Not Forgotten
NOT FORGOTTEN – JASON LYTLE – YOURS TRULY, THE COMMUTER
“The last thing I heard I was left for dead” – Now that’s an arresting way to open your solo debut, especially if you were the main creative force of one of the best, yet almost universally overlooked bands of your generation. Sometimes you just don’t realise what you had until it’s gone. Grandaddy were …
Not Forgotten: Kenickie – At the Club
The guitar bands that rose to prominence in the UK through the mid 90s in the UK were a mixed bunch. There were a handful of thoroughly enjoyable bands, but on the whole as it was largely either ridiculously pretentious, impossibly dull or lowest-common-denominator rubbish. It was even worse for the female fronted groups, as …
NOT FORGOTTEN – BILLY JOEL – COLD SPRING HARBOR
What the hell is this? A Billy Joel album in this ongoing A to Z of underappreciated albums? When I first started this series of reviews, I never imagined that of all of the acts that come under the letter J in my collection, it would be Billy Joel’s solo debut that would leap out …
NOT FORGOTTEN – THE ISLEY BROTHERS – SHOUT!
How hard must it be to write a brilliant pop song? You know, one of the all time, genuinely timeless greats that doesn’t rely on the technology or gimmicks of the age, one that can withstand any number of heavy-handed and unsympathetic cover versions by even the most cloth-eared performer. “Shout” is one of those …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – 90 Bisodol (Crimond)
Even after all these years I find there’s something very admirable about Half Man Half Biscuit and the way they have conducted themselves throughout the last quarter of a century. Remaining on the miniscule Probe Plus label since their debut release, they remain singularly anti-career in their approach. They do not tour, but play one …
NOT FORGOTTEN – GROUNDHOGS – SPLIT
Oddly enough, the first time I heard of The Groundhogs was a minor ‘Forgotten Heroes’ piece on them in Melody Maker back in the late 90s as apparently a number of Brit Pop acts had been influenced by them. With both The Melody Maker and Brit Pop and both consigned to history since I first …
NOT FORGOTTEN – THE FLAMING LIPS – TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE SATELLITE HEART
Like many of us here in the UK I only discovered the multifaceted joys of The Flaming Lips after they had released the glorious, world-beating, The Soft Bulletin. Being the curious sort I did the appropriate research into their history and felt emboldened to explore their back-catalogue (well the other albums they had released on …
NOT FORGOTTEN – EELS – HOMBRE LOBO: 12 SONGS OF DESIRE
Lust, desire and romance have been the most popular subject matter for songs for millennia now – it’s pretty much what keeps the whole music industry going regardless of genre, fashion or the political background of the era. Some of the greatest wordsmiths throughout history have spent their whole lives trying to write the perfect …
NOT FORGOTTEN – DREAD ZEPPELIN – UN-LED-ED
On paper it sounds like a terrible idea, a bunch of stoners playing reggae versions of Led Zeppelin tunes, fronted by an Elvis Presley impersonator. Leaping from your speakers it’s a different matter. The thing is, Dread Zeppelin could really play. They weren’t just playing for laughs either, they were accomplished musicians with a deep …
NOT FORGOTTEN – CUD – ASQUARIUS
Love at first sound, that’s what it was. The riff that literally tumbled out of the speakers and then that voice. I knew I’d accidentally discovered one of music’s great lost groups and they spoke to me in a way that very few bands did. This wasn’t a passing phase or a temporary thing either, …