Sharon Van Etten is one of several artists interpreting Tom Petty on the soundtrack of Bad Monkey, based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 novel.

(more…)

This is so heartbreakingly sad. Nell Smith, the teenage girl from Leeds who recorded a stunning album of Nick Cave cover versions with Flaming Lips, has died at the age of 17.

(more…)

Here’s a funny thing: when I half-heard this on the radio the other day my mind told me I was listening to Tim Buckley. I think it’s the emotional pull of the music and the sorrowful sound of its melancholy melody that did it.

(more…)

I discovered the genius of Robbie Basho late in my musical explorations. He came to (minor) game alongside his fellow finger-pickers John Fahey and Leo Kottke but was forgotten for years after a premature death until a resurgence of interest in ‘American Primitive’ guitarists.

(more…)

This gentle, lilting tune is a classic example of the niche genre called Palm-wine and comes from an album with the memorable title Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana. I think we can all agree with that.

(more…)

Barrett Strong had the first hit for Tamla-Motown when he sang the original version of Money (That’s What I Want) in 1959.

(more…)

Like everybody else I didn’t know whether to laugh or gasp in admiration when I first heard this. The Flying Lizards took Eddie Cochran’s 1958 hit Summertime Blues and deconstructed it to the point where the original barely existed.

(more…)

Megalopolis (2024) – Film Review

Francis Ford Coppola, now aged 85 and an undisputed master of cinema, spent 40 years working on this muddled and misguided passion project. Watching it seems almost as long.

Lou Reed and John Cale met in the early Sixties and you can hear the germs of the Velvet Underground’s song on their early songwriting collaboration Why Don’t You Smile, released by The All Night Workers.

(more…)

Is it really 20 years since The Horrors emerged? I first saw them at an NME new bands event – the “Rock’n’Roll Riot” tour – at the Astoria back in 2006.

(more…)