Anyway here’s my main contention regarding rock music: rock music is at its best when it embraces both pop and experiment, both harmony and noise, both exciting rhythm and abstraction, both pop song and poetry. The best periods of the best bands have been when they have managed to embrace both the popular and the experimental impulse. Read the rest of this entry »
Something happened with Sonic Youth. Something that for many years made me feel very sad about Sonic Youth, that made me think that, contrary to what Glenn Branca states in the liner notes to last year’s reissue of their first EP, Sonic Youth did artistically sell out. Read the rest of this entry »
Some time around the start of November, I decided that I just had to make the ATP Festival - aka The Nightmare Before Christmas - curated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. By then the whole thing was sold out and I didn’t have anyone to go with. Read the rest of this entry »
At last! I have received no letters at all requesting my favourite CDs of 2006, so I have managed to find the time to collate the zero votes that came in and here is how the list looks. It includes all CDs that I had not heard before 2006 and that I liked best. Read the rest of this entry »
At the end of August, the call came to attend Camp Branca once again, this time in mellow Belgium… Read the rest of this entry »
This here Guardian piece from the release of her second album Lookaftering has a picture of her the way she looks: attractive and shy. She giggled with embarrassment at the huge applause that followed the end of each song. Read the rest of this entry »
This was the first time I had seen Marissa Nadler, whose first album Ballads of Living and Dying saw me through this year’s slow climb out of winter. Read the rest of this entry »
This Lightning Bolt gig, featuring the amazing An Albatross, well it was a banquet of blistering hardcore rock… Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a few more articles about the Branca LA gig. Read the rest of this entry »
Upset The Rhythm put on an exciting bill of noise bands at Kilburn venue The Luminaire last Tuesday. Final score: England 2 - USA 0. Read the rest of this entry »