Music festivals are not simply a celebration of music; they are also a celebration of the great outdoors and of summer …especially when the sun is shining. With their roots planted in 60s hippy-dom, many festivals profess a green (or at least environmentally aware) outlook and contribute much to charitable causes (Glastonbury famously donates the high percentage of profits to Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid). The trouble is, rigging up staging, sound systems, lighting and what is es...

If, as Bill suggests, art really is the realisation of the ability to comment on the world around us, then you don’t need paints and canvas, you don’t need a computer, you don’t even need a musical instrument. Not everyone has access to these things; the only thing that everyone has access to (and the place where the whole creative process starts anyway) is themselves. Art can simply be a mindset, an approach to your everyday activities. You can create art through every decision you make s...

Personally, I prefer a darker dinner party… French food is (still?) renowned as some of the most sophisticated in the world and traditional French music is synonymous with cafe culture – so what better way to set the tone? Jacques Brel (April 8, 1929 – October 9, 1978) was from Belgium. His songs were sung in French but have famously been covered in English by Scott Walker, David Bowie, Marc Almond and Alex Harvey amongst others. His lyrics tackle the grittier, seedier, seamier sid...

I’d like to think that food and drink (and the ethics associated with their production) are subjects I have always thought about quite deeply. When I was 16 years old I spent a lot of time staring at the sky and thinking. Eventually I concluded that; while most things in life are essentially pointless and ridiculous, the things in life which are pointless, ridiculous and totally unnecessary are far worse. It is well known that red meat consumption in the Western world is already at u...

ME: Last time I saw you play in Brighton you were called Cinerama and you were playing the (600 capacity) Concorde 2. This time you are The Wedding Present and are playing at The Corn Exchange – a massive step up. Is that purely a result of the name change? DG: Partly. Although it’s probably more to do with the fact that we are not doing a London concert so there are a lot of people travelling down for it. Also, with the Brighton Festival on, I’m not sure there were any other venue...

The Wedding Present return with their ninth studio album (their second since reforming in 2004 after a seven year hiatus), produced by long-term collaborator Steve Albini and brimming with confidence and swagger. Santa Ana Winds builds slowly, broodingly and then explodes into another album crammed full of David Gedge’s pop gems about infidelity/not having a girlfriend/pretending to not have a girlfriend/unrequited love/jilted love and unexpected liasons and now he sounds angrier than the so...

Western music has such a rich history, it is worth spending some time investigating it. Sometimes it’s good to take a gamble. I knew nothing about Lydia Lunch other than she had something of a reputation as an underground chanteuse/author/art house actress/poet/artist/performer and all round cult hero. Leaving home at 16 to live in a communal house of artists and musicians and later befriending electro-punk pioneers Suicide, I imagined her as a cross between Nico, Marianne Faithful and ...

As The Hornblower Brothers ( sit down to take their finals at the University of Sussex, record company executives are already lining up with offers. Originally hailing from Halifax, the band’s lineup was completed more recently with local bass and melodica players. While recent years have seen a glut of overtly regional accents in the UK, since Yorkshire is currently only represented by The Cribs, there is certainly room for the dulcet tones of The Hornblower Brothers singer Als Johnston...

Part Two: Although his level of notoriety could by no means be described as anything approaching “overground”, it is heartening that after 20 years of ploughing a lonely furrow, playing 200+ solo gigs each year and releasing six studio albums, Hamell is becoming a little better known. Primarily compiled of material from his most recent album; Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs, and a handful of unreleased new songs, The Terrorism Of Everyday Life is a limited edition “bootleg” of the Edinbru...

Part One: Around six years ago I saw Hamell on Trial for the first time, I’ve seen him maybe three times since and he has blown me away each time. There are no props on stage, no costume changes just one man, a battered, old, acoustic guitar, a microphone and an amplifier. Born and bred in Syracuse, upstate New York, Ed Hamell is a one man whirlwind of energy and entertainment. He may play the acoustic guitar, but it is the loudest acoustic guitar you will ever hear; think more punk rock...

For obvious reasons I don’t tend to talk too much about cover acts for Indieoma (or anywhere else for that matter) but sometimes something so bizare comes along that it deserves some publicity. The launch of the latest issue of One Eye Grey magazine is one such occasion. Although Indieoma is primarily concerned with music, it is also concerned with independent thought. One Eye Grey retells London folklore and ghost stories in a modern setting and describes itself as a 21st century equiva...

Mice And Rifles – Beginner’s Luck EP In recent years, country music has received bad press for it’s right wing connotations, it’s heavily pro-Christian stance and the images it conjures up of small town, white Americans sunning themselves behind white picket fences and voluntarily tuning into the horribly bland, country pop/rock rubbish that dominates the U.S. airwaves. Much of this criticism has perhaps been justified – remember how The Dixie Chicks were demonised in 2003 (both by ...

Local hardcore quartet who, after several successful jaunts around Europe, close their fourth UK tour with a triumphant homecoming show which sets the room on fire, despite a disappointing turnout. Signed to Lime Records and with their first single, A Look Over, released this week, From Plan to Progress (http://www.myspace.com/fromplantoprogress) have a laudable, gung ho, DIY attitude, which possibly explains their success in garnering an international fanbase so early on. If more bands jum...

Over the last three years, Eels shows have been presented as a (mostly) acoustic trio backed by a string quartet with little interaction with the audience; a heavy rocking, overdriven trio with a dancing security guard and now, a laid-back, fun-loving duo. Recent Eels activity has included the release of the best of collection; Meet The Eels, a 50 track rarities compilation; Useless Trinkets and the publication of Mark Everett’s autobiography; “Things The Grandchildren Should Know”. The BBC...

After finding Cave’s soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford pretty much faultless, I’m now finding myself strangely drawn to Dig Lazarus Dig. Maybe I’ve changed, but I’ve really never liked Nick Cave. Some artists mellow with age (often coinciding with a dip in quality and the rejection of all that made them great), for a while it seemed to me as though Cave was doing just that. However, this album is much more “meaty” than recent releases under The...

The Chemical Brothers – B-Sides – Vol 1 (Virgin Records) They may be Lilly Allen-dating, arena filling artists now, and therefore not in slightest bit underground, but I think the fact that they continue to reinvent their sound while consistently producing good records, is justification enough to warrant some coverage here. Culled primarily from their 12” vinyl releases (and complete with one obligatory “unreleased” track), this ten track ITunes exclusive is the first of a two part serie...

Peter Moyse’s (http://www.myspace.com/petermoyse) short, three-song set soundtracks silent film footage of the life and breeding cycle of the seahorse. I’m guessing that the music wasn’t composed deliberately for this purpose, but it is funny how simple acoustic guitar music takes on an altogether otherworldly quality when paired with an in-depth look at seahorse anatomy and embryos – sample subtitle “gaseous excretions in the sack walls”. Next up are Blood Stereo (http://www.myspace.com/bl...

I first blogged about the West Hill Community Centre around this time last year. I don’t want to repeat myself by going through what a bizarre, but brilliant, venue it is again (if you scroll back you can still read that blog) – suffice to say it is a church hall unlike any other. Its ethos certainly fits in with the Indieoma philosophy – I don’t know of anywhere else that is so fiercely independent, while remaining totally open and uncliquey. Events at West Hill are life af...

Chris TT is celebrated as something of a folk hero. Support tours over the past eight years with the likes of British Sea Power, Ben Folds, The Divine Comedy and Jim Bob (ex-Carter USM) and a prolific schedule of headline gigs have enabled him to release (and sell) five albums independently. Lyrics which tackle political, social and environmental issues and his dogged determination to do things his own way (that is, the very long, very hard, very low-budget way) has won him critical acclai...

Electric Soft Parade – No Need To Be Downhearted (Truck Records) This is the third album from Brighton-based brothers Tom and Alex White who, since being dropped by BMG in 2004 for daring to experiment on their second album, have also busied themselves finding cult success in the US and UK as half of Brighton super group, Brakes. While the poppiness of No Need To Be Downhearted has echoes of their first album (which was responsible for much of their initial success), the arrangements are...

or, Hang The DJ…Part 3 Diamond Hoo Ha Men leave the stage.  The DJ starts to play.  Disappointment after disappointment follows.  The first song is a decade old, mainstream “indie” superhit.  Maybe it was an appeal to the nostalgic side of (what was essentially) Supergrass playing a venue of similar size as when they first started. That would be forgivable.  However, it gets no better.  Blondie’s One Way Or Another is followed by London Ca...

Part 2As stage time draws near, the sense of expectation that was so prominent earlier has been diluted to the extent that I begin wondering if the room is genuinely full of people who don’t like Supergrass (in which case you have to ask why they went to so much trouble to get tickets and ponder on the morality of those tickets not going to better homes).  All of which means that Diamond Hoo Ha Men are about to test-drive their gold studded jumpsuits on one of the harshest UK audie...

Part 1Diamond Hoo Ha Men are the duo Duke Diamond & Randy Hoo. They are better known as Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey from Supergrass.  Tonight they play their first ever gig as a duo.  Debate is raging as to whether this is a genuine new/side project, or merely a means to preview some new Supergrass material before it is finalised for release – at Guilfest 2007 the band did after all debut a new song called Diamond Hoo Ha Man and certainly one reason why bassist Mick is no...

God Fires Man – The Dark EP (Xtra Mile Recordings)Hmm, I was starting to get tired of every single band from New York being achingly cool, new wave/disco punks.  Luckily this four track screamathon with (gasp) fairly heavy guitars has made me appreciate the fashionistas again.  With New York being one of the most cultural, cosmopolitan and exciting cities in the world there is no excuse for any band hailing from there to sound so uninspired.  God Fires Man could just as e...

6)    How does the 28 Costumes creative process work? It varies a lot, but most of the time it starts with me writing a basic song at home then bringing it into the practice room, playing it to the other guys in the band and then we all suggest this and that and putting things elsewhere and different parts and fleshing it out and whatnot.  It’s pretty much all in.7)       You’ve had two record labels so far, how have you found work...

Scouse four-piece, 28 Costumes wear their local influence on their sleeve.  Their recently relased Electrical Fever EP sounds in turns like every successful Liverpudlian band that has ever existed all mixed up with nursery ryhme melodies and given a modern twist.  While the title track lends a slightly hysterical vocal to light, La’s-esque, jangly guitars, other tracks offer a twist on the Wombats formula with occasional shades of Echo and The Bunnymen.  The past three ye...

Blog 5In January 2003 we recruited our fourth drummer; a serious Mancunian whose desire to get things right seemed to fit perfectly with our own new found “professional” drive.  We managed two rehearsals before the first gig of the year (quite an achievement by our standards) and I even paid £50 for a second-hand bass amp.  We took an extra-early train up to London to collect the amp but quickly discovered that it was actually far too heavy to take on public transp...

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (MUTE) Perhaps it’s the fact that he’s an Australian who sings in an American accent, or maybe it’s his appropriation of “Wild West” imagery to tell murder stories he was not involved with, but – with the exception of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” – I usually find Nick Cave’s material hard to believe and a little tedious.I have, however,&nbs...

So you have an idea for your own radio station and you are convinced there is an audience for it.  What happens next?  How do you make the transition from internet radio to FM radio?  Phoenix FM’s Steve Mead advises: How did it Phoenix FM grow?We started off as a RSL (Restricted Service Licence) operator which meant we would to apply for a 28 day FM licence.  This would entitle us to up to two 28 day broadcasts a year.  While proper airtime is always an advantag...

For many years the choice of songs played on UK radio has been dependent on the whim of just a handful of people.  The vast majority of local radio stations simply play the biggest selling/blandest hits of the moment (and the past) and, while BBC Radio One has made gestures of catering to wider tastes (for example with the broadcast of John Peel’s show and, to an extent, The Evening Session), its daytime playlists continue to lack imagination.For a blissful period in the mid 90s, g...

Just as playing songs fast takes a certain skill and focused energy, so too, does playing them really, really, slowly, and while an evening listening to slowed down versions of (already quite slow) dark, country music may not appeal to all, Jim White is a good reason to put any prejudice aside. Somewhere between Tom Waits (without the fake voices), Nick Cave (without the pretentiousness) and a less urban Eels, his striking debut album; (The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted) Wrong Eyed Jesus, ...

Julian Cope – You Gotta Problem With Me? (Invada Records) In the late 70s/early 80s The Teardrop Explodes were a great and vital part of the UK post punk music scene.  Their frontman/songwriter Julian Cope continued in fine form right through the 80s and into mid-90s.  However, after being dropped by Echo Records in 1997, it all went rather quiet. He remained busy though and over the past decade has self-released 8 albums of new material and published three books.  Troubl...

Eighties B-Line Matchbox Disaster – In The Garden EP In an ingenius move, the physical version of Brighton’s premier goth-rockabilly band’s first release for three years comes complete with free live album and a free ouiji board making it both excellent value for money and chart ineligable!  For those who mourned the band’s last album (2004’s The Royal Society) for becoming too clever and almost too musical, will be pleased to learn that the In The Garden EP...