CCTV, Pow Pow @ Øya Festival
14th August 2010, Oslo, Norway

And suddenly another Øya was left to memory. Possibly over-all the worst of all 5 Øya’s I had previously been to. Far too many disappointing shows, way too many pitchfork bands, headliners that never really took off…. almost no decent smaller shows…. copious amounts of rain… [...]

John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen, Wolves Like Us, 1349, Major Lazer @ Øya Festival
13th August, Oslo, Norway
After seriously considering against going to Øya today, based on a long week of late shifts and far too much aural exposure, my mind faltered and I made my way there squelching through the crowds on my daily round.
I [...]

Broken Bells, Against Me!, Wardruna, Miike Snow, Nachtmystium, LCD Sound System, The Black Angels, Yeasayer, Cumshots, Lindstrøm and Cristabelle, Pavement, The Lionheart Brothers @ The Øya Festival
Oslo, Norway 12th August 2010
Feeling slightly stronger and more accepting of life I headed back to the throngs and hipsters dispersed over a smattering of ruins, “beer street” [...]

Iggy & The Stooges, Raekwon, The Navigators, Ariel Pink @ The Øya Festival
Oslo, Norway 11th August 2010
After having nearly passed out on the sidewalk, sent spinning by the sight of pulsating blood flooding onto my pale hands from a cut inflicted by a dodgy umbrella, I decided not to allow that to colour my day. [...]

It’s that well versed and widely understood scenario when you are at a club and one of your friends hurls himself onto the dance floor (as per usual) and disappears into a trance like state jerking around like a half dead pig being prodded with an electric staff, and all and sundry silently laugh seeing [...]

For all the glories bestowed upon artists, deservedly or not, that only induce further comatose egos to spring to life (burgeoning like the Poplar trees along the Brahmaputra in April) swaying heads and arrogant lips the size of fault lines delirious in the shadows of magazine covers, the buck has to stop somewhere.
Susanna! Oh Susanna
Glancing [...]

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Having witnessed the aural anesthesia of Vaiping live once before, it was with beastliness as a forethought and grim vexation that I agreed to review their sophmore release.
I found them insipid live. Four remarkably amicable, pleasant chaps from the rainy dregs of Stavanger arrived fresh-faced and lucid to display their talents to the [...]

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Rarely these days have death metal releases caught me off-guard. Most of them tread the familiar skunk infested paths of stinky jeans and sour breath infusing itself onto badly recorded/badly mixed/badly written records thrust out onto the pale public via a metal label in Bucharest or perhaps Gdansk. CD covers with indecipherable logos [...]

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Long reviled, understandably hated, doused in adjectives and superlatives, Maniac has long borne the cloak of rebellion and reaction. From the ashes of former band Mayhem which propelled him to the forefront of the foreign media with his intense live-performances (often ending in stages soaked with blood, lawsuits and visits to the ER) [...]

Serena-Maneesh have went and gone nostalgic on us, releasing S-M Backwards this autumn. This collection of early EPs, recordings and videos made us nostalgic right back at them, so tour manager/photographer Ben Sands dug out some old photos and memoirs from way back when Serena visited the Faroe Islands’ G! Festival in 2007:

!– [...]