TALKING HEADS – Fear Of Music
TALKING HEADS – Remain In Light
DAVID BYRNE/BRIAN ENO – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Ben Okri’s The Famished Road was one of the nineties’ big publishing successes, a novel told through the[…]

The Avalanches – Since I Left You
It’s summer in Melbourne, and stinking hot. I take solace where I can find it: stealing my sister’s fan any time I can, sculling bottles of juice at three in the morning, and listening to The Avalan[…]

On Skykicking last week, Tim touched, popwise, on the continuing cultural battle over what the eighties were or are or mean or meant. The story of mainstream rock and politics in the 1990s was among other things the story of a similar battle, that ti[…]

In a recent Guardian piece, columnist Charlotte Raven took modern pop to task, contrasting the current crop of British stars – Craig David, A1 et al. – with those of a bygone age. “I think it should be compulsory for every teenager […]

Eighteen Reasons
1) They like indie music. Obviously.
2) Their regulation thick-frame black glasses. No more breakable item of nosewear has ever been invented: on slow afternoons I could happily cruise the streets for hours walking up to indie kids, […]

A little note: these are not what I consider to be “the best garage tracks this year”. For starters, I only heard a fraction of the goodness waiting out there to be discovered. Secondly, I decided not to write about tracks I’d alrea[…]

Godspeed You Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Absurdity is the central problem with Godspeed You Black Emperor! Their poetry-slam titles; their thick cardboard packaging; their interminable song-suites; their huge […]

The Fall – The Unutterable
Mark E Smith used to “sing” of spectres, and told ghost stories with loud amplifiers. Nowadays, though the supernatural atmosphere of “Dragnet” and “J Temperance” has all but evapor[…]

Mazarin And My Indie Conscience
Hands plunged in pockets to keep the cold out; a rueful smile and a toss of the hair; a tumble of drums and a clotted voice –
“Hold on! (more…)[…]

And Julie Was Her Name – Listening To Old Music
Whenever you choose to fix it, the birth of Rock is a barrier, like a wall built in time. We on the other side look back to the times before and can’t touch them somehow, can’t imagine tho[…]