Having forgone a gig last week due to indisposition, I’m delighted to almost immediately have the chance to catch up with one of the bands that I missed.
I’m primarily here this evening to catch Fever Fever, about whom I have heard great things. They are bottom of the bill. On tonight’s evidence, this is not a position that they are going to have to put up with for very much longer.

Elephant & Castle, aka David Vincent Reep, is something of a wanderer, which bodes well for his sonic cameleon sensibilities. Take this one, "En Memoria," which features Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards) on vocals and seems to pluck natural sound from all over the globe with an intensely spiritual focus. Atmospheric, lush and dreamy, flutes flicker while hands pound away on the rawhide of drums and keys hang in the wind – a great introduction to what will go down on Elephant & Castle’s debut, Transitions, which comes March 13 via Plug Research.
Photos by Rachel Brandon

Excellent new Jeff The Brotherhood video!
They’re on tour in the US with The Kills, so make sure you get to those shows early if you’re going. One of those occassions where the support is waaay better than the headline act.
As birthdays begin to whistle by, and the realisation that you’ll soon be halfway through slowly dawns, people begin to say inappropriate things to you, as if shifting their own mortality-panic onto someone else is either beneficial or kind.
And yet, continue they do, pointing out how a lot of people are younger than us these days, and have you noticed how the Younger Generation are inferior to us in some ill-defined way.
None of this is true: The Kids, as we already know, Are Alright. And the kid du jour, Dream Koala, is a 17 year-old French man-boy called Yndi.

Having already garnered quite a following in his native Sweden, Johan Reinhold is introducing himself to our ears with his indie-electro-pop sensibilities in the form of a remix EP. Music after the jump…

British rockers Sharks originally formed in 2007, releasing several EPs and compilations before commencing work on their official debut LP. The band will release that effort, entitled No Gods, on March 20 via Rise Records after much touring in the States and back home in the U.K.“Arcane Effigies" is the new album’s first single, and it showcases the record’s melodic punk sensibility – almost a throwback to bands like The Clash and Husker Du.
Foxes!
From: Brighton, United Kingdom
Who would have thought that a cassette tape (yes it was that long ago) given away free with a weekly music inkie (the NME since you ask) would still hang like the proverbial albatross around the necks of any band daring enough to jangle rather than rock? Any vaguely twee band with cute, usually but not predominantly, female vocals are casually dismissed with the accusation that they’re little more than C86 revivalists. If they can body swerve that they open themselves up to the charge that they’re Sarah Records fellow travellers.

The more sanitised, synthetic and computerised mainstream music becomes the more the discerning music lover yearns for something a little more authentic, a little more organic. In 2012 too much music sounds like it’s been factory produced and packed full of more additivies than a family sized pack of Monster Munch. Thank god for labels like Art Is Hard Records who have an enviable record of unearthing genuine little hand made organic gems like the prolific lo-fi maverik Thomas Crang aka Gorgeous Bully.
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