tjarvis has written the following articles:
Nottingham's Scout Niblett has a lot of weighty friends. She's signed to cooler-than-thou Too Pure and this, her second album, is produced by Steve Albini. She scored prestigious supports with Sleater-Kinney, marking her out as an 'offical vital new British female artist'. And then witness Our L»
The 12 Bar may be the spiritual home of flimsy acoustics but it's a giggle to see something really nastily loud there, just on special occasions. Of course most electric bands can't do it, because the stage itself is so small, you can't fit a normal rock band on there. But here's wizard crooning drummist Stuffy»
Any doubts about the grass roots resurgence of The Proclaimers were ground to dust by their enormous crowd at this summer’s T In The Park. The brothers occupied a late afternoon slot but punters came and came by the thousand, until Craig and Charlie Reid were cheered home by an audience e»
Finally, oh God, a new British psychedelic record that doesn't suck in the songwriting department. Bitmap is Luke Barwell, who used to be in Salako and tried manfully to pin the fluttering Fonda 500 onto compact disc, without useful success. The ground rules are set: we're in low budget land, build»
With mere hours to go before Goldrush's intimate Truck Festival kicks off in their tiny home village of Steventon, here's a quick last minute preview. This year they've cunningly given the indie lineup a boot up the ass, adding some bona fide famous people, without drastically changing the village vibe. Clever stuff»
Next month's super-horrid Route Of Kings concerts in Hyde Park are under threat after an alleged almighty cock-up in the licensing. The Jools Holland concert has already been cancelled, while the other fat shows featuring Blue, Roxy Music and Simply freakin' Re»
I'm savouring Nick Talbot's second album under the moniker Gravenhurst, 'Flashlight Seasons' from Bristol's Sink And Stove Records. These melancholic, mid-paced pop recordings could easily see Talbot lost in an overcrowded field of polite songwriters - or worse, damned as an also-ran by the numb»
This has proved nearly impossible to complete... "There are football bores and family bores, but there's no bore like a Bruce bore." - Julie Burchill. Over two nights, Bruce Springsteen and his ten-piece E Street Band, average age fifty-ish, clocked up six hours of live rock'n'rol»
The photo of Jason McNiff on the inside sleeve sums up this album: he's caught informally walking along a cobbled street, wearing a battered full-length coat. The photo is in crackly sepia and could be a hundred years old. Until you notice the modern cars in the background. Only the cars give away any sense of t»
Don't get married, boys... On the way home I was writing this review in my head, before listening to the album. I imagined a fearsome collection of strung-out blues and psychedelic rock tunes, perhaps Mark Lanegan popping up for a guest slot. I could already hear those swampy monsters roar and feel»
Since their last proper album 'And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out', Yo La Tengo have been mostly touring a live soundtrack to some old short films about jellyfish. That stretchy moistness has possibly soaked through a little too much on this slightly disappointing album. Still, a disappointing Yo»
Soul legend Edwin Starr has died of a heart attack at his home near Nottingham. He was 61. Starr is best known today for his massive hit 'War', which has been covered by many protesting musicians over the years. During the last few weeks, Bruce Springsteen has opened concerts on his wo»
There's a rambling story behind this review which I tried to include but couldn't get right. If I fix it, I'll post an account, if only to satisfy my own need to share a weird set of events involving a craft market, a stubborn girlfriend and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Anyway... In January 1995, there was a »
The last few times Norfolk's Magoo have come to play in London, it's been in tiny venues like this and generally ill-attended after zero hype. There are about 40 people left in Dublin Castle's back room by the time they start at nearly 11. Most folks came earlier to see The Pictures, who were laughable»
Filial Yorkshire garage heroes The Scaramanga Six are responsible for - to my mind - one of the coolest album titles ever, with their 1999 debut 'The Liar, The Bitch And Her Wardrobe'. It was a patchy but hard rocking lo-budget affair released on tiny indie label Trinity. Four years on, SS»
'Supper' by (Smog) - complete with erroneous brackets - marks a return to form for Bill Callahan and it's a much stronger, more concise collection than 'Dongs Of Sevotion' and the record after that. But it's still an unambitious album on which Callahan appears to make no effort to stretch himsel»
"Well," drawls Howe Gelb, "a piano stealing Lou Reed licks. Licks he probably stole." We're on track two and this is the first vocal line on the record, since it opened with a lovely scene-setting instrumental. Gelb sets out his storefront with both music and words. The Listener t»
In the middle of the 3 hour Radio 2 Folk Awards, there are three moments of real, proper magic and they all take place within one 20-minute period. They involve Hollywood, politics and a song and I won't forget any of them. Up 'til these 20 minutes, it's a fun but unremarkable party; a decent 3 course mea»
Welcome To The Monkey House is a collection of short stories by American master science-fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut. They're not all sci-fi though, Vonnegut is one of the few authors from that genre who can elevate the form, writing true literature. You know, the kind of stuff that gets taught in scho»
Falling between two stools is painful. Richard Thompson is way too old, authentic and musically adept to be noticed by the grubby chasers of the ‘new’ Rock’N’Roll. But he’s also way too cool, real, challenging and downright fucking punk to join the flaccid Royal-pleasing Eric Clapton Rock a»
