Album Reviews

Enigmatic artist Catbells recently released her debut EP, Wilderness, a sumptuous blend of dreamy, wistful shoegaze and alt-pop. A bit of an introvert, Catbells always appears wearing a cat’s mask, i.e., her doppelganger or alter-ego, […]

Fans of chanteuse Laura Marling and her insightful songwriting can revel in the other side she displays on her second LUMP effort Animal. Marling once again teams up with Tuning member Mike Lindsay to follow […]

Forming in 1977, Descendents are one of the first hardcore punk bands ever to arise. Specifically, they are pioneers of the melodic hardcore subgenre, which married the intensity, rapid tempos, and blistering aggressiveness of the […]

What do you get when musicians from two different pop-tinted indie bands, Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) and Erik Janson (Wildling), get together with a member of a pop band? Jeremy Ruzumna (Fitz and The […]

The Atlanta-based quartet Small Reactions have released their third album full of their distinctive self-dubbed “nerve pop” (which attempts to blend post-punk with indie rock) on New Age Soul. The band brings together their vast […]

In recent years, the Dublin-based rock band Inhaler have really been making a splash on the Irish music scene and gaining a ton of international recognition. After cutting their teeth for the best part of […]

On June 25th, the musical Oracle of the Northwest, Modest Mouse band leader Isaac Brock delivered his latest take on our universal condition with The Golden Casket. Unlike many artists’ recent releases that shake their […]

Almost two decades ago, Dave Keuning left Iowa and moved to Las Vegas, where he placed an ad in the Las Vegas Weekly, which stated he wanted to form a band and cited Oasis as […]

There are fewer modern-day solo artists more fascinating than John Grant. From his early days in The Czars to the melodic masterpiece that was his debut solo release, Queen Of Denmark, to the marvellous Creep […]

There is always a reason to celebrate when Neil Finn puts out new musical fare in whatever iteration he decides.  This time he is releasing new material with Crowded House, the band that has always […]

The making of To Carry A Whale was literally a journey in itself being recorded in Tottenham, Southend (in Sam Duckworth’s (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) studio) and Niagara. More poignantly, To Carry A Whale […]

This week sees the 40th anniversary of Duran Duran’s self-titled debut album. XS Noize looks back on this momentous release from a band that would become the ‘Fab Five’ of the ‘80s. It was December […]

Having been inspired by acts such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, as well as earlier punk acts like The Slits, X-Ray Spex, and Siouxsie and the Banshees; from their formation in 1994, Sleater-Kinney have been […]

As an admirer of Garbage since my first encounter with their 1995 hit track, “Stupid Girl”, I have kept an eye on the band that represented the zeitgeist of the late Grunge era. Garbage was […]

Blending tints of jazz with folk music, Queen Bonobo, aka Maya Goldblum, recently released her latest EP, Sail From This Life. The genesis of the EP occurred when Queen Bonobo, a native of Idaho, moved […]

Wolf Alice suffered from a very rare form of second album syndrome… They won the Mercury Prize with 2017’s Visions of a Life. That success understandably heightened expectations around the band, but rather than follow […]

The news that Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones were going to release an album as Sunroof, a name the pair had previously used for remix collaborations, caused much excitement when it was announced earlier this […]

Finnish art-rock/dream-pop artist GEA, aka Laura Avonius, recently released her brand-new album, Call For A Snake, via Fragity Records. Working remotely during the pandemic, the album was produced by Grammy/Juno winner Chris Birkett, while the […]