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86% Atlantic 
The unbelievably talented Scottish bloke with an Italian name, Paolo Nutini, keeps the charming and soulful hits coming, with ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ being single number three from his most recent album "Sunny Side Up," which was released in May this year.
Despite being a relatively short track at just 2:27, ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ is a feel good, up-beat event with lyrics “I got a />...
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90% The Glittering Prize
I generally get a little nervous before gigs. Excitement, anticipation and of course freshly laundered underpants all play a part in the pre gig ritual but prior to tonight’s gig I was extra jittery. I’ve been in the thrall of Marina and the Diamonds for the last 18 months or so and now finally I had the chance to catch her live, at a free gig as part of Liverpool music week. The anxiety I />...
Last chatter by catshoe | 8 Comments ![8 People are talking about Marina And The Diamonds, Liverpool Masque, 13/11/2009 [Live]. Come voice your opinion!](images/buttons/lastpost.gif "8 People are talking about Marina And The Diamonds, Liverpool Masque, 13/11/2009 [Live]. Come voice your opinion!")
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83% 10th November 2009
Right from the start let me say that this was a fantastic gig. On a rainy Tuesday night in North London, Ray Raposa and the rest of his band brought West Coast alternative to life. Alternative is hard to define, somewhere between garage rock and experimental country music, but that no way does justice to the delicacy of sound over which drawly affecting lyrics are draped like the vines on the />...
Last chatter by catshoe | 8 Comments
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90% Sunday Best Recordings
Rarely has a song title been so apt. There's no chin stroking Radiohead cryptic bollocks going on here, Lemonade have created the aural equivalent of that breathtaking, jaw clenching, four in the morning on the outside terrace, lost in a strobe moment and they know it, so they called it 'Bliss Out.' Simple.
It's properly good too, combining elements of old school rave with the />...
Last chatter by catshoe | 3 Comments
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This debut release from the Peterborough duo The Candle Thieves could either infectiously get your toes tapping - or painfully make your toes curl. One person’s heart-warming, is another’s stomach-churning. Cutesy song titles on this four track EP include ‘My Love Will Clap Its Hands For You’ and ‘Lonely Lonely Lonely.’ The opening lines of lead song ‘The Sunshine Song’ are “I would buy you a />...
Last chatter by jack s | 3 Comments
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It seems to have been a great year for A Day to Remember with a headline tour followed by just recently a support slot with hardcore upstarts Bring Me The Horizon as they gained a legion of fans across the UK.
My first experience with A Day To Remember was a cover of a Kelly Clarkson song and I was amused at how it was possible for a band to make 'Since You’ve Been Gone' into a />...
Last chatter by jack s | 10 Comments
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74% Birmingham NEC 7th November 2009
The first day of Hellfire started with a quick trip around the Music Live event as the press passes allowed coverage into that event. I was honestly quite surprised at how many stalls there were, mostly guitar and drum stalls but it was worth it for any budding musician wanting to get the best equipment!
The actual music side of Hellfire Festival started with Scar My Eyes on />...
Last chatter by jack s | 5 Comments
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80% Rapster Records
I'm not the biggest disco fan in existence but I do like Daft Punk and loved the recent Horse Meat Disco LP so it was a little annoying to see the review of that on here being done by someone who obviously really doesn't like disco at all but anyways... rant over.
Back to the real issue of why you’re reading this and what you get on this album. It is twelve tracks of some pretty />...
Last chatter by Matt D | 22 Comments
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Let’s just get my rant out of the way so we can get on with the “movie”…
The opening credits on Michael Jackson “This Is It,” a post mortem documentary sharing rehearsal footage for the tour that never happened, state that it was done with the authorization of Michael’s legal representatives, which unless they are also a medium would hardly know if Michael Jackson would have />...
Last chatter by jack s | 11 Comments
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After listening to Ingrid Michaelson’s most recent full-length release "Everybody," I am not surprised to find that her music has been used for years on television on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and One Tree Hill. But don’t hold that against her.
There is a definite ‘pensive narrative over final scene’ feel to a few of the tracks featuring on "Everybody," including the />...
Last chatter by jack s | 5 Comments
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81% Unsigned
RazorBladeKisses are in a musical world of their own. Their latest release, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Scar" seems to be a shinning example of their dark and twisted musical ideas that can't help but lure the listener in further.
The haunting and eerie sound of lead vocalists Layla and Azadeh seem to send the already dark sound of the album further into strange realms of creativity and />...
Last chatter by jack s | 4 Comments
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90% 24 August 2009
Well I could be tempted to complain about a gig in which the main part of the set comprised of only 11 songs. But when those songs are so exquisite and so gently expansive that it felt like time stood still whilst listening, you can’t complain at all.
In front of a packed, but deeply reverential Deaf Institute audience, Bill Callahan and his four piece band (cello, violin, guitar />...
Last chatter by catshoe | 5 Comments
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80% 6th October 2009
Sheffield’s Slow Club, the duo of Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor, finally released their much anticipated debut album “Yeah So” in July this year. Given their songs veer from folkabilly skiffle-pop to pin-drop-quiet heartbreak, I was intrigued to see how Slow Club would fare live, especially at MoHo Live which is a functional but fairly charmless, basement venue in Manchester’s Northern />...
Last chatter by catshoe | 8 Comments
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76% True Panther Sounds / Matador
Calling your band ‘Girls’ suggests someone seeking anonymity (try putting that name in Google). Given the singer/lyricist escaped from a childhood spent with hippy cult The Children of God, this is quite believable. Along with calling your debut record ‘Album,’ suggests that the San Francisco duo of Christopher Owens and JR White may assume they are churning out generic product. The latter is />...
Last chatter by jack s | 16 Comments
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80% Self Released
Rebel Emergency first got me hooked through their live shows. All the energy and magnetism they emote when they are jammin on stage is always entertaining to observe. This new record is long overdue. I was impressed at the CD release party at the MOD club (capacity of about 600) as it was packed to the fullest. It was crazy!
Insanity at a record release is always good for the />...
Last chatter by jack s | 7 Comments
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When I sit here reminiscing about Nirvana I remember them as if they were a metaphorical ex girlfriend of mine. Someone I loved implicitly and that changed me forever that but for whatever reason became lost to me. Do I still love Nirvana? Sure. Do I remember all the good times past we had? Sure. Would what we had then work now? Not really. Let me digress.
In the hey />...
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Here's a single from young London folk-pop fellow Alan Pownall. It's called 'Clara' and skiffles along like sunshine falling on a prancing kitten.
Alan has an expressive voice giving 'Clara' and B side 'The Others' a cozy depth that pulls you along with the trick free tunage. It's classic song writing, especially on 'Clara,' with a familiarity that immediately strikes a chord. />...
Last chatter by Burt | 2 Comments
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How’s My Pop is a four-piece outfit from Lancaster, UK who have just released their debut, “On the Hop” on Barnbox Records. Andrew Raven (vocals/guitar), Tom Diffenthal (keyboards), Matt Canty (bass), and Chris McNeil (drums) spin a variety of grooves but create a sound that lands somewhere between Sondre Lerche and The Arctic Monkeys.
The song-writing displays a maturity one />...
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86% Fat Cat Records
Brakes are a band known for their loud, ramshackle live shows (their superb live album 'Live is Dodelijk' pays testament to this) but here they show that they are just as adept at the kind of melodic pop-rock Pixies used to be able to churn out in their sleep. 'Why Tell The Truth' is a brisk, hook laden ditty with a striking structure which sees an atmospheric, acoustically tinged verse off-set />...
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If Mika camped it down JUST a little bit he'd probably arrive at a sound not dissimilar to London born Singer-Songwriter Julian Perretta. What we have here is a polished pomp-pop glitter-ball that ticks as many boxes as humanly possible in the space of 4 minutes.
Beginning with a kazoo hook (you heard that right ) which sounds like the grange hill theme given a Mark Ronson />...
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80% FatCat Records - Released 30th November
Having already released what is arguably one of the best debut albums of 2009 "These Four Walls," We Were Promised Jetpacks are ending the year with the release of Double A-Side 'It's Thunder And It's Lightning/Ships With Holes Will Sink,' two tracks that really open up what We Were Promised Jetpacks are about, showing their growing potential and the undeniable passion and ferocity with which />...
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79% One Little Indian - Out Now
A beguiling one this little bunch as it's not really an album you could associate with a bunch of young'uns such as Kill It Kid as it really sounds like some kind of mid 70's cross between Fleetwood Mac, in all their Stevie Nicks glorious poppiness; The Smiths, with their Morrissey croonery, and a bluegrass tribute band. Which as you can see is going to produce something that's both beguiling />...
Last chatter by jack s | 16 Comments
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![Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full of Lead [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/4/1/0/4/phpmadq4ppm.jpg "Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full of Lead [Single]")
![Marina And The Diamonds, Liverpool Masque, 13/11/2009 [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/1/0/7/7/5/2marina_300.jpg "Marina And The Diamonds, Liverpool Masque, 13/11/2009 [Live]")
![Castanets - The Garage, Highbury, London [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/8/6/3/1/300cast1.jpg "Castanets - The Garage, Highbury, London [Live]")
![Lemonade - Bliss Out [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/2/blissout.jpg "Lemonade - Bliss Out [Single]")
![The Candle Thieves - The Sunshine Song [EP]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/5/3/0/0/candle_thieves.jpg "The Candle Thieves - The Sunshine Song [EP]")
![A Day To Remember - Homesick [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/5/4/7/1/1232009983_a-day-to-remember-homesick-2009.jpg "A Day To Remember - Homesick [Album]")
![Hellfire Festival Day One [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/5/4/7/1/hellfirefestival.jpg "Hellfire Festival Day One [Live]")
![Discovered - A Collection of Daft Funk Samples [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/1/0/6/8/3/discovered.jpg "Discovered - A Collection of Daft Funk Samples [Album]")
![Michael Jackson - This Is It [Movie]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/9/0/4/7/michael-jackson-this-is-it-movie.jpg "Michael Jackson - This Is It [Movie]")
![Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/4/1/0/4/phpi9ludkpm.jpg "Ingrid Michaelson - Everybody [Album]")
![Razorbladekisses - Twinkle Twinkle Little Scar [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/8/6/7/7/231.jpg "Razorbladekisses - Twinkle Twinkle Little Scar [Album]")
![Bill Callahan [Live] @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/5/3/0/0/img_1401.jpg "Bill Callahan [Live] @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester")
![Slow Club - MoHo Live, Manchester [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/5/3/0/0/slowclubdrumsml.jpeg "Slow Club - MoHo Live, Manchester [Live]")
![Girls - Album [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/3/9/8/5/623altsoundsdjuf.jpg "Girls - Album [Album]")
![Rebel Emergency - Love Ain't Free [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/2/5/4/6/rebelemergency2.jpg "Rebel Emergency - Love Ain't Free [Album]")
![Nirvana - Live at Reading [DVD/CD]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/2/3nirvana.jpg "Nirvana - Live at Reading [DVD/CD]")
![Alan Pownall - Clara [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/7/5/5/9/313823l.jpg "Alan Pownall - Clara [Single]")
![How's My Pop - On the Hop [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/2/hmp.jpg "How's My Pop - On the Hop [Album]")
![Brakes - Why Tell The Truth (When It's Easier To Lie) [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/2/brakes2.jpg "Brakes - Why Tell The Truth (When It's Easier To Lie) [Single]")
![Julian Perretta - Wonder Why [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/6/6/4/8/wonder-why-400x348.jpg "Julian Perretta - Wonder Why [Single]")
![We Were Promised Jetpacks - It's Thunder And It's Lightning [Single]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/3/9/9/7/310_571.jpg "We Were Promised Jetpacks - It's Thunder And It's Lightning [Single]")
![Kill It Kid - Kill It Kid [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/3/9/9/7/2kill_it_kid.jpg "Kill It Kid - Kill It Kid [Album]")
