2026
I’ve long been a fan of the prolific MC Taylor, who goes by the stage name of Hiss Golden Messenger. This is his latest song, In The Middle Of It.
Sharon Van Etten turns her hand to children’s songs with a tune for the US television show Yo Gabba GabbaLand!
Scattered Purgatory come from Taiwan and make music that lies somewhere between doom metal and ambient electronica. (more…)
Greg Brown, co-founder and lead guitarist of Californian geek-rock legends Cake, has died at the age of only 56.
If he had never played another note after 1977, Fred Smith would still have had a place in music history as one quarter of the band who made Marquee Moon – my favourite album of all time.
Melbourne band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return with their first music for four years, Sunburned In London.
Here’s another anti-ICE anthem, inspired by the murders in Minneaolis, this time from across the pond by our own Billy Bragg.
Chase away the winter blues with my first playlist of 2026 – two and a half hours of eclectic pleasure to warm the cockles of your ears, kicking off with the S.O.S. Band’s and coming to a melancholy close with Mary Margaret O’Hara. In between there’s a few country numbers, a hefty dose of Krautrock deep cuts, some reggae and soul, a couple of protest songs against ICE and Trump, and tributes to those we lost, including two drummers – Sly Dunbar and Kenny Morris – and actress Catherine O’Hara.
Catherine O’Hara played some of the funniest characters on film and TV – and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara made one of the best debut albums ever recorded.