Early in 2007, producer Rob Cavallo asked Shinedown’s frontman Brent Smith about his goals for the band’s new album. “You know what, when I’m dead and gone, when everybody in this band has passed or what have you, I want the world to remember this as a record that needed to be made, and that [...]

Hjaltalin is an eight piece band from Reykjavik, Iceland and released this album on home territory to much acclaim in December 2007. Its release in Europe followed a year later and we’ve just got our hands on a copy for review and will be covering the band when they appear in Manchester in the next [...]

Goodnight And I Wish is a young man called Brandon Jacobs. Brandon writes music and poetry that revolve around the thoughts we take to bed with us every night (and probably carry around with us during daylight hours as well) including fears, worries, loves and hopes. Brandon took to writing to help cure bouts of [...]

A couple of weeks ago it was the Pendulum live DVD/CD that excited me, this weeks it’s this Michael Buble DVD/CD. Here at Shakenstir we’ve always felt that albums are only half the story, and the complete picture can only be painted through witnessing a live performance. So, if we like we go see. But [...]

Three years ago I received a charming and highly original recording (BEGIN TO HOPE) by a young lady of Russian descent called Regina Spektor. As is usual here at Shakenstir we followed up a favourable album review with a live review, on this occasion at the wonderful Lowry centre in Manchester. Spektor performed without any backing [...]

Now here’s a ‘Space Oddity’ for you. In summer 2002, journalist Andrew Smith (The Face, Observer) set out to find the men who’d walked on the moon. Only 12 had ever set down on the surface, between the summer of 1969 and about 3 weeks before Woodstock at the end of 1972. Smith found himself hearing about breakdowns, [...]