Putting you on the spot, there’s every chance you can’t name a song by Tommy James & The Shondells. You know them and will emit an elongated “ohhhh” when prodded but you’ll think nothing more of it and go back to forgetting their name again almost instantly. I realise this is a tremendous opening salvo […]
Until the mid-sixties, jazz was the domain of Herculean drug gobblers – tar-encrusted-lung machines who had mastered circular breathing and rat-a-tat-tat drum patterns who might occasionally jolt awake sleepy bar patrons in swanky clubs in New York and New Orleans, or the bowler-hatted trad plodders playing ‘Three Blind Mice’ in unusual time-signatures to mutton-chopped wife […]
By the mid to late 50s, popular music – including jazz – had already become so bored with itself that it had packed its bags, a couple of packets of Vesta and headed East. Not TOO far East, mind – just far enough to doff its cap to Mr Singh at the corner shop and […]
I recently cleared out a storage unit I’ve had for the best part of ten years. An appalling totem to my decisions as to what to keep in life and what to throw away (short answer – keep it all, just in case) it’s slightly telling that the three final boxes I removed (one of […]
Just as in 1974 when their first album, “Meet the Residents” entered an unsuspecting world, The Residents defy easy description and remain as enigmatic and mysterious as ever. No-one truly knows who the band members are or were; their styles range from seemingly novelty covers to scabrous cultural and social commentary to inspired rock and […]
Now, let’s not get carried away. Sir Lord Baltimore’s rather paltry output essentially zooms in on 1970’s debut album, Kingdom Come and the following year’s self-titled release – 2006’s significantly delayed affair skews the figures somewhat. Indeed, the band’s history is littered with brevity and low numbers – their lifespan; their live appearances (though always […]
Electric Banana – The Complete Electric Banana Cherry Red Records Let’s get this […]
