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SONIC YOUTH'S THURSTON MOORE INTERVIEWED (1990): Corporate greed and the politics of music
So, here’s a poser. What’s the link between The Carpenters’ vapid saccharine pop and the abrasive guitar pop grind of Sonic Youth? The correct answer, of course, is “who cares?” There is a link, however. In the same week as Sonic Youth’s Goo album -- which includes Tunic (Song For Karen) – was released here The Carpenters’ Greatest Hits was... more >>
Added: 14 Nov 08
CAN: A CONCEPT, A CULT, A BAND; As only the Germans can
By definition most people miss cult acts. And to their tuned-in loyalists that makes them even more special. There is nothing like the whiff of martyrdom, or being ignored or misunderstood, to elevate a musician’s reputation among the faithful. Like most people, I missed Can in the late 60s/early 70s. No matter, the albums are out there. Again. Can’s credentials as... more >>
Added: 13 Nov 08
DAVID BYRNE INTERVIEWED (2005): A well rounded man
The two years before his 2004-05 tour were hectic for David Byrne, former frontman for Talking Heads and a multimedia artist with almost a dozen solo albums to his credit. He lived in Scotland while working on the soundtrack to Young Adam, quit as head of the world music label Luaka Bop he founded in 1990, split with his wife, and was been involved in many art projects, including one using the... more >>
Added: 13 Nov 08
FLEETWOOD MAC IN 1987, CHRISTINE McVIE INTERVIEWED: Out through the in door
Fleetwood Mac were always a band which exploded from within. Drag out Peter Frame’s Rock Family Trees book from 1979 and check out how many incarnations there had been since July 1967, when Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, John McVie and a couple of others first launched a band bearing that name. In less than a decade the band went through 10 separate line-ups. Over the years, McVie... more >>
Added: 7 Nov 08
SANDY EDMONDS: New Zealand's disappearing pop star
New Zealand pop culture harbours few mysteries, but the disappearance of Sandy Edmonds on the cusp of the 70s is certainly one. Before she vanished the striking, lens-engaging singer -- long honey-blonde hair, sensuous teen-sullen pout and wide-eyed dolly-bird expression -- had been dominant in the music scene since the mid-60s. In 67 she had a 26-week residency on C‘Mon -- the... more >>
Added: 7 Nov 08
KING CRIMSON IN RETROSPECT: A child's guide to early days in the kingdom
A true story from the battleground of fun: a few fortyjust wags finishing last bottles when someone mentions an album title which reduces the gathering to choking laughter for a good two minutes. As someone observed later, “it’s some album when just the title breaks you up.” True – but the album in question wasn’t actually that bad. “Their finest so... more >>
Added: 6 Nov 08
LOU REED'S NEW YORK ALBUM (1989): The pugnacious poet
Think about it, Lou Reed shouldn’t be here in 1989. Scan his background and the death vultures were wheeling from the first time he came through with the Velvet Underground. But all right, he’s here -- and should we still care? Face it, his albums in the 80s have been pretty uneven, some just simply bad. And yes, the granddaddy of punk now appears in American Express... more >>
Added: 1 Nov 08
ROBERT FRIPP INTERVIEWED (1990): The economic man at work
The only sound in this small foyer is a huge fly buzzing monotonously and occasionally slapping itself into the windows. Peter, one of the guitarists studying at this retreat in Howick whispers “are you the journalist?” and our conversation is carried out in hushed voices so as not to disturb the 20 or so people in the room next door. Their shoes lie around the floor, and... more >>
Added: 30 Oct 08
KARL WALLINGER OF WORLD PARTY INTERVIEWED (1993): Couldn't care less, couldn't care more
For a few smoke-filled seconds Karl Wallinger is difficult to see in this small airless room three floors up in suburban London, W10. Then through the haze of his cigarette smoke he emerges like some satiated Cheshire cat. Grinning. This is the day Wallinger has set aside to talk some about the new World Party album Bang!, and as chief Party member who writes, sings, arranges and most... more >>
Added: 27 Oct 08 
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ROBERT PLANT AND JIMMY PAGE INTERVIEWED (1994): Only the song remains
They’ve certainly seen worse than this dark oak lined bar where Sydney Harbour glitters seductively just through the panelled doors. And they’ve certainly done this whole thing before, one of them with forgivable ill-humour. But today they are jocular, blokey and their living-legend status is resting comfortably with them. Robert Plant exchanges a firm handshake and throws... more >>
Added: 20 Oct 08
OTIS REDDING: The lost legacy of a soul genius
The life and death of Otis Redding is replete with ironies. The man who displaced Elvis in the British magazine Melody Maker as top male vocalist in ’67 – knocking off the King after an eight-year straight residency – could barely crack the top 10 in his homeland. Yet after his death in December that year – his plane going nose-down into a Wisconsin lake –... more >>
Added: 19 Oct 08
BILL CHAMBERS INTERVIEWED (2003): Call of the big country
When Bill Chambers tells it, with a smile at the corner of his lips and in his leisurely Australian drawl, it sounds the most natural thing in the world. But it's kind of strange. He's talking about the mid-70s and what he was doing then, having grown up on country music and playing in bands. "I was a bit of a cowboy hippie, long hair but a cowboy hat. I had a long beard and the... more >>
Added: 16 Oct 08
NUGGESTS; ORIGINAL ARTYFACTS FROM THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC ERA 1965-1968: Diamonds and rough in a box
There's an interesting local observation to be made about this four-CD box set of what is essentially low-rent, lo-fi American garageband rock. But first, a little history. Back in 1972 Lenny Kaye - later guitarist in Patti Smith's band - released the original double-vinyl compilation Nuggets. In a garish psychedelic cover (faithfully reproduced here across the four discs,... more >>
Added: 14 Oct 08
GILLIAN WELCH INTERVIEWED (2004): That ol' time contemporary music
For someone whose stark songs sound like they have come from the impoverished rural underbelly of Depression-era America, Gillian Welch seems as lively as a June-bug. She laughs readily and doesn't come across as a woman who sings death ballads and has the signature song Orphan Girl. But Welch surprises on many levels. Those who have heard her spare singing on the soundtrack to O Brother,... more >>
Added: 7 Oct 08
AMERICA'S DEWEY BUNNELL INTERVIEWED (2007): Upstarts up the charts
Among people whose musical credentials you wouldn’t question would be the Beatles’ producer George Martin. Or if you want a more contemporary reference maybe alt.country rocker Ryan Adams, James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, or guys from the indie bands My Morning Jacket and Nada Surf. And the link -- possibly the only one -- between these diverse people is an unexpected one:... more >>
Added: 2 Oct 08
MUSIC IS MY MADNESS: Ego, drugs and minor chords, musicians who lost the plot
The world of music is populated by creative people -- and those around them who offer musicians absurd amounts of money, pampering for their inflating egos and medication for their every ailment, real or imagined. The surprising thing is that more musicians don’t follow Elvis, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty into that netherworld of self-delusion, eccentricity... more >>
Added: 1 Oct 08 1 Comment
THE DOORS, ON AND OFF THE RECORD: Still opening and closing
I only saw the Doors once, in a packed club on Sunset Strip. That was five years ago. Jim Morrison had been dead 35 years but there they were -- or at least an excellent replica -- going through their hits as the leather-clad singer exuded menace, animal sexuality and seduction. The crowd -- mostly people not born when the Doors peaked in the late 60s -- included other Morrison... more >>
Added: 29 Sep 08
DAVID BOWIE INTERVIEWED (1993): Black tie, white noise and the duke bounces back
David Bowie is a pain. Or more correctly perhaps, “his people” are. Eighteen months ago, when he was keen to plug his uneven, already forgotten but not uninteresting Tin Machine II album (the follow-up to what we might have charitably called “a side project” in a long career) he was a pushover. Oh, just wait by the phone “his people” said and... more >>
Added: 29 Sep 08
DAVID GILMOUR OF PINK FLOYD INTERVIEWED 1988: Us and Them Lawyers
Rock stars shouldn’t talk this way, not in these well-rounded vowels and carefully constructed, oh-so English sentences. But then, this is David Gilmour from Pink Floyd – and as rock bands go Pink Floyd are no ordinary band at all. Here is the band which presents astonishingly visual concerts, every couple of years unleashes a monster of an album and then disappears into... more >>
Added: 27 Sep 08
TOM RUSSELL INTERVIEWED: The stories he could tell
Julio Gonzalez was pumped up and crazy when he was tossed out of the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in mid-March 1990. He was 36, unemployed and had been in the States for only 10 years after arriving with thousands of other Cubans in the Mariel boatlift. An argument with his former girlfriend who worked in the cloakroom, a couple of bouncers heavying him into the streets, a short... more >>
Added: 25 Sep 08
