We don’t get to as many gigs now we’ve hit middle age and have a child to look after, but this just makes the ones we do get my to all the more special (and a million thank you’s to our ever-supportive families). Here are the Top 5 performances – in no particular order –…
Cheekface share ‘Hard Mode’ ahead of an extensive US tour in early 2025. Vocalist and guitarist Greg Katz said the song is ‘About growth and how fucking awkward it is, and it’s about growth’s younger sibling self-awareness, which is not the same as growth and twice as awkward’. Looking at how we all like to…
Featuring members of Heavenly, The Pooh Sticks and The Dentists, Swansea Sound have shared a fabulously festive single in ‘(I Wanna Wear A) Mirrored Hat Like Slade’ – It’s CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS after all. Available digitally and as a special CD inspired a greetings car designed by Swansea artist Catrin Saran James, the song opens with line…
Inspired by Daniel Bateman’s toddler’s constant question of ‘Did Santa come?’ in the build-up to Christmas (Daniel says ‘Seeing the world through the eyes of your children makes it all very beautiful’ and we have to concur, our 3-year-old is very excited this year), Frog release a song of the same name ahead of the…
Following shows with Tigers Jaw, Martha and Fresh, Brighton duo Regal Cheer have shared new single ‘All the Best’. The fast-paced Bronx-esque song is about how sometimes a situation – could be a relationship or working environment – isn’t working for anyone and it’s best just to part ways on good terms: ‘Whatever happened, I…
Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik has been writing Christmas songs for a decade and a half now and this year is no exception. With a tendency to focus on the darker elements of the season (come on, who doesn’t love a ghost story at Christmas), this year her song ‘AT Christmas’ is inspired by the dangers…
Swansea’s Baby Schillachi follow up their debut album ‘The Soundtrack’ with an ode to the haunting power of hymns and more menacing side of Yuletide. They also make no secret of the fact they have their eyes on next year’s John Lewis ad… Starting with evocative piano notes and a question of ‘Why am I…
Sharing management with The Strokes and following a recent support slot to Interpol, New York City five-piece Monobloc share new single ‘Take Me’. Inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, there’s a cinematic edge to its atmospherics as frontman Tim Waldron pleads: ‘I want to be your fool’. A mix between My Bloody Valentine and…
Norwegian indiepop supergroup Sunturns (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) share their third selection of festive anthems in ‘Christmas III’. While inspired by the season’s festivities, the song’s also look some of the more somber and sad moments that affect us all come 25 December… There’s a Ronettes-style introduction to the album opener ‘New…
Brooklyn-based Ciao Malz (Malia DelaCruz) releases her debut EP, ‘Safe Then Sorry’, via Audio Antihero on 6 December There’s a woozy alt-rock sound to the opening ‘Two Feet Tall’. Bringing back memories of Best Coast or Frankie Cosmos, this breezy piece finds Malia talking about how she’s ‘always reaching’ and how ‘I’ve been meaning to…
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