Single Reviews - Sam Roberts Band - Brother Down By Steve Rudd Release Date: August 30th 2004.

This guy - and his band - has long been big business in Canada from where they hail, going so far as to be awarded with Best Artist and Best Album awards at this year's Juno Awards. Now it's time for the UK to see and hear what all the amassed fuss is about, with the release of Brother Down, a perfect slice of radio-friendly pop-rock music that is groovily upbeat and summer-suited. With his silky smooth voice, band nucleus Sam sings I can see through fantasy, admitting that this tune - along with the rest of the material on his We Were Born In A Flame album - is a product of the last 28 years of my life.

Something of a musical prodigy, Sam's first musical indulgence came at the age of four when he started to learn to play the violin, which he says taught him to be particularly disciplined. He finds the guitar much easier to play in front of people however, resulting in a confident rock sound that's surely set to take the UK by storm, with Sam and band having supported Oasis and Tragically Hip in the past. And given the coincidental late-August release date of this single, people will be able to deftly move from one Big Brother to another. 4/5 www.samrobertsband.com

Single Reviews - Ricky - That Extra Mile/Beat The Best Out Of Me By Nick Quantrill
	Release date - 6th September, 2004. Following hot on the heels of acclaimed debut album, The Summer Sun Still Echoes, Portsmouth's finest, Ricky return with a double A-side that will (hopefully) accompany some long awaited summer sun. The single picks up Read more...

Single Reviews - The Hot Puppies - Green Eyeliner (single/ PURR) By Steve Rudd
	Release Date: September 27th 2004. I've got a funny feeling that this Aberystwyth quintet is about to become very well known indeed over here in England, following a prolonged spell of relative fame in Wales, courtesy of their last Dawn Of Man release Read more...

Single Reviews - The Beastie Boys, Death Cab For Cutie and The Departure By Steve Rudd
	After all these years, The Beastie Boys are still making amazing music, here presenting the second single of 2004 from their To The 5 Boroughs album. These Manhattan-obsessed guys have long been respected for their refreshing fusion of rap, hip-hop and dance elements, and if Read more...

Single Reviews - Single of Week - Cornershop Presents: Bubbley Kaur Topknot By Lee Cassanell
	Only in a world of George Bush and Sudanese Genocide could Busted be riding high in the Charts with the theme from Thunderbirds so in the spirit of such rampant insanity I've decided to make a little deal with you the good people of Kingston upon Hull. Every Saturday I'm going Read more...

CD Reviews - What Ya Cryin' For by The Landau's - By Tony Bates, Jim Hines and Leigh Lee-Roy Stancliffe (Aussie Radio)
	Every now and then a new band comes along, complete with biography promising a new sound and telling one and all that to miss this band and their release will be at their peril. I've heard it all before; haven't you?. Well this time I have to say that I have received a couple of releases from The Landau's, but without the usual hype. Read more...

Album Reviews - Michelle's CD choice of the moment CRUSH double CD by Polygram T.V.
	Where did all the good stuff go, those great bands of the nineties with cool sounding one-word names like Dodgy, Lush and Pulp etc. The t-shirts were tight fitting, brightly coloured with trims on neck and sleeves. The band logos were unobtrusive in trendy oval shaped designs. Read more...

Single Reviews - Agent Blue, Cherry Falls and Elena By Steve Rudd
	Brazenly busting out of Stoke-on-Trent, this punk-spirited rock 'n' roll bunch of boys means business. This is their second single, and although it is only 2 minutes 20 seconds in length, the quality of the music more than outweighs the accompanying quantity. Armed with Read more...

Single Reviews - Ryan Adams, The Divine Comedy and The Beta Band By Steve Rudd
	Something of a bizarre choice of song for this North Carolina-hailing genius to cover, but Ryan sings and plays this Oasis classic anthem wonderfully.. and, in doing so, stamps an astonishingly original seal of style on the tune. This cover version also actually features on his heart-attackingly Read more...

Album Reviews - The harriWattsband - Comin' Out By Elsie Creek
	The harriWattsband, purveyors of fine melodies, have finally decided to take the momentous step for which we have waited so long. Comin' out. I have been honoured with the task of communicating to you the important knowledge: has it been Read more...

Album Reviews - The Landau's - What Ya Crying For Pre-release CD Single. By Darren Bunting
	The Landau's second CD single What Ya Cryin For shows quite a step forward in production, song writing abilities and out and out confidence from their first release Sweet But True. it is very easy to forget this band are still only teenagers on the evidence of their recordings. CD opener What Ya Crying For Read more...

Album Reviews - Marlowe - Popularity Gel (single/ Probe Plus) By Steve Rudd
	With no fewer than eight band members involved, Marlowe songwriter and assumed ringleader is a brave man by the name of Simon Bradshaw, who shares the vocal duties with Chloe Mullett's sensual voice. John Peel is alleged to be a big fan of the band, and their third album is already on the way, so why Read more...

Album Reviews - Razorlight - Up All Night (album/ Vertigo) By Steve Rudd
	The rise and rise and rise and rise in popularity of Razorlight, frankly, has been utterly extraordinary. It seems, in just a few precious weeks, that they have been elevated way above their hard-working class roots into relative superstars, given the huge Read more...

Album Reviews - X Is Loaded - Raw Nerve (album/ Music For Nations) By Steve Rudd
	This Bath-based band is one of the hottest and most exciting rock bands to really step-out in the past couple of years, blasting out with sky-scraping Emo-rock guitars, beguilingly soulful vocals (delivered by photogenic frontman Jake) and plenty of on-stage energy necessary to enthrall anyone who has ever had Read more...

Album Reviews - Salako - The Story Of Our Life So Far By Nick Quantrill
	Oh, the frustration of being a music fan. After whining long and hard about how recent years have been a lean period for good music and searching high and low for things for something to excite my ears, it came as somewhat of a surprise to find it lurking under my nose in Hull. Read more...