rock
Reissue CDs Weekly: Peephole In My Brain - British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1971Sunday, 04 October 2020![]() The title comes from the lyrics of “Andy Warhol”: track two, side two of David Bowie’s late 1971 album Hunky Dory: ”Put a peephole in my brain, Two new pence to have a go, I'd like to be a gallery, Put you all inside my show.” The new pence... Read more... |
Album: Andy Bell - The View From Halfway DownSaturday, 03 October 2020![]() There are no one-size-fits-all solutions and Lockdown (it has surely earned its capital status) provided its own problems for many of us. For some, however, there was an upside. For people who find themselves powering through when they need to power... Read more... |
Album: Corey Taylor - CMFTThursday, 24 September 2020![]() The graveyard of tedious musical vanity projects – and the bargain bins of many record shops – is filled with solo albums by the lead vocalists of many fine rock bands. They may sell well initially, due to the power of well-financed record company... Read more... |
White Riot review - energetic documentary races through the history of Rock Against RacismMonday, 21 September 2020![]() This documentary about the 1970s activist movement Rock Against Racism comes with festival prizes and much acclaim. It’s certainly a nostalgic feast for those old enough to remember when punk and reggae musicians were purposely united and it’s a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The London Pub Rock Scene, The Year The UK Turned Day-GloSunday, 13 September 2020![]() The standard recitation goes like this. In the early Seventies a London scene evolved, centring on bands playing in pubs. Music was taken back to the grassroots. Finesse was unnecessary. What happened was dubbed pub rock and it laid the ground for... Read more... |
Album: Doves - The Universal WantWednesday, 09 September 2020![]() If Doves have a “thing”, it’s that they do “big” with impeccable intimacy. Over ten years and four albums, they consistently displayed exactly the sort of connection that bands like Coldplay and Keane pretend to have. Huge, sweeping scores and broad... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Stooges - Live At Goose LakeSunday, 06 September 2020![]() So far this year, Live at Goose Lake August 8th, 1970 is 2020’s most exciting archive release. The album is a previously unknown soundboard recording of The Stooges playing at Jackson, Michigan’s Goose Lake Festival. The event was formally billed as... Read more... |
The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup 2020 - old-time decadence revisitedThursday, 03 September 2020![]() It’s been a decade, more or less, since The Rolling Stones opened up their From the Vaults series with The Brussels Affair, AKA Bedspring Symphony, taken from the 1973 European tour following the release of Goats Head Soup. It’s one of the most... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 59: Johnny Cash, Bananagun, Fleetwood Mac, Romare, PJ Harvey, Kamaal Williams and moreWednesday, 19 August 2020![]() The usual summer vinyl release slump doesn’t seem to apply this year. During the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for vinyl has risen rather than fallen and theartsdesk on Vinyl reflects that again this month with another monster round-up of reviews,... Read more... |
Album: Chuck Prophet - The Land That Time ForgotWednesday, 19 August 2020![]() Rock’n’roll’s spirit is mother’s milk to Prophet, imbuing everything he touches. His old band Green On Red had stopped being roots rivals to R.E.M. long before their 1992 split, but alongside their co-leader Dan Stuart’s solo trilogy embellishing... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Be-Bop Deluxe - Axe VictimSunday, 16 August 2020![]() Bill Nelson’s views on his band Be-Bop Deluxe’s debut album are measured. In the essay accompanying its reissue, he writes “Axe Victim is one brief snapshot of a band in the process of becoming something else…a modest beginning, flawed but not... Read more... |
Album: Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once WasSaturday, 15 August 2020![]() During the first decade of this century Conor Oberst was critically anointed as a successor to the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen. It didn’t seem to make him very happy. His project Bright Eyes, with musical prodigies Nate Walcott... Read more... |
