to my face. Clowning it up with Tenacious D? Straight comedy genius. And his support for American pressure group Alive & Well who campaign for AIDS medication to not be sent to Africa because the ‘epidemic’ is actually hysteria? I laughed so much a little pee came out...»
Scouting For Girls - Scouting For Girls
Scouting For Girls, presumably, couldn’t wipe their arse without a detailed memo from their record label informing them as to what kind of motion would play best to the Heart FM demographic. Absolutely unforgivable as both a band and a product...»
Kanye West - Graduation
Five years’ time, tool up like Ralph Wiggum and prepare to say “I can’t believe I used to go out with you” every time Kanye walks past...»