The Zeros are another of the long-forgotten punk bands from the Class of ’77. This was on the fairly terrible Streets compilation on Beggars Banquet that year.

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I have to own up. I did not know anything about Robbie Robertson until he made his first solo album in 1987. But when I did it was love at first note. This is the song that blew me away.

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This song caught my ear on the radio the other day – especially that bubbling bassline. But also the whole thing: it’s a happy, silly, dancey, disco tune for a summer’s day.

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Public Image Ltd: End Of World – album review

PIL’s 11th album End Of World finds John Lydon channelling his various contrary selves to come up with a curate’s egg of an album, says Tim Cooper.

There comes a time when old rockers begin to turn into a parody of their younger selves. For the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten that time arrived a long time ago… (click image to read on)

Forget The Fall… The U.K. Subs have had at least 82 members and are still going strong – with the same singer. Charlie Harper formed the band, initially as The Subversives, after seeing The Damned at the Roxy in 1976 and never looked back after shortening their name.

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Here’s a slice of slinky, sinuous, sweaty, steamy Southern funk from the natural home of that sort of thing – New Orleans.

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As far as I know this lower-league punk single was the only release by The Rowdies, released on Birds Nest Records in 1978. You may be able to hear the sound of barrels being scraped. (more…)

This is rather marvellous. Youth Valley are a new shoegaze/postpunk band who come from Athens, like R.E.M. and The B-52s. But not the one in Georgia.

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If there’s going to be a soundtrack to the end of the world, then we could do a lot worse than this: Spitting Off The Edge Of The World by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

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Here’s a new playlists of summer sounds, from pre-pubescent rockabilly to tear-stained balladry via black-boy punk, old-time country, old-skool soul and ambient electronica.