Mitski Miyawaki was born in Japan to an American father and Japanese mother. She studied at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music, during which she self-released her first two albums, and served a short stint as a vocalist in a prog-metal…
Kate Bush‘s 1982 album The Dreaming was excellent, but it wasn’t especially commercially successful. She’d previously enjoyed ground-breaking UK success; her debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’ made her the first female artist to hit UK number one with a self-penned song.…
Congratulations to Geoff, Tony, and Murphy’s Law, who all scored 24/24 in what I thought was a tricky Jump, Run, or Walk Quiz. This week’s challenge requires you to recognise bands from pictograms. There are a few tricky ones –…
Charlotte Aitchison christened herself Charli XCX after her MSN Messenger handle. She broke through early as a songwriter, penning ‘I Love It’ for Icona Pop while still a teenager With an ear for pop hooks and a devoted Instagram following,…
B-sides are a relatively rare commodity for progressive rock bands. They often refused to stoop to the level of those pop proletarians, issuing singles. Additionally, if they had spare song fragments lying around, they could simply incorporate them into epic…
Happy Valentines day (it’s already February 14 in New Zealand). Congratulations to hanspostcard from , who high scored with 27/30 in last week’s Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. This week’s quiz requires you to figure out whether…
Remember the 1990s, when physical albums sold by the truckload? Manchester band Oasis had their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, sell more than 22 million copies, and this volume of sales allowed them to lavish even their b-sides with…
Last week’s quiz had a couple of tough questions, especially Temple of the Dog. Congratulations to the 1990s kids (mostly), J., Geoff, StevefortheDeaf, 2loud2old, Tony, and Murphy’s Law, who all scored 100%. It looks like Murphy’s Law scored the fastest…
Some musical careers revolve around doing one thing expertly – Billie Holiday sang, Burt Bacharach wrote songs. Other musical careers showcase a smorgasbord of talents – here are ten musicians with impressively wide skill-sets: Beck Mr Postmodern music is a…
In hindsight, The Flirtations’ best known song, ‘Nothing But A Heartache’, sounds like a girl group classic from the early 1960s. It’s a terrific piece, with a pounding back-beat and a strident lead vocal punctuated by horns. But at the…
