The Grauniad, when asking why the spirit of Glastonbury is fizzling out (too commercial! Too middle class!) should look a little closer to home. Since sponsoring the festival for the past couple of years and hyping it to the heavens even on its obiturary pages (okay maybe not), the paper is inadvertedly promoting a death knell of sorts (most certainly). We [...]
The way they were – Elastica
Justine Frischmann formed Suede with her then boyfriend Brett Anderson in 1989. The two met on the first day of the new term at University College London. Brett was enrolled on a town planning course but Justine convinced him to switch to architecture. Later remarking in an interview, she didn’t know at that first encounter [...]
Max Gogarty, the Guardian and nepotism
Reading the Observer yesterday evening brought my attention to a certain Max Gogarty, 19. From north London, this middle class lad is embarking on a gap year trip taking in India and Thailand. Nothing extraordinary there. But his journey across south-east Asia would be documented on The Guardian’s popular travel blog. Is this the new Charlie Brooker if he’s landed such a [...]
CBGB & OMFUG
CBGB’s only had one rule: artists who wanted to take to its stage had to produce their own original music. What was supposed to be a bluegrass and country club turned into the world’s most celebrated indie rock club three years after it opened its doors in December 1973. Bands which played the small, dank [...]
Shallowest music blog post of the year
And it’s not from us. Instead, swing over to the Guardian’s music blog, where reminiscing thirtysomethings are discussing the return of The Cure:
“Robert Smith is one of those Artists who should have died young, He would be feted today in the same way as Jimmy, Jim and Kurt. Instead He’s a middle aged Fat man in [...]
Indie philosophising
Quo vadis, ‘indie’?
The Observer’s point of view:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2121219,00.html
“A drunken goat could produce a Duran Duran video”
Click to read what the Daily Mirror thought of The Smiths in 1984.
The Motorettes
Tuesday 20/02/07 The Motorettes @ The Metro, London – reviewed for gigwise.com
“So this is, um, a secret gig”, says guitarist Robin. No wonder there’s an initial lack of let’s ‘av it; the gig’s so secret that a mere ten folks have shown up. It’s hard not to feel the cringe. But the more prolific [...]
Blood Red Shoes
Blood Red Shoes @ The Mean Fiddler, London, Saturday 17/02/07 – reviewed for gigwise.com
The drums are thrashing, the guitar charging: in short Blood Red Shoes evokes Elastica. And there’s a fair bit of Sonic Youth noisenik in there too.
Despite the gloriously brutal attack on the senses – they were famously asked by a fan for [...]
