ransell has written the following articles:
Summer is definitely here. Yes it is. No, I know it’s raining cats and dogs and that the last time anybody saw sunshine was when the Dome was still open but trust me….my aunt is a lawyer. A demo fell through my letter box from Snowblind, there’s 1 and 3 half tracks on here that prove that s»
XFM’s 5-songs-in-a-playlist policy means that if one tunes into their airwaves for any length of time one tends to want to tear ones hair out due to a diet of Limp Bizkit/ Linkin Park/ Papa Roach that would make any self respecting girl want to decapitate then disembowel the nearest hedgehog hai»
No Objection like their rawk, they also like their post-rawk, their metal and lo-fi songwriters in a bedroom somewhere playing their guitar.
As this is a compilation I’d better do some lists. Let’s start with the songs that really stand out [in no particular order]:
Nerve Engine’s contribution»
Times are tough these days in the medical world. More than ever doctors seem to be taking to drink and drugs to cure them of their job after spending ages getting qualified for naff all reward. Which is possibly why we seem to have five medical students (sensible shoes, jumpers, corduroys, brillcreemed sensible hair»
Bladly Drawn Boy releases new single Spitting in the Wind (On Twisted Nerve through XL) on the 7th of May. The single title has been changed from "Pissing in the Wind" to "spitting in the wind" after fears that the original name would offend people, which would affect radio airplay. Joan Collins has agre»
Zees record was made by zome Froggies from gay Paris….lurve capital of zee world and capital of a countrie zat ‘as a reputation as a musical Chernobyl.
Zees album reeks of zee urban cool as personified in zee Parisian catwalks. It pongs like beautifully ripe camembert of “Eighties Chic.” It is so trés à la m»
Ladies and gentlemen the Drowned In Sound staff would like to warn you that you are entering a Swells zone. Those with weak stomachs, a heart complaint, the heavily pregnant and those with a weak disposition should consult their doctor before continuing. We accept no responsibility for the ranting contained within»
Camden's Barfly Club is opening a second branch in Wales. According to the Barfly, a newly refurbished 200 capacity basement venue has been bought by the club about 100 meters from its future competitor Club Ifor Bach and it should be opening its doors to business on Wednesday 11th April. Initially the venue will be o»
I would like to say that this interview took place in Soho, the band lolling on zebra print baroque furniture in some Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen baroque nightmare, being served cocaine and caviar by transvestite waitresses. This would be a suitably glam’n’sleazy setting for a band who’ve filched their name, Venus In »
It was a very bad idea for International Jetset’s lead singer to wear a pair of black PVC trousers when the Monarch’s air conditioning was having a few fits and there were a 150 people standing in a venue the size of a broom cupboard. “I’m auctioning my shorts off when this finishes, anybody who wants a drink just has »
The vet looked at the poor little animal and decided that it would be far more humane to put it out of its misery. However he was a sadistic bastard and decided that instead of euthanasia he would keep that animal alive until its body, overcome with problems stemming from the side effects from the life enhancing dr»
Space Raiders (incidentally they are named after the crisps) have put a 1980s Jane Fonda backing track anthemic soundtrack though the mangle. Space Raiders seem to have put the Craig David bloke through the mangle. Space Raiders have put the souls of Disco, Soul, Funk, Madness, Country, House, Garage (and whilst w»
What constitutes a great gig? The band can play a blinding set but if the audience is propping up the bar cross-armed and stony-faced then we all have a bit of a problem. But if a band connects with an audience then generally they at least start to nod their heads and begin to dance. But there’s always somebody at a g»
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Husky play a gig. Now my memories are of slightly shambolic sets with amps dying on them and songs that sounded like the Clash playing Funk and having a jam. Their music has certainly improved as their repertoire has grown and they’ve found their own sound. As well as p»
For those of you not familiar with the Water Rats Theatre it is one of the few venues that actually encourages eardrum-exploding volumes. Appropriately enough singer/guitarist Becky Stefani’s visually loud but lovely and glittery guitar means that we should probably all be wearing sunglasses. The Furs k»
The front cover for this single features two mean looking, moustachioed Noo York cops on a graffiti strewn 1970s subway train. They look like they are related to Village People’s cop and you can pretty much guess what the main track, Coming Thru [My Stereo] will sound like. I bet it will have that retro »
Will someone please tell these four men
That the Latin craze is so last year.
“Revelation” could have been written
by defunct popsters Another Level, I fear.
Many songs are sub-Backstreet Boys pap
The highlight being a song called “Dizzy”:
Imagine a butch Posh Spice doing a rap»
Prolapse are the overactive underachievers of Indie. They’ve been on more record labels than I’ve had new socks and have the reputation for looking like a warring psychotic family on stage. Although their earlier albums sounded like a grumpy Scotsman discussing murder with a Home Counties woman to the sound of the»
If you believe whatever the NMEvil says Marshall Mathers AKA Eminem AKA Slim Shady is the most subversive rebel to come out of ANYWHERE since The Sex Pistols/ Public Enemy/ NWA [Delete as appropriate]. He is portrayed as a misogynistic, violence inducing, drug condoning, all singing all dancing bigot. However »
This book is unreadable. It also boasts that it has a higher death count than the Bible. I wasn’t going to count up both tallies to see if Swells was right, but I can hazard a guess that it is a close call. I can also guesstimate that this novel has more sex in it than the whole of the Swedish porn industry. »
It was a very bad idea for International Jetset’s lead singer to wear a pair of black PVC trousers when the Monarch’s air conditioning was having a few fits and there were a 150 people standing in a venue the size of a broom cupboard. “I’m auctioning my shorts off when this finishes, anybody who wants a drink just has »
Isn’t life booooooooorrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing? Your middle class, liberal minded, Guardian reading suburban parents are once again nagging you to do your homework. Pah! What do they know about individuality – The SHEEP BAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Errr, actually what do you know about individuality? I »
It is perhaps an un-acknowledged tradition that all wars should include a couple of armies running through Belgium, just because it has always happened. Not known for its cutting edge coolness and swingin’ music scene this country is possibly known for giving us terminaly uncool and cheesy day-glo wearing Euro-tras»
Awww he’s so shweeeeeet! Badly Drawn Boy AKA tea cosy dosser impersonator AKA Damon Gough is lying on the stage, doing press ups. He has previously snogged and then punched a glove puppet, and he will later walk around asking the front row their names to put in a song…only to be confronted with difficult ones he can’t»
The woman who steals kidneys from the men she picks up in bars. The bar owner who was bequeathed a fortune by a millionairess in a loveless marriage who died when her plane exploded. The little old lady who tries to warm up her pooches by putting them in the microwave. These are some of the urban myths that make up the»
The Dogme 95 collective is an association of Scandinavian directors who make films according to a certain set of rules designed to challenge conventional attitudes to film making. The collective includes Tomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh Jacobsen, Lars Von Trier who directed Bjork’s film Dancing in the Dark, and the direc»
Aaah yes my darlings, we’ve been out and about being media whores. I would drop a few names, but sweetie I’m far too discreet. Anyway I very much doubt that Kylie and Co. would feel at home in the King’s Head, as it is ideologically opposite to the Met Bar. However, today onstage are Melbourne hopefuls 28 Days. »
As the old folks never fail to remind us childhood gives us some of the best days of our lives. Chuck and Buck is a film about the people who never let those days go. Buck is by all accounts an innocent. A man of 27 going on 11 with a habit of chain sucking lollipops and a surprisingly large collection of toys fo»
Are you one of those people that think that animals have feelings? Do you believe that they hold YOU responsible for, say, having them neutered? Paul Merton (he of deadpan Have I Got News For You fame) obviously thought so when he thought up this film. Filmed in grainy blue-black and white this 10 minute s»
Clinic’s surgically sterilised set (minus costumes…how unfair) comes to a close. As a warm up they failed slightly by being rather wooden. In fact I seem to remember one of them moving his foot once, which was the highlight of their unexciting set. The songs were note perfect, but they seemed to be rehearsing. »
