January 21st, 2014
Tuesday 28th January through to Sunday 2nd February is Independent Venue Week. Set up to celebrate and commemorate the importance of independent venues and promoters in the development of artists at the earliest stages of their career, Independent Venues Week brings together 18 participating venues hosting their own night over the course of six days. Founded by Sybil Bell in conjunction with PRS For Music and BBC Introducing, Independent Venue Week s ambassador for 2014 will be Radiohead musician Colin Greenwood.
Having started out in the mid 1980s performing in many of the UK s smaller venues (prior to Radiohead s later worldwide success), Greenwood is only too aware of the necessity for independent venues in the development of up and coming bands. His passion and enthusiasm shines through when reminiscing about the band s early days while eagerly asking for recommendations of new artists he ought to check out (DiS gladly offers him April Towers and Hookworms re
Blimey, that went quickly!
The end of 2014 is nigh, and we’ve heard some cracking songs in its oh so brief existence. From Future Islands to ‘Fancy’, everyone’s got their favourite and they’re all completely different from each other. To find some order in the chaos, we asked over 30 Drowned In Sound staffers to vote for their top five singles of the year, then added up the results and made a list of the 40 most popular choices.
Read on for the final, definitive compendium and then subscribe to our Spotify playlist to listen to all the tracks in order.
April 3rd, 2015
April Fool s day is one of the scariest days of the year. Not because of the terrible jokes , but because almost every year it marks the moment when you find yourself coasting along, still feeling that the year is just getting started. Then along comes April, and your inner monologue yells WTF!!!!! Where did the past three months go?! or swearier words to that affect.
However, Jan, Feb and March are always a bonanza for alternative music lovers. This is partly because the last few months of the year get clogged up with big releases and year-end victory laps, making it harder for cult concerns and newer acts to get shelf space or rustle up significant media attention. Then there s the small matter of getting enough buzz around the time festivals are booking, so plenty of acts wait for the year to return or drop their debut. We re not complaining, as this has made for an annual season of joy. We ve once again had three months filled with great records, and sneaky p