Manic Street Preachers Page 2

To celebrate the Wales international football team’s qualification for their first major tournament in over half a century, the squad has teamed up with rock veterans Manic Street Preachers to record the official anthem.

Just like Christmas singles or James Bond theme songs, official football tournament anthems are a time-honoured tradition that’s very difficult to actually get right. Formerly solid reputations have been shattered (just ask Embrace), and only New Order can realistically claim to have done it really well.

Manics' bassist Nicky Wire

Continue reading: Manic Street Preachers To Release Wales' Official Euro 2016 Anthem

Twenty years on since the unexplained disappearance of Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, his sister talks of the pain she and her family have gone through over the years, especially on the part of their late father Graham.

Manic Street Preachers are still releasing music

Sunday, February 1st 2015 was the 20th anniversary of Edwards' disappearance, though it's now more than six years since he was officially 'presumed dead' in 2008. The star went missing ahead of a scheduled US flight in 1995, that would mark the beginning of their overseas tour that year. While it seemed that he deliberately made himself scarce after it was discovered that money had been removed from his bank account and he had been seen in Newport at the passport office and bus station, as well as taking a long taxi journey to Severn View service station, it was never discovered what exactly happened to him. His car was found abandoned and in later years there would be claims of his spotting abroad, but the family was forced to have him declared legally dead by 2008.

Continue reading: 20 Years Missing: Sister Of Manic Street Preachers Star Speaks Of Family Pain

10) Soft Walls - No Time
Multi-talented musician-cum-producer Dan Reeves divides his time playing in several bands with running a record label. This effort, his second as Soft Walls ranks as his finest collection to date. Although heralded as one of new psychedelia's finest releases, 'No Time' owes as much to Phil Spector and Suicide as it does anything else, and sounds all the more accomplished for it. 

9) Temples - Sun Structures
Having spent the best part of two years touring the songs that would eventually go onto become 'Sun Structures', it was perhaps somewhat inevitable that the album would be every bit as good as we'd hoped. What happens next will be key to Temples long-term future, but for now 'Sun Structures' is a fitting document of the band's inaugural stages.

8) Cheatahs - Cheatahs  
This cosmopolitan four-piece might display their influences quite brazenly. However, this debut bears all the hallmarks of a classic. Referencing the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver and Teenage Fanclub at regular intervals yet retaining a distinctive edge all the same, 'Cheatahs' is the sound of a band discovering an identity and using it to their advantage.

Continue reading: Dom Gourlay's Top Albums Of 2014

10) Grant Nicholas - Yorktown Heights
Feeder's Grant Nicholas went down the familiar lead-singer-does-a-solo-album route this year, and the results weren't too bad in the end. Yorktown Heights is a more sombre and acoustic take on the recognisable sounds of his regular band but there is still plenty of bite and energy on tracks like 'Joan of Arc' and 'Time Stood Still'. On Yorktown Heights, Nicholas proved he could pen a tune with more emotional depth than anything about a CD player player player player player.

9) CJ Wildheart - Mable
Not exactly a surprise that a member of The Wildhearts did a solo album this year, but CJs first solo work in seven years is an absolute mother of a sonic gut punch. The power pop blitzkrieg comes thick and fast with songs like 'Better Late Than Never', 'Devil' and the album highlight 'Vitriol'. CJ took the opportunity of his second solo outing to prove that The Wildhearts was never a one man show.

8) Beck - Morning Phase
2014 saw the welcome return of the musical equivalent of Willy Wonka, Beck. Morning Phase revisited the acoustic sounds of his seminal 2003 album Sea Change, with an added dash of optimism. The four years Beck took out between this and his last studio album obviously did him some good as Morning Phase features some of his best songs, such as 'Blue Moon', 'Waking Light' and the gorgeous 'Heart Is A Drum'.

Continue reading: Ben Walton's Top Albums Of 2014

A tasty chunk of news for the music nerds: Manic Street Preachers have been found to be the most lyrically diverse act in a study of Welsh artists. Wales Online conducted the study to celebrate the release of the rock act's latest album, Futurology, and found that 2,056 unique words were used in only the Manics' first three albums.

The band emerged as top of the study, beating fellow Welsh superstars Stereophonics and Tom Jones. As the news site so appropriately points out, "For a band who sang "libraries gave us power," it's no shock that their use of language and words to get their message across."

For comparison, Cynon Valley group Stereophonics also scored highly with 1,453 different words used in their early back-catalogue, but Tom Jones' early work in the '60s saw just 867 words used over the his three first albums, with his third most-used word being "pussycat."

Continue reading: Manic Street Preachers Named Most Lyrically Diverse As 'Futurology' Released

Manic Street Preachers brought this year's Festival No 6 to a highly anticipated and triumphant close: a true reward for all those who'd braced the lashing rain and blasting gales throughout Sunday's stormy weather.

Nicky Wire Has Spoken Of The Honour Of Playing At Portmeirion.

Portmeirion's festival weekend saw a mixed cornucopia of acts including Chic and Nile Rodgers, Daughter, My Bloody Valentine, Brythoniaid Welsh Male Voice Choir, John Cooper-Clarke and Johnny Marr perfor,m whilst The Staves, Islet and Sam Airey's shows had to be called off due to the torrential downpour and accompanying relentless wind that started at 7am and refused to let up.

Continue reading: The Sun Comes Out For Manic Street Preachers At Portmeirion's Festival No 6

A week in music videos... We caught up with Brooklyn band DIIV last week as they are currently enjoying the 2013 festival season. Talking to lead member Cole, he explained just how different it was playing festivals compared to club gigs, that it was more about coming into the world of the fans rather than bringing them into your own. He was also not shy about admitting that the pressure of working on a second album has lifted. 'People are gonna be way more patient and wanna hear what you come up with', he says. 'The first record you have to have a clear statement of purpose like a sound and catchy pop songs.' As well as taking the time to chat to us, we were treated with an uplifting live rendition of their song 'Human'. Watch the full interview here and watch the live video for Human.

With the release of their highly-anticipated sixth album 'Mechanical Bull' imminent, Kings Of Leon follow up the audio release of its first single 'Supersoaker' with a grainy, retro-style, artistically produced video. Just as we expected, 'Supersoaker' is made of the anthemic, driving and infectious stuff that previous international hits 'Use Somebody' and 'Sex On Fire' are made of and we certainly can't wait for what looks to be another well-loved record that will see us through the autumn. Watch the video for Supersoaker here.

Continue reading: A Week In Music, We Catch Up With Diiv's Cole, Icky Blossoms Unveil Their Self-Titled Album And Cookie Monster Shows Restraint In Icona Pop Cover

A week in music videos... Manic Street Preachers teamed up with Richard Hawley for the nostalgic title track from their upcoming new album 'Rewind The Film'. It has that classic Preachers mix of anthemic melodies and melancholic undertones that have kept them high in the UK album charts since their debut in 1992. Looking at their latest track, this new offering is going to be just as impossible to categorise musically as usual - but we like it that way! Watch the video for 'Rewind The Film' here.

If a perfect summer 2013 song exists, it's Dan Croll's 'In/Out'. It doesn't feature on his debut EP 'From Nowhere' which we're hoping means there's going to be some talk of a debut album soon. We defy you not to move to this calypso inspired dance track, the video for which features karaoke style lyrics - if you don't find this infectiously upbeat tune catchy enough. Watch the video for In/Out here.

Continue reading: A Week In Music, Manic Street Preachers Get Nostalgic, DJ Muggs Returns Solo And Thom Yorke Throws A Spotify Strop

Courtney Love doesn’t have much of a track record when it comes to cover versions. With her band Hole, she would often play a version of Guns N Roses’ ‘Paradise City’ that she would abandon half way through. Same goes for Depeche Mode’s ‘Hungry Like A Wolf,’ though the band did release a brilliant cover of Velvet Underground’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes,’ it has to be said.

When we heard that Courtney Love covered Jay Z’s ’99 Problems,’ though, we feared for the worst. And, sadly, our fears were confirmed. “This either sucks or it’s genius, I don’t know,” she said as she introduced the song at her impromptu Sundance Film Festival set.

Continue reading: In Light Of Courtney Love Covering Jay Z's '99 Problems': Five Most Unlikely Cover Versions