Miscellaneous - May 2009

  by Admin

published: 6 / 5 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the May edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with The New York Dolls. An often misunderstood band, The New York Dolls have had a history of tragedy, drug addiction, alcoholism and the death of four of its members all having had its

Hello and welcome to the May edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with The New York Dolls. An often misunderstood band, The New York Dolls have had a history of tragedy, drug addiction, alcoholism and the death of four of its members all having had a grim toll. They, however, with their first two albums, 1973’s ‘New York Dolls’ and 1974’s ‘Too Much Too Soon’, created some of the most innovative and exhilarating rock music ever recorded. When they reformed in 2004 after an absence of nearly thirty years in a line-up, which included original members, singer David Johansen, guitarist Sylvian Sylvian and briefly late bassist Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane, they surprised fans and critics alike by revealing they had not diminished at all as a powerful live act. Their two reformation albums, 2006’s ‘One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even this’ and this year’s ‘Cause I Sez So’, have also been well-received. In conversation with us, Sylvian Sylvian spoke about some of the disasters that have afflicted the band, its survival against the odds and some of the new record. Our other main interviews this month are with Irish guitar rockers Therapy ? who have recently returned with their thirteenth album, ‘Crooked Timber’ ; Shetland Isles-born singer songwriter Astrid Williamson, who has a new album ‘Here Come the Vikings’ due out in early June, and, in a two part interview, both of which we are running consecutively Simon Reynolds, the music journalist and author of the much acclaimed post punk books, ‘Rip It Up and Start Again’ and ‘Totally Wired’. Other interviews include American psychedelic/shoegazing trio A Place to Bury Strangers ; rising guitar band Official Secrets Act ; reformed Glasgow-based 80s indie group,the Vaselines ; Swedish ambient/post rockers Jeniferever ; singer-songwriter Abigail Hopkins and Sleepingdog, the ambient project of Dutch musician Chantal Acda. In our profiles section, there is an interview with Nathaniel Cramp, the owner of London-based club night and shoegazing label, Sonic Cathedral. There is also there an article on New York punks, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who have just released their third album, ‘It’s Blitz’ ; reviews of new films ‘Awaydays’ and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, and short stories compilation book, ‘Punk Fiction’. In our live section, there are reviews of gigs from Bob Dylan ; Camera Obscura ; Murder by Death ; Idiot Son ; Peter, Bjorn and John ; Easy Star All Stars ; Big Pink ; Malakai ; No Means No, and Shelleyan Orphan. In our features section and in the ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’ column, in which our writers tell of the personal impact of music in their lives, Chicago-based writer Lisa Torem writes of the different ways in which the career of singer-songwriter Janis Ian have drawn parallels with her own life and that of her family. Elsewhere in his ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n Roll’ column, Ben Howarth finds the CD not about to come in the age of download culture to the death that has recently been predicted for it, but alive and well. In our Re : View section, in which our writers re-examine albums from the past. Jeff Thiessen examines the Replacements’ 1983 ode to drunkenness, ‘Hootenanny’, and Mudhoney’s 1990's debut mini album, ‘Superfuzz Bigmuff’. Our Website of the Month is Toxic Pete, the website of Worcester-based music writer and photographer, Peter J. Brown. There are 32 album and single reviews. We put on-line in our last mid-month reviews up-date another 32 album and single reviews in.# Thank you too also to Peter Allison, Aaron Brown, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Dixie Ernill, Tommy Gunnarsson, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Sarah Johnson, Sarah Maybank, Anthony Middleton, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O’ Toole, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping and Lisa Torem, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the mid-month edition. Special thanks to special guest Charles Howarth who contributed the Bob Dylan album review and our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ. Please check out the new pod cast of our long-term writers, Mark Rowland, Ben Howarth and Sarah Johnson, which 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. There are two podcasts on-line already which can be found on most pages of the site, and a new pod will be going on-line the week of May 18th. We will be back in mid May with another mid-month reviews up-date and then in early June 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 Janis Ian, Neil Halstead, Idlewild, Simon Raymonde, Metric, In Case of Fire, Akron/Family, Sophia, Rolo Tomassi, Isa and the Filthy Tongues, Tallulah Rendall and AM Vibe and to have the usual range of profiles, features and live, album and single reviews Thanks as always for reading. Yours sincerely John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk