When it comes to girl groups, you can keep yer Spice Girls, All Saints, Girls Aloud and Sugababes and give me a band like the Slits, Shonen Knife or Las Kellies. Or Hinds.

(more…)

Zoot Money was one of those Zelig-like characters who turned up as a sideman, playing keyboards on hundreds of records from the early Sixties. But he actually started out as a front man.

(more…)

Beautiful song, beautiful voice, beautiful boy… Ricky Nelson was only 17 when he sang this back in 1958. (more…)

I was sad when The Specials fell apart: they had been such a part of my life for what they represented as much as their music. But it didn’t take long to fall in love again with the Fun Boy Three.

(more…)

When I was a schoolkid I loved Cream. Everybody loved Cream. And this was their signature song. They were the original “power trio” of guitar, bass and drums – Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

(more…)

This is a fantastic discovery If you like funky horn sections and you like powerful female voices. They don’t come much more powerful than Lydia Pense and her San Francisco-based band Cold Blood.

(more…)

Tim Hardin’s struggles with addiction are mirrored in Black Sheep Boy, his heartbreaking tale of alienation from his family.

(more…)

Summer sounds in my August playlist: some classic postpunk (Magazine, Pere Ubu), some classic reggae (Culture and LKJ) and soul (Bill Withers, Gary US Bonds), some old-time country (Gillian Welch, Dwight Yoakam) and nu-skool punk (Dead Pioneers), vintage hip-hop (A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow) and a handful of brand new tunes (Nick Cave, Fontaines DC). Plus the magnificence of Pablo Picasso (Modern Lovers).

Tramhaus are The Netherlands’ best-kept secret – a post-punk band from the (low) land that gave us Focus, Golden Earring and, er, Pussycat. (more…)

Samuel Maghett – “Maghett Sam” merging into Magic Sam – was a Chicago bluesman who had moved north from his Mississippi Delta birthplace in 1956 when he was 19.

(more…)