The Melvins – At the Stake – The Atlantic Recordings, 1993-1995 Led Zeppelin; Aretha Franklin; The Bee Gees; Foreigner; The Melvins. Of course, this is simply mischief – for every Hall & Oates there was an MC5, but make no mistake, the signing of The Melvins by Atlantic Records did raise eyebrows. In 1993, the […]
By any standards, the last band that you would expect to be still releasing new material in 2023 is Pere Ubu, yet here is their nineteenth long-player, ‘Trouble on Big Beat Street’. Angular, difficult, and not just apathetic to the mainstream but appalled by it, David Thomas and the six musicians accompanying him on these […]
Dinosaur Jr were perhaps the most-obvious-to-snaffle-up alternative band in the shopping spree undertaken by major labels in the early 90s. Slacker to the core, they had the musical chops, indie rock-club cool and guitar squawl that appealed to a cross-section of buyers, from floppy-haired indie kid to hardcore enthusiast. The band’s earlier releases on Homestead […]
…and just to finish off the long title – ‘The Complete EMI Recordings” After a period of four years in The Servants, 1992 saw singer, guitarist and songwriter (it feels slightly dirty to suggest he’s a ‘singer-songwriter’ – you’d get entirely the wrong impression) Luke Haines ambled forward with his new band, The Auteurs. Providence […]
Two years after the Moon landings, certain sections of the UK music scene had eagerly grasped the opportunity to ensure the joyous frivolity of the sixties was firmly put to bed. Whilst glam changed the sunshine for stars, those who had taken note of US garage bands, the youthful Black Sabbath and the fuzz of […]
Various Artists – ‘Deep in the Woods – Pastoral, Psychedelic and Funky Folk 1968-1975’ Three discs of psychedelic folk is quite the proposition – how long before it descends into acoustic beigery, finger-in-the-ear po-facedness and jangle fests? In all honesty, it comes close by track three but don’t let that put you off. What this […]
If you think it’d take a challenging film-maker to employ The Residents to produce the soundtrack, you’d be correct – the film in question, ‘Triple Trouble’, is made by the band themselves. The almost mythical film, ‘Vileness Fats’ was conceived 50 years ago and never quite reached the finishing line. Attempts over the last few […]
‘The Toytown Sound’ has only briefly been referenced before – the five-disc ‘A Trip to Towntown’ (released 2007) which was curated by members of the Marmalade Skies website. Sadly, it was somewhat lost in the tidal wave of psychedelic compilations released in the late 90s and 2000s but it was so skilfully done that it […]
Some 27 years since its original release, Screaming Trees’ most successful album is given the reissue treatment courtesy of Cherry Red, the handful of B-sides on the additional disc being only part of the reason to dig deep beneath the potatoes and feast heartily on the fleshy songs which feel as refreshingly vital today as […]
And what of Denmark in the 1960s? Before the arrival of this new three-disc set, my thoughts on the matter were somewhat flimsy it must be said – clean; organised; polite; earthy colours; chalets; fishermen; the odd tour-guide. Y’know, ill-informed guesses, the usual. What has never really sprung to mind is its underground music scene, […]
