There was a festival in Denmark Street this avo and after a curry with Offsprog Two in Charlotte Street, I headed on down to Regent Sounds to hear Sean interviewing Terry about his 33 1/3 book on Madness' One Step Beyond album. They went through it song by song, and it became apparent that Dave Robinson of Stiff Records had overruled the band on several occasions- possibly because they were so young. I think Terry said that Mark Bedford was only seventeen. All of the band were songwriters- all…

I’ve been listening to a radio programme about the centenary of RTÉ, it being a hundred years since the first radio broadcast by Raidió Éireann in 1926 (before television existed). One of the things included was a discussion of the fierce campaign against Jazz in Ireland during the 1930s. On New Year’s Day 1934, a Fr. Conefrey led a march through Mohill, County Leitrim, in which demonstrators shouted “down with jazz” and “out with paganism” and called on the government to close the dance halls…

Design by Randoll Coate for the Labirinto Borges, a hedge maze at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, which was renovated earlier this year. • “Code was probably our most overtly political record, which is interesting, touring and playing it in these very different but scary political times.”​ Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire talking about the experience of touring America again. • At The Daily Heller: A look at the work of designer/illustrator George Hardie whose five-decade career is to…

I was performing at BIT Live 2026 and so was the band FastLoaders. We decided to join forces for this epic intro-tune from 1990 by Jochen Hippel. Enjoy!

In amidst the endless how-to-hakken reels....... and the countless clips of scanty-clad female deejays jiggling as they performatively tweak the knobs ... driving huge crowds inexplicably wild with the tame-old same-old sounds of an endless, extending-into-perpetuity 90s (and not even the good parts of the '90s!)... in amongst all that, you come do across some nerdily informative reels of a historical bent on InstagramSuch as the triffic little micro-essays done by DJ Zinc, where he'll break…

Kasabian Empire Japanese EditionGet It At DiscogsThis is an improvement of Kasabians first album: 'Kasabian.' Some nice guitar riffs are in this one and I'd say It's got more packed in than their first. But Club Foot is still a really awesome song. They have a great sound, listening to classic songs like 'Shoot The Runner' up loud or playing it on an electric guitar is so much fun. You here all these songs several times and you don't know at all who the song's by until they say it on the radio.…

Announcement for a new K-Pop boy band earlier this year on TikTok — entirely AI: the music, the performers, the instruments, the lyrics, the photos and videos, all made up. Sample. My curiosity has had me listening to music from countries all over the world for over 60 years. Whenever I’m ready to join those lamenting the sad decline in ‘popular’ music from its heydays, I discover the music of another country, rarely heard in North America, and my enthusiasm is reinvigorated. Ever parochial,…

Stepping (direct link) wr. Kenneth EllisM.T.F.Record No 201 BMonroe, Michigan(label listed at RCS without a location) Same track as by J.C. Sawyer on DIXIE. (as "Goin' Steppin'")“Stepping” by Frank Monday & The Steppers is one of the rarest 45s featured in the “Michigan Box”. The song was released on the M.T.F. label in Monroe, Michigan, in 1958 and only 4 copies are known to exist. That accounts for its high market value of $2,000. […

[1977]All the non-hits and non memories. Cardross Maniac bringing you all the the great misses of the 70, 80s & 90s. Today it's the sound of supreme melodicists, the power pop duo Dwight Tilley Band. That's Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour.Talk about out of time and in between scenes. This was kinda late glam, pre new wave power pop, sorta pub rock but also classic rock'n'roll in the original rockabilly sense. I mean it sounds like it coulda been recorded anytime between 1969 and 1982. Looking…

Another Bandcamp Friday has came and went and of course, purchases were made. Last time out I bought a bunch of death metal albums that had been in my wish list or that were recommended to me. This time I didn’t have much time to go through and find stuff or check out much from my own release list because it was a crazy chaotic day. So I opted instead to buy two albums I love from a band that I wanted to support. Although they have a terrible name, Spanish Love Songs are a wonderful band.…

It’s amazing to think that we can pinpoint the most magical two seconds in pop music, which occur exactly one minute into ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by The Beatles, as Take 7 melts into Take 26. Listening casually, all you’ll hear at this point is the song ‘kicking in’ – the gentle, dreamy introduction giving way to the heavier, more orchestrated, more percussive body of the song. Listen to it a lot, over and over, on headphones, and you might notice something else. Although the song doesn’t…

Album of the Week, September 5, 2026 I’ve been reading some things on social media about “Shoot Your Shot September”: making a radical change in your life to do the thing you always wanted to do and the hell with the risk. I suspect that’s what Ayub Ogada’s early life was like. Born Job Seda in Mombasa, Kenya in 1956, he secured a film role in Robert Redford’s Out of Africa under his birth name when he was twenty-nine years old—after playing in a rock band that incorporated musical influences…

Show date: 9 June 2026 Venue: Eventim Apollo Setlist Opening Act: Natalie Jane Hill This isn't usually the kind of show I would go to. My wife really like him though and I like her and I like going to concerts so that's enough for me. Ray and his band are very talented and the musicianship really shows. Overall it was a good show. Not much else to say about it.

Show date: 2 Sept. 2026 Venue: Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall Setlist This was an opera reimagining of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. I was kind of expecting a bit more "rock opera" and a little less "opera opera". Honestly, the parts with the opera singers just didn't do it for me. They were great and the arrangements were great but it just didn't click mostly. The parts that did click though were the parts where Billy came out to sing. His super unique voice blended incredibly…

What song do you wish you had written? Happy Birthday? Bohemian Rhapsody? Lyrics is where my brain focuses, which takes me to Cohen, Garvey, McCartney, Swift, Bush… But meaning matters and this song is such a gentle exploration of how beautiful life is if we pause and look around, literally stop and smell the flowers. There is so much negativity and badness pushed at us through mainstream and social media, it’s nice to be reminded of how lucky we are and how such simple pleasures are right…

I ran across this YouTube channel called The Sagegazers, which uploads what seem to be archival recordings of obscure ambient and new age cassette tapes, mostly from the 1980s. Over the last couple weeks I've been turning to them for background music. A goldmine of interesting stuff.

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I’ve been posting on Crucial Tracks for a bit now and I love it. I’m just copying their intro here to give you a sense of what it is: Crucial Tracks is a music journal with a simple idea: share the important songs in your life. Every member gets one post per calendar day. Use a daily prompt or pick any subject you’d like! One song per day means a stress-free, “slow social” music community: no endless feed, no fear of missing out, no unhealthy incentives. Just good music and connection through…

Clocked.

Andy SheppardSalt Catchers Andy Sheppard tenor and soprano saxophonesRita Marcotulli pianoMichel Benita double bassRecorded March 2025, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, LuganoEngineer: Stefano AmerioCover photo: Jan KrickeProduced by Manfred EicherRelease date: September 11, 2026 Across six ECM releases, Andy Sheppard has treated ensemble form as an instrument in and of itself, altering the ambient details around his reeds so each setting reveals a different nuance of his breath. The quintet on…

A tribute to Dolly Parton by Dr. Ethan Hein through a close listen to her recordings across five decades Read on Substack

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Andre Hardy’s novel Tear the City Down is a stunning noir debut. S.A. Cosby wrote of the book: “A fantastic journey through mean streets and shattered hearts. Full of vibrant prose and…

Note how the copyeditor assumed that the 2 in "2 Bad Mice" was me having started and abandoned a numbering system but having forgotten to remove the 2 in front of the second entry - gah!Also gah - Mojo got someone else to do the big reported story on jungle and had me do the sidebar. Still I suppose, what with me by this point having already written about it for Vibe, The Observer, The Wire, and Melody Maker (twice!), and quite possibly some others I'm blanking on (Spin? Details?), they might…

Dreaming of Citra BMW Having emerged out of the Manchester music scene in late-2021, five-piece Dreaming of Citra combine pop melodies with a kind of clear-eyed shoegaze influenced indie rock. Here on new single BMW, the outfit employ their sound to create a vivid-yet-otherworldly aesthetic. Steely guitar riffs intermingle with a wandering bass guitar hook, as vocalist Rae opens with a description of getting, and then crashing, her new dream car. Vivid snapshots of journeys — behind the wheel,…

Now and again, a pop cultural phenomenon breaks boundaries with an energy so furious, it can be mistaken for outrage. It’s not easy to connect the throwers of such pop-cultural hand grenades to a specific agenda; it’s never entirely clear what they want or whether they want anything at all. One thing is clear, though: They are committed to assertion. I thought about that while watching Butt Hole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt, a documentary about a raucous Texas art/punk band that…

John Maskell got in touch to provide a more detailed account of his time with The Beat Syndicate who are listed on this site here and his first band Group 004 + 1 (originally called Johnny & The Bobcats). Here are John’s recollections: Photo was taken at a photographic studio after The Beat Syndicate won a beat competition at Coronation Gardens in Leyton, east London in June 1965. Diana Doors presented us with a recording test at Pye Studios The group Bobby & The Bobcats formed early in 1962.…

Run On - Mercury Lounge, New York City, March 9, 1996 / May 3, 1996We got a Love Child reissue series recently — now, how about Run On?! This multi-talented band, featuring (l-r) Rick Brown, David Newgarden, Sue Garner and Alan Licht (later including Katie Gentile) put out a few records on Matador in the mid-1990s that are well worth discovering. They could be noisy, they could be catchy, they could be weird, they could be sweet; it makes sense that I saw them open for kindred spirits Yo La…

Today is Bandcamp Friday, a day where Bandcamp waives their revenue share so artists & labels get the full amount. It's pretty cool. I pay for Spotify but even in this streaming age I like to buy the albums that I think are really good. I like owning the music, even though I do mainly listen via Spotify. I also like that artists are getting a decent cut, which they really don't from Spotify streams. One day I hope we can buy digital media in a record shop but, until then, Bandcamp (and Qobuz…

[1987]As heard on 3MA on Sunday nights in the late 80s. The show which was maybe called Underground or The Underground or something like that. They played independent Aussie hits of the day. Stuff straight off Juke' Magazine's Independent chart which of course was where all the best music was to be found at the time. I think the radio announcer/DJ was Pat Gary. Anyway I never understood why Mad Turks weren't as big as say Died Pretty. They had the pop smarts and the catchy tunes with great…

Super limited glass mastered CD in digipack – 100 copies only, no repress EVER, first come-first served etc. Hello You. Been a bit quiet on the wonky tape-loops front of late (keeping my head down, working on new material, avoiding the limelight etc.), but absolutely tickled pink to announce the release of a pair of Howlround live recordings from the archives for Bandcamp Friday – on a super limited CD! Glass-mastered (none of your CDr shenanigans), with beautiful scuzzy artwork sourced from a…