Showing posts with label Brian Bilston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Bilston. Show all posts

June 10, 2026

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: Under A Cat

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires have unveiled a video for Under A Cat, a song from the forthcoming Pets Sounds album, a collection of tunes by various artists singing the praises about their animal mates.

Bilston complains with tongue firmly in his cheek that he could have fixed a lot things - tropical diseases, world peace, or even complete the mundane ask of hoovering the house - had it not been for not wanting to disturb the feline creature sitting on his lap.

December 29, 2025

HCTF's best of 2025 (15-11)

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HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. As per usual many genres are represented. Here Comes The Flood covers a lot of ground and it shows in this eclectic, final tally. Caveat: only albums that got a review are in these listings. I listen to a lot more music than I have time to write about.

Today: countdown from number 15 to 11.

Please shop at your local record store. Most of the stores have a pretty good website where you can order your stuff. It might even be cheaper than the big ones on the 'net. The folks who work there know their stuff and can recommend artists you might like.

Buy directly from the artist, attend live shows and stop by the merch table. And be sure to tell your friends about that great new act you discovered. Word-of-mouth can't be beat as the prime source to discover new music. Algorithms always play it safe, which is fucking boring.

October 11, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: "Might Have, Might Not Have" video

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires have unveiled a video for Might Have, Might Not Have, a romantic love song from their Sounds Made By Humans album.

They used a bit of the Super-8 footage of the trains that will be familiar to those who remember the promo for the first Heavenly single I Fell In Love Last Night. Bilston bought it back then and Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey are now the members of The Catenary Wires.

August 12, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: No Sleep Till Herne Bay

photo: Simon Robinson

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires will be on tour to promote their collaborative album Sounds Made By Humans, so why not create a special song listing all the cities they will visit. No extra credits for getting the reference for No Sleep Till Herne Bay.

June 10, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: tour dates

photo: Simon Robinson

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires will be on tour to promote their collaborative album Sounds Made By Humans: "Whether it is taking the piss out of the dread trying to land a new job (The Interview), inserting a bucket load of song titles and lyrics snippets into Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You, the arduous task of picking the right songs for a Compilation Cassette, where the only certainty is that there will be no country & western on it, Bilston and The Catenary Wires always find the right words and music to get the message across. If anything, this is an album that takes pity on the shy wallflowers at a party and people trying to cope with a world that has turned into a shapeshifting mess, but there is also room for satire. 31 Rules For Midlife Rebellion proclaims "add more syllables to haiku" and "never wear Ramones T-shirts" and: wait for it: "don't listen to songs in the forms of lists"."

May 09, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: Sounds Made By Humans

photo: Simon Robinson

So, if British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires join forces for an album, will the old adage that the sum is greater than its parts stand up in court? The answer is yes, it bloody well does. Sounds Made By Humans is a record that is filled to the rafters with wit and smart hooks, the words and music playing hide and seek and having a whale of a time together.

Whether it is taking the piss out of the dread trying to land a new job (The Interview), inserting a bucket load of song titles and lyrics snippets into Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You, the arduous task of picking the right songs for a Compilation Cassette, where the only certainty is that there will be no country & western on it, Bilston and The Catenary Wires always find the right words and music to get the message across. If anything, this is an album that takes pity on the shy wallflowers at a party and people trying to cope with a world that has turned into a shapeshifting mess, but there is also room for satire. 31 Rules For Midlife Rebellion proclaims "add more syllables to haiku" and "never wear Ramones T-shirts" and: wait for it: "don't listen to songs in the forms of lists".

April 22, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You

British poet Brian Bilston managed to insert a bucket load of song titles and lyrics snippets into Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You, anothr taste from Sounds Made By Humans, the collaborative album he made with indie band The Catenary Wires.

The words of a good song have the ability to make it seem that it was written just for you, for this momentous occassion, or for the joy, anger, grief or what-not you are experiencing right now. It is this phenomenon that Bilston latched onto with great effect to create a catch all tune that everyone can relate to. The band turned into a soft-spoken pop song with plenty of earworm potential.

March 03, 2025

Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires: new album "Sounds Made By Humans" in May; stream "Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love?"

photo: Simon Robinson

British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires have joined forces for an album, Sounds Made By Humans, which will be released via Skep Wax on May 9. Rest assured: this is not a spoken word thing accompanied by incidental music, but a full collaboration. Bilston is a fan of Heavenly, a band that shares a few members with The Catenary Wires, and the band is fan of his poetry.

The lead single, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love?, will be released officially on March 7, but it can already be heard on Bandcamp. It is a tongue-in-cheek text about people looking for answers for existential questions. Spoiler: technology is not much help in such matters.