Philadelphia uber-talent Todd Rundgren started his recorded career with The Nazz, acting as songwriter and guitarist. When The Nazz broke up, Rundgren learned how to use the studio, frustrated by his lack of technical control in The Nazz. While his…
Well done to Rich Kamerman, who scored full marks in last week’s quiz, driving like Jehu and imagining dragons. This week’s quiz is visual – you need to recognise the black albums. I scored 18/18 with 2:14 remaining –…
John Flansburgh and John Linnell have been making nerdy pop music as They Might Be Giants since 1982. The Massachusetts pair released their debut album in 1986. One of their best known songs is their 1990 cover of ‘Istanbul (Not…
Bassist Ashley Hutchings and rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol formed Fairport Convention in 1967. They named the band after Nicol’s father’s medical practice, above which they rehearsed, on the same Muswell street as the Davies brothers of The Kinks grew up.…
Congratulations to Geoff, who dominated last week’s piano quiz with a 20/28, clearly ahead of the rest of the field. One song people struggled with was Ariana Grande’s ‘Into You’ – here’s a version on Youtube, where someone replaced the…
In New Music Review, I usually cover records released in the last few months, but I’ve been enjoying this 2018 release lately, so: Sophie Allison was born in Switzerland and grew up in Nashville. She self-released indie guitar pop as…
Detroit based married couple Jack and Meg White started playing music as a duo in 1997. Jack White played bluesy guitar, while Meg White’s primitive, untrained drumming was distinctive and refreshing. From the beginning of their career The White Stripes…
Here are the final results for the 6 week challenge – we had 10 contestants who participated every week. Average Paul 62.38% J 63.38% Badfinger 68.08% 2loud2oldmusic 72.53% Angie 72.59% Jim S 74.65% jprobichaud 74.97% Bruce 75.02% Rich K 83.18%…
The chords underpinning a song are like the tune’s bones. Some genres, like country or punk, routinely have very simple chord changes, using two or three simple chords. The Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ uses the three power chords B5, E5, and…
Townes Van Zandt was born into a prominent Texas family and had a high IQ, so his family groomed him to become a lawyer or senator. He suffered from manic depression, and was given insulin shock therapy, which erased much…
