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Tonight was my first visit to The Bullingdon Arms – a good venue to get up close and a great gig too. Al and I both enjoyed it. Brakes were fired up from the first song. Tight and tallented with terrific tunes. Who knows what their reference points are or what their record collections must hold, but I heard everything from spikey ’80s Brit pop to midwestern folk ballards. Their heavier / faster songs sounded best to me and their new single ‘Hey, Hey, Hey’ was a real standout song and deserves to be played-out on more than just niche … Continue Reading

The Thekla is a great venue. The staff are friendly and every time I’ve been there has been a good atmosphere. The Secret Machines opened with Dreaming of Dreaming and played songs from all three albums ending with a pounding version of First Wave Intact. As always there was no chat from the band and they were back-lit with bright white lights throughout the show. The only nod to stage theatricality being some intense strobe lights during the encore (can’t remember which song).

But the music was far from monochromatic. Sometimes … Continue Reading

It’s that time of year when a young mans thoughts turn once again to seeds. Amongst other things, I’ve just ordered Mangetout, Oregon Sugar Pod. They were by far the most reliable peas last year and sowing them in succession worked well, though they were probably helped by the wet summer. After two years of failures with growing melons both outside and in an unheated greenhouse I’m going to switch to growing Cucumber – Tiffany F1 Hybrid, and yellow Sweet Peppers – Peperone Jolly Giallo F1 Hybrid. This, of course, guarantees a long hot summer.

I’ll get my seed potatoes this … Continue Reading

My Klein Pulse is over ten years old now and in that time I haven’t had to make any major changes to the components. But this spring it’s going to get a few new bits. First, and easiest, thing to change is the pedals. The old bear-trap stype pedals that came with the bike did well to last this long, but the bearings eventually went and so I wanted to replace them. For the last few years I’ve been riding without toe-clips so I had a look at a few platform pedals. … Continue Reading

What is more alternative? A Californian psychedelic pop band with a Cambodian chanteuse and a Super Mario look-a-like on keyboards playing whacked-out Asian surf riffs, or a boozed up devil-may-care audience of waist-coated old-Etonians and some Windsonian space cadet doing wierd slow-mo hand jiving?

I’m not sure, but both were equally entertaining. Who knows what each thought of the other. We felt like outsiders looking in – but in a nice way. It’s a great venue – the old Fire Station in the centre of Windsor. A fun night out, good call … Continue Reading

Truck 2008 was good fun. The weather held out, and the bands in the Barn on Sunday, The Tambourines, and particularly The Early Years and Maps were really enjoyable.

Half an hour was just too short for The Early Years, they only had time for 6 or 7 songs. They played both songs from their new double-A sided single, ‘Like a Suicide’ and ‘The computer voice’ and both worked really well live, particularly ‘Like a suicide’, but there weren’t any other new songs from their upcoming album, which was a … Continue Reading

These are my last five suggestions for Truck next weekend. If you want other peoples suggestions for must see acts, go to the Truck forum.

7. Maps. Simple, melodic but pristine synth sounds. No idea how good they will sound live, but I’m sure they’ll be worth a listen. They’re headlining the Sonic Cathedral Sunday Service in the Barn.

To the sky | You don’t know her name

8. The Nextmen. If you want a dance, they are your best chance (apart from altern8). Not sure how they will go down with a mainly indie crowd, but I think Al … Continue Reading

As a festival going experience Wireless is fairly sterile. The music is consumed along with the passive intake of corporate, mainly mobile-based, marketing. There is no opportunity for the festival goers to contribute to the festival or to make something of the shared experience above spending money. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that the music can’t be good. Underworld delivered a fine 90 minute festival set. Highlights for me included Crocodile, Two Months Off, and, a current live favourite of mine, Rowla…. Continue Reading

So here are three more suggestions for Truck 11.

4. The Tamborines. They are part of the Sonic Cathedral Sunday Service at Truck. I missed the single Sally O’Gannon first time round, but really like their ‘fuzz guitar and synth heavy indie sound’. According to their last.fm bio, they’ve supported the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Warlocks, and Mark Gardner provides some of the backing vocals on Sally O’Gannon, so that should tell you what to expect from them live.

Tour diary from Oxford, 2006 | Mark Gardner

5. Spectrum (Sonic Boom). As it says on his Myspace … Continue Reading

With over 100 acts listed on the Truck Myspace page where do you begin? Over the next week or so I thought I’d try and pick 11 bands that would be worth watching. So here are the first three.

1. The Early Years. They are part of Sonic Cathedral’s Sunday Service at Truck, in the Barn on Sunday afternoon and evening. I think that the’re one of the most underrated indie bands of the last few years. Apparently The Early Years declared vision (last.fm) is to create washes of psychadelic guitar noises meshed in with feedback, drones, distortion … Continue Reading