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Jim GND x

Gulf - Tell Me Again

Luscious, dripping 'verb, twinkling psych-indie-disco-pop, tinged with melancholia as should be. Undeniable Tame Impala similarities but cleaner, more purposeful and Liverpudlian.

Axes - Junior

"Aww Maaam! I think my Paul Simon Graceland tape got chewed up."

Super-math from London's Axes twiddles, jerks, trips and surprises until all involved are thoroughly exhausted.


'Junior' is on second long-player from Axes available November out of Big Scary Monsters.

Nice vid too.

Rubblebucket - Carousel Ride

Kooky, laconic pop delivered with a mute trumpet and a resigned sigh.

These Brooklyn tales spun across a kind of chaotic grandeur, quintet Rubblebucket have been shaking scenes on the East Coast for some time and more recently over in Europe during Summer 2014 including a spot at Glasto.

Fizzy Blood - January Sun

Of course there is the Josh Homme ghost in this machine with the heavy riffs and kooky, detuned fretplay. Notably though, this feisty foursome from Leeds punch without the pomp and peyote-in-the-salad-bowl than the Californians. They square up with globules of UK punk and the muscle of US hardcore.

Bear’s Den - Elysium

Beautiful lullaby guitar makes way for the omnipresent brass as Andrew Davie calmly walks through all the big questions. There's a horizon-sized width to all of the Den's recordings and it's no wonder that Mumford enjoyed their support last Summer in what was to become a special year for the band.

The Districts - Rocking Chair

Starting out from a reclining kind of psych, where the Travis is picked lying prone on an American Midwest, sunny Sunday afternoon porch. The track builds with resounding guitar, splashes and half-grizzled vox.
Ending with some whoo-hoos too and we all like a good whoo-hoo don't we?

Sean McGowan - Come Unstuck

Sean McGowan is not a Pogue, he makes this quite clear at the start of his live sets.  What he is though is the lovechild of Mike Skinner and Billy Bragg, raised in the late noughties with an acoustic guitar and a snarl. 

Lyrics that express the frustration of young modern life and the importance of mates "having your back", which are spat out in a staccato rush of anger and bite.  He means it.  And that means a lot. 

Alvvays - Archie, Marry Me

With a bitter-sweet tale of a certain age, this Toronto five swings and sways along with late Eighties slacker-rock slouching. The heavy-eyelid vox from Molly Rankin is cute with style and laced with shrewd syllables whilst chiming, coarse-grained guitar and rhythm fills the space behind.

Woahnows - Life in Reverse

If, after the play button is pressed below, you feel like you could be running through sunshine-confetti-filled party popper mayhem, congratulations, you've just been married to the Woahnows.

Bishop Allen - Start Again

Indie-rock with a slice of 90s guitar lemon and four cubes of x-tronica ice.
Straight-forward, wind-in-your-hair songwriting studded with some antique synth rhinestone loveliness. Worth your attention. Especially if MGMT is too weird for you.

Movie - Ads (video)

Love the band, love the song, now love the video.

Enjoy. And why not read our track review as well.

Mixtape: May 2014

Well here we are then,

It gives us great pleasure to, once more, curate a mixtape with the majority of artists and tracks featured on the blog in May 2014.

Young Night - Picasso

Quirkiness jig-jags about on board a Terry Gilliam cartoon ship that set sail from Brisbane to Brighton.
A Vampire Weekend comparison is expected but not done coldly. These guys roll their own smart, bright pop-psych with some Oz spring sunshine sneaked through UK Customs.

Astronauts - Skydive

Earnest chord changes with harp-like picking, bowed accompaniment, unobtrusive electro perc and close, quiet, immediate vocals speed along abeam through the mountains of a wintered North-Eastern America.

Dan Carney's experience from his Dark Captain days of how to produce a 'sound' is apparent.

Hero Fisher - No Ceremony

'No Ceremony' pumps, fizzes and builds underneath the direct, smoky lyric, tethered and collared until the closing wig-out finally wigs out.

There's the fuzz and growl of Hole but without the Love affectations. There's Patti Smith punk, Beth Gibbons sultry, and with a poetic soul, Fisher appreciates how folk music and punk music intersect and mirror.

Towns - Too Tired

Perennially phasing guitar, August-evening-in-the-90s hazy vox and the overall chug-chug-zjuzj produce a pleasing baggy kind of psych, a jangly kind of drone from these Bristol gazers of shoe.

Catfish And The Bottlemen - Fallout

The Bottlemen return with fan favourite 'Fallout' and after continued support across BBC Radio 1 and on the eve of headline UK and US tours and festivals squared, 2014 is sure to be exciting for the boys from North Wales.

'Fallout' builds on CATB's pour-your-heart-out, punchy, potent indie guitar par excellence.

Invisible Hands - Just

First of all, the track first brought about mental images of young men in tweed suits clapping their hands. No idea why and not seen as a bad thing.

Anyway, what does it sound like?
Loud and joyful, pummelling and shaking, close to anthemic, power-indie stomper.
If you ever go surfing in Leeds, this should definitely be playing on your waterproof CD Walkman.
(Note to young readers: Despite the last comment, it is never a good idea to enter water wearing any electronic device. Whether in Leeds or not.)

Cerebral Ballzy - Lonely As America

As when trying to close an over-filled suitcase, Cerebral Ballzy's latest bonkers-ness 'Lonely As America' has best-of-genre paraphernalia spilling out of every chord change (out pops the deodorant of punk and there goes the rolled-up socks of hardcore).