Aimee Mann scored her only hit single with her first attempt. She fronted Boston new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, whose debut single ‘Voices Carry’ reached #8 on the Billboard charts. Despite the immediate success of ‘Voices Carry’, it took a…
Canadian pop treasure Carly Rae Jepsen achieved peak cultural saturation in 2012 with the inescapable hit ‘Call Me Maybe’. ‘Call Me Maybe’ started as an acoustic song, but dressed up with some synth strings and endorsed by Justin Bieber, it was…
Congratulations again to Jim, who won this site’s Sporcle challenge for the second week running. The very first Sporcle challenge that I laid down on this website was Band by Setlist I – only two people entered, and both of…
Canadian indie-rock band Arcade Fire formed in Montreal in 2001. The band is centred around the husband-and-wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Butler’s brother Will was also a member until 2021. The current lineup, including touring members, has…
Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965 to 1968…
Congratulations to Music Enthusiast Jim, who scored the fastest time in last week’s Parentheses quiz. Last week it was parentheses, this week it’s exclamation marks! It’s pretty eclectic, with everything from Louis Armstrong to Bruno Mars. I had to…
Three records from established acts this week. Canada’s Dan Bejar is back with another album of sardonic bleating (in the best possible way). Indie-folk band Midlake are much less prolific than London’s Sault; Sault’s classical work Air is their sixth…
Sandy Denny is best-known to rock fans for her guest vocal on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Battle of Evermore’, and her contribution to acclaimed Fairport Convention records like Liege & Lief. But she also carved out a solo career as a singer-songwriter…
Congratulations to Rich Kamerman, who scored the fastest time in last week’s quiz, narrowly beating Max. This week, regular reader KingClover has supplied a quiz for our enjoyment. You need to match the parts of song titles, including parentheses. …
David Weigel is a journalist – he’s known for his coverage of the conservative movement in the US. He once riled Donald Trump enough that the then-president called for Weigel’s firing from The Washington Post. Weigel’s also the author of…
