Listen Before You Buy

No one is making or playing music like Baltimore’s Roomrunner today: loud, gritty, fun and full of the nonchalant aggression that we came to love from ’90s grunge.

With a range of influences from The Beatles to Radiohead, Emma Grace are the kind of pair us non-musical types look at in envy as they both play multiple instruments and sing. Oh, and create great indie songs like “Stuck In The Air”.

Listen to EMA‘s cover of Nirvana‘s “Endless, Nameless” and Male Bonding‘s cover of Nirvana‘s “Aneurysm” below. Two of the best albums of the year have been released by EMA with “Past Life Martyred Saints” and Male Bonding with “Endless Now”, although that Male Bonding album has been criminally overlooked. On January 6th both artists will [...]

I often struggle to find the words to describe the music of the last two decades (mostly in the U.S. that is).  The 90′s were defined by Nirvana and Pearl Jam, enter grunge.  The 80′s, regrettably, were the nation’s awkward years of bad hair bands, though a few hidden punk gems.  The 70′s, of what [...]

When a band you used to like takes a creative nosedive, it’s never fun to watch. I was a fan of The Vines after their debut album “Highly Evolved”, and even if Pitchfork rejected the band outright, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of “Get Free” or “In the Jungle” as fun songs when [...]

There are some bands that I really wish I could have caught early. Bands like The Beatles, The Stones, Nirvana, Sex Pistols… (I’m sure you have yours, maybe you could let me know what they are.). The thing about seeing a band before they make it big is that you get to see them in [...]

Cover versions.  The musical equivalent of marmite, you either hate ‘em or love ‘em.  I have to admit I have a soft spot for a good cover version.  To me that would be one that retains some of the character of the original but allowing the covering artist to stamp their own authority on it.  [...]

So when I was about 13, I wanted to be in an all girl grunge band – this was the decade of wearing oversized flannel shirts, white tanks, and baggy jeans (and I’m talking about the girls).  My generation was first learning about Nirvana, Sublime, Alice in Chains, and, and, and – while actually understanding [...]

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by [...]

So here’s a new feature that myself and Tiana from RideTheTempo are going to be doing. Every week, or however often she sees fit to (maybe more, maybe less), she’s going to go through Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time list, in no particular order.  She’ll have the cover art, a short write-up [...]

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by [...]

If you’re unaware of what Music Monday is, it’s a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too.  Using the hashtag (#) followed by “MusicMonday” you can easily find new music posted by [...]

A prologue is designed to the set the scene and introduce you to an entire piece of work. It can often give you a taste of the things soon to come and prepare you neatly for the future. I can often tell whether I am going to enjoy a book or not after I have [...]

Whilst looking for Jools Holland videos of some of my favourite bands I stumbled upon this one from New Year’s Eve.  There’s something awesome about a tuxedo-clad Dizzee Rascal waxing lyrical (and rocking out) to Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Today’s stories and wee baby news items you might’ve missed: Olafur Arnalds announces the title for his new album on Twitter.  ”…and they have escaped the weight of darkness” …. “(That’s the title for the new album btw. Who can guess where i got it from? )“ Camera Obscura are added to the already impressive [...]