L&Q Weekly
The Comet Is Coming's Danalogue returns, Radiohead play the hits, Bon Iver gets his own colour, First & Best with Sleaford Mods, the dark side of day raves
Supported by Parallel Lines
Track of the Week
Danalogue (London-based musician Dan Leavers) was the founding member of jazz-fusion group The Comet Is Coming that brought analogue electronics to the band’s jam odysseys, right up until they split in 2023 as the live group of the scene. This week he returned with his debut single: ‘Sonic Hypnosis’ goes full acid house from the whistle but has some unexpected post-rave dropouts too. It’s simply an extremely fun throwback track, like the type Working Mens Club released on their debut album in the otherwise dance-less pandemic. You can listen below, but if you really want it to take you there check out its video too.
3 sentence live review
RADIOHEAD, O2 ARENA, LONDON, 22 NOV: Radiohead playing the closest they’ve got to hits doesn’t happen, even if, yes, Radiohead nuts consider A Moon Shaped Pool just as worthwhile as The Bends, which it isn’t. Thom Yorke only plays with us when performing the title track of the latter (“oh, fuck me,” says the guy in front when that fat power chord flattens the front rows), singing off the beat, one for us rather than him. I was still getting over them playing ‘Airbag’ second and ‘2+2=5’ first, and ‘Idioteque’ and ‘No Surprises’ and ending on ‘Everything in its Right Place’ rather than ‘Karma Police’, even though none of those had come yet, and the band sounding staggeringly exact yet full of life, and ‘Present Tense’, which is off A Moon Shaped Pool, which is just as good as, or even better than, The Bend, or so it seemed when I was sat there watching a band I find difficult to like be so utterly exceptional on a tour that is never likely to be repeated. Stuart Stubbs
A 7 point plan to eradicate bad gigs
Sam Walton presents another slightly fascistic plan to save music from itself, this time taking on live show. Please circulate to artists with a hologram on bass and a singer clapping their hands above their head. Read now
Interview: Ezra Furman’s Starting XI of artists that mean the most to her
Ezra Furman is so good with words she studied English literature at Tufts University, which is practically Ivy League at this point. Last week she released the single ‘One Hand Free’, which her label wanted to describe as “another anthemic earworm.” Furman switched it out for “another loser-core kill-shot,” going on to say that the track was left off this year’s album Goodbye Small Head “because it was too good. It’s better than Jason Aldean. Better than the Barbie movie. Better than Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Cue the sound of one hand clapping, a Zen round of applause.”… Continue reading
First & Best: with Sleaford Mods
With a new Sleaford Mods album coming in the new year (The Demise of Planet X is out 16 January), and his starring role currently playing in Geoff Barrow’s debut movie Game, Jason Williamson shares the first album he ever bought and the best album he’s bought since for our new video series. Find previous episodes on our Instagram and YouTube channel.
Albums for your diary announced this week
We are in the ghostly realm where album announcements are on ice; where news of January’s (and much of February’s) records is already out there but to start talking about March 2026 feels optimistic and insane. Will we even make it through Christmas? All we can really give you this week is news that Sacred Bones will be reissuing Alan Vega’s first two solo albums (Alan Vega from 1980 and Collision Drive from 1981) on 23 Jan. Remastered and available on LP and streaming for the very first time.
Also this week
Colour overlords Pantone have officially recognised the orangey pink colour on the cover of Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE album sleeve by adding it to their catalogue. It’s called fABLE Samon if you want to colour match it to paint your hallway. It’s numerical code is 1625 C.
Mac DeMarco has been handing out CDRs of a secret new album called Dog on the Rocks at his shows. At least one fan has now taken that CDR and uploaded the 40-minute record of demos to YouTube. One for the die-hards, perhaps, but you can listen here.
US death metal band Vitriol split up mid-tour this week when they left their singer stranded at a petrol station for his “cowardly and weak outbursts of misplaced anger.” By the sound of things, Kyle Rasmussen deserved it. Last year their founding bassist quit mid-tour allegedly due to the singer’s abusive behaviour; their drummer walked out this summer; in total 19 people have given Vitriol a go and thought better of it. So yeah, now Kyle Rasmussen lives at services.
Next week (4 Dec) we’re co-hosting our annual Christmas Party with our mates End of the Road festival. Previous years we’ve had live music from English Teacher, Black Midi and Squid. This year we’ve got M(h)ol, Gans, and Maddie Ashman. It goes down at The Lexington, London, from 7pm. Ticket are available here.
