Wolf People – Tidings - January 2012 January 29th, 2012

Wolf People satiate our lust for more of the acid-folk, hard rock hybrids of their 2010 debut Steeple with a stopgap CD of off-cuts, sequenced around found sound snatches to play like it was planned. Funky fusion rhythms Pentangle might have plied rub against nose drone trad-ish tunes, rehabilitated rock flute, and tumbling quicksilver twin…

Stewart Lee, Leicester Square Theatre - January 2012 CriticalBill's Breakdown Blog - By Critical Bill - January 27th, 2012

Everyone’s a critic. This has been true for a long time. Probably the phrase originates, like everything else, with the Ancient Greeks; Sophocles or Euripides cursing on their way home after yet another bad night at the Dionysus Odeon. Certainly it stretches back a long way. But it has never been more true (if a…

‘Like Samuel Beckett’s dog, chained to its own vomit’ - January 2012 Bookmunch - January 23rd, 2012

Hard on the heels of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s latest gaff comes The ‘If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One’ EP, a short book that works in a similar fashion to How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Stewart Lee’s last book (Lee tells us to View that book as a 122…

Various Artists – Still Going On In Offices - January 2012 January 22nd, 2012

The slovenly combo’s pictured on this vinyl compilation look like rabid bedsit theorists from the early eighties DIY scene, but only three of the eleven tracks date from the era, including The Passionate Winemakers’ snotty strum Disintegrating Jellyfish. New recordings indicate the spirit still spurts. Electricity In Our Homes’ Here I Am is limply upbeat;…

Full Blast And Friends – Sketches And Ballads - January 2012 January 22nd, 2012

Two saxophone stars, the doughty German Peter Brötzmann and the Chicago attack dog Ken Vandermark, feature in an augmented Full Blast trio, their presence usually signifying relentless pulverisation ahead. But the percussionist Michael Wertmuller has written a score, shadowing Gil Evans’ arrangements for Miles Davis’ Sketches Of Spain, and fusing jazz composition and noisy improvisation.…

It’s funny, but Lee won’t tell jokes - January 2012 The Mail On Sunday - By Mark Wareham - January 22nd, 2012

Stewart Lee, it has to be said, will never be a household name. Sure, his recent two series of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle on BBC2 met with much critical acclaim and the show was nominated for a Bafta. But Lee obstinately refuses to play the fame game. When he won a brace of Comedy Awards…