The final part of /Countdown 2024 sees me looking at the best gigs of the year. Some statistics for my gig-going in 2024. I went to 36 shows (each festival is counted by number of days – so Infest is three days, so counts for three shows), and saw 110 live sets. I saw 105 […]
It’s the week before Hallowe’en – and Whitby – and there’s still a steady stream of new music coming through. I’m well into the work needed to compile and write my best of the year lists – look out for /Countdown /2024 on Tuesdays in December. This post is a roundup of (relevant to this […]
Fighting injustice, and fighting for justice, have been documented in song probably as long as people have sung songs. They are a way for the oppressed to tell their story, and spread the word of what happened – and in many cases, to set the record straight.
Last week, one of the bastions of Alternative Rock died. If you don’t know who Steve Albini was, you’ve certainly heard a song he was involved in. He was in bands since the early eighties, and recorded/produced/engineered hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of records (his Discogs page shows over 1,400 releases credited to him in […]
Content warning: this post contains songs with descriptions of violence and assault – in some cases graphic and unflinching – and indeed discussion of those songs. This week, I turn to songs about violence. We seem to be living in turbulent times that all too often erupt in violence, but what is interesting here is […]
Fifty-nine years ago today, US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza, Dallas. Generally seen as a pivotal moment in the second half of the twentieth century, certainly in the context of American history at least, there have been countless theories around his assassination and also “what might have beens” had he not […]
This week, what started out as a quick round-up of the best music I was listening to at the time (not necessarily new music initially), thanks to a request from another user on Livejournal, reaches fifteen years of posts.
Frustration at lack of progress, a lack of things being done, at work colleagues, at slow people on the street in front of me. Oh yes, I perhaps have had a habit of showing my frustration all too readily over the years (and it’s something I’m trying not to do in future). So, needless to […]
Stay-In-Fest and the Bank Holiday are already in the rearview mirror, and we’re now inching toward autumn, and the usual packed release schedule as things ramp up again. Today I bring you a fully updated events listing, a host of releases today on Bandcamp Friday, and the first of my interviews from Stay-In-Fest fully transcribed. […]
Another week, another set of new releases. We should finally have fibre broadband back next week, too, so Livestreams will resume from me soon. In addition, I’ve overhauled the events page in a big way, so see the link further down for that. Livestreams and waiting for new releases seem to be the order of […]
Very occasionally at this time of year – and I’ve done this less than I thought I had – I turn to a subject that might have something to do with Valentine’s Day. This year is another of those, mainly as I’m still digging through the variety of as-yet-unused suggestion threads, and there was an […]
As I edge toward the end of my writing year – The /Tuesday Ten series will take a usual end-of-year break for a few weeks as we head into December so that I can round up the best music of the year on /Countdown/2020 – I’ve had to think long and hard about what subjects […]
The madness of 2020 has not been kind to autocratic or authoritarian leaders, who have been left wanting when it comes to dealing with a crisis that came pretty much out of nowhere, and that they can’t spin themselves out of. That said, all of them are still in power as I write this.
Continuing the process of wrapping up the last decade before it disappears too far into the rearview mirror, this is the third part of the best tracks of the 2010s. This has been an interesting, and memory-laden trip doing this list. I’ve dredged up a few memories, reconnected with a few songs I’d not heard […]
It’s time for what is likely to be the last Tuesday Ten of 2019 – although I might do one more just before Christmas, as I have A Plan – before I get started on wrapping up 2019 next week. As usual /Countdown/2019 will be posted over four Tuesdays, covering compilations/reissues, the best tracks, the […]
A glorious picture article on the BBC website last week reminded me that 2019 sees the centenary of the Bauhaus movement, and inspired this week’s post. In terms of art and design, I’m very much a modernist at heart. While I appreciate older art, what really gets me interested is modern art, modern design, and […]
Another Friday, another round-up. As always this is a look at upcoming releases, relevant music news and upcoming events and gigs worth spending some of your time at. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and I’m always on the lookout for more to include.
For those of you not following football, apologies, but this week I (finally) turned my attention to the beautiful game. I’ve actually covered sport before (100: Now Sports), which coincidentally I posted just before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and I featured a handful of football songs, but there are many more to […]
Another Friday, another round-up. As always this is a look at upcoming releases, relevant music news and upcoming events and gigs worth spending some of your time at. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and I’m always on the lookout for more to include.
As we finally sweep out of a long winter, with the days getting longer at last, and the shoots of new growth visible, a cautious optimism returns. Part of that is down to the anticipation of things to come – there’s lots of fun stuff happening this summer and into the autumn, a few changes […]
