Matthew Wilson

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From Monday 20 February 2017

Meat Wave – ‘The Incessant’

Chris Sutter seems to be looking over his shoulder a lot. There’s something matching his footsteps, something that he can’t quite place, an “anxious doom” demanding “payment due,” shapelessly shifting, “coming for you”. It’s nameless, but he calls it ‘The Incessant,’ on the title track of this

Thursday 02 February 2017

The Menzingers – ‘After The Party’

“I was there when the wall came down, I’ll be there when the ocean rises,” howls Greg Barnett midway through ‘Thick As Thieves’, prophesying the end of the world over a gnarly riff. We’re only two songs into ‘After The Party’, and hell yeah, the hangover is

Monday 16 January 2017

LIVE: Yellowcard / Normandie / Kenneths @ Stylus, Leeds

Trying to wind down a career of almost twenty years isn’t easy. Playing music with the same dudes in sweaty basements, cramped vans and festival appearances for a timespan greater than the age of some audience members must take its toll. So, it’s with an air of grace that

Monday 09 January 2017

Dropkick Murphys – ’11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory’

With drums, strings and whistles heralding the arrival of ‘The Lonesome Boatman’, soon giving way to crushing distorted guitars and gang vocals, Boston’s Dropkick Murphys set the scene for ‘11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory’, their ninth album. Borne out of recent tragedies and the band’s

Tuesday 13 December 2016

LIVE: Against Me! / Milk Teeth / Mobina Galore @ Manchester Academy, Manchester

As she stands before the vocal diehards at the front of the stage, grinning with a mile-wide smile on her face, Laura Jane Grace is in her element. “You know, my favourite thing about touring the UK right now is that I can say with 100% certainty

Monday 12 December 2016

Yearbook – ‘I Stop Somewhere Waiting For You’

It must be hard to feel like this. It’s taken three years for Yearbook to write, record and release their debut album; three years on an album that they’ve poured their heart and soul into; three years to give it their all until there really is nothing

Monday 05 December 2016

The So So Glos – ‘Kamikaze’

New York’s The So So Glos are back with their mix of bratty indie-punk for their fourth record ‘Kamikaze’. Drawing on equal parts from Leftover Crack’s anarchic rock and The Strokes’ refined riffs, with their own garage-punk inflections, the physicality New York pervades all throughout ‘Kamikaze’, as

Wednesday 30 November 2016

Vanishing Life – ‘Surveillance’

‘Punk rock’ and ‘super groups’ are two concepts that, when uttered in the same sentence, create a wave of anguish that washes over the listener with the expectation of disappointment. For every Fugazi or OFF!, there’s the crushing mediocrity of an Audioslave or Velvet Revolver, so it’s a

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Petrol Girls – ‘Talk Of Violence’

It begins with the sounds of protest. It ends with a phone recording of a refugee trying to translate the Kurdish for “sister and brother” into English. And all throughout, ‘Talk Of Violence’, the debut album from Petrol Girls, unflinchingly deals with the chaotic conflicts that occupy the world.

Monday 14 November 2016

Shit Present – ‘Misery + Disaster’

Shit Present’s second EP is another blisteringly honest release from the DIY, punk rock supergroup. More introspective and downbeat than their self-titled debut, ‘Misery + Disaster’ uses its pop influences to drag itself above the quagmire of depression and make something positive from the murkiness of mental health.