Music

There's a healthy mix of material for our first playlist of the year. We're still reeling from Run The Jewels' surprise Christmas Day release of their third LP. With the Presidential Inauguration and the civil unrest in Washington that accompanied it fresh in our minds, Killer Mike and El P's stylised sermonising feels like vital listening. Elsewhere we have the first hints of new material in ages from Arcade Fire and Japandroids and atmospheric loveliness from Bonobo and SOHN. If...

While we're waiting for Allentown's Pissed Jeans to release their disgusting new record Why Love Now (out on the 24th Feb), the band have decided to treat us to a new track. It's crushing, it's scathing, and it's about degradation and wanking. Business as usual, then. Check it out below. ‘Ignorecam’ twists the idea of fetish cam shows—”where the woman just ignores you and watches TV or eats macaroni and cheese or talks on the phone”—into a showcase for Matt...

Bristol’s finest post-punk polemics IDLES will head off on the massive 25 date ‘Brutalism UK Tour’ in March/April 2017 in support of their debut album. Politically charged, refreshingly confrontational and infectiously volatile, IDLES bring the unsettling reality of the world we live in into their frantic assault on the senses. The October release of single “Well Done” has seen the band rise to no.1 on Spotify’s Viral Charts, and paired with intensive radio support from Huw Stephens, Annie Mac, Steve Lamacq and...

Team Rock went into administration on Monday at the cost of 73 jobs across London and Glasgow. Since then, more light has been thrown on the financial difficulties the publisher faced over, at least, the last two years, running at a loss of 4.3M in 2015 and 8.8M in 2016. Pretty substantial stuff, especially considering the handsome roster Team Rock had acquired, including Classic Rock, Prog and Metal Hammer Magazine, all respected titles with an established readership. The first thing to consider of course...

Camden Rocks Festival has announced the first names for the 2017 line-up. Punk legends The Damned, stoner rock giants Orange Goblin, and The Ruts DC are the first to be revealed from the bill. The fest will host over 250 bands and artists across 25 of Camden Town’s revered venues this June 3rd 2017, including legendary Camden venue KOKO.   Ahead of their headline set at the Electric Ballroom, The Damned’s Captain Sensible reveals, “Camden Market is partially responsible for the...

2016 has been a rubbish year for our heroes. As the year begins to wind down it makes sense to feel reflective on all the brilliant artists we lost over the last 365 days. And while we said goodbye to some outstanding musicians this year, none will be missed more, perhaps, than David Bowie. That's why it seems fitting that the late great Ziggy himself has been named the UK’s favourite musician in a piece of recent research. The singer, songwriter and...

9th December, 02 Academy Brixton I did not get to photograph Bullet For My Valentine. Originally, this review was going to be a photojournalism piece about the Welsh bands’ penultimate gig of their eighteen-month tour, which was being filmed in conjunction with their finale show in Brixton’s O2 Academy. However, as I parked up I received an email informing me that all of the photo passes had been revoked for the show due to concerns of safety as there were...

5th Dec 2016 The Waiting Room, London Feral, sweaty, and with the faint tang of ammonia, A Giant Dog’s unabashed rock makes their contemporaries look positively repressed. Leave your kids in the car for this one. Scuzzy, joyous and propelled by sex and groove in equal measure, their set tonight is a spectacle in brazen rock ‘n’ roll. The misfit role fits A Giant Dog like your favourite leotard.This latest iteration of A Giant Dog sounds big live, and the...

Having just finished their sold-out UK tour, New York’s PWR BTTM have announced a huge new run of dates for April 2017. Their maiden trip to the UK, in support of their awesome first album Ugly Cherries, saw the band packing out shows, with their London gig selling out in less than a day. Expect millennial ennui filtered through a queer lens. PWR BTTM are currently finishing the follow up album to Ugly Cherries, due for release in 2017. Tickets...