I still remember the fuss when Charlotte Hatherley joined boyish Irish indie-popsters Ash. "What's that girly doing up there playing guitar?" whined all the indie-boys. "Ooh, wish that was me" said all the indie-girls. "Couldn't give a shit, me, as long as she can play guitar like a mean funky devil" said I. And lo, upon seeing Ash at the Reading Festival, it was pretty bleedin' obvious that she could. Watching her lay into the riff from "Walking Barefoot" was wonderful; one of modern rock's great riffs, if flows and twists, all melody [...]

Man muss sich wirklich fragen, wenn man die Eingangssequenz von 'Connection' vom Debut hört, ob nicht wirklich geklaut wurde, aber wer tut das im Musik-Business nicht an der einen oder anderen Stelle - für mich ist das Debut auf alle Fälle hörenswert... - hier das was bei mir von der Band rumfliegt... ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------- Kopf von Elastica ist Justine Frischmann (Gitarre, Gesang). Anfang der 90er ist sie noch mit Brett Anderson liiert und zusammen gründen sie Suede. Doch die Beziehung geht in die Brüche und Justine verlässt Suede. Per Annonce sucht und findet sie Musiker, mit denen [...]

I miss the '90s. There, I've said it! While everyone and his mother continue to obsess over '80s music, I'm equally, if not more, enthralled by the less-hyped-and-sort-of-all-ove r-the-place sound of the 10 years that followed, perhaps partly because it neatly contained the Clintonian era, during which I was in a considerably better overall mood. TLC and an assorted few others aside, it was a pretty dismal time for commercial pop and R&B (guilty-pleasure Eurocrap like Ace of Base and airbrushed middle-of-the-road soul like Boyz II Men, for the most part, ruled until later [...]

Opera di magnifico turgore politico, sorta di blues psichedelico per sopravvissuti ad un'Apocalisse evidentemente già avvenuta (l' "ultima chiamata New Orleans"…), "Il Cattivo Tenente" versione Herzog comincia con un tuffo suicida in acqua, e finisce in un acquario: secondo te i pesci sognano? , si chiede Nicolas Cage (facile correre ad "Al Di La Della Vita" nei toni della sua performance, stupefatta oltre che stupefacente). Nel soddisfatto sorriso finale, il protagonista sembra aver trovato la sua risposta: che cosa scorge Terry guardando in macchina, che lo fa scoppiare a ridere? Il cattivo tenente ride perché [...]

I was just rummaging through my collection to find something to blog about and came across a song I really liked from 1993. You remember 1993 don't you? C'mon, it was only 16 years ago now. It was the year of brilliant songs like The Breeders' Cannonball, The London Suede's Animal Nitrate, Beck's Loser, New Order's Regret, Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, Pearl Jam's Daughter, Smashing Pumpkins' Cherub Rock, Belly's Feed The Tree, Mazzy Star's Fade Into You, Liz Phair's Fuck and Run, Urge Overkill's Positive Bleeding, Juliana Hatfield's My Sister, Elastica's Stutter, Soul Asylum's Black Gold, Bjork's Human Behaviour, James' [...]

As Renton runs through the streets of Edinburgh, it's clear he's up to no good. This isn't a casual jog young Renton is taking, and it's certainly not a street race. This character is never running towards anything. He and his mates, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie, are only ever running away. They run from authority, from employment, from loved ones. They run away from accepting responsibility not only for their own lives, but the lives around them. Their reason for this (excepting the merely psychotic Begbie) is heroin, their "Lust for Life". It is the Iggy Pop song of [...]
Vacations and other deadlines have conspired to make me late this month, kids - apologies for the delay. In keeping with the theme (and in an effort to finally wrap up our September lists), I'm going to make this quick: my goal was to assemble a list of songs that were just short enough to leave you wanting more, songs that made you skip back & listen to them again right away. Here we go: Ten Minute Turns, "Stars Burn OUT" A perfect combination of dusky [...]

so as i said the other day, i've been listening to a lot of britpop lately, and after a while i got tired of wading through all the shit (hello, northern uproar) and decided to make my own "best of". except this isn't really a best of as such, since that would basically have lots of songs by 4 or 5 bands and no one else. so instead consider this more of a primer of sorts: not necessarily the best but certainly pretty representative of the scene at the time. as such i've focused only on the years [...]

Editor's Note: This CD comes packaged with some great custom 3-D poster art! MP3: The Degenerettes - Truck Drivin' Girlfriend Lou Reed sang in 1969 that "no kinds of love are better than others" and I'm not inclined to agree-as Dante demonstrated in Purgatorio , there are plenty of variations on love gone awry-although I think what Lou really meant to say, more precisely, was that no acts of consensual fucking are better than others. The Degenerettes don't sing about fucking. Not in the kitschy [...]
You probably can't (yawn) tell that I really should go beddy-bye, but I've just finished making the rounds of some faveblogs and simply must share the fruits of my peregrinations (which did indeed make me grin). Hope you like the pickins'.Merzmars has, of course and as always, been munificent. Click and hear for yourself.Lush - Ladykillers - Mars Needs GuitarsThe Jellybricks - Nobody Else - Mars

[ I started this blog in order to hack away at the large stack of CDs on my desk. Since then, my stack has only gotten bigger. In an effort to pare this shit down to reasonable levels I'm instigating a SPEED ROUND REVIEW series, of which this is the first entry. [...]

C'est avec une joie non dissimulée que j'ai appris la sortie prochaine d'un nouvel EP de Metronomy , Not Made For Love . 3 nouveaux morceaux que j'ai hâte d'entendre pendant le prochain concert à la cigale (dès que quelqu'un se sera décidé à m'inviter pasque là *mode Michel Leeb on* présentement *mode Michel Leeb off* j'ai plus un rond). Concert excitant pour plusieurs raisons : c'est le premier à Paris sans Gabriel et avec (y parait) un batteur ça fait 2-3 mois que j'ai pas vu de concert [...]

Maybe it's because the weekend seems to be within reach, so the idea of slightly overdoing it on Thursday doesn't seem so bad. Maybe it's because you don't get the chance to sleep it off like you do on Saturday or Sunday. Or maybe it's because feeling a bit shit seems so much worse when you have a deadline and a hell of a lot to accomplish in order to meet it. That, in fact, is probably it. Mrs. Toad made cheesecake yesterday. Considering that she is the World's Least Domesticated Woman (TM) this is something of a [...]

Well, unbelievable, here is the final installment of this series. These last six albums/tracks were the most difficult to get. Thanks to my wonderful friend Andy over at How Marvellous , I was able to finish this series. He provided me with two tracks that I just couldn't locate. Thanks, Andy Mate, it is greatly appreciated! So, if by chance, you are just tuning in, this series was taken from Mojo Magazine's Classic Edition Britpop - 60 Greatest 90's Britpop Albums. And, this post finishes off the series with these last six tracks/albums. I did [...]

Reviews of The Marches, Tiny Magnetic Pets & The Novaks Today I'll focus on a few albums that have been sitting in my 'to listen to' pile of CD's a little bit longer than I would have preferred, but once again, I'm gonna go with the 'better late than never' qualifier, if you don't mind. The Marches - 4AM Is The New Midnight The debut album by this massive member Los Angeles band was released in [...]

By Pete Donahue When I was in sixth grade, I was probably the only kid who could differentiate Liam Gallagher's singing voice from his brother's. While most of my friends were listening to Green Day's Dookie , and Mariah Carey, I was enjoying an English band unknown to my friends called Oasis. My father raised me on a steady diet of proper UK pop, with XTC, The Jam and The La's being the sounds around the house growing up. As my father's music taste was rather anglophilic, 1994's Definitely Maybe was an album [...]

Well, I did say that this was going to get interesting, the further along we get. In case, you are just tuning in, this series is taken from Mojo Magazine's Classic Edition - Britpop, featuring sixty Greatest 90's Britpop Albums. This post represents the half-way point in this series. With this post, I have covered thirty two out of the sixty albums. And, I will say that there are some bands/albums on this post that I was not at all familiar with. Namely, The Auteurs , Dodgy , Nick Heyward (solo) and [...]
Formed in 2008, The Dirty 9s have already managed to pack a variety of high profile projects into a short career. They were the winners of TG4's Deis Roc in their first few months together and have gone on to play the IMRO showcase tour, work with OXFAM and this Friday will play the State vs Club AU night at the Purty Loft with Audio and Pocket Promise. The band's Cian McCarthy tells State about the band's short history and their plans for the future. What music inspired you all to get [...]
[ audio ] When The Happy Hollows release their debut LP, Spells , on October 6th, they're going to please a lot of music fans. The Los Angeles trio's exuberant sound has broad appeal, touching as it does on everything from post-punk and art-pop to the femme-fronted Brit-pop acts of the '90s and the genre's more recent products. Spells was produced by David Newton (former guitarist of the far too often overlooked C-86 act The Mighty Lemon Drops ), who infuses the proceedings with just the [...]

Photography by Alberto Guerra So, I came home from work yesterday and what was laying on our living room floor underneath our mail slot (which, even though it lets in the occasional bug and always the cold air during the winter, is too vintage/historical/awesome to remove and replace with a regular mail box thingy)?? Why a brand-spanking new CD by Polynya called Crop Rotation ! You see, a week or so ago, I got an email from Luke from the band asking me to take a gander [...]