Funny how the same old criticisms always appear to be leveled at the most successful bands…

In my experience I have never heard a band reflect so many musical influences in one album. Listen to Shack’s latest and you’ll hear Simon & Garfunkle, the Beatles and hell of a lot more. The end result is unmistakeable Shack, and while not the most inspiring sound, it is reassuring, comforting and very easy [...]

ROCK-IT: Our Rock Editor, has been busting a gut to reveal his throbbing picks of 2008.

If Axl Rose spent fifteen years perfecting Chinese Democracy, I most certainly am allowed two months to get my head around it. I believe it’s called respect in some circles. I don’t know about everybody else but for the last 15 years, I’ve been busy living my life and not sitting around waiting for Axl Rose to deem his masterpiece worthy of public consumption…

For those of you not familiar with The Dears, they hark from Montreal

Sitting on my desktop at the moment are photographs from two amazing events which happened within days of each other. And this was one of them. The Irish independent feature film ONCE has won universal acclaim and is about to be released in the UK. Directed by John Carney and starring Frames frontman Glen Hansard [...]