Artist Of The Day: LIFE

Typical. Just typical. Just as my mission to persuade anyone who'll listen that The Neat, the greatest band of our generation was beginning to find success, the fuckers had to go and end it all. With only three singles by means of evidence, it seems all future attempts will fall on death ears, as a group who should have changed the face of planet Earth fade from virtual unknowns to, well, complete unknowns.

Thanks a lot guys.

2012: A Year In Retrospect

The Twilight Sad

I don't want to cast a downer on the past 12 months, but I think most would agree 2012 has hardly been a vintage year. Let's not get overly dramatic here; affairs in the musical world have been as compelling and headline-worthy as ever, and although short on true masterpieces we haven't exactly been bereft of quality releases on which to gorge. Speaking from a personal perspective, nothing has hooked me in the way that WU LYF's Go Tell Fire To The Mountain or The National's High Violet have in recent times, though to grumble would seem irreverent given the wealth of worthwhile material we have been blessed with.

Live Review: Cult Festival - Hoults Yard, Newcastle - 07/07/2011

The idea behind Cult Festival was simple; take a selection of North East England's finest up-and-coming bands, and place them on a bill alongside some of the best that the nation's independent scene has to offer. It was a simple, yet genius concept, and one which found a perfect setting in the damp, dingy warehouses of Newcastle's Hoults Yard. By far the strongest supplement of the event, Saturday's main draw was a headline set from Mancunian legends The Fall, but as it happened that was only one of the highlights on a fine exertion for the region's most dedicated music lovers.

Single Review: The Neat - New Kids

Despite convincing myself that The Neat is the single greatest band the world has ever known, I was a little apprehensive when I discovered that they were to release 'New Kids' as their third single. It's not a bad song by any means (indeed hearing it live had me in fits of giddy excitement), but the initial recording which surfaced late last year seemed to have jettisoned practically everything I'd grown to love about the Hull oddballs. Smooth, cumbersome and infuriatingly restrained, it appeared they'd finally succumbed to their inaugural misstep, a realisation which struck my fanboy heart like a ton of lead bricks.

Artist Of The Day: The Neat

In my experience, the best thing that a support band can hope for is to make an impression on its audience, even if it's not an overwhelmingly positive one. Obviously being good helps, but even if a band is utterly dreadful the likelihood is that their name will stick around due to such provocation - which surely beats turning up, playing and being forgotten in an instant. The Neat clearly understand this, and as such seemingly approach every one of their opening slots with the sole aim of leaving a dent. The first time I saw them, back in 2010, I honestly didn't know what to make of it all. Whilst waiting for my beloved Frightened Rabbit, I was confronted by a quartet of oddballs from Hull, hellbent on making an unintelligible repetitious racket which could hardly have been further removed from the night's headliners. Did I love it? Did I hate it? I really had no idea. All I knew was that I found it hilarious.

Live Review: Frankie & The Heartstrings, Hoults Yard Newcastle, 10/05/2012

The Neat, Let's Buy Happiness and Frankie & The Heartstrings; three of Northern England's hottest properties, all crammed under one roof, in a city warehouse, in a two-and-a-half hour time span. Not bad for £7. Ok, the stated purpose of the show was to showcase material from Frankie's in-the-works sophomore record, but given the calibre and locality of the supporting cast it felt like so much more.