I thought as much.: Britain’s (occasionally) best pop band destroyed by the evil forces within it. Unless of course the real reason for the ‘break’ is that Charlie wants to get in some pre-election campaigning for Mr.Howard.[…]

World-historical EuroNoiseniks meet Post-Ballardian Prime-Time Cop Procedural: ok so grissom and the black guy were diggin a PREGNANT* SKELETON out a blob of CONCRETE in the BACK-LOT of a MOTEL (yeah this is a repeat but i missed the first part of it[…]

Who is Alexander Kowalski? — well, actually I don’t need to ask that because first I found this Discogs.com bit and that led me to his homepage and now I have the basics. But I only just heard him today, specifically the Progress and Res[…]

Just because it’s Friday
Two music writers, one of whom has a prominent regular writing gig, the other of which is giving music fans something actually useful and getting no money at all. Can you guess which is which?
1. Jess Harvell, whose sit[…]

I am going to a gig tomorrow! I had thought that – Glastonbury aside which is of course “not about the music man” (i.e. the music is atrocious) – this was my first gig in three whole years but I’d forgotten about Brian W[…]

Pop Factor: 711 Controversy Rating: 286
From a marketing point of view, the double-whammy repositioning of Dizzee in the mainest of mainstreams is startling, particularly as the rest of Showtime is only user-friendly compared to his older stuff. I […]

I had thought Popjustice was going a bit over the top with its critique of Band Aid 20 (if you accept PJ’s logic then EVERYONE needs to be on the single to fully reap the marginal benefits – if Sam and Mark, why not Nurse With Wound?). Bu[…]

Download and singles chart to merge – in ‘new year’, i.e. just after the 1000th No.1? Or just in time for it. (Yes I know three quarters of you care less than nothing about this.) (via No Rock And Roll Fun)[…]

A small crumb of good news: Hi-I’m-Wes to leave R1, mind you the replacements don’t look much of an improvement.[…]

Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton
I’d never been to a jazz gig in my life. I’d never listened to much free jazz, or got into it at all. My friend Andrew wanted to go to this gig, part of the London Jazz Festival at the Royal Festival Hall,[…]