For the love of music
Almost like Christmas, the experience of Record Store Day largely depends on your location and the company you keep. Whether you jostled with Brick Lane hipsters outside Rough Trade East, trekked to a Leeds industrial estate for the inaugural addition of the affable Norman Records to the scheme, enjoyed the glowing community spirit in the … [Read more...]
Having beguiled many new followers with last year’s slowly-intoxicating Blood Rushing, it’s inevitable that urges to explore Josephine Foster’s back catalogue are strong amongst some late-comers. Yet it’s not an easy journey to navigate; with Foster’s past wares scattered between multiple labels (Locust Music, Bo’Weavil, Fire Records … [Read more...]
Whilst it was often fun to hear James Jackson Toth fully let rip a pent-up desire to fuse Springsteen with Crazy Horse on his last ‘official’ Wooden Wand album - 2011’s Briarwood - some of us perhaps preferred the album’s more subtle stripped-down demos appended to the briefly available deluxe edition, wherein the unvarnished songs revealed … [Read more...]
With the delivery of two new albums and a slew of tie-in singles so far this year, the reunification of the classic Guided By Voices line-up has already proved itself as far more than just a cash-grab from sentimental indie-rock fans of a certain vintage. Thus, with reunion record number three the modest objective is just to keep up the momentum … [Read more...]
Better together or alone? For some prolific artists who have spread their careers across multiple bands, side-projects and solo ventures it’s a question than can be asked repeatedly. Teamwork can be essential for dynamic musical forging as shown through the catalytic reactions inherent in collaboration. Yet single-minded solo visions can … [Read more...]
Not content with consummating his new relationship with Fire Records with two creditable classic line-up Guided By Voices reunion albums (Let's Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO) and a low-key yet likeable solo album (Mouseman Cloud) already in 2012, Robert Pollard returns for the latter end of the year with no less than more three … [Read more...]
Perhaps being conscious that his own bounteous back catalogue has somewhat overshadowed his more recent repertoire – due to the lustrous ongoing reissue programme from Fire Records – Howe Gelb seems to have deliberately upped the ante for this newly-cut collection with the double-sized Giant Giant Sand. Not content with merely enlarging his … [Read more...]
Having quickly rediscovered Robert Pollard’s artistic mojo and democratic credentials through the likeable and inventive Let’s Go Eat The Factory LP earlier this year, the reformed early-‘90s line-up of Guided By Voices returns rapidly to keep the creative camaraderie momentum rolling. And roll Class Clown Spots A UFO certainly does. … [Read more...]
Sometimes it’s hard not to wish for a year or more’s moratorium on new musical releases, just to catch-up on all the archival archaeological work that needs to be done. This doesn’t have to mean simplistic wallowing in the heritage of forever reissued old masters (such as The Stones, Bowie, Hendrix et al.), it’s more about setting aside … [Read more...]
Whilst split-singles have been an on/off quick-fix staple for independent labels over the years - to showcase artists in tandem or to celebrate musical kinship - split-albums are a less frequent proposition. This is perhaps due to the dominance of CDs across the last two decades, given that a vinyl LP side apiece lends itself better to a … [Read more...]