Not Forgotten – The Magnetic Fields – i
After the Herculean epic that was 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields were due a rest. A mere five years later they offered up a splendid and economical follow up in the shape of i, a smaller album on a smaller theme, the theme being the ninth letter of the alphabet. Yep that’s right, all …
A Buyers Guide to Creedence Clearwater Revival
In the USA, Creedence are seen as one of the great American rock bands. Here in the UK they are generally seen as a brilliant singles band rather than an act that put out a string of great albums. Creedence are so ingrained into the American psyche that their music frequently soundtracks all manner of …
A Buyers Guide to The Shins
Initially an offshoot of Flake Music, The Shins were a solo side project for bandleader James Mercer to dabble with during the downtime of his main band. At some point in the mid 90s, Flake Music basically morphed into The Shins, and initially consisted of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mercer backed up by Flake Music’s Jesse …
A Buyers Guide to Ben Folds
Habitual piano botherer Ben Folds is one of those artists in rock and roll whose reputation far exceeds their sales. Both as a solo artist or leading his misnamed Five, he has been much admired, having been regularly being sought out for collaborations, contributions to soundtracks and generally being considered a musician’s musician and a …
Live: London Grammar, Say Lou Lou & Kyan. O2 Academy Sheffield. 08/02/2014
It’s Saturday night, there’s a relentless squall of rain and me and my girlfriend are stood in an optimistic and good-natured queue that stretches down to High Street. Of course, if that row of shops on Arundel Gate hadn’t provided appropriate shelter, we’d probably all be considerably less good natured, but the majority of the …
A Buyers Guide to The Wonder Stuff 1988 – 1994
Few acts split opinion like The Wonder Stuff over the years, on one hand their detractors are plentiful and vocal, yet their fans have been loyal and passionate. Rising to prominence in the late 80s when being a guitar band usually meant you were heavy metal, arena rock, The Pixies or The Smiths, they offered …
A buyers guide to The Hold Steady
It’s October 2007 and it’s a time of change for me. I’d recently come out of a medium-term relationship, my career was stagnating and I spent a Saturday evening with a drunken and bullish jazz musician friend once again declaring at great length that because I prefer rock and roll to the stuff he makes …
A Buyers Guide to Cud
Recently on 6Music, Steve Lamacq asked for suggestions of near misses by obscure 90s indie bands to play on his show. On the whole the suggestions were rather prosaic and uninspiring until one lady suggested they play some Cud. This wasn’t just a mild-mannered ‘hey, remember these guys?’ request, this was a full-on obsessive fan …
A buyers guide to Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull are a band who are special to me. They’re the first band I saw live, the first band that I felt a genuine connection to, the first band where my adolescent mind went ‘Yep, this is for me’. Given that my peers at the time were obsessing over Nirvana or the contemporary hiphop …
NOT FORGOTTEN – JELLYFISH – BELLYBUTTON
The early 90s were an unexpectedly fertile time for power-pop. The Posies blended harmonies and overloaded guitars with dreams of joining Big Star, Matthew Sweet proved it was possible to be a power-pop solo artist, Del Amitri were a little more rock, but were more than welcome to sit at the table, Crowded House were …