Miscellaneous - April 2009

  by Admin

published: 7 / 4 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Rather than just stick to the familiar, we are always keen to try out new innovations and to see if we can take things in different directions at Pennyblackmusic. While cohering as well to our usual

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Rather than just stick to the familiar, we are always keen to try out new innovations and to see if we can take things in different directions at Pennyblackmusic. While cohering as well to our usual manifesto of trying to promote music and acts that we think are worth hearing, I believe we have done that this month. Three of our long-term writers, Mark Rowland, Ben Howarth and Sarah Johnson, have started their own pod. Much in the manner of Radio 1’s late, much lamented ‘Round Table’ show of the 70s and 80s or even earlier still ‘Juke Box Jury’, they are using it as a forum to debate about new music. For copyright reasons, they are only allowed to play thirty seconds from any one song, but that has proved enough for Mark, Ben and Sarah to get involved in some very lively, often funny and occasionally mildly chaotic discussion about some of the acts that we have been writing about elsewhere on the site such as Joe Gideon and the Shark, the Animal Collective, Bearsuit, the Early Years and the Grave Diggers. There are two podcasts on-line already which can be found on most pages of the site. Mark, Ben and Sarah hope to be doing similar up-dates with occasional guests once a month andcan be contacted at pbpodcast@googlemail.com Our lead interview this month is with Richard Jobson, the former front man with the late 70s/early 80s Scottish punk/new wave act the Skids, who have in recent years going through a critical renaissance since U2 and Green Day in 2006 covered their song, ‘The Saints are Coming’, for the Hurricane Katrina appeal. In recent years Jobson has been working as a film director, and now has made four feature films. His latest film, ‘New Town Killers’, upon which he makes first new musical appearance in twenty years on its title song, is about an out-of-luck teenager who makes a Faustian pact with two murderous hedge fund bankers, who offer to pay off all his debts, if he can only stay alive until morning in a deadly game of hide-and-seek with them. In what is as much a film interview as it is a music interview, we spoke to him about both ‘New Town Killers’ and also the Skids. Our other main interviews this month are former Cousteau star Liam McKahey who has just released his debut solo album, ‘Lonely Road’ ; glam rock punk star Wednesday 13, and Swedish psychedelic act the Soundtrack to Our Lives. There are new interviews too with much acclaimed acoustic pop act Horse Feathers ; reformed 80s Sheffield post-punks Artery ; Sky Saxon, the front man with seminal 60s band the Seeds ; late 80s indie pop act Whirlpool Guest House, 60’s-influenced indie pop trio My Drug Hell, and multi-instrumentalist, comedian and spoken-word punk Ashley Reaks. In our profiles section, Stuart Mackay chats to us about his steam train-oriented Indietracks Festival, which will be running for its third year in July. There is a feature on My Drug Hell’s two albums to date, and articles on new live DVDs from Lucinda Williams, Amos Lee and former Manfred Mann’s Earth Band singer Chris Thompson. We have live reviews of show from Franz Ferdinand, the Howling Bells, the Experimental Pop Band, Darren Hayman, Joe Gideon and the Shark, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, You Me At Six, the Animal Collective, the Cure, Official Secrets Act, Crystal Acts, Nobunny and Wednesday 13. In our features section, Ben Howarth, in his regular ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll; column, writes about searching for the perfect pop song. It is our Canadian writer Jeff Thiessen’s turn to write the ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’, in which our writers describe the personal impact of music on their lives, and he has chosen to write about discovering ‘GodWeenSatan’ while he was at college. In our ‘Re :View’ section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, there are articles on Tori Amos’ 1992 debut album, ‘Little Earthquakes’ ; experimental act Coil’s 2005 last album, ‘The Ape of Naples’ and Beth Orton’s much acclaimed 1996 record ‘Trailer Park’, which has just been released in a new double CD edition. Our Website of the Month is music webzine, ‘The Music Magazine’. We also have 32 album and single reviews. In our last mid-month reviews up-date, we ran another 32 reviews. There is a new writer this month, Lisa Torem. Lisa Torem is a Chicago-based journalist and music. She has contributed the Soundtrack to Our Lives and Ashley Reaks interviews, the Lucinda Williams and Chris Thompson DVD reviews, Tori Amos Re : View, and various album reviews. Thank you, Lisa, for all your very hard work. Thank you too also to Peter Allison, Aaron Brown, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Russell Ferguson, Tommy Gunnarsson, Adrian Huggins, Ben Howarth, Sarah Johnson, Sarah Maybank, Chris O’ Toole, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Anthony Strutt, Helen Tipping and Rachel Williams, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the mid-month edition. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ. We will be back in mid Aprilw ith another mid-month reviews up-date and then in early May with another more extensive edition of the magazine with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews. We hope to be running then interviews with Therapy ?, Sophia, Simon Reynolds, the Leisure Society, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Vaselines, Jeniferever and Sleeping Dog and also the Sonic Cathedral label and to have lots more profiles, live reviews and features. Thank you as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk