mreed has written the following articles:
It’s an Underworld album. You know what these are like. Disconnected, shimmering vocals over electronic landscapes and impulsive rhythms. A late night bullet train journey to Osaka. The same dead empty words. A handful of pounding, heart in your throat moments, a gentle slow decline as the album slowly bleeps»
“SKINNER!! SKINNER!! SKINNER!!” go the tribe of oiks. “Look everyone, Frank Skinners on the balcony!”. So what? SO FUCKING WHAT? You boring little cunts. Frank Skinner doesn’t care that you’re pointing at him. He don’t give a fuck. And neither do I. Get over it. Few people care that the 36th»
Everybodys favourite Brixton based Country And Western Acid House Techno Posse, ALABAMA 3, release their new album 'Power In The Blood' on October 21st as well as heading out on a UK tour. Having come to prominence on the back of their signature tune (Sopranos theme 'Woke Up This Morning'»
If you were born between about 1970 and 1980, then sometime in the mid 90’s, you probably either wanted to fuck, or wanted to be, the author of this book. Louise Wener (ex-Sleeper) turned all her experiences into a heavily-autobiographical debut novel which shows, perhaps surprisingly, that she's a better writ»
rem.IX could actually have been good. The world's most unconventional stadium rock band could've handed the guts of their most recent album over to some talented remixers to make REM sound like something happened in the past 30 years of music. You get what you pay for - and since this free and downl»
I've seen Suede play great gigs. Gigs where people, en masse, quite literally levitate out of humdrum existence and onto a higher plain. Tonight is NOT that night. Tonight is about all the things that affect a band and a gig outside of the performance itself. About the venue, about the people, about the t»
Normally I hate using bland clichés to describe things. But there are no other words to describe it. Guns N Roses ROCK like bastards. Even when Axl Rose’s trousers fall down and he sings a song stock still trying to pull them up. Even when one member of the band falls over and spends a whole song l»
To do it live is the 'Only Way To Know For Sure'. That’s what the central concept of this record is: a straight-to-tape, old-fashioned live album. Simultaneously a rebuttal of studio technology and yet also a fierce statement of independence. Rollins Band exist outside of the conventional chann»
Weezer have announced a special one-off date in London on Monday August 26th. The band are to play a low-key support slot to LA glam metal behemoths Guns’ N’Roses at London Docklands Arena at the specific request of Axl Rose. The event is apparently sold out (though a few outlying ticket agents may »
I've never seen anything like this. The house lights are up. It's past curfew. But the crowd just won't leave. Jane’s Addiction receive a standing ovation that lasts for ten minutes before the band finally defer to public opinion and play yet another encore. It's a hugely anticipated show. Jane's Addicti»
Mention three small words to bands like the Deftones and Linkin Bizkit, and you’ll see them turn pale, act like sulky teenagers and mumble something like we’re not worthy. Those words? Faith. No. More. And Angel Dust was their masterpiece. Angel Dust shows us exactly wh»
Irish superstars U2 are planning on following their imminent 'Greatest Hits' album by remixing their 1997 "Pop" album. The band are currently hard at work in their Dublin studios, polishing off new material for the "Best Of 1990-2002" album due for release on November 18. The album is due to include »
Guns'N'Roses, reclusive American rockers, who may - or may not - perform at Leeds next month, have announced their latest line-up change. Paul Huge a.k.a. Paul Tobias, who joined the group in 1994, has left the band in mysterious circumstances and been replaced by Richard Fortus of The Psychedli»
There aren’t many bands that can hold a candle up to Suede when they’re on a good night. And tonight they’re stonking. In the intimate surroundings of the Camden Electric Ballroom, blooding a new hungry lineup, Suede debut their new album over the course of a 2 hour gig – the longest Suede show in living memory »
They’re out of time, and that means they could be timeless. Yet, despite several number ones, and about 40 hit singles, it still feels as if the Pet Shop Boys don’t quite fit in with whatever’s happening right now in the outside world, and haven’t done for years. However, inside the Brighton Centre, it’s a comp»
How the mediocre have fallen. Once, this lot ruled the world. Now they’re a joke. They sound like an Oasis covers band trying to write their own material and falling short of the mark. On a good day, Noel Gallagher is one of the best songwriters in the world. But he doesn’t seem to have had any good days recentl»
Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors have announced plans for a "Doors" reunion show on Sept. 6 at the California Motor Speedway in Los Angeles. Jim Morrison will naturally be unable to perform as he died over thirty years ago, but nonetheless, Ian Astbury of <»
Reclusive American rockers Guns'N'Roses follow their Leeds Carling festival headlining spot with two provisional dates at London's Docklands Arena on August 26th and 27th. This is presumably to make up for being unable to headline the Reading part of the Carling Festival, as the band are performing at the Puk»
A muddy, rainswept Sunday afternoon in Finsbury Park hardly bodes well for a gig of legend. Finsbury Park is like the Somme. Mud gets everywhere, and everyone is covered in it. It’s a war out there. Thanks to the draconian licensing laws - a 10pm curfew, just like when you were young - New Order come on a»
Suede have announced the title of their new album and released details of two Scottish dates in October. 'A New Morning' is due to be released in September on Epic and will be preceded by new single 'Positivity'. Suede hit the stages of Glasgow Barrowlands (Octobe»
Rollins Band, lead by ex-Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins, return to action with their third album of the past twelve months, a double live set entitled "The Only Way To Know For Sure" released on June 25th. The set was recorded on the last dates of their World tour in Chicago in Marc»
This is to prove Moby wasn’t always a man whose talent extends only as far as lifting old blues samples and grafting them onto bland corporate coffee-table music. This is to prove that Moby has a heart. At the time of this album’s release, only two people in the UK (“The Big Issue”, and a student p»
Moby is the antichrist. I don't need to tell you about 1999?s gigamillion, original selling 'Play' do I? Well at least it was original once, before it was licensed to 417 adverts, before it came bundled with every coffee table sold in the country, and even I, a fan of maverick genius, got sick of him. <»
The Royal Jubilee. Does anybody know when it is? or what it is? or even, what it signifies? No. Thought not. But you will. Pretty soon it'll be inescapable. Millions of people who live in this country will deck out the bunting and hold parties to celebrate 50 years of life under the Queen's »
Here at DIS towers (actually a bunch of desks located all over the UK), we don?t necessarily care about what?s cool. We care about what?s good. And this is good. Even if parts of it are 20 years old. Though I?ve never actually heard a ?Best Of? that charts an artists progression quite so drastically in my life -»
THE 5 AGES OF MAN. Our lives have five ages. Birth. School. Metallica. Solo Project Hell. And Death. Well, not quite, but what I will tell you is this. Each of our ages, and the progression within them, neatly compare to our musical tastes we keep at those times. BIRTH. When you’re bo»
Nothing dates as fast as being futuristic. And Jesus Jones were always looking so far into the future that they forgot where they were. There never seems to be a right revival time for bands like this, that is to say, for bands that were big a decade ago. It’s too recent for some. And too far away for others. »
New Years Eve in San Francisco where two of US hardcores’ most stubborn bastard souls battle it out on one stage. At the same time. Sounds odd. Sounds weird. Oh it does. Sound good? Oh my God yeah. This is what God made your ears for. For one night only, US legends *The Melvins, teamed up with kindred sp»
Hot on the heels of, and no doubt inspired by, the multi-million selling catalogue of lost opportunities that was Pink Floyd’s cashcow “Echoes”, comes Roger Waters' “Flickering Flame”. And much like Waters himself, it pales in the shadow of another band. And it's not very good. You ar»
I know this has been out ages, but something this big takes time. “Experience” is the closest thing that Martin Amis gets to an auto-biography, presenting instead an anti-biography. Conventional details such as birthdates, middle names, weddings, children all go by the wayside, and instead Amis presents u»
