xylography \zye-LAH-gruh-fee\ noun the art of making engravings on wood especially for printing cinco de gringo play on words from the holiday cinco de mayo where the mexican town of puebla won a military victory over french forces. a relatively insignificant holiday to mexicans, especially in comparison to the day of mexican independence where there is much more emphasis and celebration among mexican communities in the united states. Cinco de Mayo, in short, merely acts as another holiday where people can party and get drunk. White people seem to like the holiday more than mexican immigrant families do, hence the ...

OK Liverpool, we’ve had a sucky few months for local music. The disappointing loss of both The Masque and Mojo inspired a variety of responses from ‘this is a tragedy’ to ‘big fucking deal’, but Static Gallery’s closure hit pretty hard. No, it wasn’t the best place in the world. Yes, it could’ve done with, say, a second toilet. But as a lovingly-operated arts centre, not to mention host to some of the best damn shows this fair city has seen over the last decade, it was pretty special. And even more recently, Le Bateau – home ...

Lotus Plaza Spooky Action At A Distance Kranky Records [2012] Fire Note Says: A superb indie rock sophomore record from Lotus Plaza that just might be one of the best releases this year! Album Review: Lotus Plaza is the solo project of musician Lockett Pundt, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist of Atlanta-based indie group Deerhunter. Spooky Action At A Distance is his sophomore album and easily now his finest work. The opening track "Untitled" is a mystic 1:25 instrumental number that might lead you to believe that Spooky is going to revisit a similar path found on his debut The Flooding ...

Echo & the Bunnymen's 1990 release Reverberation is the kind of album that I love to write about. Like Love's Reel To Real , or The Velvet Underground's Squeeze , Reverberation was maligned by critics and fans alike upon it's release, but it's earned a much more favorable posthumous reputation, at least among a vocal minority of fans. Take a look at the customer reviews on Amazon which have titles like, " The best Echo and the Bunnymen Release, Hands Down ," " Ian Who? ," " A Classic on par w/ Ocean Rain ," and " Track Listing " (okay, that last title doesn't ...

Hardcore/metal quintet Heartfelt are making a splash and doing it fast! Founded as recently as Spring 2011, already on November 12th, the band would release Perceptions on We Are Triumphant Records. This their debut full-length was recorded at All Audio Recording Studio in Murfreesboro, TN with producers Joshua Pelletier and Jason Schaffstein (Schaffstein would also engineer, mix and master the album). As with many groups of the hardcore mindset, Heartfelt boast powerful riffs and socio-political lyrics geared to speaking out against those who oppress us. Check out the band's debut Ian McCullough (Annotation Films) directed and produced video ...

Ian McCulloch has revealed plans to play three intimate acoustic shows in Liverpool and London this May. The gigs lead up to the release of his fourth solo album called “Pro Patria Mori”. McCulloch will be showcasing songs like “Different Trees”, “Lift Me Up” & “Watch Me Land” from his forthcoming...

Opening the proceedings in the gorgeous Leamington Assembly were local duo Coves . Stepping out onto a fog laden stage the band played some pre-recorded backing music which, in time, they began to perform on top of. Initially this was immensely unimpressive. Bands adding some pre-recorded sound to their set is acceptable as it can be difficult for smaller groups to pay and find musicians to help them. However Coves seemed to be actually performing very little and it was doubly annoying that singer Beck Woods, initially, struggled to perform to any reasonable standard. I warmed to the band as their ...

Trust's latest single, "Sulk", is a delectable preview of things to come on their upcoming LP TRST (out February 28 on Arts and Crafts), blending their eerie instrumentation with a well-suited post-punk feel that gives the track a strong Echo and the Bunnymen flavor (with a cheeky lyrical nod to Ian McCulloch). The track is a [...]

Trust's latest single, "Sulk", is a delectable preview of things to come on their upcoming LP TRST (out February 28 on Arts and Crafts), blending their eerie instrumentation with a well-suited post-punk feel that gives the track a strong Echo and the Bunnymen flavor (with a cheeky lyrical nod to Ian McCulloch). The track is a [...]

Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch is planning to release his new solo album, Pro Patria Mori, this March. It's his first new album of original material since 2003's Slideling. He's releasing the album via PledgeMusic, where he's...

The Brit nominated artist also reveals a drug fuelled relationship with a now famous singer

I always found the Bunnymen a difficult band to like. It was not that they were bad, but I struggled to find a place for them in my musical make up. They always seemed to be a band in desperate need of a home. That is perhaps because I always thought they changed their sound too much for their own good. Instead of finding a style and sticking to it, they tried something different with each album. Now this, you may think, would be a good thing. But in the Bunnymen's case it seemed to be less due to ...

It’s that time of year again. Springing up on music magazines’ sites across the web are the unavoidable barrage of top 10s, top 50s, and top 100 tracks of 2011. Scouring through the numerous lists, you may begin to notice the trend of large Wales-shaped holes. So has Cymru really offered so little to the musical world this year? On the contrary my dears. 2011 has seen a dip in indie and a rise in rock. The Blackout , an alternative post-hardcore rock band are fresh from supporting My Chemical Romance and are embarking on their own 15-date tour in ...

As part of an ongoing irregular series, TIM SCOTT rounds up some new-ish cassette, CD-R and vinyl releases including two releases from Australian-born, San Francisco-based artist David West. Baba-X Beat Tape (EP, This Thing, 2011) Melbourne producer Baba-X (aka Luis Cran-Lawrence) drops some chilled but confident beats that could be likened to Clams Casino but with more jazzy and house tendencies. 'Drudgery' is a bonafide old-school hip-hop jam while 'Esh Swag' has more of an experimental vibe going on. For a guy who apparently learnt on a MPC2000XL and Dr Sample 202 this is really great stuff. I could be ...

Singer admits to 'personal issues' after onstage rant