Not Forgotten: Warren Zevon

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Not Forgotten: Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix

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Album Review: Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow.

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From mid 80s post-punk beginnings which welded basic musicianship to barbed lyrics about life in Thatcher’s Britain, to a more competent and dynamic sound backing witty and wise wordsmithery throughout the 90s, Half Man Half Biscuit have continued to become slightly more sophisticated as time has gone on, without losing whatever it was that made …

Billy Bragg’s first full album since Workers Playtime, an album which saw him change his style to something a little more mainstream than clattering his battered Telecaster and delivering his love them / hate them vocals (personally I’ve always been charmed by his rampantly untutored vocal stylings) with assistance from a few select collaborators (step …

The general consensus seems to be that Katy Lied is Becker and Fagen’s least favourite Steely Dan album, because it didn’t match their levels of studio perfectionism that they had achieved on their other albums. As it turns out that is exactly the reason that it is my favourite Steely Dan album. I’m a rock …

For reasons I’ve never been able to adequately explain, the majority of my favourite musicians have never achieved the level of success that their talent deserved, instead achieving artistic integrity while other, lesser talents, enjoyed far bigger commercial success and radio play. Super Furry Animals, Eels, Cud, are all bands that deserved to be much …

The first time I heard about My Morning Jacket was when Mojo Magazine got themselves into a fizzle of excitement about them a few years back. Apparently they’d already released a couple of albums which had crept in under the radar, but Mojo had them tipped as the next big thing on no better authority …

It is the 70s. Weeks last three days, amplifiers are stacked, hair is long and unkempt, pants are loon and sleeves are gatefold. In the pop charts, glam-rock and hollow pop held sway, while the album charts were dominated by progressive and hard rock bands, whose live reputations were at least as important as their …

There are some events that you see advertised and you just have to go to. Having seen that Adam Buxton was bringing a special ‘Zavid Bowie’ edition of his Bug show to The Crucible this weekend as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest, upon me arriving home from a particularly taxing week at the office last Friday, …

It’s heartbreaking that someone who had such a huge talent as Dusty Springfield suffered from almost crippling insecurity and self-doubt. Legend has it that she struggled so much with the recording of this, Dusty in Memphis, now her most celebrated album, that “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Just a Little Lovin’” aside, she was …

Quick – who is the greatest songwriter America has ever produced? Okay, how many of you said Bob Dylan? More than three quarters of you I should imagine and you may even be right, but how many of you looked beyond the obvious and said Randy Newman? Quite a few probably, because you’re reading an …

Led Zeppelin. You’ve heard of them right? They were quite good at that rock music thing back in the day and after years of putting it off their chief architect is finally getting around to releasing their studio albums in remastered and expanded form. Quite why it has taken Jimmy Page until now to finally …