Grant Mullen is the frontman for Seattle-based indie-rock outfit Naked Giants, as well as a guitarist and vocalist in the most recent iteration of indie sensation Car Seat Headrest. The two bands are currently touring together following the release of Naked Giants’ grungy garage-rock debut SLUFF, as well as Car Seat Headrest’s re-recorded re-release of […]
Live Review: Naked Giants and Car Seat Headrest
Disclosure: as a fairly new fan, I can’t name every song Naked Giants and Car Seat Headrest played during their concert at Bristol’s SWX centre. But what I’m certain of is that they played them fantastically. Here’s how it went down: The show starts promptly at 7.30 with a fifty-minute set from up-and-coming Seattle indie […]
Songs with Soul – Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool and the Ends of Worlds
A Moon Shaped Pool starts at the end. All screeching strings and thudding drums, “Burn the Witch” is a burning forest, a cacophonous apocalypse whose conclusion climbs like fire ‘til it suddenly dies. The next song, “Daydreaming”, is its sonic opposite: soft, ethereal piano meanders among gently sinister vocals and strings, a ghost wandering the […]
Kanye West – ye Review
But these enjoyable moments are too few and far between Much of the discourse surrounding Kanye West and his new album, ye, has centred around his mental health issues. Crucially, an open discussion of mental health problems to remove any stigma, and allow people facing similar challenges to identify with an idol like West, […]
Live Review: Occupy LIVE @ Northcote House
On the morning of February 22nd, the first of the fourteen non-consecutive days of striking that have dominated the last four weeks at Exeter, I spoke on the picket line with English lecturer Dr Joe Crawford. Our assembly, guitar-accompanied, had just finished singing the famous and verbose union song ‘Solidarity Forever’, which would become the […]
Album Review: Black Panther
This is, notably, a proper album, with real effort and thought put into it. The production on individual songs is high-quality, and the stack of popular artists who’ve been roped in are mostly well-used. As master of ceremonies, Kendrick Lamar takes centre stage, appearing constantly across the runtime. You won’t find any of his best […]
Album Review: Eminem – Revival
I have problems with Eminem. I’m disappointed by many of his releases since 2004, by the way he has often misdirected so much of his lyrical venom, by his reliance on artless shock value. Yet I remain fascinated by him, because anyone with a passion for the putting-together of words can appreciate that Marshall Mathers […]