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THE ROLLING STONES' GET YER YA-YA'S OUT! (2009): The '69 Garden party
The live album -- or double live as was standard in the days of vinyl -- has had a chequered history in rock: some live albums defined an artists career (Frampton Comes Alive, Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous) and others added little to the sum of our knowledge (most of Dylan's). Some artists regularly drop live albums (Paul McCartney, who has a huge backlog of songs to draw from) and... more >>
Added: 13 Dec 09
MIKE McGEAR'S VANISHED MASTERPIECE: Brother can you spare me the time?
Perhaps "masterpiece" is too strong a word, but the singer-songwriter Mike McGear -- a member of Liverpool's poetry/music group the Scaffold who scored the '68 hit single Lily the Pink -- did crack quite a remarkable album in 1974, which seems to have disappeared entirely. Simply entitled McGear, it was originally released on Warners and in 1991 given CD reissue by Rykodisc. The... more >>
Added: 7 Dec 09
LENNON AND McCARTNEY 1967-72; COMPOSING OUTSIDE THE BEATLES (Triton DVD)
While you might think there is little left to be said about the Beatles after the break-up and their subsequent solo careers, the narrow and deep focus of this two hour doco is surprisingly interesting. By just taking that period when Lennon and McCartney were starting to go their own ways, and pulling on the handbrake before Wings really took off, you get a real insight into just how... more >>
Added: 30 Nov 09
JOHN BOUTTE INTERVIEWED (2002): Easy out of the Big Easy
If you could distil the history of New Orleans down to a few litres of blood, they'd probably be pumping around John Boutte's body. Listen to this. "The European side of my family has been here since 1760. There were two brothers Boutte, Pierre and Hillary, who was an architect who built what is now the oldest theatre in New Orleans. It was originally the Spanish governor's... more >>
Added: 27 Nov 09 
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LONG JOHN BALDRY INTERVIEWED (2002): What becomes a legend most.
They didn't call him Long John for nothing. Standing more than 2m tall, John Baldry was a towering figure in British r'n'b during the 60s. Alongside John Mayall, Long John Baldry was a kingmaker whose various groups included the young Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, later of the Rolling Stones, and the 16-year-old Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin). Rod Stewart, whom Baldry spotted playing... more >>
Added: 16 Nov 09
GWEN STEFANI of NO DOUBT INTERVIEWED (2001): Style and substance
The fact is, Gwen Stefani of No Doubt looks even more gorgeous lounging casually on the couch opposite than she does in her carefully styled photo shoots. While her magazine image is often that of a distant, pouting, sexually empowered ice-queen -- "Glamazon" is the new description -- in real life she glows naturally, laughs unselfconsciously, radiates curiosity and furrows... more >>
Added: 15 Nov 09
THE DECEMBERISTS’ JOHN MOEN INTERVIEWED (2009): Marching to his own drum
With all due respect to their craft, drummers aren’t usually the people you want to interview in a band. As saxophonist Branford Marsalis -- who played in Sting’s band -- recently noted, the audience’s attention is on the singer and the guitarist, “the rest of us are just background.” And the drummer -- who doesn’t write or sing the songs -- is maybe the... more >>
Added: 10 Nov 09
NO DIRECTION HOME a film about Bob Dylan by MARTIN SCORSESE (2005)
Against expectation, 2005 was a rare year for 64-year old Bob Dylan, especially since he hadn’t had an album of new material out in four years. Yet Dylan seemed to be everywhere in 2005, and it announced his rehabiliation for casual listeners -- and prepared the ground for his critically acclaimed 2006 album Modern Times. But in 2005 Dylan's influence -- for the first... more >>
Added: 1 Nov 09
THE POSIES, KEN STRINGFELLOW INTERVIEWED (2006): Power pop to the top
For a man about to go on stage in Holland, Ken Stringfellow sounds as if he’s got his feet on the desk and thinking about getting home for a night in front of the tele. The relaxed Stringfellow has spent a large part of the past 25 years facing audiences: with the neo-psychedelic outfit Sky Cries Mary out of Seattle in the late 80s; in the past decade as a member of REM’s... more >>
Added: 26 Oct 09 1 Comment
LLOYD COLE INTERVIEWED (2000): This changing man
Lloyd Cole, the Derbyshire-born pop singer-songwriter who sprang to attention in the mid-80s for his introspective literate lyrics with his band the Commotions, quit Britain for New York in 1988 for six months - and has now stayed for 12 years. With his American wife and two children, he lives in the wilderness three hours north of New York and two hours west of Boston. He has a... more >>
Added: 23 Oct 09
JORDAN REYNE INTERVIEWED (2009): Tales from the dark side
Jordan Reyne is one of New Zealand’s most challenging and innovative songwriters. Whether it be on albums under her own name or as Dr Kervorkian and the Suicide Machine, Reyne has pushed sonic and lyrical boundaries, pulled together electronica and acoustic instruments, explored noir-narratives and personal emotional states . . . and largely gone without an audience. Which... more >>
Added: 22 Oct 09
JUDEE SILL (1944-79): The disappearing crayon angel
There seem an alarming number of women musicians written out of popular culture: Doris Troy, Minnie Ripperton, Laura Nyro, Judy Henske, Mireille Mathieu, folk-rocker Cindy Lee Berryhill . . . And who these days even cites Janis Joplin either as an influence, or simply as someone worthy of serious critical or popular attention? These (and dozens of others) were all women who made, if... more >>
Added: 18 Oct 09 1 Comment
THE FLAMING LIPS' WAYNE COYNE INTERVIEWED (2004): In search of the miraculous
Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips is in his kitchen in Oklahoma City saying he likes that rock'n'roll is a broad church. It allows alternative music to co-exist with MTV and pop radio. "I don't want the world to be just made up of music like the Flaming Lips, White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I like that rock'n'roll is an uncontrollable beast throwing away great artists and celebrating... more >>
Added: 17 Oct 09
GREG JOHNSON INTERVIEWED (2009): The song, not the singer
The first call catches Greg Johnson and his wife Kelli somewhere in the empty landscape of Texas heading for Shreveport, Louisiana with a fuel gauge hovering near “Empty”. “We’re looking for gas at the moment,” he says slightly anxiously, and there follows a brief and fraught discussion in the front seat. They are turning back rather than run out of petrol.... more >>
Added: 16 Oct 09
BIG STAR: The Great Lost American Pop Band - found!
The reputation and influence of some artists far outstrips their sales figures. Dylan – even at his various peaks – was hardly shipping out albums by the crate load and Van Morrison’s seminal/essential/classic (pick your own adjective) Astral Weeks clocked up sales of only a quarter of a million copies in the States. The trickle-down of the Sex Pistols and Velvet... more >>
Added: 13 Oct 09
J. MASCIS INTERVIEWED, AND CONCERT REVIEW (2003): No time for talking
J. Mascis is the Silent Bob of rock. Look at any of the few interviews on the internet and you can see large blocks of type (the question) followed by a paltry line or two (the closed answer which seldom allows for a follow-up). Mascis, once of Dinosaur Jr and now out on a solo career with the occasional band The Fog, is a man of formidably few words. Judge for yourself from this... more >>
Added: 12 Oct 09
LOU BARLOW INTERVIEWED (2003): Dinosaur walking again
As a cruel ploy it was also kind of funny. When guitarist J. Mascis and bassist Lou Barlow in Dinosaur Jr got to the point that they couldn't even talk to each other, the end was inevitable. They'd had a good few years, but in 1989 Mascis told Barlow he was breaking up the band. The following day he reformed it -- without Barlow. Barlow was miffed, to put it mildly (his song The Freed... more >>
Added: 12 Oct 09
RADIO BIRDMAN REMEMBERED: Detroit rock'n'roll . . . . outta Sydney, Australia
Radio Birdman were one of the great Detroit rock bands, except they came from Sydney. Inspired by the Stooges and MC5, they blasted out of Australia in the pre-punk Seventies in one of those short, fast flights that would end in legend or obscurity. They managed to achieve both. Most people have never heard of them let alone their sonic boom thrash-pop, but the few who did became... more >>
Added: 5 Oct 09
RY COODER INTERVIEWED (2009): Dry, wry and moving right along
Ry Cooder -- if a slightly flinty 15 minute conversation with someone who rarely gives interviews suggests -- gives the clear impression of someone who doesn’t like to waste his time. His answers can sound abrupt, he barely laughs even when he makes a mild joke, and bristles at some questions. The other problem in talking with Cooder is simply this: at 62 he has such a long... more >>
Added: 5 Oct 09 2 Comments
NICK LOWE INTERVIEWED (2009): As times go by
It is one of the ironies of Nick Lowe’s life that -- despite producing the first three Elvis Costello albums, the success of his solo debut Jesus of Cool in ‘78 (retitled Pure Pop for Now People in the more sensitive American market), being in the dream team with Cooder and drummer Jim Keltner on the exceptional John Hiatt album Bring the Family in ‘87 and having delivered a... more >>
Added: 5 Oct 09
