news
NEWS: Left Banke bassist and singer Tom Finn dead at 71
IT HAS been reported the founder member and bassist with seminal American baroque pop outfit The Left Banke, Tom Finn, has died at the age of 71. The Left Banke, perhaps unfairly known on British shores for authoring, but not their performance of, “Walk Away Renee” – as taken to the upper reaches of the …
NEWS: Nick Cave to live stream from Ally Pally, solo
Nick Cave has announced a live solo performance at the piano from London’s Alexandra Palace, to be streamed on July 23rd. The event, entitled Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace, is a film shot during June. The film will be streamed as live on July 23rd across three different time zones: in Australia …
News: Jonathan Richman’s fourth finally back on vinyl
IT’S NEWS that will raise a cheer from many a fan of quirky and plain damn lovely songcraft. Boutique reissue specialist Craft Recordings is to repress Jonathan Richman’s fourth solo excursion, 1992’s I, Jonathan, on vinyl for the first time since its initial release. August 14th is the date to circle on your calendar: it’s …
TRACK: Bill Callahan reveals ‘Pigeons’ from new album
IT TURNS out he wasn’t joking. Last week’s announcement of a new Bill Callahan record in September included a cryptic passage, chatty and hyperbolic, stating: “Ten Whole Weeks until Gold Record drops? Why, that sounds like an eternity! “Thankfully, the Gold Record rush begins much sooner than that – if you think of every weekend …
NEWS: Penelope Isles, Marissa Nadler for Elliott Smith charity live stream
ARTISTS including Penelope Isles, Marika Hackman and Marissa Nadler will be appearing in a charity benefit show streaming on Instagram this evening, Monday, June 29th. The live-streamed show, entitled “Everybody Cares”, in which participating artists will play their favourite Elliott Smith song, aims to raise money for a trio of LGBTQ+ charities. Showtime is at …
Track: Song Sung – The Mind’s Eye
Hazy waves of reverb and chorus soak through the new song from twin sister duo Song Sung to create a dream pop epic that is quite mesmerising. There are Beach Boy harmonies, layers of instrumentation that are sunny and bright despite the achingly melancholic tone and distant, haunting vocals. Of the themes of the song, …
NEWS: Alex Taylor, RIP: the indie world pays tribute
AS THE sad news of the death of Alex Taylor, singer of fuzzpop legends The Shop Assistants and The Motorcyle Boy, reverberated around the indie music world, peers and contemporaries paid tribute on social media. RIDE said, via their Twitter portal Ride – The Network: “Sad news about Alex Taylor … a small but significant …
Track: Tempesst – On the Run plus album news
‘On the Run’, the new single from Tempesst, is a very cool slice of indie psych, with singer Toma Banjanin’s voice a deep and sonorous delight and shimmering walls of guitar and harmonies. Louche, studied and melodic: this is a great song imbued with a certain poise and attitude that bursts in to celestial choruses. …
NEWS: Margo Price’s third gets July date: watch a taster
JULY 10th will finally see Margo Price’s hotly anticipated third studio album, That’s How Rumors Get Started, hit the shelves. With its original release date of May 8th trashed by the escalating disease crisis – and indeed, the album is still showing with that release date at some places online – the 27-year-old Illinoisan admits …
Track: Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death plus album news
Last year, Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. released what what I considered to be one of the best albums of the year, if not decade, with ‘Dogrel’. All the more incredible considering it was their debut album. 2019 began with them playing small venues around the UK (see my review of their April 2019 Manchester gig) and …