“…The life I lived at the end of the 70s was 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – you can only do that for so long… I was glad to get out before I was 25, and happy to get out alive…”
The Fall: Reformation Post TLC
“…very much into the bellowing apparently- random- words- as- associational- poetry mode. “Cheese-sticks!” “Goldfish bowl!” “No Newsnight for you Baby!”…” Ben Granger Reformation Post TLC – The Fall See all books by The Fall at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Chapter 303: In which our hero, the greatest lyrical visionary of the past century to spring from […]
The Charlatans : Simpatico
Ben Granger Simpatico – The Charlatans See all albums by The Charlatans at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com A childish and vapid point, but some bands make it really easy for childish and vapid reviewers to have a go at them when they first come up with their names. Back in the day there was Dodgy and […]
Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag
“…I see little point in attempting to mimic what’s already been done very well by others. But I mean, I didn’t write Psychoraag thinking, “Halleluia! Now I’m going to write the first Asian Scottish novel!”…”
David Nobakht: Suicide: No Compromise
Chris Mitchell Suicide: No Compromise – David Nobakht See all music by Suicide at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Just finished the top notch hardback edition of David Nobakht’s biography of synth-rock pioneers Suicide. I would have loved to have written this book. Very much a band biography rather than a personal history of Suicide’s two members, […]
The Tubes: “Wild in London”
The Bar-Band Thing That Can’t Be Killed marches on, this time straight into Shepherd’s Bush Empire Theatre with the tape rolling. Dressed in chaps and Stetsons, reeking of eau de Budweiser, Fee Waybill and his coterie of slap-head bounders breathe new life into their Ming Dynasty-carbon-dated nudge-wink AOR meisterwerks, belting out “Talk To Ya Later,” […]
Suhayl Saadi : Psychoraag: The Gods Of The Door
Suhayl Saadi on why his writing remains ignored by the British literary establishment Suhayl Saadi Psychoraag – Suhayl Saadi See all books by Suhayl Saadi at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com In the context of the publicity surrounding the forthcoming novel, Londonstani, which like my recent novel, Psychoraag (Black and White Publishing, 2004), appears to play with […]
Trainspotting The Play: Harry Gibson: 10 Years On
“…Trainspotting keeps bringing new people into theatres; theatre managers cry out happily, ‘We’ve never sold so much lager’…”
The Fall : Fall Heads Roll
Ben Granger Fall Heads Roll – The Fall See all music by The Fall at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com It’s time again for the Seer of Salford to blast forth his enchanted bombast. With more albums now than anyone can count, and with its title surely a sly reference to the number of foot-soldiers fallen from […]
Magnus : Sleepwalker
Chris Mitchell These days I’m reduced to randomly choosing new music at the bootleg CD stalls on Bangkok’s streets. I don’t bother with the music press anymore so I have no idea who’s up and coming, who to find out about, who to watch – these days I just pick albums on whether I like […]
Ralph Steadman: Gonzo: The Art
“Bloodsucking business men, venal politicians, dollar drugged gamblers, archetypal beholders of negation and power transmogrified into grinning reptilia… In the ferocious stroke of a few simple lines Steadman trans-atlantically expresses all the negative facets of the human condition to a terrifyingly hilarious degree.”
The White Stripes : Get Behind Me Satan
Ben Granger They may have been going for years beforehand but it was in 2001 that weirdo-duo The White Stripes became known to the world, arriving in fine feral style with their supercharged brand of primeval punk blues. They were hyped to the max with their red and white uniforms and carefully contrived sister/brother/lover cartoon […]
Erol Alkan: A Bugged Out Mix By Erol Alkan: Big Jesus Trash Can
“…Anarchic, eclectic and unique are some of the words used to describe dee-jay Erol Alkan, who’s been injecting his imagination and energies into his renowned club night Trash since January 1997…”
Tony Wilson: F4 Records: Fourth Time Lucky
Craig Johnson hears Factory Records supremo Tony Wilson on the rebirth of his record label, the upcoming Joy Division film, how he accidentally created Frankie Goes To Hollywood and why photographer Kevin Cummings is a miserable twat. ‘Wilson ya wanker!’ is a statement that has been bandied around Northern England for thirty years now. The […]
Atomic Swindlers : Coming Out Electric
Chris Mitchell Music is the best mood-alterer we have. Put on a record and you can find yourself grinning involuntarily a few moments later; conversely, stand in an elevator for more than a few seconds involuntarily listening to crackly saxophone-driven muzak that manages to hit that precise treble frequency which is the sonic equivalent of […]
David Thomas: Pere Ubu : I Never Volunteer Information
Craig Johnson talks to Pere Ubu’s David Thomas Think of alternative rock in the 1970s and we immediately think of The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television as the major musical forces in those heady times. An under-rated band of that much pillaged and productive scene were underground rockers Pere Ubu – subterranean innovators of the new-wave/post-punk […]
Damo Suzuki : HollyAris : I Am Damo Suzuki
Craig Johnson meets the legendary member of Can who’s too busy looking into the future to care much about the past Does anybody ever go out on a Sunday night? I’m always too knackered to bother most weeks, but this particular night was an unmissable opportunity to see an unmissable psychedelic brain feast. I was […]
Ben Myers – The Book Of Fuck
Chris Mitchell With a title like that, you’ve got to write a good book or have the word “wanker” silently appended to your name forever after. Just to make things more difficult, the press release trumpets the fact that The Book Of Fuck was written in seven days. I don’t know about your criteria for […]
The Raveonettes : Chain Gang Of Love
Jerome Deg “This is Whiplash Rock’n’roll from the Raveonettes” announces the cover of Chain Gang of Love, striking the right note of self-mocking bombast and Girl on a Motorcycle raw cool. The Raveonettes come off like a combination of Brigitte Bardot and the Jesus and Mary Chain: Psychocandy in furs. Combining neat, clean songs with […]
Margaret Atwood – Oryx And Crake
Jayne Margetts Have you ever hit that juncture at the gritty-4am-to-sunrise shift when the TV is fuzzing in the background to the ultraviolet rhythm of the dawn? You know, when there is scant evidence of life and when pre-Cable TV left the insomniacs dribbling at B-grade movies and David Carradine eulogizing the virtues of Anthropology? […]
Anthony Bourdain: A Cook’s Tour: Eat The World
Jayne Margetts on Anthony Bourdain’s quest to eat the most gastronomically dangerous dishes on the planet I love my authors a tad on the fresh, petulant and carnal side. A splatter of blood-and-guts-style reportage only heightens the pleasure, as do tales of human squalor and degradation. I can hack romance, but only in staccato style, […]
Swans : Swans Are Dead : Swans’ Song
Chris Mitchell on the end of Michael Gira’s intense, undefinable and deafeningly loud musical outfit SWANS The history of music is littered with the debris of those who paid dearly for being different. From the Stooges through to Suicide and the Birthday Party, there are countless individuals and outfits who have, in retrospect, redefined the […]
Angus Oblong – Creepy Susie: and 13 Other Tragic Tales For Troubled Childre
Jayne Margetts The first time I laid eyes upon the troubled cast of Royston Vasey’s The League Of Gentlemen I almost vomited. Such grotesque, pantomime-scarred characters, which could turn the stomach with a flutter of the eyelash, stirred the strings of disturbance with all and sundry. A BAFTA Award (2000 for Production) confirmed that comedy […]
Susana Baca : Espiritu Vivo
John Edwards Gunn The diva of black Peru comes with her response to 9/11 – ‘to sing is to overcome pain and death’ – an album recorded in New York with a band including reknowned avant/world/fusion guitarist Marc Ribot, and featuring songs by Cateano Veloso, Mongo Santamaria and Bjork, along with traditional Peruvian songs. With […]
The White Stripes : Elephant
Peter Wild Ryan Adams has already said that Elephant is the greatest rock n roll album ever recorded (laying to rest, once and for all, his spat with “cissy boy” Jack White). Jack White himself – well, Jack White thinks this is where The White Stripes get off. Nobody is going to buy Elephant. Or […]
