Simon Kirk

Liverpool

Journalist at Sun 13

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Articles

Strange Paradise: In Conversation with Grails’ Emil Amos & Alex Hall - Part 2

3 days ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

Last year, speaking with Emil Amos and Alex Hall about their Grails side hustle, Lilacs & Champagne, in anticipation of the project’s 2024 release, Fantasy World, the former spoke of not having the burden of commercial responsibility. In the same interview, Amos confessed that the duo had “pulled down all the toys off the shelves and have made a big fucking mess. And now everybody else has to deal with it.”That same renegade spirit is rampant on Grails’ latest odyssey, Miracle Music.
The Gotobeds: Masterclass

5 days ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

The Gotobeds are one-offs. Dry, brusque, tongue-in-cheek underground anthems that are largely lost in the sanitised world where metrics and mediocrity rule at large, the Pittsburgh punk juggernaut, consisting of Eli Kasan (vocals/ guitar), Tom “TFP” Payne (guitar), Gavin Jensen (bass) and Cary Belback (drums), have spent their existence hitting a frequency few others have found. It’s one of the main reasons why they aren’t celebrated more.
The Power and the Glory: How Arne Slot Guided Liverpool Football Club to the Promised Land

1 week ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

After scoring his 28th league goal of the season, Mohamed Salah races to the Kop and gestures for a fan to hand over their phone. The Egyptian King’s famous grin, beaming through the lens as hundreds on the Kop follow suite. Not even the referee knows what to do. A playing taking a selfie during a professional football match? Had it ever been done before? It was about as ridiculous as the numbers Salah reached in the 2024/2025 season.
Track Premiere: Public Speaking’s ‘Lapse’

1 week ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, Jason Anthony Harris, returns as Public Speaking, following up from the excellent 2023 long-player, An Album Lodged In My Back. New single, Lapse, is the lead track from Public Speaking’s forthcoming as-of-yet untitled LP, set for release in November via Already Dead, and ahead of tomorrow’s release, exclusive to Sun 13, be the first to listen to Lapse below.
13 Questions with Astles

1 week ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

Anyone familiar with Liverpool’s live music circuit will know Daniel Astles – a songwriter who has plied his trade around the city for years, sporadically releasing songs likened to sprinkling the Lee Mathers fairy dust. That same fairy dust is bottled up and ready to explode, as Astles readies the release of his LP, Soundtrack for the Twenty One Bus Home – set for release tomorrow via Liverpool label, Defend Vinyl Records.
Eli Winter: A Trick of the Light

1 week ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

With a dexterity like the speed of a flashing blade, Eli Winter has been an underrated voice within the experimental Americana sound world. Combining knotty arrangements with melodies that melt the heart, the Chicago-based Houston-born guitarist conjures up the kind of songs that take flight; the highest altitude, his excellent 2022 self-titled release that contained dream-laden soundscapes that made you feel like you could take on the world.
Gold Dust Interview: “Success is forging bonds outside of a status quo that seeks to put distance between us.”

2 weeks ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

“Like an unexplained cactus in New England / We all want a life we can’t sustain,” sings Stephen Pierce on Whatever’s Left Pt. II: A Cactus in New England – the closing song to Gold Dust’s latest release, In the Shade of the Living Light. Whilst it may be the first time a cactus is used in a metaphor in the world of indie-rock, Pierce’s honest appraisal casts a dark shadow over the world we live in.
Robert Forster: Strawberries

2 weeks ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

“You cannot have what you cannot touch / I know it but it doesn’t help me much,” sings Robert Forster during the excellent Foolish I Know – the penultimate song on the Australian’s latest solo release, Strawberries. It’s one of the many pivots the Go-Betweens co-founder takes on his ninth solo affair. The sharpest, arriving on the eponymous track – a playful duet between the Brisbane pop marvel and his wife, Karin Bäumler, which is far removed from anything in the Robert Forster solo canon.
The Ex: If Your Mirror Breaks

2 weeks ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

On the jagged proto-punk assault of The Evidence, Arnold de Boer claims that “If everybody’s been in love / They would treat everyone differently”… that they would “Look at everyone differently”, and that the prize of love and life should be realised. It’s The Ex exploring the aspects of life we take for granted the most. The Ex has always held a talent for the truth, and in this case, it may just be the sharpest observation the Dutch veterans have ever made.
The Right Hand Is Doomed to Blacken: Greenbridge 12.11.24

3 weeks ago | sun-13.com | Simon Kirk

Following his overwhelming 2023 release, Ghost Music, Australian cosmic drifter, Michael Plater, continues to be inspired by the world’s darkest corners. Ghost Music was the kind of album artists finish their tenure on. Thematically alluring to the point where his songs are like prose dripping off the page, the depth to Plater’s songs is something that anyone would struggle to replicate.