The List: Stereoboard's Top Tickets Of 2019

td#right {display:none !important;} td#right {display:none !important;} Live music offers an escape. With all the uncertainty in the world, be it political, financial or environmental, there's always comfort and reassurance to be found in hearing one of your favourite bands sing one of your favourite songs, and being able to scream their lyrics back at them in person. The statistics back up that the sentiment. This year has been another busy one for live shows, and here we take a look at which tickets were the most sought-after across the past 12 months.  

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 20 December 2019

The List: Stereoboard's Best Albums Of 2019

td#right {display:none !important;} That's 2019 almost cooked, folks. In a few weeks we'll start a new decade, find new favourites, new heroes and new villains. So, for one last time in the 2010s let's take a look back at 12 months in music to celebrate the records that made us cheer, laugh, cry and marvel.  

Written by: Stereoboard | Date: Monday, 16 December 2019

"Roundaboutly Winging It": Amyl And the Sniffers On Their Breakthrough Year

td#right {display:none !important;} Photo: Gareth Jarvis From her perch atop a flight case strategically placed in the middle of the stage, Amyl and the Sniffers vocalist Amy Taylor is surveying the rowdiness of the crowd at Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach in all its sweaty glory. “Fuck Boris, he’s a racist hooligan, you deserve better than that,” she spits into the mic. “Fuck Boris, fuck Trump and fuck Scott Morrison.”

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Friday, 13 December 2019

Loud Times: The Metal Bands Who Made 2019 A Year To Savour

This year was an enormous one for heavy metal. From fresh-faced upstarts making names for themselves to classic heroes making long-awaited comebacks, it has been a jam-packed 12 months for fans of all things face-melting. So, who better to review the state of the metal nation than the artists themselves?

Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Thursday, 12 December 2019

Kings of Chemistry: Flying Colors On Taking Flight With 'Third Degree'

Our most fruitful and enduring relationships are impervious to time, space and distance. Boasting an almost mystic and magical quality, they possess an inherent, indestructible and long-lasting camaraderie that allow such powerful bonds to be rekindled without missing a beat. Five years since melodic prog rock supergroup Flying Colors released their sophomore outing ‘Second Nature’, this year’s ‘Third Degree’ found the quintet effortlessly slipping back into their chemistry-laden groove as if they’d never been away.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 10 December 2019

'I Wanted This Album To Be The Thing That Wipes The Tears Away': Bishop Briggs Talks 'Champion'

Bishop Briggs wrote her second album ‘Champion’ when she was feeling defeated. Repeating the empowering words of the album’s eponymous lead track like a mantra, to regain self-worth after a painful breakup, she created her emotional fight music. 

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Friday, 06 December 2019

Keep It Honest: How Gerry Cinnamon Became A Cult Hero

Photo: Luke Joyce Gerry Cinnamon. Know the name?

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 05 December 2019

Hope Is 'The Thing With Feathers': Introducing The Revitalising Prog-Pop of Exploring Birdsong

Prog rock is not a cool genre. It hasn’t been for a very, very long time. Ask the Average Joe on the street what they think of when they think ‘prog rock’, and they’ll almost certainly bring up something silly from the 1970s: Geddy Lee dancing while wearing a cape, a 20-minute Rick Wakeman keyboard solo, or Peter Gabriel singing in his most fabulous fluorescent makeup.

Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Wednesday, 04 December 2019

Now What? Everybody's Dead!: Cattle Decapitation Talk Revisiting Armageddon on 'Death Atlas'

On August 7, 2015, San Diego’s gory death metal favourites Cattle Decapitation released their sixth album, ‘The Anthropocene Extinction’. With a title that alluded to the Earth’s sixth mass extinction—the ongoing destruction wreaked by humanity’s manipulation of the environment—it was very much a disc fascinated with the end of the world.

Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Wednesday, 27 November 2019

'We Just Love It': San Cisco Get Under The Skin Of Their New Music

Photo: Pooneh Ghana The October return of San Cisco was a suitably smooth affair. The Australian indie-pop band’s comeback single, Skin, strolled into our lives with a hook that wouldn’t quit and the sort of sunny disposition that has long characterised their output. But lurking at the margins were open wounds, broken promises and the remnants of a busted relationship. That unrefined darkness was new.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Sonic Alchemists: How Judah & The Lion Turned Suffering Towards Salvation

You haven’t truly lived until you’ve heard someone rapping over the bluegrass strains of a banjo.  Or until you’ve experienced the sound of a band who smash together folk, hip hop, EDM, and punk beneath stirring lyrics that make you feel 10 feet tall. Luckily, Judah & the Lion are the wildly talented and eclectic US trio who do all the above and much more.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Monday, 25 November 2019

All This or Bust: Band of Skulls Reflect on 'Baby Darling Doll Face Honey'

To outsiders, it often seems that any fresh faced group who ‘suddenly’ arrive on the scene with a bang, and subsequently reap the rewards their newfound status commands, have had it easy and somehow fluked their way out of obscurity. But before hit singles and worldwide tours, there often lies a story of hard graft, setbacks and intense frustration, making that eventual breakthrough taste even sweeter.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 22 November 2019

What Comes Naturally: Pigs x7 Talk Following Up 'King Of Cowards'

Newcastle, a city perched on the Tyne river in the north east of England, is a relatively small place. A 10 minute taxi journey is all it takes to get from one end of the centre to the other, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs vocalist Matt Baty and guitarist Adam Ian Sykes credit those intimate surroundings with helping to usher along the assembly of the uncompromising band, who take an alternative, almost noise-rock, approach to metal.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 14 November 2019

The Magic and the Mundane: Earth Moves Discuss the Enigmatic 'Human Intricacy'

Photo: Leo Solti “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is a phrase so old and frequently utilised that it’s basically become a cliché. However, for Earth Moves, its repeated usage doesn’t make it any less true. On their second album, ‘Human Intricacy’, the noisy wrecking crew create music that’s intentionally ambiguous, designed to draw wildly different reactions from different people.

Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Wednesday, 13 November 2019

Exorcise Your Demons: False Advertising On The Communal Spirit Behind The Abrasive 'Brainfreeze'

Something that binds together those clustered on stage and those massed in front is the fact that music is an outlet: a mechanism to help us face or forget our problems. “It’s the equivalent of a punchbag,” is how False Advertising’s Jen Hingley puts it.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 08 November 2019

Tomboy To Tear Jerker: Growing Up With Avril Lavigne

Growing up is a process that everyone must endure, whether we like it or not. Some of us change radically, while others change in more subtle ways. Over 17 years since her debut release Avril Lavigne is back, and the one-time pop-punk icon has completed the latest in a long series of stylistic shifts with her new album, 'Head Above Water'.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Thursday, 07 November 2019

Not Quite Hella Mega: How 'Warning:' Quietly Set The Table For Green Day's Blockbuster Era

When the Hella Mega tour rolls into stadiums next summer, Green Day will be right at home. From its name on down the trek—which will find the pop-punk veterans joined by emo survivors Fall Out Boy and alt-rock provocateurs Weezer—is poised to embrace spectacle at each turn, wringing every available drop of goofy grandeur from the headliners’ latter day sense of pomp and circumstance.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 05 November 2019

Past Meets Present: Inside The Glorious Return of Alphabeat

Just over a decade ago, Alphabeat’s trend-defying brand of classic pop lit up the indie world like an explosion of neon rainbows across a dreary winter sky.  And now, history looks set to repeat itself. After a five year hiatus that followed a painful decline in their fortunes, ‘Don’t Know What’s Cool Anymore’ is a luminous comeback record overflowing with the purest gloss you’ll hear this side of the ‘80s. As well as hooks. Lots and lots of sparkling hooks.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 31 October 2019

That's The Deal: The Emotional Pact Nick Cave Makes With His Audience

Photo: Matthew Thorne Glastonbury, 2013. Nick Cave feels compelled to meet his public.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 30 October 2019

The Long Road: Daughters Unravel The History Of Their Intense Live Shows

Photo: A.F. Cortes “I don’t normally do anything on Halloween. I don’t get dressed up or anything like that. I have kids, so I try to take them out, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. It’s just a day.”

Written by: Matt Mills | Date: Tuesday, 29 October 2019