all art is quite useless

Lee Rock music is the best, upsetting the canon is better A graduate from Canterbury Christchurch University, I am the Introducing Editor for Hooting And Howling, and also write for thnksfrthrvw. In the past I've written for Hitsville U.K., God Is In The TV Zine and Bearded Magazine, and I have also published an anthology alongside other CCCU students entitled Personal Is Political, an attempt at collecting together pieces which address the literal titular theme. As well as this, I've also had prose published in another CCCU anthology (2012, collab with Lampyridae Press) and in an online university magazine (2013, ISSUU). I recently finished my dissertation project, a collection of essays creating a discourse about social and political context amongst music movements and scenes, Available to read on ISSUU I now live in Lancashire, and also like dogs, Renaissance art and the film The Room. Facebook E-mail: [email protected]

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ALBUM REVIEW: IDLES ‘Brutalism’

It’s hard to be a punk band in Britain. Not in terms of breaking out, but in terms of saying what hasn’t already been said.

SAYING SOME WORDS ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM FROM @we-are-idles 

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LIVE MUSIC - Blue Thunder #5 @ The Montague Arms, London 16/02/2017

Review by Lee Whear

The great ship Blue Thunder storms through the gates of Neu Kross once again. Where there be long hair, there be rock. The fifth time the Inevitable Daydream boys have curated this behemoth of God-given rock & roll, and they once again prove that they are at the tipping point of the scene.

The Lewisham-based young boys are here to play their unreleased debut album in full, and with old songs getting a revisit, their growth is more than apparent. While ‘Sea Was Angry’ is still the bubbly shoegaze tune it used to be, with powerhouse Diego on drums and Jack being the young stoner axeman he is, there is a new harsh metallic kick to the track that gives it more life. Every song is played with gusto and with the solemn mission to absolutely rock. ‘Long Hair’ is a lurching emo anthem, and ‘Drive All Night’, released last year as a single, is better than any song Dinosaur Jr. have written for the last ten years, a blissful poetic grunge pop lullaby. ‘Brown Acid’ is an swaggering riff-based storm as usual, and with the promise of live favourite ‘LSD Over Tokyo’ finally getting a recorded release, there’s never a better time to be a fan of Britain’s best underground band.

With just a couple of tracks online, Lazy Pilgrims have a lot to prove, especially coming on after the Daydream boys. Their punchy garage pop works a delight however, recalling Pavement if Stephen Malkmus wasn’t a nerd.

And if they’re Crunchy Nut, Honey Lung are Shredded Wheat, Jamie ripping his guitar to shreds through jam grunge jams like ‘Perfect V’ and the gorgeous ‘Something’. With a whole EP already out there, there’s not much left for Honey Lung to show. They really are a fantastic band, Jamie hurling himself into the crowd for mosh-pleaser finale ‘End of Time’.

Bigman Solution closes the night, and they show that perhaps nu metal was never meant to die. Downtuned, serrated guitar riffs cut like ice, almost math rock-like rhythms beaten out for a shirtless Anton to spit, yelp and scream over. A real livewire, he clearly enjoys being able to conjure a crowd, and if these four bands can elicit pits and calls for “one more song!”, what will happen when they all finally get the time they deserve? Perhaps that’s just the beauty of the scene, knowing all these sick rock bands are right out of sight. More communal that way innit.

Soul Retribution by Bigman Solution

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EP REVIEW: Honey Lung ‘Kind of Alone’

Only 90’s kids remember the last tides of Thatcherism razing the country to the ground, and the nervous cultural climate that gave way to Size Zero and the corporatisation of club culture, but at l…

my second piece for Bitter Sweet Symphonies is up, where I talk about the great Honey Lung!

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In Living Appreciation: PJ Harvey

"Don’t you wish you never met her?" - Rid of Me, 1993. The evolution of Polly Jean Harvey from an alternation between waif and succubus, to ghostly doom-saying stateswoman, makes sense when you realise she’s spent her whole career in the shadow of the...

heres me talking about how much I love Polly Jean Harvey

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LIVE REVIEW: Get Inuit + Trash at The Lexington, London

Two years ago, with just two tracks online, Get Inuit were part of a bill showcasing Kent talent, playing to just over a dozen people in a pub in Maidstone. Now the Sittingbourne lads are Radio 1 r…

my first piece for Bitter Sweet Symphonies is up!

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ALBUM: Compilation LP // Sheer Mag

‘Today’s teenage frustration is caused, not by fuddy-duddy parents, not by easily shocked adults, but by an intractable economic situation, by a society in which everyone talks a lot about the plight of the youth but no one does anything. This isn’t...

‘For those of us who already believe in the Sheer Mag philosophy, it is commonly understood that they are perhaps the greatest rock band working today.’ 

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LIVE MUSIC - Fuoco @ Birthdays, London 13/01/2016

Review by Liam Whear

Alas, the two rock juggernauts meet and the world is at peace for a couple of hours. Again.

Celebrating the release of Kape Kinevil, Fuoco’s first EP in two and a half years and the first release from M8 Records, all these five brothers of rock have to do is withstand a broken bass drum, and then they’re free to let rip.

Inevitable Daydream have been playing with Fuoco for the longest time, and the synergy is always incredible. As the Sevenoaks boys have grown older, their songs have grown longer, so it’s unfortunate that the short time slots only allow for them play four songs.

But by God they’re played with gusto. Opening with the ten-minute behemoth ‘Druid’s Pipe’, their sludge rock is a tidal wave of sledgehammer riffs that never stops moving. Overlooking a sea of headbangers, they let the song bloom before tearing it down. ‘Long Hair Part I’’s emo-grunge is earnest, and the fact that after they go straight into ‘Long Hair Part III’ almost shows their constant evolution as a band. The newest piece of the set, it’s a post-rock number that’s constantly balancing itself, an impromptu guest verse from Anton of Bigman Solution an example of their off-beat sense of humour. Traditional closer ‘LSD Over Tokyo’ is a feast of lurching bass, lofty guitar melodies, screamed vocals, and rousing rock catharsis. One can only hope that soon they’ll be playing headline sets that let them unleash their full potential.

Facebook: facebook.com/ifjamesmayplayedrock

On the contrary, Fuoco’s gore-grunge can only last around thirty minutes before it implodes on itself. Opening with smash single ‘Drink Your Tears’, from the new EP, James is a thrashing mess of blonde hair and jagged riffs, bludgeoning as much frustration and anxiety out of his axe while Antonio smashes the drum kit behind him. ‘Epic’, ‘I’m Going to Fucking Kill You’ and ‘Older Man’ all grow from fraught verses to walls of, pardon, epic noise rock as James contorts himself onstage, the latter song seeing him literally kick the walls as he wrangles every last note from his fret board. Storming offstage after closer ‘Hunt’, he’s done his bit for the rock.  

Facebook: facebook.com/fuocoband

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Fuoco & Inevitable Daydream @ Birthdays, Dalston, London, 13/01/2017

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EP: Kape Kinevil // Fuoco

Feeling like a train wreck just out of sight, Fuoco are an utterly dangerous beast. With ‘Kape Kinevil’, freshly birthed like a xenomorph from the chest of brand-new M8s Records, they’ve evolved from an angry noise grunge duo to a ferocious and...

‘ An acidic slow burn that builds and builds to an unstoppable onslaught of stoner rock anger, like The Wytches on ket, or Slaves if they were good.’ 

here’s me talking about the frighteningly good new EP from the brothers in rock Fuoco

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Lost Tunes: Volume 24

Given the obvious atmosphere permeating the world right now, let’s revisit some perhaps overlooked protest songs. ‘It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world.’ – Nelson Mandela Nina Simone – Mississippi Goddamn https://www....

I wrote about some perhaps overlooked protest songs for Hooting & Howling!

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Introducing: Big Joanie

In 1977, a zine called Sniffin’ Glue from South London depicted an illustration saying ‘this is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band.’ Nearly forty years later, @bigjoanie​ in the DIY Space For London did just that. 

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INTRODUCING: Kermes

Kermes describe themselves as ‘captivating’ and ‘sparkling’, and as someone who wants to write about bands for a living it’s comforting to find one that does the job for you. In the glitter-covered and very pink cassette that this Leicester lot...

A look at @kermesforever

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And all you touch will always be this cold

And all you touch will always be this cold

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Inevitable Daydream, Dreamweaver, Honey Lung and Fuoco all killing it @ Blue Thunder #1, New Cross Inn, London, 04/05/2016

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Live: Inevitable Daydream, GANG, Radidas, Skinny Milk – Drakes Bar, Maidstone, 29/04/2016

With all these long-haired lads about, things were going to get a little messy. The long-time fan of dirty noise that they are, Factotum Productions collided with Blowout Music to bring this tidal wave of rock to the annual Maidstone Fringe Festival....

Last night I saw all these dirty rock and roll bandsplay as part of Maidstone Fringe Festival. it was messy