GIG REVIEW: Amie Knight & The Villanovas, Richer Unsigned event @ Barclays Eagle Labs, Bournemouth

As a true music fan, there’s nothing more intriguing than being invited to an unsigned gig. Turning up with little more than what you can find out about the acts via the web and various social channels is often better than knowing everything there is to know. And this was certainly true of the Richer Unsigned event at the Westbourne Eagle Labs on Thursday night, where two very cool acts – Amie Knight and The Villanovas – both did what they do best.

SINGLE REVIEW: WE’RE NO HEROES – VOODOO

As a music blogger, I get a lot of Twitter notifications from bands plugging their latest creation, be it a single, album or video. I’ll admit that I’ve not heard of some of them, but there are ones I have and today two rather lovely things happened to put a sunny smile on my face; a follow from Cardiff’s certifiably brilliant We’re No Heroes and notification of their brand new track, Voodoo.

SINGLE REVIEW: Blur – Lonesome Street

It’s been quite a week. As if the Hyde Park gigs weren’t enough to make you wish you owned a clock that had a fast forward button, Blur go and announce their Sunday night headline slot at the Isle of Wight festival. Welcome to a fit of the vapours. Until the release of The Magic Whip though – their first studio album in 12 years – we have the wonderful Lonesome Street, the matured, but old school sound of Blur, all wrapped up in a delicious four minutes.

SINGLE REVIEW: Waxahatchee – Air

You know what some of the most well-trodden alleyways in music are? Love, loss and loneliness. They’re memories, experiences and, for some, existences. For Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, they’re also the life liquid that trickles and bubbles through her gorgeous creations, with Air most definitely being one.

SINGLE REVIEW: The Cribs – Burning for No One

Funny isn’t it that for every single that gets produced and pumped out, a Cribs creation is always unmistakably, well… Cribs. It’s the combination of the lazily expert riffs, beautifully timed drums and pleasant West Yorkshire whines of the Jarman trio that do it and nothing captures these winners better than Burning for No One.