Lowe Plugs Fighting With Wire On Moyles Show

The word is well and truly out on Fighting With Wire. The band who recently signed a deal with Atlantic Records, are currently enjoying the patronage of the irrepressible Zane Lowe. Not only has he been playing ‘Everyone Needs A Nemisis’ on his own BBC show, but this morning the Kiwi could be heard enthusing about the band on the Chris Moyles show.

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Radiohead - Nude

Not only one of the standout songs from ‘In Rainbows’, but also one of the standout songs from Radiohead’s entire canon, ‘Nude’ is a faultless example of what the band do best: soaring, angelic vocals, jittering rhythms and edgy paranoia. A mythological “lost” track, the song was written a decade ago but was derailed when the band couldn’t agree on an appropriate bass part, and finally surfaced on last year’s superlative download album.

‘Nude’ is a luminescent catherine wheel of sound; it swirls and shimmies and morphs like a glass ballerina. Listening to it is like swallowing an ice cube for breakfast, feeling it freeze you from your neck all the way down to your stomach. Better still, it’s backed by ‘4 Minute Warning’ and ‘Down Is The New Up’, only previously available on the extortionate ‘In Rainbows’ discbox, each of which outranks any other song released within recent months by a country mile.

Eating pizza and kissing girls aside, there are not many more enjoyable ways of spending your time. And the bass part is amazing. Ross Thompson

Death Cab For Cutie Release New Single

Death Cab For Cutie have offered fans a taster of their forthcoming album ‘Narrow Stairs’. New single ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ clocks in at a mighty eight and a half minutes, half of which is comprised of reverb-heavy, instrumental meandering.

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Gnarls Barkley Bring Forward Album Release

It’s been a week of album release revelations. Following Raconteurs announcement that they were rush releasing second album ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’, Gnarls Barkley have confirmed the immediate release of ‘The Odd Couple’.

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Kurt Cobain: The Converse Trainer

It’s what he would have wanted. It has been reported that Converse are bringing out a new trainer ‘inspired’ by Kurt Cobain. The trainers will feature Cobain’s name, lyrics and signature and have been approved by his widow Courtney Love. The shoe is part of the one hundredth anniversary celebrations for Converse.

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Frightened Rabbit, Kid Harpoon

On the back of some glowing recent reviews, there’s at least as much of a buzz tonight for Kid Harpoon as there is for the main act, not that that’s saying a whole lot. To this reviewer, they (he?) sounds like the Pogues, only somehow more self-aggrandising and eminently less likable.

Frightened Rabbit, a band equally strongly defined by the personality of its singer and chief songwriter, Scott Hutchison, fare rather better on this front. Between perfect frosty-but-funny stage banter;

Scott: “We’re from Selkirk.”
Audience: “Where’s that?”
Scott: “Round the corner from your ma’s house.”

and the touching tribute of obligatory novelty cover (N-Trance’s ‘Set You Free’) to his brother Grant (also the band’s drummer), the Frightened Rabbit frontman doesn’t put a foot wrong.

In an age of double-braced hardware, it’s also refreshing to see an ironing board used as a keyboard stand, and instead of a bass guitar there’s a telecaster crudely shunted down an octave. Sadly, a lot of the appeal of this band stems from their lyrics, which are barely perceptible tonight. ‘Be Less Rude’ and ‘Music Now’ are majestic on their lo-fi first album, but sound like above average indie-rock when stripped of their witty originality.

‘Fast Blood’, from the forthcoming follow up, sounds a little like our own Desert Hearts, and shows a new maturity to their songwriting. One has to strain to make sense of it here, though, and not many people are making the effort. My advice to you: make the effort. Niall Harden

Raconteurs New Album Available Everywhere, March 25

The Raconteurs have announced the imminent global release of second album, ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’. Mastered and completed at the beginning of the month, the album was immediately whisked to vinyl and CD pressing plants and will now hit shops on Tuesday 25 March.

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A Belfast Evening With Eels

Riding the success of his critically acclaimed autobiography ‘Things The Grandchildren Should Know’, Mark “E” Everett has been further exploring his past with a series of lauded gigs entitled “An Evening With Eels”.

This Wednesday, the travelling sideshow calls at Mandela Hall, and although details of what will be on offer are sketchy, it is most likely that E will be performing with a multi-talented sidekick introduced as “The Chet”.

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Nephu Huzzband - Papers E.P.

There is the promise of a real cult following for Nottingham-based bed-sit romantics, Nephu Huzzband. This fine little find begins with the title track’s taut, stabbing and erratic post-punk drums, at which point you might be forgiven for shrugging your shoulders and thinking ‘here we ago again.’ But then, hazy, harmonious guitars arrive to provide balmy temperance to the preceding frenzy. Eschewing the, much-plundered, Gang Of Four discordance thing, Nephu Huzzband opt for a sound which, whilst not completely warm, is often sad-eyed, sweet and, it has to be said, fairly in hock to The Cure.

There is a down-and-out prettiness, a quiet despair to Adam Popple’s reverb-heavy guitar that imbues the songs on ‘Papers’ with an aching air of resignation. Combined with Tom Bentley’s cavernous, Bob Smith-aping croon, Nephu Huzzband evoke fragrant images of discarded red roses lying abject on the floor of some forgotten East-End ballroom. This mooch-y tunefulness, lyrics about bitter relationship disintegration and bleak humour contribute to an overall sense that this is genuine underdog music, as opposed to the pretty-boy posturing of some of their oh-so-fey, corporate peers.

It’s difficult to know if the lo-fi production on ‘Papers’ is deliberate. Still, despite this, or maybe as a result of it, these six tracks possess a drafty neon-heart atmosphere, a misfit allure that is in the very best tradition of Brit Goth-Pop. As, much feted, contemporaries The Kooks strain to squeeze out a second exercise in laboured blandness, it is heartening to discover music whose humble tonic is effortlessly fluid, refreshing and, ultimately, real. Nephu Huzzband provide a vital addition to the early Eighties reincarnation drive. John Calvert

Mudhoney Celebrate 20th Anniversary

Grunge legends Mudhoney celebrate two decades in the game with the May release of a new studio record and beefed-up reissue of their seminal Superfuzz Bigmuff EP. The releases mark not only the band’s big two zero, but that of their label, the legendary Sub Pop.

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Boy Kill Boy, The Dykeenies, The Rascals

This was a curious case of the has-beens and the soon-to-bes. The Rascals, an act primed for imminent omnipresence versus the outmoded, synth-indie rock of The Dykeenies and Boy Kill Boy, two bands staring irrelevance in the face.

By far the most enticing prospect of the night are Spector-inspired Scousers The Rascals. At times The Rascals’ sound is (very) reminiscent of the Monkeys’ ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’, albeit with all the atmosphere and none of the sly wink. The similarities are perhaps no surprise given the fact that Alex Turner and Rascals’ frontman Miles Kane have recorded together as The Last Shadow Puppets. At their best, The Rascals force-feed parched and driving QOTSA-esque guitar riffs through a myriad of doomy psychedelic sounds, the attentions of the buoyant rhythm section transforming the macabre into the freaky. However, the kids are a little impassive until . . .

Glaswegian post-punkers The Dykeenies take to the stage with the crowd cheering the return of familiarity, if nothing else. Since their emergence in 2005, the Dykeenies have clutched tight to the velvet coat tails of The Killers, their sound an uncanny duplication of the Las Vegas outfit’s early forays into high cheek-boned, glam-rock. You can only imagine how they felt when the Killers decided to go all Springsteen! But hell, tonight they sound pretty damn spruce themselves. Shrill synths and androgynous mewling pierce the lush din, the sonic histrionics granted extra bite by the Marshall stacks.

Much the same again, although with a dollop more Eighties’ ostentation, in the shape of final act, Boy Kill Boy. ‘Suzie’ provokes a scream and the reaction of the night as communal euphoria descends. By the close, Chris Peck’s strong, pure vocal and his bandmate’s boundless energy ensure the emo-peddlers have delivered decent value for money. John Calvert