Miscellaneous - December 2006

  by Admin

published: 14 / 12 / 2006

intro

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with Brakes. Formed in 2002 by members of British Sea Power, the Electric Soft Parade and the Tenderfoot as a side project to their regular bands, Brakes has since become a full-time group

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with Brakes. Formed in 2002 by members of British Sea Power, the Electric Soft Parade and the Tenderfoot as a side project to their regular bands, Brakes has since become a full-time group and has just released its second album ‘The Beatific Visions’, which was recorded in Nashville earlier this year. Front man Eamon Hamilton spoke to Helen Tipping at a date in Manchester on a freezing cold night in November about the new album and touring with Belle and Sebastian, the Editors and the Killers. Our other main interviews too this month are with folk electronica act Tunng, who have recently completed their first tour of Britain and whose second album, ‘Comments of the Inner Chorus’ has been one of the most acclaimed of this year, and scratchy 80’s Edinburgh post punks Josef K who have been a seminal influence on the likes of Franz Ferdinand and who have just released on Domino Records a new retrospective, Entomology', We have interviews as well with London post rock act the Early Years and rising American metal act Senses Fail. There is the first in a two part interview with Palace Fires, the new band of former Gene members, Steve Mason and Matt James, and the third in our now four part interview with Bobby Wratten and Beth Arzy from Trembling Blue Stars. In our profiles section there is an interview with Jim Kavanagh, the owner of Glasgow indiepop label Egg Records. Jon Rogers meanwhile takes a humorous looks at cover songs, and asks what makes a good cover and what makes a bad one, while Anthony Strutt meanwhile examines the new Icicle Works boxset. In our live section there are reviews of the recent Tour of Chaos tour for rising metal acts ; three nights with Primal Scream, and the Icicle Works 25th anniversary tour. We also have reviews of shows by Luke Haines, Julie Doiron, Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, Nina Nastasia, the Loves, Strike Anywhere, Mojave 3’s recent Leicester and London dates, Gomez, King Khan, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, James Yorkston and Emm Gryner . There is in our features section a list of 21 of our writers’ Albums of the Years. There is also our regular Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Soundtrack of Our Lives and tales from the Sound desk columns. There are also ‘Photoscapes’ of shows by Idlewild, Basment JAXX and Electric eel Shock. In our Re : View slot in which we examine again albums that we feel deserve a second look, there is an article on the Bitter Springs’ sprawling album from the beginning of the year, ‘That Sentimental Slush’. Our Website of the Month this month is Rock Shots, the website of new Pennyblackmusic photographer Katie Anderson. Katie is based in Portsmouth, and also took the Idlewild and Electric Eel Shock ‘Photoscapes’ for this edition. We are also running 32 album and single reviews. In our reviews up-date at the end of November we also ran a 32 reviews. As well as having a new photographer with Katie, we also have two new writesr, Sarah Maynard is a London-based freelance journalist and has contributed the Loves’ live review to this edition. Chris O Toole is also a London based journalist and contributed the Brakes and Rainydayf**kparade reviews. Thank you to Katie, Sarah and Chris. Many thanks also to our current writing team of Aaron Brown, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Daniel Cressey, Emma Dawson, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Anna Gudaniec, Tommy Gunnarsson, Alex Halls, Andrew Hare, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Sarah Johnson, Chris Jones, Geraint Jones, Jonjo McNeill, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethartt, Olga Sladeckova, Anthony Strutt, Dave Toynton, Helen Tipping, Andy Vincent, Phil Vincent. Denzil Watson, and Adam Wood for all their enthusiasm and hard work during the last year. Many thanks too to Anna Gudaniec for all her photographic work during the last year. Special thanks to Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ and Jamie and Maarten, our in-house DJs, who will be putting new editions of their radio shows on-line in the week before Christmas. We will be back in early January with a mid-month reviews up-date and then towards the end of the month with another full edition of the magazine, and, courtesy of Mark Rowland, our first MP3 compilation. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all our visitors from behalf of us all at Pennyblackmusic. Thanks you as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine editor www.pennyblackmusic.com