Mark Kozelek has steadily released a handful of brilliant songs on most of his albums, ever since the Red House Painters’ 1992 sad sack, slo-core debut Down Colorful Hill. His songs are usually coloured by his own nylon string or…
I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog so far with music from the 1960s and 1970s, and it’s always a relatively easy task; generally, I find that most artists that have stood the test of time for 40…
As a piano playing singer and song writer, North Carolina’s Ben Folds is almost inevitably going to draw comparisons to Elton John, the godfather of piano pop. But the first single from Folds’ second solo album, 2005’s Songs For Silverman,…
Neil Finn is a respected elder statesman of New Zealand pop, with a recording career that stretches back to Split Enz‘s 1977 art rock album Dizrythmia, when he joined the band as a guitarist at the age of 18. He…
It took me a while to warm to Bruce Springsteen – the radio mostly played his 1980s hits from Born in the U.S.A.. I regarded him as a lame, ultra-American, lowest-common-denominator rocker. But eventually I gave in to his critical…
Melbourne’s Hunters & Collectors started as an arty new-wave band, but ‘Holy Grail’, released in 1992, is slice of Australian pub rock. There’s plenty to critique; it’s based around the straightforward I – IV – VI – V chord progression,…
Happy Tuesday morning* (New Zealand time)! Often on Tuesday morning I feature an artist that I’ve recently added to the site, but I haven’t written much this week, so here are some lists for your viewing pleasure. *I just accidentally…
Brooklyn indie band TV on the Radio were formed in 2001. They’re effectively a rock band, but their music is overlaid with loops and samples, and topped off by the vocals of Tunde Adebimpe. The R&B in his voice tops off…
He scored a recording contract in 1977, as the punk and new wave movements opened the doors for fresh artists. Elvis Costello, however, was actually a highly literate and sophisticated songwriter who had little in common with punk’s untrained approach.…
California’s Judee Sill had a troubled childhood, losing her father to pneumonia at eight years old. Her mother’s second marriage was often violent, and as a teenager Sill spent time in reform school after committing armed robbery. At reform school…
