Drowned in Sound

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Nature may abhor a vacuum, but she tends to take an equally dim view of 14-eyed, buck-toothed hell-beasts...

This album might finally explain what anticon as a label has been striving to achieve for all these years. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

There's two ways of looking at Lord Cut-Glass. The obvious one would be to separate the man from the masquerade...

That The Wave Pictures have been writing and recording together for the best part of a decade will probably come as a surprise to many, particularly those who first discovered them on the back of last year's Instant Coffee Baby long player. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Although not normally ones to be the bearers of bad news, DiS is sad to announce the passing of two of its favourite bands of these past few years. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Now, with a Glastonbury performance best described as ‘defining’, it appears that Florence will be as unstoppable as her machine. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Having broken through to the periphery of mainstream success thanks to the tried and tested "word of mouth" method, not to mention a series of storming live shows, 2005's self-titled debut release should have been the catalyst for greater things as far as Engineers were concerned...

Alright, I admit it. I have cheated this week, enlisting a particularly excitable friend of mine whose favourite musician is ‘Paul McCartneys’...

Anyway, New York dance-punk-funk (not really...) trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have just announced a tour of the UK. Though, let's be honest, it's just England and Scotland, sadly. Not sure if the remaining constituent countries have 02 Academies, though...

Hove Festival took place on the idyllic island of Tromøy, near Arendal in Norway, last week. DiS was there, and soaked up a glorious four days of sun, sand and bands. If you've not been - and we're hazarding a guess that many of you haven't - then trust us when we say it's an altogether more.....

Following on from the profiles of Silver Jews, Palace Brothers, and Magnolia Electric Co., DiS picks four more of the best Alt Country artists, not yet discussed. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Thanks for reading! A DrownedInSound Alt Country Playlist is available on Spotify, and right here we've compiled some readers' and writers' choices, for your visual pleasure. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Click here for lots more shots and coverage of Glastonbury 2009 Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

The concluding part of DiS' Andrzej Lukowki's adventures at Glastonbury 2009. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

You guys are OK with me judging a book by its cover, right? Sweet: let’s ponder the truly puzzling artwork that adorns the fifth Bibio album...

On their second album Gnarls Barkley labelled themselves The Odd Couple. Odd in the sense that they are two quite odd people, but not an 'odd couple' in the classic sense...

Being a girl in a folk band must be hard. Always having to go through life looking bored and detached, spending hours alone in your bedroom trying to perfect those breathy, distant, ethereal vocals, constantly being described as 'elfin'...

For some time now, Brooklyn's Amazing Baby have acquired a reputation based on who they know rather than their musical accomplishments. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

DiS favourites and tour diary contributors, Johnny Foreigner have given credence to the belief that all good things come in threes. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

If their first full-length has taken the art and craft of the three-minute guitar-pop song as demonstrated, then is the only way up? It'd be a saddening thought to think that Let's Wrestle have peaked already. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Blur are back together! Glasto was blur-dy marvellous! Now you could go see them at their 'homecoming' in Hyde Park. Yup, Graham Coxon, Damon Albarn, Alex James and (a plumper than we remember) Dave Rowntree are b-b-back. You knew this, right...

Foreign Born make jingling-jangling, African-tinged, and lightly-orchestrated indie that sounds more crafted, more fully realized, than many bands on their debut. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Into The Hillside does have a very Californian feel, aurally referencing a whole host of West Coast influences that in places feel like pretty uneasy bedfellows. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

What is it about the country and folk modes that make them prime conduits for the disaffection and heartbreak of our nation's youth? What's made our kids put down the neon pink guitars and drum machine triggers and pick up banjos, ukes and washboards? Chris Nicholls takes a look at Alt Country.....

Prior to talking to them about the album and a good deal more, DiS sat down with an EMI iPod to give Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 an aural going over and made some notes to give you an idea what to expect. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Rarely knowingly 100 per cent serious for long enough to prise a straight answer from them, New York City’s finest rap crazies the Beastie Boys are back in the house imminently with latest studio album Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

We've had various requests for more shots of the highlights of Glastonbury and rest assured there are plenty more coming when our guys are back from, er, the field...

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Glastonbury Photos from Saturday 26th June 2009. For all of our Glastonbury content visit http://drownedinsound.com/lists/glastonbury Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Your June instalment of the seemingly now monthly Video Drowned-Up brings you all sorts of wonderful artistic pieces. Think of the ones that didn't make it in!* Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

A selection of Glastonbury photos from Day 1 of Thursday 25th June 2009 featuring mud, Maximo Park, Metronomy, Ebony Bones and Kap Bambino. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

We're guessing if you're reading this from the comfort of your sofa, maybe with your feet up, BBC 6Music pumping in the background and Wimbledon flickering in the corner of your eye. You probably spent this morning pulling a smug grin whilst looking at photos of the puddles and mud in Somerset......

What the fuck is with bands these days? If they're not adding extra letters to their names (see also Wavves), then they're releasing unpronouncable records. Seriously. I think this one is probably pronounced _"a-ti-tewd". Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

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OK. Most of you know the deal by now. We run competition, you have to answer a question, winner gets picked at random. Etc. This time we're giving away a pair of tickets to End Of The Road. It's a while away yet but if you get your tickets you won't need to worry about it.....

Using a combination of lies, subterfuge, occasional guestlist and frequently our own money, DiS has spent the last week fluttering about London excitedly soaking up the once in a lifetime thrills of Ornette Coleman's Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre. We still don't really know what.....

This month sees the release Farm by Dinosaur Jr, and we tracked down the band's infamously laconic frontman and general indie rock deity J Mascis to a west London hotel lobby in an attempt to ask some questions that might garner more than a shrug in response. We were partially successful...

Far is a bright and gratifying listen; one that doesn’t aim at ideas above its station or flounder in search of unity. It’s simply the sound of Regina Spektor crafting the kind of impeccably sweet, sometimes dramatic and perpetually detailed songs she’s always sung best. Win...

[for anyone not on our mailing list who didn't get this last night] --------------------------- D R O W N E D I N _ S O U N D...

The eighth weekly edition of Spotifriday for your listening pleasure sees big hitters like Blur and Pixies up against the relative minnows of Tiny Masters Of Today and erm...new boys Copy Haho. Get stuck in to a musical feast via the medium of Spotify...

You've probably heard of Nigel Godrich...

Backed by his now customary four-piece band, the decision to play smaller venues such as this appears to have been a shrewd move. Tickets had sold out weeks ago for the majority of this comeback tour, and with current single 'Sticks'n'Stones' on heavy rotation both on radio and television.....

Squarepusher has together a live album of his mesmerising plinky-plonky and poppy-slappy solo bass work, entitled Solo Electric Bass 1. It will be released on August 17 through Warp, who else? Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Power to the people. Democracy is well and truly in the air. Not only are big things happening in the cities of Tehran and Esfahan in Iran, the Pixies marched through the crowd at their London gig on Monday, asking people for requests...

Here's our per day mix of tips and recommendations for what to see at the festival, plus a bonus mix of IT WILL DEFINITELY BE SUNNY WEATHER music courtesy of our noble leader Sean Adams. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Though the horribly ungrateful wannabe hipster part of DiS’s brain was annoyed to note that a leisurely early afternoon train to Brixton and some suspiciously fortuitous scheduling would have allowed us to see Blur’s Rough Trade gig first, it was with the expected amount of glee that we last...

Wakey wakey, rise and shine. The announcement that all you indie lovers have been waiting for with baited, early morning dog-breath and that the Twittersphere has been ripe with mouth-watering updates for the past 24 hours is here...

Chicago's Speck Mountain deliver a hazy space-rock blissout just in time for what might actually turn out to be a less than rubbish summer. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Listening to this album makes me feel old. It seems such a long time ago I was coerced into listening to the newly released Machina album by my cooler-than-thou school mates...

That Scottish water eh...

With an ever-changing line-up and a history of chemical indulgence many would balk at, it's something of an achievement that The Mirror Explodes, The Warlocks fifth album, also marks a decade of existence for the band. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

With the tubes notionally back in order again, it’s time for London to be gripped by a rather more enjoyable Meltdown, the Southbank Centre’s annual shindig, this year curated by legendary jazz artist Ornette Coleman...

A reasonable question to ask of Wilco (the album) – particularly given its definitive title – is exactly which Wilco we’re being offered here...

I really, really don't envy The Gay Blades. The New York duo has somehow managed to get stuck with a bunch of big name comparisons, links that won't fade quickly if you don't live up to the benchmark...

The debut album by Edinburgh septet Broken Records arrives riding a wave of hype, mostly generated by ubiquitous proclamations that they are 'the Scottish Arcade Fire'. However, to this writer's ears at least, they bear a startlingly resemblance to one other band in particular: The Waterboys......

Chris Power's fortnightly column about all things electronic. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

As ‘The Turtle’ - first track on second album Hard Islands - signifies, it’s misnomers that seem to be the order du jour on Drowning In A Sea of Love's successor...

Primavera Sound 2009 had one of the best bills we've ever seen, with an eye-boggling array of talent on offer. Here's what our intrepid writing team came back babbling excitedly about. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

If – and it’s a hefty ‘if’ – there is any substance to the idea of 2009 playing host to a discernible trend in British female singers, it can probably most accurately be summed up like this: that the three BBC Sound Of 2009-tipped artists people Read the full story on...

I’ve read that people who mix capital and lower case letters in their writing are unhinged...

The news that Jarvis Cocker’s new album was to be produced by Steve Albini was definitely one of those moments that prick the interest...

Their reputation precedes them, and trepidation often greets them...

Democracy! Green Man Festival are offering the chance for a band - any band - to open up the festival this year. A sort of glorified Battle Of The Bands for Web 2.0. Perhaps a little bit like 'Road to V' but also infinitely better. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Locomotive-themed indie-pop festival Indietracks have confirmed that their Sunday headliner will be none other than Scottish four-piece leg-ends, Teenage Fanclub. They'll play the outdoor - Elefant - stage...

As the year of re-evaluation and ultimately re-invention, 2009 has left perennial ladrockers Kasabian in something of a quandary... Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

For the third instalment of our Artist 'n' Artist feature, former Les Incompétents and current Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man Frederick Blood-Royale of meets former At The Drive-In and current Mars Volta spearhead, Cedric Bixler Zavala. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

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This may be a complete coincidence, but it's a pretty striking one. From this evidence at least, it appears Ms Roux - that well known French surname - is drawing more than just an 'influence' from Monsieur Tellier. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Caralee may have left Xiu Xiu, but a solo Jamie Stewart is a special, life-affirming, and profoundly weird thing. Tonight's set of "new and favourite Xiu Xiu songs" manages to have all the heartbreak and candour you'd expect of a Morrissey gig... but also the intimacy...

Spot Festival took place in Aarhus, Denmark, from May 21 to 23 2009 The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice a recurring theme: Scandinavian bands and festivals getting themselves noticed...

It’s all about control for Andy Falkous. Rage is the driving force behind his music, and as leader of Future Of The Left and mclusky, his voice has spewed bilious words over torrents of fierce lo-fi rock for over a decade...

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We really have been spoilt for choice in May. I know, we (I) may have expressed very similar sentiments back for this same feature in April but that was over-enthusiasm at a decent-ish month for music. This month, however, has genuinely been filled with fantastic records. It's hard to narrow it.....

Following news that their forthcoming album will be called The Resistance and that it's nearly finished, Devon's finest prog-rock-operatic pop-metallers have confirmed a series of super-massive UK shows for later this year Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

If the Union Chapel isn’t one of your favourite venues in London, if not the UK, the world, then you have no soul. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, one of the most focused, synapse flicking, soundtrack-to-your-summer essential records to have 'dropped' in recent memory. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com

At the height of grunge, Sonic Youth awed me tremendously with a dismissive guest singles round-up for a now defunct UK music-monthly...

Though Stith's approach to the construction of a musical piece is almost novel, a struggle against familiarity is the biggest battle he faces. On what is heard tonight, in fits and starts, it won't be hard for a man of Stith's calibre to win this one...

Depeche Mode lead singer Dave Gahan has had a malignant tumour removed, whilst Morrissey continues to be plagued by illness, cancelling the remaining Brixton dates on his tour. Read the full story on DrownedinSound.com