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An Unforgettable, Intimate Affair as Pixies Play Liberty Hall – Eora/Sydney, 20.11.24 – Backseat Mafia
Last night, the Pixies performed an intimate show at Eora/Sydney’s Liberty Hall, offering fans a rare close-up experience with the iconic band. Playing to just 1,200 lucky fans, the event sold out within days, offering an occasion miles removed from the sprawling stadium crowds they’re currently drawing as Pearl Jam’s support act. Black Francis greeted the audience with a wry grin, “We don’t really have a lot of dance moves… all we have is some songs.” A modest claim for a band whose music has shaped alternative rock for decades. Francis added, “Let’s take care of some business first,” cueing the unmistakable opening riff of ‘Where Is My Mind?’ to…
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Spints – O2 Kentish Town Forum, London 13.11.2024 – Backseat Mafia
Words and Photos by Henry Groves After an incredible year, SPRINTS were bringing it to a close with a UK tour, including their biggest UK headline show to date at O2 Kentish Town Forum. After releasing their debut album ‘Letter to Self’ earlier this year, there was a lot of excitement in the room. I had high expectations for this gig and I was hoping they were going to live up to them. Sprints’ performance show was nothing short of electrifying. From the moment the band hit the stage, it was clear that this was going to be a night to remember. The Dublin-based four-piece has been making waves with…
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Pray for Mojo – Bonnacon – Backseat Mafia
Warrington’s finest, Pray for Mojo, are back with a new single, ‘Bonnacon’, out now on Rare Vitamin Records. ‘Bonnacon’, is self recorded in their own studio and mixed by Ste Cole at What? Studios who worked with them on their EP Rickety Bridges. The track introduces a progressive and fast paced side to the band both musically and sonically, adding a depth in harmonic vocals, analogue delay equipment and studio layering, drawing influence from a wide range of sounds and artists from Scorpions up to King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and more. Written across a range of terrains, from the studio itself to the fields of Wide Awake, ‘Bonnacon’…
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Norway’s Mayflower Madame release ‘Insight’, Third hotly anticipated LP – Backseat Mafia
Norwegian band Mayflower Madame released their third LP Insighton 1st November 2024. The lead singles, ‘A Foretold Ecstasy’, ‘Paint It All in Blue’ and ‘Never Sever’ have garnered widespread acclaim and extensive radio support, including airtime on BBC 6 Music. These tracks offer just a glimpse of what the album delivers — an expansive canvas of pulsating post-punk, shimmering shoegaze, and atmospheric psych-noir, carefully blended with delicate sonic nuances. Mixed and mastered by Maurizio Baggio (known for his work with The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher, and The Vacant Lots), Insight showcases the band refining their sound into a sharper and more expansive sonic landscape than ever before. This album sees…
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within temptation, annisokay – nottingham motorpoint arena. 18/11/2024 – Backseat Mafia
Two years have passed and on this wintery evening it was time to welcome back to the Midlands, the Dutch Symphonic Masters Within Temptation. With the temperature plummeting outside the arena there was no such fear of this being replicated inside the complex as the anticipation steadily evolved and swelled with a healthy crowd already in attendance for the Germanic support act Annisokay who were bringing their punchy and addictive post hardcore to the Nottingham arena. With the lights dimmed we were torn apart with the ferocious riffs and battering percussive backbone of Annisokay, the twin vocals from Schwarzer and Wieczorek gelled together like two grains of sand and the…
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Dropkick Murphys roar back at the Roundhouse 20.11.2024 – Backseat Mafia
Tonight, the air vibrates with anticipation. This is Dropkick Murphys’ first return to Australia since their explosive set at Good Things Festival in 2018. Alkaline Trio hasn’t set foot on Australian soil in a decade. The weight of absence makes this reunion electric, even before the first chord. Strolling toward the Roundhouse, it’s hard to miss the sea of inked arms and impressive beards out tonight. Since ’96, Dropkick Murphys have been the soundtrack for moments that demand defiance—a chant at last call, a rallying cry in packed arenas, or the anthem of a comeback when the game hangs by a thread. Their catalogue, rooted in grit and community, reads…
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Blackbirds F.C. wants to know – ‘What’s The Half-Life of Loving You?’, a delicious sparkling sonic score. – Backseat Mafia
We are extremely proud to bring you an exclusive early listen to the new single, enticingly entitled ‘What’s The Half-Life of Loving You?’, from one of our favourite bands, Melbourne’s Blackbirds F.C.. The track is another example of the band’s inherent ear for soaring melodies and jangling guitars with a slight alt. country inflexion. The bass pulses with a febrile vibrancy and the percussion drives the pace, with heavenly harmonies singing at the edges. It’s a thrilling journey that jingles and jangles with a yearning melancholia. It’s a little bit of Teenage Fanclub with traces in the mix evident of classic antipodean bands like Paul Kelly, The Hoodoo Gurus and…
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Postcards From Pluto continue on an upwards trajectory with the new blistering track ‘Dopamine Hit’. – Backseat Mafia
Eora/Sydney band Postcards From Pluto are one of the most exciting rising bands in the Sydney scene at the moment – both live and on record delivering some pulse quickening outrageous and expressive performances. Their new single ‘Dopamine Hit’ is a more relatively restrained track, bleeding with authenticity, raw and complex as singer Logan Kilbey’s vocals are filled with a tangible infatuation through his incredible delivery. Every note bleeds authenticity – the yearnings from an addictive devotion to someone that clings and obsesses like a drug, and the result is something that is frankly sensuous and immersive. There is a discernible maturity and growth to the sound and arrangement. Postcards…
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Morgan Saint’s “Kiss” Captures the Thrill of First Love on the Eve of Her Debut Album – Backseat Mafia
Morgan Saint doesn’t just write songs—she builds worlds, and her latest single “Kiss” is an electric invitation to step inside. The track, a spark of ecstatic anticipation, captures that dizzying moment right before a first kiss, the kind of breathless rush that makes time stop. With beats that snap like static electricity and guitars that shimmer like light on water, Saint crafts a sonic palette that feels as fresh and effervescent as new love itself. Her breathy, understated vocals hover over the production, pulling you in closer until you’re singing along with her: “I know we’re gonna kiss.” The new track is a follow up to her previous single, ‘Hope…
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Jagged Baptist Club – Physical Surveillance – Backseat Mafia
For those who like their indie with a spot of dying seaside town glamour and a drop of psyche, then the Jagged Baptist Club might very much be your club. Consisting of Blake Stokes (lead vocals, guitar), Morgan Ponder (drums, percussion), Josh Boyd (synths, backing vocals), CJ Ramsey (bass, backing vocals) the LA band bring some serious high energy to tape and stage. Recorded in Joshua Tree, California with esteemed producer Alex Newport (At the Drive-In, Bloc Party, City and Colour), the album spawned the singles ‘Blow Dry Nation’, You Are A Dog’ and the rip roaring ‘Bull On A Chain’. A track that musically epitomises a bull on a…
