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Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Single/Download Review

Little My/ The Miserable Rich/ Yeti Lane/ Horowitz/ Myelin Sheaths/ The Beachniks
Singles roundup

Article written by Ged M - Mar 10, 2010

Bubblier than a box of Aeros, Little My are Harri from The School and a group of Cardiff friends - anything between 8 and 20 of them, usually dressed in animal outfits and playing what sounds like the contents of a musical toybox. 'Little My's Ninth' (Bubblewrap Records) is the penultimate release from them; their self-programmed death wish means they'll wind up after 10 releases and 26 songs, each song beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Their last gig (4 years from their first one) is this month too, in Cardiff. The four songs here range from the scratchy, old-timey 'Upsticks and Carry On' to the frantic 'Bears In The Air', sounding like the product of a Belle & Sebastian meets Arcade Fire supergroup. Best of all is the sighing folk of 'Quiet Times B', all boy-girl harmonies and woozy violin. It's for celestial songs like this that they'll be remembered fondly when they're gone. Myspace

‘Somerhill’ by Brighton’s The Miserable Rich (Humble Soul Records 7”) is pastoral chamber-pop from small town England. There are nice orchestral touches but it swirls around quite aimlessly. It’s in the same mould as the Leisure Society but, compared to Nick Hemming’s strong pop sense, it’s a little dull. Myspace

I wasn’t a big fan of Yeti Lane’s debut single but the Parisians have pulled it out of the hat with psych-pop ‘First Rate Pretender’ (Sonic Cathedral Recordings). If the Shins timeslipped back to late 60s London and dropped mandrax with Syd Barrett they might have come up with this sonorous psychedelic epistle. The effects-laden remix by North Atlantic Oscillation on the other side can only be described as “space-gaze”. Myspace

‘How to Look Imploring’ by Horowitz (Cloudberry Records 7”) fizzes out of the speakers like a can of shaken up C86 cola, all trebly guitars and frantic percussion. I like it – I know exactly where it comes from, but I still like it. And the other side is even better; ‘The Drunks Are Writing Punk Songs’ is a sly take on a Tullycraft title but comes over as joyful, fuzzy MBV/ Primitives noise-pop. If you buy into Cloudberry’s “Popkids of the World Unite!” slogan, this will be playing at the party rally. Myspace

When they sing it out letter-by-letter (“M-E-N-T-A-L-T-W-I-S-T!)”, they might be inventing some new gluesniffer’s dance craze. ‘Do the Mental Twist’ (Hozac Records 7”) by Alberta, Canada’s Myelin Sheaths is a thunder-roll of primitive rock, a splice of the Cramps and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Sidewalking’. A raucous and sweaty blast of teen sass, it has guitars moaning like condemned men on the gallows. ‘I Don’t Wanna Have An Operation’ is Ramones-strength punky pop with the girl singer (Martine or Cassandra) spitting fire, while ‘Drugstore/Pharmacy’ is riffy, thumping energy punk. This prairie pop is superb stuff. Myspace

The Beachniks include members of German Measles and Crystal Stilts and their EP (Captured Tracks 7") has a rousing lo-fi DIY pop sound. The beach songs on the A-side - 'Brighton Beach' and 'Coney Island' are short and ultra simple: just scratchy guitar, beaten biscuit tins (I don't think there's a drumkit!), cheap organ and sprite-bright vocals, hymning the joys of the beach. There's a slightly darker tone to the B-side: 'I Can't Stand You' is longer though no less DIY, and the way that the girls cut in on the spiky chorus is very Bearsuit-esque, while 'L8' is almost Swell Maps-style punk-pop. It's cheap, cute, disposable pop music but fun too. Myspace

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