July 2011
14 posts
Fire In Babylon: a film review →
Fire in Babylon: Movie Review
Documentaries about sports teams should never be difficult to review, as for the most part they’re not very good. Whilst a sporting event watched live can be…
The Fastbacks: live review →
The Fastbacks
Seattle
live review
July 2011 classic Seattle seventies punk band reforms…and it’s great
As we watched the mainly gently graying crowd pogoing along with Kurt Bloch…
Damon Albarn: What’s in a name? →
Television’s Stewart Lee has gone on record, in the Sunday Observer this very week, opining that there is some kind of occult machination behind Damon Albarn’s opera Doctor Dee, which apparently…
Is it only bassists that love Primus? new album... →
Primus
‘Green Naugahyde’
new album released Sept 2011 Is it only bassists that love Primus?
Well, given their Billboard Top Ten hits and headlining slots at festivals like…
Graham Duff- creator of the wonderful ‘Ideal’- top... →
Ideal is, by far, the best comedy on TV at the moment, surreal, inventive and genuinely unhinged it stars Johnny Vegas as an out of sorts, small time drug dealer in a role that is as manic as…
RIP Wurzel, ex Motorhead guitarist →
Wurzel, who played guitar for Motorhead for many years has reported to have died. Born in 1949 he spent several years in one of the UKs finest ever rock bands. Born in 1949, his real name was Michael…
top 10 sci-fi films →
Ten great Science Fiction Films by Ian Johnston The ten Science Fiction titles listed below are all available in the UK on DVD. These are just a few personal favourites; there are many, many more. 1….
The day we said goodbye to John. →
One year ago this weekend a handful of miscreants from Newport, South Wales, got together to do something special. Our friend, John Sicolo, had died a couple of months before – and we wanted to give…
Peter Murphy ‘Ninth’ – Review →
Peter Murphy
“Ninth” Nettwerk Music
Available now…
My own knowledge of Peter Murphy stretches right back to the seminal days of Bauhaus; I first heard, and bought the Small Wonder…
The ultimate guide on where to hear new music →
The ultimate guide on where to hear new music…
I suspect I’m not alone in that quite often I find myself being asked where I hear about the music I listen too. Whenever I meet new people the…
Hop Farm Festival: review →
Hop Farm Festival
July 2011 It’s the festival that refuses to suck corporate cock. Stood before us bathed in neon purple floodlights Prince - the pint-sized man of the moment - nails Hop Farm’s…
The late Poly Styrene’s birthday song list →
The much loved and missed Poly Styrene would have been 54 today.
Before she died she compiled a list of her current favourite tunes for her forthcoming birthday.
It makes interesting…
top 10 worst cover versions of all time →
the 10 worst cover versions of all time
It had to be done. It has been done, several times actually, but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I’ve always wanted to make a “top ten worst” type…
John Lydon and Public Image Limited in the studio... →
Swopping news stories with our mates at the fab The Quietus website we are interested to find out that Pil are in the studio ‘working on new material’.
The band have posted some very well…
The Melvins ‘Sugar Daddy Live’ – Review →
The Melvins ‘Sugar Daddy Live’
Ipecac Recordings IPC126 (via Southern)
Available now Over the years The Melvins have amongst other things been described as “the godfathers of grunge”; they were also…
May 2011
19 posts
Sabrejets- album review →
THE SIN-SATIONAL SABREJETS – “NICE ‘n’ GREASY EVERY TIME”.
The Sabrejets’ new album ‘Sin-sational’ review by Mully
OK Cats and Kittens…LETS GO!! We’re gonna take a trip – a trip back to the…
Hyper- an interview with the punk/rave crew →
Hyper: punk rave – interview (blog)
LTW caught up with punk rave band Hyper, infusing rock energy into visceral, hard-hitting electronic dance music…
Words: Carl Loben
Hyper aren’t a new band,…
Time for a new job… →
It was announced this week that Bad Religion front man Greg Graffin has accepted a position as a lecturer at US Ivy League institution Cornell University.
Graffin fronting Bad Religion
Graffin…
Margate! So much to answer for… →
One man has a Margate mission – to document, record and applaud the youth culture that has permeated the town through the years. Here, journalist Iain Aitch lays out his battle plan to Louder Than…
top 12 hot picks for this weekend’s Friends Of... →
It’s less than five days to go to FOM Fest and the smorgasbord of talent that awaits us at Capesthorne Hall near Macclesfield already has me salivating. If you’re the type of person who likes to…
LTW Playlist W/C 16th May 2011 →
The Louder Than War Playlist Each week we present ‘Six Of The Best’ – the six tracks that are getting our feet tapping here at LTW Towers… They can be brand new, they can be old – either way they…
The Ramsbottom Festival 2011 →
The Ramsbottom Festival 2011 People used to say that it was “grim up North” – Well even if that remains the case, judging by the number of festivals being held ‘up North’ we certainly know how to…
One Week to go until Friends of Mine Festival →
For a lot of people the first ever Friends of Mine Festival will be the start of the 2011 festival season.With only a week until the gates of Capesthorne Hall swing open to thousands of festival…
Tyler the Creator – hip hop’s new genius →
Tyler the Creator – hip hop’s new genius
We’ve been banging on about the various projects from Tyler The Creator for ages.
As the mainman behind Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All he has…
We are family… →
We are family…
Well that’s what Sister Sledge sang when they took the track to the top of the charts…
“The family that plays together, stays together” It’s likely the person who coined that phrase…
“Charlie don’t surf” →
The return of Apocalypse Now By Ian Johnston ‘The way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, we had access to too much money, too much equipment,…
Piano – No fingers on one hand! →
This linked video shows a young Chinese girl playing “Souvenir D’enfance” by Richard Clayderman on the piano for an X-Factor/BGT style television show - Nothing too impressive so far, and you would…
LTW Playlist W/C 9th May 2011 →
The Louder Than War Playlist
Each week we present ‘Six Of The Best’ - the six tracks that are getting our feet tapping here at LTW Towers… They can be brand new, they can be old -
“And then punk happened…” →
Pop music. What a journey! It started life as the fad of the new-born teenagers – a frivolous craze that parents knew little Johnny and Jenny would one day grow up and out of. It exploded through…
Ladytron announce new tour and album →
Ladytron have announced a forthcoming UK tour and new album
June 8 London HMV Forum
June 9 Glasgow Arches
June 10 Liverpool St Georges Hall
June 11 Dublin Tripod
They will release…
50 songs for my 50th birthday…John Robb →
The Cramps ‘Strychnine’
It was always going to be a tough call to find any space to improve on this cover of the Sonics classic, after all the original is a perfect slice of distorted garage rock n…
Alex Harvey, The Last Of The Teenage Idols →
Alex Harvey, The Last Of The Teenage Idols The title of “Hardest Working Man In Show business” is usually allocated to U.S. stars such as James Brown or Bruce Springsteen, both of whom made a name…
Second coming of Christ is May 21 according to... →
These are strange times and the only stable currency is fear, so it’s no wonder that the prophets are out in force.
Sweeping the USA is a story that has snowballed into a full blown belief that…
The death of Bin Laden →
Al-Qaeda dude hearing the news about Bin Laden: “I guess we’ll call it quits then” *tosses his AK-47 away* His henchman homie: “Yeah, like, I’m so over global terrorism. One-all’s not so bad.”…
Stooges – Ron Asheton Tribute Gig… →
Iggy & The Stooges - Ron Asheton tribute gig 20th April 2011
Michigan Theatre
Ann Arbour I can’t pretend I was at the gig. Just can’t. I wish I was. Iggy and a crew of lowlives, ex schoolmates and…
April 2011
35 posts
Fugazi don’t rule out playing again →
Great news for lovers of highly original stretching of the punk template with a life affirming intensity…. Ian Mackaye has spoken about the Fugazi hiatus and whilst he doesn’t say that they are…
Mick Harvey – Exclusive LTW Review/Interview →
Mick Harvey ‘SKETCHES FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD’ & INTERVIEW BY IAN JOHNSTON
Copyright © Ian Johnston 2011 On an incredibly hot and sunny late April day, in a hotel near Marble Arch, London, 53 year…
Check this brilliant cartoon strip about John... →
John COooper Clarke should be the British poet laureate.
He is still as cuttingly funny and original as he was thirty years ago.
He also still has the skeletal charisma and H-bomb hair that…
Spotify – the love affair is over? →
Got a good reason for taking the easy way out? I will hold my hands up at the start of this article, and admit that I was lucky as a young school child. I went to a lovely Primary School, with a…
Alice Cooper to gig in 4D!! →
Alice Cooper to gig in 4D!! As if 2D wasn’t bad enough, Alice Cooper/Jägermeister have announced a ground-breaking exclusive… The ‘Jägermeister Ice Cold Event’ will take place on Wednesday 11 May…
The Royal Wedding – by John Robb →
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It’s not that anyone begrudges the ‘royal wedding’.
They seem like perfectly nice people for Royals – oddly human and…
Puressence- live review from Manchester →
Puressence
Manchester Ritz
April 18 2001
‘Stick with us, we may just make it’. is Puressence frontman James Mudrizcki parting comment to a packed Manchester Ritz.
In one phrase he sums up the…
I Am The Resurrection! #2. Great lost albums:... →
A welcome little curiosity from the early 1990s, this. ‘Wiregrass’ – second album from Lexington KY’s Stranglmartin.
The three-piece’s 1991 eponymous debut was a respectable enough…
The Cardiacs- an epic overview by Mr. Spencer with... →
TIM SMITH: LEADER OF THE STARRY SKIES
When CARDIACS’ resident genius TIM SMITH was felled by a heart attack and two strokes in 2008 his friends and admirers rallied to help by releasing what…
It’s 34 years since the Stranglers’ debut album-... →
Rattus Norvegicus 1V
Alan A Hillier takes us back in time to celebrate the 34th Anniversary of the release of the first and arguably greatest Stranglers album and recounts his psychedelic…
10 crappy things about getting the train… →
10 crappy things about getting the train…
1. The amazingly expensive fairs at peak time. One minute it’s a mind boggling 70 quid from Manchester- which is considered ‘cheap’, the next it’s at…
The Ruts- the great lost punk band →
The Ruts should have saved punk but their success musically and impact wisewas all too brief
Can it really be three decades since Ruts frontman Malcolm Owen died?
In 1980, weeks after Ian…
Fugazi live review from 2002- a reminder of their... →
Fugazi
Manchester Academy 2002 Fugazi- vietnam war slang for fucked up situation!
There’s few sights in the world more heart warming, more invigorating, more life affirming than this fucking…
A tense football weekend – we try to predict the... →
a tense football weekend…we try to predict the results! what do you reckon> comments please! FA Cup Semi Finals
Man City v Man Utd
This has to be the tastiest FA Cup semi final for years. For a…
