Features
I’m an American living in Britain – I was shocked by your phone coverage
As an American living in the UK, I’ve had my fair share of learning moments. I’ve happily adopted the word “keen”, expanded my vocabulary around the weather and even acquired a taste for Marmite. But what I can’t stand is the dreadful mobile service.
I’m from Portland, Oregon, and moved to London last year. Living abroad, there’s a reputational risk of being an entitled American, and in many instances, I understand it. But when it comes to reliable phone coverage, I’m the full American stereotype: I feel it is my unequivocal right to make a phone call whenever and wherever I want.
Best of 2025: Harper Mahood
Geese – Getting Killed (Partisan Records) Debuting as teenagers, playing free street shows in the heart of Brooklyn and rapidly gaining international success, Geese may just be this generation’s quintessential rock band. New York born and bred, they have gained praise for their genre melding sound, drawing influence from an eclectic mix of artists like Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and Deerhoof. Getting Killed marks a shift in the band’s ever evolving discography, embracing a looser experimental art-rock sound in contrast to the safer 3D Country. The raw, strained quality of Cameron Winter’s vocals combined with classic rock structures, rhythmic explorations by Dominic Digesu, Max Bassin and Emily Green and offbeat lyrics like “If you want me to pay my taxes, you better come over with a crucifix, you’re gonna have to nail me down” make for an album drenched in exploration. As Geese leans further into their own idiosyncratic sound, the bigger they get. They aren’t here to play it safe, but that seems to be the whole point.
Barry Walker Jr: The KLOF Mag Interview
Barry Walker Jr. lays himself at the foot of the folk tradition with his Thrill Jockey debut album, Paleo Sol. Born from new age lullabies dedicated to his newborn daughter, Kalena, the album gradually lithified with the addition of close friends and musical influences, drummer Rob Smith (Animal, Surrender! Gray/Smith, Rhyton, Pigeons) and bassist Jason Willmon (Mouth Painter, Fruited Planes). Paleo Sol merges Walker’s atmospheric leanings with Smith and Willmon’s intuitive collaborations, creating a definitive ambient-country sound. “I view this as a collaboration between us three,” says Walker. “This would be a very different album without them.”
Campaigners await verdict of appeal against scrapping of low traffic neighbourhoods
Safer streets campaigners in Tower Hamlets are awaiting the result of their final effort to appeal against the scrapping of three Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes by Mayor Lutfur Rahman.
Save Our Safer Streets presented their case at the Court of Appeal last week, their second court appearance after losing a challenge against Rahman last December in the High Court. Judgment will be given at a later date.
Lawyers for Save Our Safer Streets and Transport for London (TfL) argued that Tower Hamlets Council did not run a fair consultation on the decision to remove the LTNs. They also argued it does not align with Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s transport plan, which aims to shift 80% of all trips to walking, cycling, or public transport by 2041.
Catching Up With Rose City Band
Though the grooves of Rose City Band’s Garden Party go down easy, when he was coming of age in Wallingford, Connecticut in the 1980s, Ripley Johnson defined himself by what he hated. “Being an adolescent you’re just against everything, so we were against all of the synth pop and ’80s haircuts,” says Johnson. “Everything was neon and there were yuppies and Reagan.” As a teenager, Johnson longed for more adventurous sounds, drawn to punk bands like Black Flag and JFA through his love of skateboarding and Thrasher Magazine.
Lael Neale
Los Angeles, the city of dreams. A place for aspiring artists to climb the creative ladder, traversing open mic nights, coffee shop pop-ups, gallery exhibitions and, for the lucky ones, sold out shows. Lael Neale’s forthcoming album, Altogether Stranger, is a self-proclaimed ‘child of Los Angeles,’ detailing the trials and tribulations of her life in the City of Angels.
Neale has spent much of her adulthood living in Los Angeles, aside from a brief period during the global pandemic when she returned to her rural Virginia hometown. Altogether Stranger was written, recorded and will be released in the time since Neale’s return to the city. The album explores her internal struggle with polarizing environments, anxieties about the acuteness of the city and a general questioning of her place in the world.