By the time Seattle’s Minus the Bear took to the stage the crowd had silently multiplied and was a bristling pod of energy. Opening with Drilling, the band played with the finesse of experience, throwing themselves fully into the last night of their UK tour. Like a Heaven dwelling Dennis Wilson in a loose white shirt, vocalist Jake Snider, was good humoured throughout, quipping: “On this tour we’ve been in mud, rain....and Germany,” as he introduced songs from new album Omni. Songs such as My Time and Summer Angel were dropped in early and were well received, but it was ...
Read more »The previous album from the Scots, The Midnight Organ Fight, was a brilliant miserable affair written on the back of a serious break up and showcasing the drastically underrated song writing abilities of vocalist Scott Hutchinson. The Winter of Mixed Drinks picks off nicely where the previous album left off following the progress of an evidently broken man building himself back from rock bottom. Displaying a mature, polished and fuller sound this could quite easily be Frightened Rabbits breakthrough album. Ditching the tried and tested method of ‘live’ recording for a, ‘studio’ album we are treated to high end production ...
Read more »With rumours abound of a darker edge to the relaxed Swedish shoegazers and countless references to the dark Swede vampire flick, ‘Let the Right One In,’ in press releases –the band herald from Blackeberg, the ghostly setting of the flick- I was very excited to see what Sad Day for Puppet’s sophomore effort would have to offer.
On finally listening to the album, however, despite the whispers and other reviews, it’s hard to actually see what’s so god damn dark and gothy about it. Unless referring to the often liberal use of a distortion pedal, the album is generally quite ...