I have a very strong emotional attachment to many of the releases listed below. Choosing this list was exceptionally tough; I’ve been fortunate to discover some incredible bands and artists over the past year, and it’s safe to say that outside this list lie a great many immense tunes that can be found via a quick browse through TMMP’s archives when you’re done with this lot. However, the following choices are the cream of the crop. Read more…
Cute. Cheerful. Bright and sunny. Nice. Win Some X Lose Some is none of these things. Read more…
Hardcore isn’t normally the kind of music I can get into outside of live shows – but with this track, Palm Reader just became an exception to that rule. Maybe it’s the ultra-complex DEP-meets-the-theme-from-28–Days–Later vibe; maybe it’s my fresh, indignant anger at YouTube’s incessant insistence that I spend my time on their site consuming some Creationism-endorsing crapfest; or maybe it’s the bleakly abstract video below efficiently complementing this track’s relentless and ear-rending catharsis. Well, whatever – I Watch The Fire Chase My Tongue is fucking excellent, and if this is just a taste of what to expect from Palm Reader’s next album (Beside The Ones We Love, due out in 2015), then it’s also a reason to get very goddamn excited indeed. Read more…
Some shows are born special. Although I’m relatively new to The Hell, I’ve already become hopelessly addicted to their latest album (reviewed here) – so nothing short of a bad case of death was going to stop this show (the first of The Hell’s A Shitemare Before Christmas tour) from getting featured on TMMP. Read more…
I love bands that mean it. Cold Summer have spent a fair few years working on themselves – and on Car Crash (In Progress), it really shows. Polished and professional yet still raw, passionate, and in your face, this is a total barnstormer of a song that you need to check out right now.
Scroll down, click the link, press play, and be swept away. Read more…
Musicians have been courting controversy for a long time. Legendary Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini made his name as “The Devil’s Violinist”; Elvis’s hip-swinging performances were the cause of public outcry in the 1950s; Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine High School Massacre; and every week brings a new celeb-mag revelation about Rihanna and whatever she’s wearing (or not wearing) right now. But these guys may have overstepped the line. Read more…
When checking out a female-fronted band, it can often be hard to focus on the music. Frankly, in such situations it’s common for everything except the vocalist’s makeup to suck horrifically. After all, it’s a sad (if unsurprising) fact that sex appeal sells – and many acts aren’t above milking said time-honoured marketing ploy until it’s dry, shrivelled, and flaccid.
Thank god, then, that Fine Fine Titans are above that bullshit. Read more…
When two of the bands on a three-band bill spell their names in full caps, you know – or, at least, hope – that it’s going to be a) LOUD, and b) EPIC.
Last night was both loud and epic. I’ve seen some great bands over the last few nights, but this show topped the lot. A range of rock styles were unleashed, and between-set conversations were had about honey badgers, Morgan Freeman on helium, housemates sharing their homemade porn (this was a conversation topic, not something that happened at the show), and a band that don’t exist called Sex Rambo. At the end of this review, I’ll try to sum up how epic this all was in mere words. But for now… Read more…
Fiction
The first time I saw her, I was stunned. She is very angular, especially her face. A perfectly diagonal fringe, razor sharp forty-five-degree edge over diamonds of stark white eye shadow. Precisely defined cheekbones flanking thin, horizontal lips. Black lipstick. A mathematically immaculate kind of beauty – the type that in more primitive times might have been hailed as proof of the existence of some deity or other. Read more…
Moving on from yesterday’s odd pairing of Guildfordian pop divadom and West Virginian freak show excess, we now come face to face with a set of up and coming talents from the UK’s burgeoning metal scene. Read more…