Mark’s Top Five of 2013
Time to once again tap into my inner Cusack and reveal my Top Five Albums of 2013. 5. Antiphon by Midlake After the departure of lead vocalist and founding member Tim Smith, Midlake has been born again with a much more powerful…
The Power and Mystique Of Minneapolis
On the fourth song into their set in the Main Room at First Avenue last night, Tom Chapman, lead singer of Battle, East Sussex’s Keane, realized he was going to have a personally transformative evening. It was during the devastating…
The Return of the Thin White Duke (finally!)
It’s been ten years since David Bowie has released any new music and most of us were beginning to think that he packed it in. He just turned 66 so no one would blame him, right? Yet here is…back with…
A Salve For All That Ails
It had been far too long since I’d seen a show. That’s the way it is sometimes when you have kids, school and a myriad of other things that need your attention. I have to confess that sometimes music takes…
The Modfather’s Mid-Life Renaissance
For me, music begins with John Lennon. The very first step after that is Paul Weller. And it’s always been that way. Ever since I heard Sound Affects by The Jam back in 1981, Paul Weller has taken me on…
Widescreen Music
As the dog days of summer wind on, my thoughts have turned to the disc that I have been obsessed with since its release last May. Pala by St Albans, Hertfordshire band Friendly Fires is an astounding record that achieves…
Back…Further Back
Towards the end of last summer, in my usual cock and balls shaft worship of each and every issue of NME, I downloaded the “Track of the Week” for August 4, 2008. More often than not, NME’s track of the…
Ick’s Pick (Week VI): Lily Allen – ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’
I decided to go mainstream, and feature young, pretty, n’ wild Lily Allen as my pick of the week. I’ve never owned a Lily album, and I couldn’t have named a Lily song before this week, but hot diggity ding…
No, Really… It’s Me
The marketing machine behind Lily Allen‘s new record It’s Not Me, It’s You, due out February ’09, is in full swing and it’s certainly got my attention. Her video for the first single “The Fear” puts the foul mouthed popster…
