JENNIE VEE – Die Alone EP

Jennie VeeOn this five track EP Toronto born, New York based singer-songwriter Jennie Vee is set to melt the hearts and heads of those whose musical tastes hark back to the early-mid nineties.  Maybe not those who reminisce about plaid shirts and muddy fields and blonde unshaven men with a glassy stare, but those who hold fond memories of seeing the faces of Tanya Donelly and Miki Berenyi gazing blankly and unobtainably from the pages of NME.  Vee’s recordings hark back to a time when Frank Black and Kim Deal liked each other (okay, so maybe there was never such a time); a time when you got excited about that next 12” single from Chapterhouse; when Ride were kings of their own UK kingdom and The Jesus and Mary Chain wanted you to venture under ‘April Skies’.

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THOSE DELTA WOLVES – Auricle EP

auricle - them delta wolvesThose Delta Wolves are an alternative rock band from Leeds. A city with no shortage of musical talent, The Wolves would already have to work incredibly hard to stand out, but the three tunes on their debut EP ‘Auricle’ suggest that, in the live setting, these guys are already a force of nature, ready to crack to skulls of their awaiting audience.

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EDENTHORN – What’s On Your Mind? EP

EDENTHORNHailing from Durham, alternative rockers Edenthorn mix up a range of styles on their debut EP, ‘What’s On Your Mind?’.  While never shy in flaunting a few of the nineties grungy sounds that clearly made them want to become musicians in the first place, some of the material on this release also comes with a surprising amount of melody and occasional funkiness – like Pearl Jam had decided to channel the radio-friendliness of Three Doors Down and Dishwalla.

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THE SMASHING PUMPKINS – Monuments To An Elegy

monumentsFollowing The Smashing Pumpkins relaunch in 2006 after a half-decade hiatus, the band’s ever-prolific mainman Billy Corgan went into overdrive.  The ‘Zeitgeist’ album of the same year was well received, but subsequent projects were both broader in appeal and stylistic content.  With the launch of the ‘Teargarden By Kaleidyscope’ song cycle in 2009, Corgan embarked on his most ambitious project since ‘Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness’ in 1995.   ‘Teargarden’ – an ongoing series of releases covering a concept of sorts – began with two deluxe EPs of unreleased material, but really came alive with its third chapter, 2012’s full-length ‘Oceania’, which at the time of release stood as the reformed Pumpkins masterpiece…

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