Julian Cope @ The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, 9/06/10
With a career encompassing four decades and currently half way through his fifty-third year on the planet, Julian Cope has been there, seen as much and probably done everything twice over...»
Articles
domgourlay has written the following articles:
Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry
Like so many fledgling acts before them, Edinburgh's Meursault ooze ambition and poise in swathes, something which has led to an unbridled burden of expectation landing on their unsuspecting shoulders in dramatic fashion...»
Kurt Vile - Square Shells
As modern day mavericks go, Philadelphia-based musician Kurt Vile is up there with the best of them...»
The Strange Death Of Liberal England album release date confirmed, more shows...
The Strange Death Of Liberal England have finally announced the title and tracklisting for their forthcoming debut album, set for release later this year.»
We Are Scientists - Barbara
Listening to Barbara is like watching the England football team; expectations are high at the outset and true to form, things get off to a rousing start. However, after the halfway mark once normality has set in, there's an alarming sense of underachievement and long before its conclusion, they've already been dismissed as hapless failures. »
DiS meets Washed Out
Virtually unknown this time last year, Ernest Greene has already created his own legacy under the moniker Washed Out. Having pretty much single-handedly invented a new genre ("chillwave") while ultimately showing that merging dance music with rock ideals needn't necessarily be formulaic and stale, he's currently displaying those talents in front of UK audiences, proving that he's more than just a studio boffin operating under an alias. »
DiS meets Here We Go Magic
Luke Temple created Here We Go Magic initially as an outlet for his own musical experiments. The Brooklyn based singer/songwriter's first self-titled long player came out to a wealth of critical acclaim last year. Suitably impressed by the record's reception, Temple then went about extending the project to that of incorporating a full band, culminating in the five-piece that has currently been wowing audiences around Europe these past weeks and the second Here We Go Magic album Pigeons, out last month on the Secretly Canadian label. »
Lone Wolf - The Devil And I
As with 2010's other incongruous alter ego Villagers, Paul Marshall as Lone Wolf is an entirely different kettle of fish altogether to what's gone before.»
Dot To Dot 2010: The DiS Review
Now in its sixth year, the Dot To Dot Festival has outstayed many of its rivals purely on the basis of its unerring frequency at discovering many an up-and-coming artist not to mention its location in two largely ignored cities on the festival circuit in Nottingham and Bristol. This year saw a third city added in the shape of Manchester, and despite ticket sales not being as quick off the mark as with previous years, no lesser time was had by DiS' man in Nottingham, Dom Gourlay. »
The Drums - The Drums
Despite the odd trite lyrical observation, The Drums is undoubtedly the most rejuvenating, sprightliest guitar-based pop record released this year.»
Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Comprising twelve songs in all, Shadows illustrates Teenage Fanclub's strong points - simple yet effective melodies coupled with sumptuous vocal harmonies courtesy of Blake, McGinley and Love while lyrically scaling a fine line between happy-go-lucky romanticism and solemn melancholy.»
The Apples In Stereo - Travellers In Space And Time
At times, its easy to be suspicious of Travellers In Space And Time, particularly as its a mammoth exercise to take in one sitting at sixteen tracks in little under an hour.»
Girls Names - You Should Know By Now
For the most part, You Should Know By Now succeeds, mixing the energetic buzzsaw pop of 'Bloodwell' and 'Oh Girl!'(think The Mighty Lemon Drops with Shin Ei fuzz wahs) with a more plaintive semi-acoustic stroll down Edwyn Collins and Robert Forster's backyard...»
Washed Out - Life Of Leisure
As a starting point for Washed Out, it doesn't get much better than Life Of Leisure, other than to say more please, and soon... »
trash kit - Trash Kit
For all its visceral spurts and occasional bursts into experimental freeform territories, Trash Kit isn't quite ready to sit shoulder to shoulder with the superior likes of Playing With A Different Sex or Odyshape...»
DiS meets Gaggle
Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere on the outskirts of Darlington its very probable you'll already be aware of Gaggle, the twenty-three strong all-girl choir whose members go by such monikers as Wunderla, Namsoo and Gusset while sounding like a bastardised version of The Slits after a toga party round at the Polyphonic Spree's house. DiS caught up with them in London recently, and found them a rather excitable and enthusiastic bunch with plenty to say, not least about the male dominated music industry... »
ATP Matt Groening: The DiS review
The honour of curating the first ATP of 2010 went to Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and despite it not being the busiest of ATPs in terms of punters, or brightest in terms of sunshine, no one can have many complaints about this year's line-up or the subsequent performances enjoyed over the course of the weekend.»
Japandroids - No Singles
The five tracks that went on to become the All Lies EP coupled with those of its successor, Lullaby Death Jams, are all included on No Singles, and while there's no mistaking Japandroids displaying a lot of early promise back in the day, it would be fair to say they've taken gargantuan steps in terms of development between these releases and the aforementioned Post-Nothing...»
iLiKETRAiNS Tour Diary Part 2
Ace historical themed post-rockers iLiKETRAiNS have just finished touring Europe with Editors. Having already enlightened us with Part 1 of their exploits, here is the second part of the band's tour adventures...»
DiS meets Band Of Horses
Seattle five-piece Band Of Horses return next week (May 10th) with the release of their third album Infinite Arms. Having released their first two albums Everything All The Time and Cease To Begin on Sub Pop to almost universal waves of critical acclaim, their latest offering will be their first as major label recording artists»
Exit Calm - Exit Calm
"The past and future don't mean a thing, this moment's the only place to be". Not my words, but those of Exit Calm frontman Nicky Smith...»
iLiKETRAiNS Tour Diary Part 1
Ace historical themed post-rockers iLiKETRAiNS are currently touring Europe with Editors. So excited about this were the Leeds outfit that they asked us if they could put together a tour diary for DiS with pictures and stuff. Naturally, we thought this to be a grand idea, so here's Part 1 of their jaunt... »
Team Ghost - You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me
Despite having formed Team Ghost - a collaboration between Fromageau, multi-instrumentalist composer Christophe Guerin and producer Jean-Philippe Talaga - as far back as 2007, its only now that the first fruits of their labours have seen the light of day...»
The Primitives @ the Bodega, Nottingham, 19/04/10
Eighteen years is a long time, period, never mind when set against the fickle contexts of musical fads and trends. »
Trans Am - Thing
Whether a heavy indulger or casual fan of electronically based music, it's hard to envisage a better record than Thing emerging from any of its sub-genres this year.»
Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation
The news that Paul Weller is about to unleash a new album, his twenty-second in all and tenth as a solo artist, won't set many pulses racing outside of those whose overdrive levels probably reached their peak thirty years ago...»
Girls Names @ Chameleon Gallery, Nottingham, 2/04/10
Belfast trio Girls Names have been on the tips of many a tongue for a good while now, and it only takes approximately thirty seconds of opener 'Shouldn't Care' to realise why.»
Gone but not forgotten: DiS meets Chapterhouse
Home counties based quintet Chapterhouse were one of the leading lights of the first wave of shoegaze. Initially formed in Reading back in 1987, they went on to release a clutch of critically acclaimed EPs not to mention the excellent Whirlpool LP, these days regularly cited by many of the current noise/lo-fi/nu-gaze bands as a major inspiration behind their very existence.»
Sennen - Age Of Denial
Wearing their influences as they do in a most brazenly fashion, Sennen somehow manage to pull the whole escapade off - just - where lesser artists would fail before being arrested by the plagiarism police.»
DiS meets Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras
Canadian singer-songwriter Joel Gibb hasn't earned the reputation as one of the most outspoken men in music by chance. As the main mouthpiece of The Hidden Cameras, he's been writing about controversial subjects for a decade, spanning five albums of critically acclaimed orchestral pop...»