Jon Bryan, Author at Backseat Mafia

Not Forgotten: Ben Folds – Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP

An odds and sods release which lifts the majority of its material from a trio of previously released EPs, rather than a full album in its own right, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The…

View Post

View Post

Album Review: Ebbot Lundberg and The Indigo Children – For the Ages to Come

With The Soundtrack of Our Lives, one of the few bands operating at the turn of the millennia to pull off retro-rocking without sounding derivative, going their separate ways in…

View Post

View Post

Classic Album: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV

Down the decades certain albums have had so much praise heaped upon them by fans and critics alike, that it becomes almost impossible to be objective about them. If so…

View Post

View Post

Not Forgotten: They Might Be Giants – They Might Be Giants (a.k.a. Pink Album. a.k.a. First Album)

Released into a musical landscape over-populated by purveyors of synth-pop, stadium rock, post punk, underground alternative, heartland rockers, disposable pop and The Smiths (the band that pretty much defined what…

View Post

View Post

Not Forgotten: Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic

Released at a time when seemingly every reasonably new(ish) band within the UK and Northern Ireland who featured at least one guitar player was pigeonholed as Britpop, Super Furry Animals’…

View Post

View Post

Reissue: Terry Allen – Lubbock (On Everything)

I’m not a huge fan of ‘country’ music. Sure, I can appreciate its narrative qualities, I have a well chosen Johnny Cash compilation in my album collection, I love the…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: Matt Berry and The Maypoles / Xylaroo – The Foundry, 26.10.2016

From the inside, The Foundry is a rather anonymous looking venue, tucked away in the bowels of Sheffield University. On the upside, the drinks are cheap (£2.25 for an orange…

View Post

View Post

Not Forgotten: XTC – Skylarking

To the casual observer, by the time Skylarking was released in the mid-80s XTC looked washed up. Having had to stop touring in 1982 due to Andy Partridge’s crippling stage…

View Post

View Post

Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – And Some Fell on Stony Ground

Half Man Half Biscuit are one of those bands where if you’re a fan you either have, or want, everything they’ve ever recorded (a pristine copy of “No Regrets” still…

View Post

View Post

Not Forgotten: Babybird – Ugly Beautiful

It’s difficult to comprehend just how much airplay Babybird’s “You’re Gorgeous” received back in 1996. Listening back to it now, it still stands up as a great pop song, albeit…

View Post