French alt. rock sensations, Phoenix, have been one of the most talked about bands of 2009. Their brilliant fourth studio album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has already seen the release of two outstanding singles: 1901 and personal favourite of mine, Lisztomania. I’ve heard very good things about the band’s live show, although recently I’ve heard murmurings of the ongoing ill health of lead singer Thomas Mars which has caused a couple of below par performances this year, thankfully tonight wasn’t one of these, quite the opposite in fact.
Tonight’s support came …

Frank Turner, dear readers, is amazing. I saw him at the same venue back in January of this year, and the vibe has certainly changed in over the course of a few months. The musician I saw perform at the beginning of 2009 was a humble, beautiful and creative man whose brilliant music was significantly under-appreciated.
Friday evening saw that same humble, beautiful and creative man recognised; by a sold-out room full of people, to be specific. On top of the fact it was a sell-out crowd, I feel I …

Fanfarlo are a band that none of your friends will have heard of, and you can take joy in telling them they’re idiots for just that reason. Over the past two years, folk music in Britain has overflowed, adapted and given birth to revised genres of the folk-slash-indie-slash-pop persuasion. The ever-expanding scene of this sort began in London and the latest hybrids of this wonderful musical happening are Fanfarlo. These guys are not to be missed.
Having just released their brilliant debut album ‘Reservoir’ (reviewed here), it’s no surprise at all …

Here at The Blue Walrus, we’ve all been massive fans of Mumford & Sons since the boys first hit the road a couple of years back, so much so that there was almost a punch up when I beat Tim to it and featured the band here not so long ago. Seeing them at the Cambridge Junction on Sunday marked the fifth time I’ve gone out to see the band play, and the boys are still absolutely magnificent.
Made up of four multi-instrumentalists who are talent-soaked up to their very pretty …

It is always fantastic for me to see great new bands come out of cities and town where I have history. That may be Glasgow, Edinburgh and London for the most part, but in The Candle Thieves we have a cutesy indie duo coming out of Peterborough, very close to where I spent the majority of my school years. But that doesn’t mean my support of them isn’t warranted. In The Sunshine EP they have put together 4 tracks of blissful toy-inspired indie pop.
They get straight into the child-song-like …

Cancel the Astronauts (MySpace)  have put together five tracks of glorious and unashamed indie pop, adding to the resurgence of Edinburgh’s music scene.  From when the tom-tom-led drums fall into the opening and title track “I am the President of your Fanclub (and last night I followed you home” and are joined by some Strokes-esque tight guitars you know you’re in for indie-danceable delight.
They aren’t reinventing the wheel, but with a sound that fits somewhwere between The Futureheads and We were Promised Jetpacks with a little of first album Franz …