
Author: Simon Kirk
Product from the happy generation. Proud purple bin owner surviving on music, books and LFC. New book, Welcome To Charmsville, available from all major vendors.


The Lousville collective return with their first album in five years.

Members of Swans and Cop Shoot Cop team up to make a cauldron of white noise on their debut release.

The No-Man singer returns with his sixth solo album and second in as many years.

Bruce Springsteen attempts to capture his latest album Western Stars on film and we see whether it lives up to the billing.

With The Affair finally reaching its conclusion, we assess its importance in the current standing of modern day television.

The second installment from Julie Carpenter reflects on darkness of the past.

The Aussie miscreants return with the latest single from their upcoming third album.
Singles seldom appear on my radar. Music should be consumed holistically, and when I say that I mean by waiting for a new album, as opposed listening to a strand of it prior to its release.
Like everything, though, exceptions are made and with Tropical Fuck Storm that very much applies.
Tropical Fuck Storm defy many things. They deconstruct the mould. Their boundaries a peerless, undefined.
Legal Ghost, the band’s latest single from their forthcoming third album is yet another portion of weirdo proto-rock that the band have mastered spanning over their two albums and various singles in the wake of singer/guitarist, Gareth Liddiard, and singer/bassist, Fiona Kitschin‘s former band – the glorious hellraisers, The Drones.
With Legal Ghost, a track picked from the ashes of a discarded campfire of Liddiard’s 90s project with initial Drones co-founder, Rui Pereira in Bong Odyssey, it’s Tropical Fuck Storm sounding, shall we say, content?
Not in a nostalgic way; this band is too young and too smart to fall into that poisonous trap.
Legal Ghost sounds more like a band honing in on their sweet spot.
Don’t mistake us here, it’s distinctively TFS, without question. It’s just something that you can tap your foot to instead of completely losing your mind to the band’s usual frenzied chaos. No bad thing at all.
Lyrically, once again Liddiard‘s brooding honesty is on show as he sings, “It doesn’t really matter who you sleep with now, you’re just a legal ghost/It doesn’t really matter who you talk to now, you’re just a legal ghost.”
Yes, we’re all dead on our feet…
It’s hideously cynical but that’s the world we live in and, once again, with Legal Ghost Tropical Fuck Storm tell us how it is, showcasing their unbridled talent for the truth.
Legal Ghost is out now via Joyful Noise Recordings




We put one of Chapel Hill’s greatest exports under the microscope, assessing their era-defining body of work.

Indie author, Gerard Canney, has released his debut novel, Ambition and talks about the writing process, austerity, self-publishing and much more.



The drumming maestro and experimental guitarist team up to produce a startling set of songs.








With Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ much anticipated second album King Of Cowards boxed-off, we chewed the fat with the Newcastle five-piece.



We look at the relevance of the Mercury Prize and whether winning the award is all it’s cracked up to be.


Following the latest releases of their Ghost series albums we look at Nine Inch Nails transformation from brutality to beauty.
Protomartyr: the story so far

With their new album, Ultimate Success, released tomorrow, we look at Protomartyr’s story so far before their show Manchester’s Deaf Institute in late 2017.
David Berman – dead aged 52: an afterword

We reflect on the illustrious career of David Berman, the poet, cartoonist and musical mastermind behind Silver Jews and Purple Mountains.

Low’s Double Negative album prompted us to embark on a very personal journey in pursuit of brilliance.


As Sleaford Mods play a barnstorming gig in Lincoln, we look back at their story so far and explains why they are the most important band in Britain.


As the Sacramento band’s seminal album turns 20, we look at how Deftones shaped the landscape of youth culture.




Amid self-isolation Simon Kirk strikes gold as he shares a personal story about the importance of a collection.