We gave Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives a call. Here is what happened:

After a five year hiatus from being in the studio, your new single ‘Go Right Ahead’ came out on April 15^th and the album Lex Hives will be coming out in June. How does it feel to be back in the studio?

It did feel good, it was in the winter, it was really great. You have to switch it off, so sometimes you’re in the studio, sometimes you’re on tour. Our tours take a long time so it takes a really long time between being in the studio, so it was really fun and it sounds pretty good. We’re really happy with the result and all of that. Pretty positive right?

What kind of direction are we going with the new album?

It’s rock and roll, yeah it’s a rock and roll direction. It’s a very classical rock and roll, one could say, very much rock and roll.

Are we going back to the roots of the Hives then?

In a way, yeah. Our plan was to make the most ‘Hivesy’ album we could probably like and in order to do that we tried to really search what was good about the Hives and what we liked about the Hives, so it’s a very very Hives influenced album.

That’s good to hear. Where does the name come from ‘Lex Hives’?

The name comes from the Romans, yes the Roman Empire, it’s the fact of enforcing a set of rules and accepting them as standard and that’s basically what we did. We came up with some rules about how to make it ‘Hives’ (laughs) and we applied them. So I thought, coming up with making these rules, it was our way of making it as ‘Hives’ as we could possibly make it.

And how long has it been in the pipeline for?

It took about a year and a half to make it, of which maybe two months was studio time, including mixing, so it wasn’t that many days in the studio. It was mainly a lot of mixing. It wasn’t that many days in the studio but it was a lot of editing, rehearsals, trying to figure out the songs, learning the songs, writing the songs and all that.

So is it quite a natural process or is it actually that you sit down and write them, or do you wait for inspiration to come?

Yeah, you know, you have to have a moment, a spark of inspiration that can come at any time, but then finishing them is a matter of hard work. Hard tedious work.

I can imagine. Some of the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition are produced my Josh Homme. There’s been a lot of talk about this, bands like the Arctic Monkeys went through a Josh Homme producing stage and they came out a completely different band, what kind of influence…

(interrupts) We did a set with Josh and we were…erm… possibly less influenced. I think that the Arctic Monkeys being a different band after being produced by Josh Homme has more to do with them wanting to be a different band, than with Josh Homme. He’s a pretty sensitive guy, sensitive towards what the band wants to do. But we did that after we were finished with our album, we recorded a couple of songs with him just because we’re friends and I wanted to hang out, it was a really good excuse to hang out.

You’ve done around 400 gigs in the last few years, does that kind of stump the creative flow or does it help with the experience of it?

I feel that they are very different things though, I mean I don’t feel like we get better as a band in the studio by touring really, because you have to… What I mean is one is basically inventing and one is reiterating, in a way. One is performing something that you’ve already learnt so it’s very different in that way but you do become better as a band and I feel at this point it would probably be a mistake for us to get better as a band and get tighter, it solves the problem that we’re too tight.

And what are the future plans for the Hives?

Touring again, 400 more and another 400 to finish. I think we’ve done about five.

There’s no rest for you then.

Nope, we don’t do rests. We do rock and roll, we don’t do rests.

Interview by Rob Dewis 

Warm and humming with enthusiasm, the Liverpool O2 Academy is plunged into darkness to accommodate for the familiar ritual of collective agitation. Faces hard with pensive forward stares, the crowd scrutinise the vacant instruments ahead of them, confronted only by the continued swallowing darkness and the prospect of the Glaswegian quartet who muster within. An atmosphere of anticipation pushes heavily on every surface, fastening forward the enthusiastic glares and encouraging a humidity of impatience to simmer throughout the room.

However, for many within the crowd, this heat is not entirely foreign. They would recall the last time alternative rock zealots, Twin Atlantic, headlined at Liverpool, performing at the notoriously sweltering venue, Korova.

Almost two hours earlier I had been sat with drummer, Craig Kneale, who was recalling that same gig. Through his unique yet contagious grin, he confessed: “It was nearly too hot to play”. Describing the experience of playing in Liverpool that night, he contended that it was “Definitely one of the most mental gigs we have ever played”. “It was a tiny little gig and it was really busy. Totally packed out. It was amazing!” added bassist, Ross McNae.

Infact, the venue was so reputably hot that Korova recently burnt down, an incident that Ross playfully puts down to “Too much rock!”

The shifting of bodies onstage is enough to cut the tension, if only for a second. Anxiety had been instantly replaced with a rumble of applause and the shuffling of feet as the feverish crowd condensed. While dry, expectant mouths were quenched by a flooding of incandescent light and the final sip of beer, the audience’s senses aptly heightened.

Frontman, Sam McTrusty, clenching guitar with white knuckles, confidently steps forward under the lamplight to reveal his stature. Fixed and buzzing, Sam makes his introductions, bending each word with his distinctive Scottish accent. Already, Twin Atlantic has indulged the room in their self-assured potential; McTrusty had lived up to the rumours. 

Earlier that evening I had quoted Sam McTrusty’s ambitions to become one of the biggest bands in the world.

“I think we are probably a bit more modest in the way that we say it”, explained Craig. “I think we’ve definitely all got that same aspiration. You can’t aim for a middle-ground. That has to be the eventual goal”.

When asked to describe their most defining moments, Ross immediately suggests Twin Atlantic’s 2009 performance at T in the Park: “It’s a festival we used to go to or would still go to if we weren’t playing. Playing on an actual stage when people have come to see you – that’s the kind of thing that makes you think we are actually in a legitimate band!”

All this isn’t forgetting, of course, the abundance of big-name artists that Twin Atlantic have toured with. When you consider the likes of Blink 182, Smashing Pumpkins, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and The Gaslight Anthem, it becomes clear that the lads are already tremendously accomplished. It comes as no surprise that they are so enthusiastic to get the most out of their own headline tour. UK aside, Craig details their forthcoming European tour dates…

“We were just lucky enough to get the opportunity to support a band called Angels & Airwaves. It’s not actually part of our tour, but it’s obviously an offer you cannot refuse!”

“Some of these places we have never played before, yet all these people are coming to see us. There’s a bit more atmosphere and that’s always really encouraging. Now we know we are going in the right direction”

Glancing around the crowded Academy, the tone generously reflects Twin Atlantic fame.

Collectively, the band take only a few moments to examine the crushing energy the audience push upon them, before throwing us into their new single Edit Me with such vigour that even the lighting engineer hesitates to react. The crowd, already ecstatic with anticipation, erupts with recognition, as the raucous transfers into movement. Onstage, the boys exchange smiles while the hardened frontman stares past stage-lights, bellowing into the crowd: ‘Is that all you’ve got, Liverpool!?!’

When asked about Edit Me Craig explains: “It’s really fun to play… It’s tricky to play. It’s quite an exciting song and short aswell”. Ross promptly admits his excitement with the new material: “It feels like a bit of a progression from the last time aswell. We’re playing two or three new songs this time around. It’s always good to spice things up with new material.”

When I probe over the new album, Free, Ross doesn’t hesitate to guarantee exciting new songs. Wide-eyed, he teases…

“We finished recording with Gil Norton (Foo Fighter, Pixies) five days before Christmas and are now at a point where we are getting mixes bounced backwards and forwards from California. The album will be released May the second. Its sounding really good and we are really really proud of it. Just can’t wait for people to hear it now”

Familiar with Twin Atlantic’s catalogue of music from album Vivarium and EPs before it, these fans are well rehearsed. Unrestrained, they remain visibly hungry throughout the evening. ‘I’m beginning to feel intimidated’, exclaims Sam during one interval.

The set continues with the contagious melodies of popular tracks What is Light? Where is Laughter? and Caribbean War Syndrome, launching sweat and energy from the stage. Craving the impending new material, the audience remains thirsty for the tonal twists in McTrusty’s hard singing-style and the new lyrics that form it. There is simply no denying the unique appeal of that addictive Glaswegian accent, nor the effortlessness with which Twin Atlantic stride the musical spectrum.

Showing no signs of retreat, the boys continue with ‘Lightspeed’.

The audiences cries of “Liaghtspid Liaghtspid!” deflect off Sam as he leans forward to join his fans. Extending out his guitar, he confronts the rush as it grows a flurry of arms.

As You’re Turning into John Wayne came to a close and the lights faded, the crowd composed themselves, returning to an impatient state of whistles and requests. A moment of inactivity onstage vindicates the restlessness in front of it. Not soon enough does the unrelenting quartet return for their encore, Crash Land, a track which, despite its obvious popularity, remains unrecorded. The four are received with the familiar vocal appreciation. Despite all that has passed over the last hour, I was convinced this level of energy could be sustained all night. 

Twin Atlantic are an extremely talented, incredibly enthusiastic group of uncompromising musicians. Given what they have already achieved in such a short space of time, and the stamina with which they realise it, we can all expect even greater things from this Scottish outfit.

After winning Channel Four’s ‘Road to V’, earning the chance to open V Festival ‘06, Bombay Bicycle Club quickly got a strong fan following and their debut album ‘I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ was released three years later. It was worth the wait - mixing classic British indie guitar riffs, unexpected rhythms and the endearing vocals of Jack Steadman, it is often cited as one of the most important independent albums of 2009. The acoustic album ‘Flaws’ followed in 2010 and the more electronically motivated ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ released in 2011, the diversity placing the band as one of the most respected in the country, and Jack as an incredibly talented songwriter.

LSRadio’s Rob Dewis and Becky Pye chat to Jamie MacColl (Guitar) and Ed Nash (Bass) before their Liverpool University performance…

Rob Dewis How are you doing today?

Jamie MacColl  Good thank you… well a little bit hungover actually

Ed Nash   A tiny bit, but as good as things can be. Powering through.

RD It’s the way to be really. Being such a young band, you’re doing a big tour at the moment and have done big tours in the past. How do you cope with the pressures of touring?

EN  Erm… by being hungover apparently. Getting drunk and feeling not so good in the day. Eating lots of food.

JM  I don’t know, we’ve been doing it for a while now, I guess, and we’ve been touring kind of solidly since we left school really, as well as making albums at the same time, so we’re just very busy all the time. But I think, kind of the big touring for us has only really come with this album, in terms of like stepping it up and playing like bigger venues.  So, we’re kind of quite experienced now and it’s just easy really I think.

EN  Just got to get into a routine and everyone has their own tour routine, trying to do some exercise you know, do your own thing.

“…We just threw out a bit of a curveball and said ‘let’s just do something completely different’ and it could have backfired…” 

Becky Pye  Talking about being busy, you guys have been very busy and done three album in a really short space of time for someone so young. How did you deal with the pressures of getting another album out and putting it on tour so quickly?

JM  Erm, I think the main reason we were able to do it was just by changing the sound for each album really, so, erm… you obviously have a long time to write your first album, that little cliché that you have your whole life to write your first album, erm, and I think we just didn’t wanna immediately try and replicate that, and I don’t think you ever can replicate your debut album or the like… I don’t know, the kind of like feel and naivety of it and I think rather than trying to do that we just threw out a bit of a curveball and said let’s just do something completely different…erm and it could have backfired, erm, pretty easily and maybe it did to an extent, like there’s obviously going to be people that don’t like it when a band does that, but I think it was just for ourselves as much as anything else.

 “Our manager made us take it off the internet because it was too rude” 

RD  So for the first album, who were the influences?

EN  It’s kind of the guitar music we grew up listening to, just bands like Broken Social Scene, Modest Mouse, people like that, erm, that we were all into, yeah, we were all into when we started the band.

RD  Is there any one defining artist you can say?

JM  No, I don’t think so. Erm… I think….  if you were, well… probably in terms of like a lot of the guitar playing, probably someone like Pavement, I think for a lot of like chord shapes and stuff, but that’s the only one I can really think of.

EN  I know Tom Vek was a big influence on Jack when he started recording music so I guess he kind of worked his way in.

JM  I think like looking at, we never really have like specific influences that we all like sit around and listen to that band and like we want to sound like that, particularly with the latest album there’s no one band I can think of that we all, or Jack, the songwriter, was listening to, erm it was more like a way of making music I think and, so he’d be listening to a lot of hip-hop and dance music and electronic music and obviously we weren’t going to make a hip-hop album or anything.

RD  Not in the future or anything?

JM  Well, I’m sure he would like to make a hip-hop album actually but..

EN  That’s the next album

JM  Well, yeah, erm, Suren, our drummer, also has a rap side project called D-Twain, so…

RD  So check that out… (JM and EN laugh)

JM  Yep, he has his own Facebook page and there are two songs, one of which is too explicit to be on the internet anymore

EN  Our manager made us take it off the internet because it was too rude

RD  Probably too explicit for our station

JM  Probably, the first one though is pretty clean.

BP  So you’ve talked about the drastic change in sound from the first and second album and listening to your albums you kind of get the feeling that the last track on the first album is like a little teaser to what’s coming up next in ‘Flaws’. Was that intentional, did you mean to give the listeners a little teaser as to what was coming next?

JM  No, I think it was just random, erm, maybe subconsciously.

EN  Someone pointed that out… and the last track on ‘Flaws’ is also electronic which kind of leads onto the next one, but it wasn’t intentional at all. That was pointed out to us afterwards actually.

JM  Yeah we don’t, we’re not that clever (laughs).

RD  You guys started as a school band, can you remember that first cover track you did? 

JM  Yeah, it was a, er, we did two songs, covered two songs at our first gig and one was erm, ‘Cissy Strut’ by the Meters, which is like a funk song. For some reason when we were fourteen or fifteen at school, everyone in a band was like in a funk, terrible funk band.

RD  Was it the Chillis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) influence?

JM  Yeah, everyone went to see the Red Chilli Peppers at Hyde Park I remember, erm, and the other song we did was a Tom Vek song, who I’d mentioned that  we, we kind of stalked Tom Vek a little bit actually when we were younger. We, Jack and I, like went to all his in-stores, and he actually, I bought vinyl of his, I don’t even have a record player, I’m ashamed to say, and he signed it saying ‘good luck with the band’ and I actually showed it to him a couple of months ago, because he’s on the same label as us..

EN  He did a remix for us recently actually

RD  Which track is it, can you remember?

EN  It’s that sleep song

JM  ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’, it’s our latest single

RD  Your past albums, you’ve changed the music with each album. Are there any future plans for the next album? You touched on jokingly an R n’ B track, but is there any truth there?

JM  Actually, the first demo we did for the next album is kind of a bit hip-hop, R n’ B, at least like, the groove of it…. and I have no idea what it will be like. I think personally I’d quite like to have an album that is quite coherent and I thought the last one was maybe trying to do much, just because the first two albums were very different and we wanted to get elements from both of that and then new stuff as well. Erm, so I don’t know if we should just try and stick to one sound, not make an album of songs that sound like one another but just something coherent.

BP  So you were talking about the fact that you guys have travelled a lot and I know that you’ve done a lot of festivals and you’ve started doing bigger venues and reading up on you guys, you’ve done places like India and all over the world. Do you have a favourite place to play, do you have a favourite venue?

JM  Well we haven’t been to India, I should point out (laughs) I’d like to go to India.

RD  Don’t trust Wikipedia (Laughs)

EN  That’s just the name. My favourite place to play, that we’ve played, was in Brazil, Rio De Janeiro. It’s obviously a beautiful place to go to, we got a samba band to play with us. The crowd’s amazing as well, they really appreciate live music.

JM  I think the crowd’s are always best in the UK, personally so… it’s really nice to go to amazing countries and travel the world but I always think the crowds the best here and that’s what makes a good gig I think. Although having said that, the crowds in Australia were very good, but I guess that’s the most anglophile place you go, so maybe that’s just as a result of that. 

EN  You play a show in like a place like Australia or Brazil or anywhere and you’re like ‘wow, people are really nice out here’ and then you go and meet people after the show and they’re all like gap year students from the UK.

RD  Are there any small bands coming up or start up bands that you hotly tip as the next thing?

EN  There’s a band called Dog is Dead, who are playing with us in Ireland later this month - they’re great.

JM  Yeah, they supported us in our last UK tour, I think they will be very good. I always see people say they sound like a mixture of us and Mumford and Sons…

EN  So they must do well

JM  So I think, yeah they’ll probably be very successful… and the two people that are supporting us tonight, two sort of female singer-songwriters I guess, it’s Rae Morris and Lianne Le Havas, and I think they will both do very well as well.

RD  What kind of tips would you give to upcoming artists?

JM  Yeah, I don’t know, we get asked this a lot, particularly because we were quite a young band when we started and obviously there’s so many people in school bands and kind of, that is the dream.

EN  The answer is always very clichéd as well, it’s just have a good time doing it really, I think that’s the best thing to do… and don’t start out a band to try and make it big, I think that completely ruins the point of it.

JM  I think it will always fall apart if you don’t have a shared taste in music and I think that’s probably what’s sustained us, is that fundamentally we like the same kind of music and that’s allowed us to make albums that are different to one another… like we’re not constantly arguing about what kind of music we want to make, so I think that’s probably the most thing, and also just having a good songwriter, because if you don’t have that it’s all pointless, I think. But that’s not something that you can really change, I think that’s just a god given thing, you can work at it, but yeah, I just think personally it’s something that you are born with, and I can’t write songs.

RD  What are the future plans for Bombay Bicycle Club?

EN  We’re going to finish this tour, then we go to Ireland, do two shows there, go and do a tour in Europe and then that’s kind of us done until the Summer festivals start, which is a big part of the UK touring scene and after that tour some more.

EN and JM  Make another album.
EN  Do it all again. Get married and have children.

RD  With each other or..?

EN  Probably, we don’t really know anyone else. It’s pretty sad, we’re all going to live together and die together

Edited by Rob Dewis

For the second year, LSRadio and LSFilm have teamed up to produce a series of sessions with local artists in the run-up to Merseyside’s biggest music festival, Liverpool Soundcity. Over the next four weeks we’ll be releasing four exclusive acoustic sessions with some of the most exciting acts to come out of the city over the last year, all of whom have earned slots at the prestigious music festival. With it’s reputation for championing emerging talent and record label and music press presence high over the three days of live performances, Soundcity is an opportunity for local acts to play to an audience of influential tastemakers in the modern music industry. 

Our aim with this series of Soundcity Sessions is to encourage interest in the local music on offer at the festival. First on our list of must-see acts at this year’s Soundcity…the superb All We Are. 

It’s not often that a band have a European tour booked before their first practice, but with members already well established and respected on Merseyside as individual musicians in their own right, the prospect of a collaboration between Rich, Luis and Guro was enough to prompt Stealing Sheep to invite the three-piece to join them on their jaunt around mainland Europe in June 2011. After two weeks of constant rehearsal, All We Are headed out on tour with a set of beautifully constructed alternative folk tinged with psychedelia and enough delicate harmonies to make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

Since their dramatic inception the band have quite rightly earned a reputation as a hard working collective, honing their sound, recording and producing their own demos, shooting, editing and releasing their own videos. The hard work has clearly paid off as the release of new EP, We Hunt, sees the band’s sound blossom into an altogether more expansive offering. The simple drums and three part harmonies give All We Are an aesthetic bordering on tribal, whilst the influences of traditional folk and more experimental psychedelia remain clear. In a live setting, Rich, Guro and Luis have proved unparalleled, with a sense of uncontrollable euphoria accompanying the few gigs they’ve played in Liverpool to date, a characteristic perhaps best captured in the glorious swelling guitar loops of session trackGo. 

Despite the release of We Hunt  the band show no signs of relenting from their intense work ethic, with new material already in the pipeline and another European tour scheduled for the hazy summer months. This is a band with the drive and motivation to make things happen themselves and the creativity and skill to produce ethereal pop songs destined for bigger things.

Catch them, while you can, on Thursday 17th May, 9pm @ Leaf (Bold Street) as part of Soundcity. Or head down to their EP launch, Saturday 28th April, 7pm @ St Brides Church … I’d recommend both.

Until then you can stream We Hunt for free on http://soundcloud.com/thisisallweare

Next week our Soundcity Session comes from the seemingly unstoppable Ninetails. Visit LSRadio.co.uk next Wednesday to see the band perform an exclusive version of their new single, Blue Bottle Flu, live for LSRadio & LSFilm.

We all know you’re out there. Those cynics amongst us who approach the dreaded February 14th with a mixture of apathy and disgust. After all, it is a poorly disguised capitalist construction designed to tide over the greetings card industry between the twin peaks of Christmas and Easter. True too that it is more romantic to show your loved one that they really are ‘the one’ on any other day of the year when a spontaneous and unexpected romantic gesture might actually be…well…spontaneous and unexpected. Meanwhile the evening spent awkwardly chewing food in a restaurant infested with doe-eyed couples re-enacting Disney’s Lady & The Tramp with their Spaghetti whilst giggling childishly or crying hysterically would certainly not be as unpleasant on any other day of the year.

OK OK, we get it. You hate Valentines. But chill out, it’s not all bad. Here at LSRadio we spent the fourteenth day of the second month of the year with out favourite new infatuations (as well as a few ugly ducklings). So as the roses slowly disintegrate, the chocolates quickly disappear and the greetings cards are carefully placed in a box under your bed, ease yourself back into the real world with a healthy dose of whats hot and whats colder than a misjudged romantic gesture in new music this week…

Single of the Week

M83 // Midnight City

Midnight City is the lead track from M83’s 2011 Album and by God is it a statement of intent. Constructed out of pitched up yelps and siren synth string lines it begins as a howling mess of excitement before dropping into the low and dark voice of Anthony Gonzalez, who’s low key intonation presents an excellent counterpoint to the excitement of its main refrain. Then just as you think it’s slipped away into another chilled out electro song it breaks once more into the excitable mess of synth. It’s a wonderful piece of electro to dance away to; it’s filled with a kind of joy lacking in so many other supposed dancefloor fillers. The fact that it features a saxophone towards the end can only serve to show just how much fun M83 is having with the track, he throws everything into it and it works. (by Louis Van Kleef)

The Shins // Simple Song

The Shins are one of those bands that it’s easy to forget about. It’s been a good four years since their last offering and a whole 16 years since the band first formed, long enough for many bands to form, split, reform then split again with time spare for some bad tabloid press and a youtube viral in between. Still, it’s hard to hold that against Mercer and co when they come back with a single as charming as ‘Simple Song’. Sitting somewhere between Supergrass, classic Elbow and something altogether more theatrical, this track is a-wash with rising harmonies, powerful falsetto and twee piano hooks. Its not exactly groundbreaking. There’s no dubstep drop or guest rap from Azaelia Banks but thats not why we love these pop-rock stalwarts. Simple Song is exactly what it says on the tin, simple, unpretentious, indie rock. Makes a change eh? (by Chris Chadwick)

Scissor Sisters vs. Krystal Pepsy // Shady Love

Believe it or not it’s been nearly 6 years since Jake Shears, Ana Matronic, Baby Daddy and co got their only UK No.1 single (and their last UK top ten) with I Don’t Feel Like Dancing. Bringing it back to 2012, the flamboyant American pop group are back with the help of little known female lyricist-Krystal Pepsy, or as she’s otherwise known, Azealia Banks… ring a bell? Shady Love has everything that we have missed from the Scissor Sisters in recent years -cheeky charisma and endless energy. Tongue twisting rap may be a new direction but It is the chorus that Shears releases the typical ‘Scissor Sisters’ sing along exuberance. Not to mention the choice use of pantomime overdubs for the explicit lyrics. Scissir Sisters are back. Pop just got fun again. (by Rob Dewis)

Lost Prophets // Better Off Dead

Better Off Dead’ is surely a phrase now more than familiar to Lost Prophets front man Ian Watkins. The difficulties the band have had in penning this, their fifth studio offering, have been well documented in interviews and insider pages with whole albums scrapped, producers sacked and band relations undoubtedly strained. It’s no wonder then, that with an album entitled ‘Weapons’, the Welsh rockers have come out fighting with theIR first single. ‘Better Off Dead’ is a return to form for a band that seem to have struggled with a crisis of identity of late. Sounding more in line with debut album ‘The Fake Sound of Progress’ than the more conservative pop-rock they’ve churned out since, this is aggressive drums, raucous vocals and relentless guitar riffs. It’s desperate, clawing and oh so catchy. Despite its formidable sound its difficult to digest. Perhaps its because of the time and toll its taken to produce this record but ‘Better Off Dead’ falls short of feeling authentic. Audiences will want to believe this kind of music has fallen fully formed out of a garage, thrashed out by angry men with big ideas such that the reality that it was carefully crafted over several years and much thought by a band who have consistently tried to reinvent themselves is disappointing and disheartening. Lost Prophets may be back and fighting but only time will tell if it’s for a ‘lost’ cause. (by Chris Chadwick

Lana Del Rey // Born To Die

Under her given name, Lizzy Grant was unheard of. Reinvented under the moniker of Lana Del Rey and all traces of Grant erased, Del Rey is the topic of much controversy. It’s no secret that critics are pulling Del Rey apart as we speak and probably rightly so. Big things were expected from her following the early release of singles Video Games and Blue Jeans but her single Born To Die is a disappointment. As much as most people loathe jumping on the bandwagon, you can’t help but feel simply unimpressed after listening to this single. For a song that titles her recently released album, Born To Die was expected to be something magnificent and it fell short of those expectations.

The first minute and a half of the song is pretty captivating, filled with deep dark sounds, definitive beats and Del Rey’s signature murmur. This first ninety seconds seem to promise an atmospheric and enchanting song. But no, it reverts back to quiet, repetitive and somewhat boring for the next four minutes. Born To Die is on the brink of being something musically beautiful but it’s not quite hitting the spot.

Putting a finger on which genre this song fits into is a tough one. Del Rey begins on a classical note, moving to pop through to a combination of violins with trance-esque sounds floating around in the background,  all of course accompanied by her male backing singer who crops up occasionally. But hey, maybe that’s the point. Maybe we aren’t supposed to be able to put our thumb on what sound Born To Die actually is. For some, that may add to the mystery of Del Rey but this side of the pond – just frustration. This single feels as though it could be something huge and it just isn’t. One cannot help but feel sheer dissatisfaction with Del Rey’s efforts this time around. (by Leanne Cook)

King Charles // Love Blood

King of Odd Indie, King Charles, is back with a bang. ‘Love Blood’ is a crunchy nuggest of sunshine pop complete with calypso rhythms and euphoric melodies. In places, the shimmering guitar and backing vocals on this track have more in common with reggae than with the ‘indie’ clique into which King Charles is often awkwardly packaged. It’s hardly suprising from a new artist who consistently defies expectations and refuses to be consistent, conservative and let’s face it…boring. Looks like the doctor has ordered a healthy dose of ‘Love Blood’ as a cure for those cold February blues. (by Chris Chadwick)

EP/Album Reviews

Caomhe // Untitled EP

Ola Amigos! Seen as it’s a Monday and we know you love free stuff, LSRadio are giving away two tickets to see one of the most hotly tipped bands of 2012 live in Liverpool. Spector play the Kazimier on 22nd February and you could be there for free! All you have to do is answer one simple question…

What instrument do the band throw off a sand-dune in the video for new single, Chevy Thunder?

Could it be any simpler? Watch the video below and email your answers to music@lsradio.co.uk

(The Boring Bit… Entries close at Midday on Tuesday 21st February 2012. Winners will be picked at random and emailed the same day. Participants must be over 18 and available on 22nd February for Spector’s show at The Kazimier, Liverpool.)

LSRadio’s Tom Collier explores the reasons for vinyls continued popularity despite the digitisation of the modern music industry. 

The noughties have not been kind to the music industry. Unfortunately my ears are all too often polluted with music which pushes no boundaries except those of my personal sanity. In a time of bafflingly consistent popularity for shows like The X Factor and industry constructed artists such as The Wanted, old British institutions such as HMV and local independent record stores alike are having to fight hard to stay alive in an age where apparently the best way to get hold of new music is to illegally download it, rather than buy a physical copy. Or is it?!

Perhaps surprisingly, 2011 was reported as a six-year high for vinyl record sales in the UK, with 341,000 12” LPs sold last year. I personally contributed to just 5 of the 341,000 12” sales. Clearly then, I am not the only one taken by the format. The question is, why is vinyl so appealing to myself and hundreds of thousands of others when music is so much easier to access (and so much cheaper to acquire) electronically?

Actually, the effort it takes to walk/drive/train to your nearest record store makes the end reward all the sweeter; “the pleasure of pursuit”. If you too have become a sucker for a round cut of polyvinyl chloride then the joys of spending hours hand-picking your way through the scattered organisation of independent record stores will not be lost on you. The thrill of conquest is not however not diminished by the pleasure of pursuit, because when you do find that rare Bowie/Jagger 7” collaboration on a chance visit to a Dutch record store whilst in Amsterdam (as in the case of my equally besotted brother) you then realise why you love vinyl so dearly.

To have and to hold, until death do us part: THIS is the commitment you can make to a physical vinyl. Rather than simply hearing the music, with vinyl you experience the music – not just in the superior audio but in a graphic and physical sense too. Vinyl gives you something a basic download cannot - the album artwork alone tells you so much that a computer or iPod screen cannot. Vinyl should be held, with hours spent poring over it, delivering the attention it deserves. Last year I purchased The Horrors’ ‘Skying’, which featured a beautiful image of the sea and the sky, interrupted only by the embossed shine of the word ‘Skying’ across the middle. This level of thought and love infinitely enhances the appearance and feel of the record. Minor details? Maybe, but for a fan of vinyl these details are what makes the format so attractive. Vinyl feels special.

The speciality and authenticity of vinyl is only now becoming obvious as our disillusionment with the state of the charts instils a responsibility to react against the auto-tuned and manufactured chart heavyweights. This authenticity is a particular draw for the more obsessive musical fans amongst us – when artists such as The Smiths or Radiohead produce gorgeous rarities for Record Store Day, their fan bases will go wild. Indeed, I travelled from my Shropshire hometown all the way to Birmingham and joined a queue of hundreds in order to get what I wanted.

Events like Record Store Day are obviously positive for independent stores; a unique advertisement to those who are usually ignorant to vinyl’s appeal. True, 2011 was a six-year high for vinyl sales, but having said that, RSD 2011 was responsible for thousands of these units thanks to contributions from global acts like New Order, Foo Fighters, and Queen. The top 10 bestselling vinyl records also hints that 2011 may go down as a fluky peak in the ‘vinyl revival’; Adele’s unbelievably popular ’21’ was number 3, while high profile re-issues from Pink Floyd and Nirvana also sold well.

Nevertheless, market experts maintain that vinyl sales look set to remain steady for the foreseeable future, and HMV have even announced that they will be stocking more of the beloved format. Though Liverpool is not shy of independent record shops (Probe/3Beat/The Music Consortium), the news that vinyl looks set to become more accessible to us all will ensure the safety of our ears and the lightness of our wallets for years to come.  

by Tom Collier

Single Reviews:

Submotion Orchestra // Always

Jittery drum beats, jazzy piano/saxophone and Soul II Soul-y vocals…it’s hard to have a better introduction to this ‘Leodensian’ progressive-dubstep act.  My only quibble is that the track never really seems to progress or change throughout. Sadly the Synkro remix doesn’t really add much to the original, but the Laxx remix is, to not be overly hyperbolic,  flippin’ awesome. Starting off with eerie ambience, you wait for that absolutely cavernous dub bass line to kick in only to hear the track mutate into some freaky dub-acid house hybrid. It’s perfect. (By Laurence Cheesman.)

Patrick Wolf // Together

Having released his last album Lupercalia in April earlier this year- which on the whole, achieved encouraging reviews, there is hope for great things from the release of his new EP Brumelia, out December 4th. The track list includes songs he has written over the last year and also features a song he wrong whilst travelling through the swamps of Florida. One song that may seem familiar however, is “Together”, which Wolf has reworked especially for the release of the EP. With his renowned baritone voice and beautifully put together strings, “Together” is a romantic indie pop song, in which Patrick’s broody lyrics and electronic composition merge to form a single which meets the high expectations of the new release. (By Tilly Sharp)

Album Reviews:

Low Level Flight // Through These Walls

With its funky looking art-work, Through these Walls was looking promising. The start was pretty hopeful, all rolling drums and epic guitars in the intro to album opener Cash Machine. And then the vocals come in. Oh! The vocals…they sound like the worst kind of late 90s American wimp-punk and the kind of chant-alongs that belong solely in the realm of Blink-182 and jimmy Eat World. Exit, Raining Castles and the songs that follow are in the same vein; varying between a lacklustre amalgam of early-naughties dance-punk and Fugazi, and the sort of beige landfill indie that flooded the charts a few years back. With added whining. However, when picked apart each song could be pretty darn good, but one minute it’s moody-teen angst-rock, then all of a sudden it goes Editors, and for reasons known only to the band, it transmogrifies to shouty, laddy ‘indeh’…all in the space of a minute. That pretty much sums up the whole album too; it comes off as trying to appeal to too many people and attracting no-one. It should be great but it just isn’t. (By Laurence Cheesman.)

Smoove and Turrell // Eccentric Audio

Eccentric Audio is definitely eccentric. Its opening song Higher sets the groovy vibe within seconds of pressing play, its up-tempo style creating the same sort of feel as Beggin’ by Madcon - catchy, dancey, fun. The instruments put together for the songs – particularly the electric guitar and percussion – bring Jimmy Hendrix’s funky style back to life. The instruments are also a great accompaniment to the lead singer’s voice, which has a kind of retro, husky feel to it at times- the guy sure has range in his voice-what a set of lungs! It’s that sort of album that will make you want to stand on a chair and dance with joy -very feel good. There are also calmer sounds on Eccentric Audio, for example, Wasted Man put more emphasis on the main singer’s voice - you can hear his pain and passion. To give perhaps a bit of criticism I would say shame about the disc being scratched and causing some songs to be inaudible. Neverthless, these artists are all about the funk; singing about feeling it “deep in your soul” and mixing guitar blues into a more contemporary, R&B sound. Very original and very fluid. Stand back Joss Stone; Smoove and Turrell are the new sound of soul and they mean business. (By Kat Koumourou)

Stealing Sheep are a female trio from Liverpool. Becky, Emily & Lucy, armed with Casio keyboards and Yamaha synths, create lo-fi atmospheric pop that evokes the 1960’s of hippies and the velvets.  Swirling guitars, hypnotic beats and beautifully quirky harmonies, Stealing Sheep are fresh in their approach of utilizing past trends and taking inspiration to create something totally left-field and new. Recording songs in abandoned buildings here in Liverpool using retro cassettes and experimental recording techniques, they create warm layered and at times, eerie sounds. The band released their debut ‘Noah and the Paper Moon’ only a year after forming, which suggests this is a band with a clear vision and the impetus to make things happen.

The highlight of their glistening debut album comes courtesy of lead single ‘I Am The Rain’, which with its downbeat percussion and mesmerising vocals is a cleverly worked cross between modern indie folk stalwarts Fleet Foxes and classic Nico era Velvet Underground. These types of reviews always beg for more contemporary comparisons (a file next to section maybe?), however Stealing Sheep seem to me, simply too unique and in their own magical and mystical world to be bracketed alongside other far more bland nu-folkies.

Stealing Sheep’s debut LP ‘Noah & the Paper Moon’ is out now on iTunes and available on vinyl and other physical formats from Probe Records (Liverpool).

The band play the Kazimier in Liverpool on 8th March 2012.

By Leo Gibbons-Plowright

Despite our apparent preoccupation with music making global waves in both our reviews and playlist content, LSRadio’s heart is rooted firmly in Liverpool and, as such, beats to the sound of local music. This illustrious musical city has produced some truly ground-breaking talent from the Fab Four to the Wombats. With new bands a constant on Liverpool’s ever changing landscape we’ve been hard at work with our ears to the ground to find the most promising acts who might just be next in taking their music from their Mersey base to the big bad world of Britain and beyond.

First on our list of acts oozing star quality and pop potential? Super Cannes.

 Super-Cannes, named after a JG Ballard novel, consists of Richie; lead vocals and guitar, Davy, lead guitar, Billy, bass guitar and Jams, drums. Huge devotees of Radiohead, this strikingly comes across in their sound, which is a mix of the brooding, the anxious and jittery. Songs such as When People Die In Small Rooms with its ominous bass rumble lingering over sharp guitar stabs and Richie’s inauspicious vocal performance create a truly claustrophobic atmosphere, a theme common throughout their debut EP. Vocalist Richie himself put it in one interview that there is a ‘melancholy undertow’ in the lyrics of the band and even in their more up-tempo songs there is vulnerability lurking behind some of the dark boots and leather jacket posturing that fronts the stage. If you only listen to just one track then New York-London-Paris-Tokyo is the stand out feature and contains all the Super-Cannes trademarks, Jams tight militarist drums, Davy’s swirling guitar effects and Richie’s intense baritone.

Described by BBC Merseyside presenter Dave Monk as ‘a group you really have to listen to’, Super Cannes are carrying on the fine tradition in Liverpool of superb Neo-Psychedelia acts such as The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen and I for one hope their star continues to rise.

Their debut EP ‘Idee Fix’ is out now. 

New York-London-Paris-Tokyo- by supercannes

by Leo Gibbons-Plowright