Archive for the ‘’ Category

True – Concrete Blonde

I knew nothing about Concrete Blonde the first time I heard the title track from this album. I loved the song True from the first play. It had a swing, and a sass and an edge that set it apart from everything else at the time. The lead singer sounded a bit like Chrissie Hynde and she managed to sound world weary and smart mouthed simultaneously. I loved the lyrics that preached self belief in the face... Read the full story

Pearl Jam’s Ten Re-Released

It’s hard to believe that its been 18 years since the release of the debut album by Pearl Jam -  Ten. It went on to sell 12 million copies. The album has been  reissued and became available last weekend. The reissue of Ten serves as the launch of a planned two-year catalogue re-release campaign leading up to the band’s 20th anniversary in 2011. This collector’s edition box set includes... Read the full story

Ben Folds – Great Bushfire Charity Item And New Album.

Ben Folds has created a new album, Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella, a collection of the USA’s best a cappella groups covering his songs. Over two months, Folds, his wife Fleur, and engineer Joe Costa recorded the tracks themselves. The sounds were all captured with six area mics. Each session got four hours. Said Folds “If this were Ben World, this would be my greatest hits album.... Read the full story

Another Kiss Box Set

There’s only so many ways to re-package a catalogue but Kiss keep coming up with new ones. The latest is a a four-CD collectors’ package called Ikons which  showcases the iconic contribution of each Kiss member to the greater good. The packaging for Ikons features a 24-page booklet filled with classic Kiss photos. The actual Kiss icons and the IKONS logo on the box cover are printed in silver... Read the full story

Bret Michaels Book Coming

Poison were somewhat of a guilty pleasure. Sure their success owed as much to their image as to their songs but they did have a couple of good songs. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn was a classic rock ballad while others like Unskinny Bop and Nothing But A Good Time, were a recipe for, well, a “good time”. Lead singer Bret Michaels always seemed like a good bloke and he wasn’t afraid to  take the... Read the full story

Van Zandt Grills Primal Scream

E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt has long been a champion of great rock n’ roll wherever it comes from. His syndicated radio show Underground Garage is one of the most influential vehicles for exposing both classic and new underground  (and sometimes mainstream) rock. When Steve gets behind a band he gives it his full support but he doesn’t hold back when he feels that there’s something... Read the full story

McCartney Voted Best Bond Theme

Paul McCartney and Wings Live and Let Die was voted greatest ever Bond theme. Shirley Bassey took the next two positions with Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever. These results come from a British survey of Bond fans conducted by British retailer HMV. Fans were also asked to vote for their favourite ever James Bond, with Sean Connery winning by a big margin, followed by the current Bond Daniel Craig... Read the full story

Steve Forbert

Steve Forbert was one of several 70’s singer songwriters that were labelled with the accolade “the new Bob Dylan”. Of course he wasn’t and didn’t even aspire to be but he was a mighty good songwriter. He never really stopped working though and has released a steady stream of albums over the years. His latest is  entitled The Place And The Time is about to be  released in the US and hopefully... Read the full story

Guns N Roses New Guitarist

In one of the more preposterous press releases I’ve ever seen the perennial Guns N’ Roses have announced a new guitar player to replace Robin Finck who has returned to his roots with Nine Inch Nails. DJ Ashba (who is not a DJ, but a guitarplayer named DJ) is the man in question. But this is when the press release gets silly. Singer Axl Rose said: “DJ’s a gifted, energetic guitarist... Read the full story

The Who

Back in the day when I was doing a lot of music writing press conferences used to be my least favourite thing. In fact I’d pretty much boycott them completely. My reasons were simple. I didn’t feel like I wanted to share my allocated 30 minutes of ‘interview’ time with anyone else. I especially didn’t want to share ‘my’ time with a room full of mainstream press journos, radio ‘personalities’... Read the full story

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