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Timber Timbre at Muziekgieterij, Maastricht - an interview
interview

Timber Timbre at Muziekgieterij, Maastricht - an interview

What is going on? I will arrive later in Maastricht, Netherlands, than the band itself, Timber Timbre, who have travelled all the way from Switzerland…Holiday traffic jams, roadworks galore and then a city thronging with people and coaches from all over Europe. Ah, the city’s greatest son, André Rieu is playing his hometown in a beautiful old open air setting slap bang in the middle of the city. Masses of fans queue up and populate every, and I mean every, restaurant and cafe in town. Will there

· Alice Peters-Burns · 8 min Canada Future Pollution

Introducing Lemonade Kid, Oblong, Lusterlit

Three very different artists on the blog with new releases today or rather tonight – but all of them involved in music with the sheer joy and dedication that you would expect from any musicians but would not find so often in the fodder that is fed to us in the charts. Please make yourself acquainted with Lemonade Kid, Oblong and Lusterlit. Lemonade Kid Lemonade Kid hail from gorgeous Shrewsbury in the UK. Fresh from the press is their new EP “Program Electricity” after a busy last year inclu

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min Indie Lemonade Kid

The Trouble With Templeton, Richard Osborn & New Apostles

On Offbeat’s turntable in January you’ll find a bit of everything. What the songs have in common is that they provide heart and soul with much needed warmth. Offbeat Music Blog introduces new releases to you: The Trouble With Templeton, Richard Osborn & New Apostles. The Trouble With Templeton – Someday, Buddy (Bella Union) The trouble with The Trouble With Templeton‘s release “Someday, Buddy” (Bella Union) was that it was released pre-Christmas during the usual end of year lull. So it went

· Alice Peters-Burns · 3 min Indie music
On The Turntable In Summer

On The Turntable In Summer

As the world is going mad and it never ceases raining here, it seems, I am in dire need of music. I don’t know about you. So, before I flee to rest, enjoy and also discover new music hopefully, I will leave you with some recommendations for the summer months. Now is the time to dig into the music as the flood of new releases subsides. So: On the turntable in summer. 50FOOTWAVE Kristin Hersh first emerged together with Tanya Donelly as Throwing Muses and has since delivered a steady stream

· Alice Peters-Burns · 5 min Dark Narrows Indie

Ask For Joy, Fallon Cush and This Modern Hope

Ask For Joy, Fallon Cush and This Modern Hope all have great news and music for you this month! Without further ado: Ask For Joy Aaron Rossetto from Austin, Texas is both a multi-instrumentalist and producer. In 2005, he founded Ask For Joy. Ask for Joy is clearly influenced by such wonderful bands as The Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. With an assured knack for melodies, Ask For Joy release their album New Private Window this month. There can never be a guitar too many with

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min Ask For Joy Fallon Cush
Villagers gig review and interview
interview

Villagers gig review and interview

Villagers gig review and interview Villagers are taking their album “Where Have You Been All My Life?” on tour. The album was a selection of old and new songs recorded live in the studio. Same applies to the concerts on this tour. I had the opportunity to see one of the gigs in Düsseldorf, Germany, at the beautiful ZAKK centre. Let me just say, grab the chance to see Villagers on this tour. You’ll get a great support act, the Ye Vagabonds, a beautiful ascending set of Villagers’ songs showin

· Alice Peters-Burns · 11 min Conor O'Brien Domino
Interview with The Maccabees in Cologne
interview

Interview with The Maccabees in Cologne

The Maccabees seem to be engulfed by opposites: London lads who grew up liking The Libertines, starting to make music at an early age and having been musicians ever since. Their fanbase growing up with them but still counting fans much younger than themselves. All this leads to the expectation that we will find a laddish band. On the other hand most boast rather elegant first names, certainly enjoyed quite a privileged upbringing and yet they pull it off in the North of England as well since t

· Alice Peters-Burns · 10 min Cologne gig
More music from Glasgow: Yaya Club

More music from Glasgow: Yaya Club

Darren Vincent moved from his native High Lands to Glasgow, venue city, media hotpot, centre of creativity in Scotland. There the singer-songwriter, so he says, can often be found baking banana bread (yummy) and stealing the neighbour’s cat – I hope the two are not connected in any way. He performs under the moniker of Yaya Club. His first release was the EP “Poor Sheesht”, pure American tradition, beautifully rendered. Then followed “Born In The Eighties” featuring a lush band sound. The man

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min country Folk
Whale Bones

Whale Bones

Whale Bones are just a two-some: Nathan Kane on vocals/guitar and Paul Lierman on drums. Not to be mixed up with Whalebones in one word, please! Whale Bones are at home in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. and they make this rocking, rich, lush, warm music that only can come from the US. Drums are being drummed, guitar is being played and lyrics and melodies are being sung and not just so but intensely  with an aptitude for a fine melodious alternative rock song. May I thank them here for letting m

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min Bloomington Indiana
Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler Interview

Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler Interview

Somewhere I read that only real music nerds into a certain kind of music who have a pastime of perusing credits will have heard of Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler. In my humble opinion, anyone who listens to music could not fail to come across the two lately. Mary Lattimore is a harpist who plays her extraordinary instrument with virtuosity beyond all genres. She played with Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Sharon van Etten, Meg Baird, to name but a few. She also released her EP The Wi

· Alice Peters-Burns · 9 min Bloomington Indiana
Brilliant new video for "Howl" by Jay Woodward

Brilliant new video for "Howl" by Jay Woodward

One of my first blog posts in this wee blog was on Jay Woodward from California, master songwriter and producer. His album “Letters We Told” still accompanies me everywhere as there is so much to discover behind the slick yet not overdone production both musically and lyricwise. My fondness for Jay Woodward‘s music is shared by many many fans and people seem to have taken a particular liking to the song “Howl” (including me). Without blathering on too much and manipulating you (as if I would),

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min alternative California

All Sparks Burn Out & Lights That Change

Very tempted on this Saturday evening to cuddle up on the sofa but I dutifully sit here and work my way through the piles of wonderful music I received this week. Now, I could pester you with the amazing new album by Patrick Watson called “Love Songs For Robots” but a) you can listen to that in my programme on www.byte.fm on Monday, 5-6 pm CET or all week on ByteFM actually, as it will be album of the week. It takes some time to open up to you, that album, but the journey is undoubtedly a very e

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min alternative Lights That Change
Valise

Valise

Do Valise take their name from the French for “suitcase”? Search me, I dunno. I could pack one or two of those though on a dreary, cold, rainy Monday and travel to the US to see that band play. Guys, any chance, you will grace our shores in Europe? Enlighten us, you beg? Certainly. Vince Penick, Jared Travis, Casey Newton, Ricky Johnson hail from Dallas, Texas. They met in school and quickly ditched their studies to make music. They are on tour and their live shows – so I hear – are somethin

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min band Indie
Lisbon Kid

Lisbon Kid

Now, I am not an expert on electronic music at all but I know what I like. So basically I can only tell you what I really love about Lisbon Kid‘s music other than impressing you with the fine-tuned vocabulary of the genre. Then again, Lisbon Kid do not really fit into any genre, starting from calling themselves alternative acoustic electronica duo. Lisbon Kid consist of Danny de Matos and Rui da Silva who indeed hail from Portugal. They are both musicians and producers and now live in London.

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min electronica Event Horizon

Baltimore & Philadelphia - Dark Narrows & The Morelings

Does Baltimore, Maryland, USA, really take its name from the tiny Baltimore, Co. Cork in Ireland? Baltimore in Ireland is a bit of a meeting point for musicians, thus, projecting this onto a much much larger scale, the music scene in Baltimore, USA, must be gigantic. Indeed, you will find many artists in Baltimore and of a wide spectrum. Lately, the fantastic Future Islands have been making waves with there unique brand of 80s synth pop meets the new millennium, their album “Singles” and above

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min Baltimore Dark Narrows
Franka De Mille

Franka De Mille

Franka de Mille could make me utterly depressed. How can a woman be so gorgeous, possess such a voice, such talent, such a stage persona and yet be so utterly down-to-earth and friendly. It being that and of course her songs lift me up. The only thing that does depress me then, is why is the woman not at a star in the making at once? Franka De Mille is a London singer, songwriter and composer with THAT voice and very personal lyrics. She has a good knack on melodies which are bordering classic

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min Americana Bridge the roads
Review: J.P. Kallio "After The Storm"

Review: J.P. Kallio "After The Storm"

In our fast-paced, multimedia, multitasking, ready-to-consume world, we hardly ever take the time to engage with anything profoundly and solely. From my own experience I know for instance that there are only few listeners to my radio programmes who just do that: Sit and listen. It is the plight of the singer-songwriter therefore, especially when performing live that his music is taken as a kind of pleasant background noise. Who needs the stories anyhow, told in the folk tradition of rendering

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min after the storm country
Captain Wilberforce

Captain Wilberforce

How to write a blog post about someone who does an excellent blog on new bands himself? Who does? Simon Bristoll does in the aptly named “Honey and Bile“! Kudos to the accomplished musician and blogger on many new bands himself by at least saying a few words and maybe bringing his music to a couple more ears. I know him first and foremost as Captain Wilberforce, releasing songs with an assured nod to the songwriting craftmanship of the sixties. For me also XTC and Elvis Costello spring to mind

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min captain wilberforce music
Warehouse Eyes

Warehouse Eyes

There are indeed people who will shriek away from the description “dream pop” and I wonder since when dreams and pop have become something, well, not sinister, but cheap. It could also mean lovely music that makes you daydream – ethereal sounds – perfect in other words. This is what Warehouse Eyes do: Exquisite music that opens up slowly and does not begin to fade after repeated listening. Add to that lyrics about heartbreak and hallucinations (sic!) and a delicate haunting voice and you are a

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min carvings. offbeat music
Kurt Vile

Kurt Vile

You know that attitude of some fans of alternative music? A band becomes bigger – they are not selling out; their music does not become unbearable; they do not become nasty or pontificating. They just become better known, hit the charts, play in bigger venues. And  then indie nerd has had it! They are no longer interesting to him/her. Is it that the proud parent momentum is lost and the other fans are unworthy? I truly cannot answer that question. Look at The War On Drugs: Yes, their album “Lo

· Alice Peters-Burns · 3 min Kurt Vile music
Liu Bei

Liu Bei

What it is like to work for a non-commercial radio station? Well, it is a lot of, er, work that we do enjoy immensely, however. And it is unpaid which of course we do not enjoy a lot. Then again, we live without playlists which is wonderful. We are right there at the pulse of music and music pulses our blood if I may say so clumsily poetically on the first spring-like Saturday evening of this year. Thus, I may mutter beep if the BIG radio presenters were quicker than me playing a band. In this

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min band Goodness
Sharon van Etten
interview

Sharon van Etten

What on earth can I say about Sharon van Etten that she has not divulged in interviews (to the point that I wanted to throttle her interviewer, poking on when she was already in tears) or, of course, first and foremost, in her music. Multi-instrumentalist, power-voiced Sharon has a knack for writing music, especially harmonies and then come the lyrics. Lyrics that tell of lost love, painful relationships, giving up herself, sacrificing herself, hit you, once you listen in as if you had a choic

· Alice Peters-Burns · 2 min music Sharon Van Etten

Jay Woodward

When I first listened to Jay Woodward’s music it struck  me how well produced his recordings sounded but not overly so – indeed he prefers a classical approach like in the 60s and 70s. He is absolutely not making up with production what is missing in music. The music of Jay Woodward, as someone put it so nicely, renders itself perfectly for a drive through the desert. Now, I am in severe want of desert landscape here, but it works just fine in the woods and moors. Nature features big in Jay Wo

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min Howl Indie
Great Caesar

Great Caesar

Great Caesar… …found me and I am glad they did. They hail from Brooklyn, New York, and not only are they absolutely sound people (of course I only choose the lovely people:-)) – they are hard-working performers and this shows in the reaction of their audience to the gigs! The audience is overwhelmed. Would love to see them live in Europe but in the meantime, we must make do with their recordings. And they ain’t bad either. There is a very distinctive sound to Great Caesar due to the brass s

· Alice Peters-Burns · 1 min Great Caesar music