PLUS ONE MAGAZINE

The ever progressive Post War Glamour Girls return with their second full length album Feeling Strange. Anyone who has followed their career to date will not be surprised to learn that the Leeds quartet have refused to rest on their laurels after the success of their debut LP Pink Fur . Feeling Strange is the next step of the bands constant evolution. It feels like they have developed a completely new sound. They have always been a band who cannot be pigeon holed and therefore it was inevitable that this album would differ from the last, just as Pink Fur sounded nothing like all their prior EP's.

We’re chock-a-block at Canal Mills for what is actually my first visit to the (not surprisingly) canalside red-brick venue for a bit of avant-garde post-industrial indie. The Beacons Metro gig fest is now in full swing and tonight the headline act, ‘Everything Everything’ has packed fans in from all over the region. Hopefully the same has been/will be true for the rest of the 40-odd live music events curated by the organisers, making the new era Beacons an unqualified success. 

The second album from Then Thickens, the project of former KONG man Jon-Lee Martin, is another spine-chillingly frank collection of songs, shedding some of the excess weight of debut Death Cap at Anglezarke and gaining a slightly more polished veneer. It’s a discernible progression and one which brings the band’s red-raw charm even closer to home, leaving you feeling like you’ve flipped through a recovered addict’s photo album – warts and all, highs and lows.

The curiously named Alex Bleeker and the Freaks are much more mainstream than you might expect. Knocked together in Brooklyn, New York, the merry band of Freaks are joined by Bleeker himself in creating a unique yet universally undemanding LP. 

The loss of Beacons left a big void in this summer’s local festival circuit. Having attended the final two incarnations, the organisers had really demonstrated a flair for curating deliciously eclectic of line-ups. Save for better luck weather wise (the 2011 Beacons was totally washed out and the 2014 closing day experienced some disruption thanks to Hurricane Bertha’s denouement), it may have continued into this year and beyond. Such a pity, still it was great while it lasted.

Leeds native Matt Bigland returns with the third full length Dinosaur Pile-Up album Eleven Eleven . Since its conception as a side project during his days in Mother Vulpine they have gone from strength to strength, despite occasional changes in line-up. The debut EP and two subsequent albums received glowing reviews and the great many fans they have accumulated will be delighted to hear that this latest offering is exactly what you would expect from them, but with a few minor tweaks for the better.

Audiences for TheLemonheads are always are strange combination; serious looking men in their forties with stone faces, predatory women not yet over their teenage Dando lust, and beered up blokes bouncing along nostalgically to the hits. Something felt different this time though; a slightly younger demographic, less intense faces; maybe this 90s revival means being a Lemonheads fan is suddenly a little less unfashionable.

As the craft beer revolution gathers a relentless pace and new bars open up in towns and cities seemingly on a weekly basis, how about gaining some all important beer knowledge at one of the UK's Botanist gastro pubs?   Take along six friends or more for a fun evening of beer tasting that will guide you through the history of ales in Britain, Europe or worldwide depending on which package you choose to explore. We were invited to attend  The Botanist  in Leeds and have a beer expert talk us through the world's history of beer, along with some all important sampling of eight very different ales...

I first happened upon this rather splendid outfit when they ably supported Bob Mould in Wolverhampton, barely a month after the release of their breakthrough recording ‘Deserter’s Songs’ many moons ago. By the end of that same year, thanks mainly to good old fashioned word of mouth, a bemused yet delighted band deservedly received the much feted ‘Album of the Year’ gong courtesy of NME, and thus their legend was born.

According to Bob Dylan, Frankie Lee and Judas Priest were the best of friends. But the artist behind American Dreamer has nothing other than a name-check in Dylan’s 1968 number one in common with the seminal heavy metallers from Birmingham. In fact, it’s the decade-spanning troubadour himself who has clearly had the most profound impact on the soulful Mississippian’s sound – you can’t really miss it.

Very rarely do I play an album back to back, on consecutive days, and still have an itching desire to play it again immediately. We'll that's what's happened with Toronto's  Dilly Dally  and their incredible debut  Sore . It's been a long time coming though for best friends Katie Monks and Liz Ball. Years of searching for the complete line up has undoubtedly paid off in spades with the addition of bassist Jimmy Tony and drummer Benjamin Reinhartz.