Hefner

This week in Indie Basement: reviews of new albums from Woods, The Charlatans' Tim Burgess, Badly Drawn Boy, Hefner's Darren Hayman, and Marker Starling (featuring members of High Llamas & Stereolab).

This week in Indie Basement: Girl Ray go pop with style on their second album, plus reissues from Pale Saints, Dolly Mixture, Saint Etienne, and Hefner.

This week: album reviews from Mick Trouble, Darren Hayman (Hefner), and Big Stick, plus a new compilation of San Francisco underground pop, Arab Strap's debut album gets reissued and The Flaming Lips' ’King's Mouth’ finally hits streaming services.

Few bands of the last 40 years have been as influential to indie rock, punk and alternative as The Fall, so it is not surprise to see the outpouring of tributes following the very sad death of main man Mark E. Smith...

Pete Astor was in NYC earlier this year playing NYC Popfest with his old band The Loft. That band (and his other '80s band, The Weather Prophets) worked in a jangly, post-VU style that still sounds good today...

Spectres hail from Bristol, UK and make the kind of hazy, dark din that's not too far off from what Ride or Swervedriver did in their early days...

Darren Hayman

UK singer/songwriter Darren Hayman spent much of the '90s in cult indie band Hefner where his literate takes on romance (and warbly vocal style) played like a Mike Leigh movie...