Chris Ball
I’m an ageing rocker who has been going to concerts and buying records for over 30 years. I used to write for Metal Hammer, then briefly another magazine that went down to the bottom of the ocean with that fat crook Robert Maxwell.
I gave up for a while. Experimented with listening to dance music, hip hop and indie rock. It broadened my horizons and I had a lot of fun, but when I reached my late 30’s I realised I was living a kind of cultural lie. I love rock music I realised, much of it deeply unfashionable, but fuck it, I’m old enough now not to care. In the meantime I’d become a father, I now have two boys, and accumulated several more tattoos, middle-aged spread and a healthy dislike of modern pop music and the facile celebrity obsessed industry that fuels it.
So I’m an Essex geezer who’s returned to his roots in more ways than one, I live on the coast after having spent 20 years living in East London. Don’t let the tatts and West Ham shirt fool you though. I love Japanese ukiyo-e art and haiku poetry, impressionist art, the works of Alan Moore and Salman Rushdie, botany and bird watching. I still go to gigs as often as my family, liver and bank balance will allow.
My all time favourite bands and artists are Tom Waits, The National, The Drive By Truckers, The Who, Wilco, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Thin Lizzy, Celtic Frost, Slipknot, Public Enemy, Warren Zevon, Queens of the Stone Age, The Handsome Family, AC/DC, Lykke Li, Laura Veirs, Monster Magnet (obvs) Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath and Black Sabbath.
Recent faves include Bo Ningen, Windhand, Witch Mountain, St Vincent, Lana Del Rey, Public Service Broadcast, Ghost Poet, Triptykon, Matthew E White and Courtney Barnett.
Tell me yours.
Articles by Chris Ball
Stylish if heavily stylized, single-minded, artistic and yet surprisingly commercial Kroh have created something truly special on ‘Pyres’. This may be the start of something special.
Paul drawls a few lines then the crowd whoops as the band set off on another bloody massive choogle. . . Ladies are dancing, arms are waved, beers are chugged, but mostly it’s a slow, hypnotic group frug, don’t pee on my rug, dude-tastic rocking hoe down.
Exile In The Outer Ring will only enhance EMA’s reputation as a talented and fascinating artist.
Fans of the band and their previous works will no doubt find something to enjoy on ‘Love From With The Dead’, but personally I would hope for more from musicians as revered as these.
All in all, this is a triumph. Go ahead and enjoy that new Quicksand album, but Dead Heavens are equally worthy of your time.
The best tracks here are all singular in their delights and are all equally surprising in small ways.
One fine rock n’ roll album – you will be pumping your limbs and hollering like the ghost of Joe Strummer
Only a churl would criticise an album that comes with such a heartwarming tale and several of these songs will be accompanying me on my travels over the summer.
Exodus are still at the forefront of the genre. This isn’t a heritage act for misty-eyed old rockers, Exodus is still very much the real deal.
‘Music For Megaliths’ is at times a genuinely effective and affecting piece of art, with a rare depth and sensitivity.
As ever Desertfest was a blast, and I saw some great acts, but although it’s getting to be almost a cliche to say it now, the best thing about Desertfest is the atmosphere.
Twenty six minutes of utterly committed, intense, gonzoid thrashing, Feral Ohms is like a grungier Reign In Blood. You may consider that a recommendation.
Yep, whatever your preference, commercial or cult, there is something for everyone on Friday at Desertfest, Camden.
There is so much to enjoy on Kidal, so many deft and beautiful performances, that you cannot help but feel a solidarity with and respect for Tamikrest
Hot Thoughts proves what an enormous amount of promise Spoon still have in their locker.
Already a devotee, Chris Ball caught up with Bill Fisher of Nottingham’s cult-come-classic rock exponents, Church of the Cosmic Skull, to find out more about their origins, the upcoming tour and, of course, just what the ‘Cosmic Rainbow’ told them..
This album is about as weird as it gets, but if you don’t enjoy it then you’re even fucking weirder. Instant classic.
A few more tunes like ‘Age of the Raven’ and a tighter editing on the songs and shorter track listing and this could have been a much more impressive debut.
From it’s confrontational title and all the way through it’s punishing noise and scabrous lyrics Why Love Now shows that the scum will always rise to the top.
This was my first gig on the year and seldom do you see a more winning example of the power of live music.
