Every Record Tells A Story
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The Best Records of 2015 So Far #1: Asylums
Every now and then I get to hear a new record that really stands out from the crowd and brings me to the sort of heightened state of alert that you would normally only see at the Criminal Records Bureau when a Radio 1 DJ puts in an application to work with the local scout…
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Josh Tillman is a Rock Star: Father John Misty, Live at the Village Underground, East London
Don’t you just love it when you go to a gig that is so much better than you ever expected it would be? Father John Misty played an incredible show at The Village Underground in Shoreditch last night. Even if they weren’t converts before they arrived, everyone in the audience left a believer in…
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Father John Misty Live at Rough Trade East
“All the banter is lies… but the songs are true….”, says Father John Misty aka former solo artist J.Tillman aka former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, under the glare of the solo spotlight of a packed Rough Trade East. On one hand this is somewhat of a disappointment when you have been regaled with amusing…
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The Brits 2015: A Fallen Madonna…as the Bland Leads The Bland
The Brit Awards, 25th February 2015. It was a big night. One that for twenty or so stars was the culmination of a lot of hard work, and an opportunity for talented performers to step into the big time. One that would end in triumph for some, and a setback for others. But that’s enough…
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Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Music’s Greatest Questions Answered!
It’s not an exaggeration to say that not everybody in Rock is the brightest spark, or the sharpest tool in the box. Rock is filled, even attracts, those who are one sandwich short of a picnic. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. If I want to hear some good rock n roll, I don’t want…
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Pond Play Rough Trade East to Launch New LP, “Man It Feels Like Space Again”
Pond played live in London today, in a packed Rough Trade East. Where reasons for delaying the start of a gig are concerned, Pond can now claim to be world class. Axl Rose? A mere amateur excuse-maker compared to Pond, whose legendary reason for delaying their Rough Trade East lunchtime show today for an hour…
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A Look at a Classic Tom Petty Tune: Walls (Circus)
Hidden away on the soundtrack to a relatively obscure indie flick that gave Jennifer Aniston one of her earliest (critically acclaimed) lead roles a couple of years into her reign as “Friends” Queen Rachel, Tom Petty wrote “Walls”. It’s one of his best tunes, so good he recorded it twice for the same soundtrack album…
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The Grammys 2015: Isn’t Kanye A Lovely Unassuming Chap?
The Grammy Awards were on TV tonight in a prime time slot on national TV shoe-horned onto obscure digital-only channel 4Music. AC/DC kicked things off in style. In the UK, seeing a schoolboy next to an old man in a flat cap at a music industry event just brings unwelcome thoughts of certain radio 1…
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The Best Cover Versions of Beatles songs – Part 2
The recent tribute to Macca – The Art of McCartney – featured dozens of cover versions of Paul’s solo work as well as his Beatles work, and it is fair to say that unless you were a fan of the artist that bravely stepped in to perform, the results were less than electrifying. Indeed, you…
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What Are The Best Cover Versions of Beatles Songs?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that you have to be either brave, stupid, or both to try to better the arrangement that The Fab Four chose themselves. It seems that they considered every arrangement, and then found the best one before the rest of us had managed to even memorise the lyrics. The pop…
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Which Is The Best White Stripes Live Album? And How Much Does It Cost?
You don’t need to take out a second mortgage to hear the best White Stripes live shows… The Jack White collectables range is getting ever bigger. In the month that Topps announced the release of a Jack White Baseball Card, White was not slow to release his own tour poster for a show in Fenway…
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The Charlatans Debut Songs From New Album Modern Nature At Rough Trade East
It’s a good thing that Tim Burgess is such a positive, likeable frontman. His band, The Charlatans has experienced great highs, including three number one hit albums, and – whether by design or chance – was an integral part of two important musical scenes in Madchester and Britpop. Songs like 1995’s “Just When You’re Thinking…
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Mix-tapes and Indie Points – A Users Guide
Good news. The mixtape is not dead….it’s just called a “playlist”… Where sensitive Belle and Sebastian-loving-indie-types once crafted cassette tapes filled with songs that told the prettiest girls in their class just how deep their feelings of love were through the medium of Morrissey, Aztec Camera or Napalm Death, now we have playlists compiled on…
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Three Years Old Today…
Do you remember what you were doing on this day in 2012? Here in the UK we were preparing for the London Olympics by grumbling about how much money it was going to cost and how we’d probably mess it up. The state of shock across the nation that we did a decent opening ceremony…
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Which is Best? The Cover or Original? Going Down by Freddie King…
Ever hear a great tune by one of your favourite musicians without realising they are covering someone else’s song? It happens to me all the time. And rather than feeling disappointed, as I imagine a One Direction fan might feel upon realising that, somewhat inexplicably, “One Way Or Another” wasn’t, in fact, written by Harry…
Every record tells a story 