James Dennis
In This Light And On This Evening
Editors are something of an enigma for me. I profess, I’ve never been an avid fan of Editors, pigeon-holing them as a small time indie band, lauded with the admiration of swathes of ‘hip’ indie scenesters who have some blind obsession with ‘underground music’. I really couldn’t have got it...
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The First Days Of Spring
I hated ‘5 Years Time’. As popular as the indie anthem may have been back in 2007, I never bought in to the hype. The sunshine and lollipops approach made me feel a little squeamish and thus I lost any interest for the band I may have harboured and discarded...
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Late of the Pier
It’s fair to say that Fantasy Black Channel was amongst my favorite albums of 2008 and, with the band widely held as masters of the live setting, to say I was excited to see Late of the Pier is an understatement. The Royal in Derby is a most peculiar venue,...
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Innerpartysystem
The O2 Academy 2 (previously the Carling academy for those yet to be informed) is not the greatest venue England’s ‘second city’ has to offer. Isolated in a minute corner of its larger counterpart, Academy 2 is a notoriously difficult venue to perform at. Cramped, oddly shaped and suffering from...
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To Lose My Life
Just a month into 2009 it is easier than one may expect to predict which breakthrough acts are going to dominate the popular music scene. Numerous magazines have run features on the most exciting prospects among this year’s mass of new releases but none are as accurate or perceptive as...
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Blood Bank [EP]
New Year is all about two things – 1) The obligatory celebrations, alcohol and hangover, 2) A somber reflection on the past year’s successes and failures, and a time for redefinition and rebirth of one’s character. Whilst my New Year was notably lacking in a soundtrack to the party season,...
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New Surrender
Emo: a genre with many similarities to marmite. A lot of people hate it with a passion, notably people who read the NME and treat it as holy scripture. Some love it, often mistakenly stereotyped by the media as over-dramatic teenagers with sweeping fringes, a sullen expression and dressed in...
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Talk to Frank (and Chris)
James Dennis meets Frank Turner, everybody's favourite post-post-hardcore troubadour. And Chris T-T. Him too.
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Vampire Weekend
Vampire weekend are a band that, at first, I felt completely neutral to. I totally respected their self-titled debut for what it was: an experimental indie record, with a retro 60’s beach boy sound and a fine ability to craft an infectious song (a la ‘A Punk’). Whilst I respected...
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What Became of the Likely Lads?
With the recent release of a new FFaF record, James Dennis considers the unfulfilled potential of the group of bands once described by Kerrang! magazine as a new "Golden Generation"...
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