It opens, atmospheric, tense, eerie. It promises something great, something perhaps deranged, something that could be sheer unadulterated rock, something glorious. The guitars are introduced, then the drums. A monstrously delightful mix. The vocalist, Steve Ayres begins to sing…
Mirrorkicks is an abysmal self-titled album from an abysmal sounding band. After the first couple of songs the entire album dragged on with no promise of a quick end. On TV and Anything were a somewhat promising start to what turned out to be akin to almost forty minutes of torture. Both of them were [...]
The Optimist is a refreshing album from Londoners New Young Pony Club, especially after the monotonous disaster that was their debut, Fantastic Playroom. This release was entirely DIY and is most definitely not a botched job. Not once does it slip below an acceptable standard, threatening to bring the overall quality down. With obvious glimmers [...]
Despite the enthusiasm of the audience, the energy of the support acts and the overall rawness of the night so far, everybody backstage is strangely calm. Perhaps it has come with years of constant touring but there was still something quite eerie about stepping from a hallway with boisterous yells bombarding the walls, into a room where the most activity going on was someone shifting to get comfortable as they watched the gig downstairs on screen.
Jon Allen, a guy who goes relatively undetected but a guy who puts too much work in for it to be deserved. Hopefully, with the release of his album Dead Man’s Suit and his impending tour of Europe it’s something that is about to change. He’s a great live performer, fantastic at keeping his audience [...]
A brilliantly perfect gig for someone with brilliant potential. Not to sound too cliché or anything but the moment Jon Allen appeared on stage, emerging from a hidden door, it was clear that the night ahead was going to be a good one. He jumped straight into the first song Lay Your Burden Down and [...]
The deluxe edition of Be Human is something that all Fightstar fans should have for no other reason than the acoustic show they recorded. It gives people a chance to see them sit back and relax and perform their songs on a completely new level. Their stripped back set takes nothing away from the quality [...]
With a weird name and an even weirder press release there comes an expectation that perhaps this person is quirky, odd and slightly mad. He is! So much so that when he appears on the stage at the Joiners with a cellist in tow it is barely questionable when he makes odd comments and Stacy, [...]
Dave Keuning, of The Killers, has called From 005-008 ‘a two guitar attack on the senses…’. Drowned in Sound have said The Good, The Bad are a band who ‘write great quality rock songs’, and we here at Call Upon the Author have to completely agree.  It goes past in a blur of stunning guitar [...]
Their 2009 was turbulent, it had the cliché ups and downs and parts that they’d rather never happened. Yet without all of those things it’s quite possible that Delorentos, who hail from Dublin, never would have produced such an enjoyable album. They’re not the most amazing band ever, and given that singer Ronan has already [...]
