Miscellaneous - August 2009

  by Admin

published: 13 / 8 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with the Irish/American band, That Petrol Emotion. Over a ten year period in the late 80s and 90s, That Petrol Emotion, which was

Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Our lead interview this month is with the Irish/American band, That Petrol Emotion. Over a ten year period in the late 80s and 90s, That Petrol Emotion, which was formed out of the ashes of the then defunct Undertones by guitarist and bassist brothers John and Damian O’Neill with American vocalist Steve Mack, won much acclaim both for their angular but melodic brand of guitar pop and energetic live shows. The group, who recorded five albums, reformed last year after a fourteen year absence. In an interview at the Nottingham Rescue Rooms, Denzil Watson speaks to Steve Mack and guitarist Raymond Gorman about their band and its reformation. The other main interviews of this month are with the Australian indie pop group the Lucksmiths who have announced their decision to split after over fifteen years together; American musician Bill Callahan who has recently abandoned his Smog moniker to record material under his own name, and the Declining Winter, the new band of Leeds musician Richard Adams, whose regular band, the much acclaimed Hood are currently in hiatus. There are also new interviews with Portland, Oregon band Richmond Fontaine, whose singer songwriter Willy Vlautin back for a fifth interview with us speaks about his group’s fifth album, 'We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River’; rapidly rising lush pop outfit the Leisure Society; Scottish musician Jo Hamilton about her debut album, and lo-fi American act the Drugs Models Love. We are also running interviews with Edition 59, a remarkable German label which limits each of its releases to just 59 copies ; American journalist David Rothman whose political thriller and debut novel ‘The Solomon Scandals’, is part inspired by Bob Dylan, and Rebekah Why, the editor of the Los Angeles-based Penny-Ante, an annual publication which combines together music, journalism and art. In our Profiles section, there are pieces about damaged musical genius Daniel Johnston; Scottish 70s funk and soul outfit the Average White Band; the solo career of Damned guitarist Captain Sensible; the Stone Roses’ singles bewteen 1988 and 1990 and new singer-songwriter Sarah Grace. The festival season is upon us and in our Live Reviews section there are reviews of the Ottawa Cisco Systems Bluesfest, the Nottingham Splendour Festival, and the alternative music annual Field Day festival in London. There are also live reviews of shows by Marianne Faithfull, Dean and Britta, the Wild Swans, the Pretenders and the Heartbreaks. In our Features section there are ‘Photoscapes’ from Matt Williams of recent performances by Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails. Carl Bookstein, in our regular ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’ column, in which our writers describe the personal impact of music on their lives, writes about the music of The Band. In her new ‘Rock Salt Row’ column Lisa Torem will be debating each month with a different Pennyblackmusic writer about a moment in rock history and its impact now. In the second in the series, she takes an Aldous Huxley quote which gave the Doors their name, and asks Malcolm Carter if rock music can ever really change original perceptions. There are also two new instalments from Jeff Thiessen in his ‘This Metal Sky’ series, who this month looks at new albums by Cardiff-based alt. rock band People in Planes and industrial act Ohgr, while in his regular ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ series Ben Howarth pays tribute to DG Steve Lamacq, whose seminal ‘The Evening Session’ has been axed by Radio One. In our ‘Re:View’ section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Jonjo McNeill examines the Stone Roses 1989 ’ debut album, and its just released remastered twentieth century anniversary edition, while our ‘Website of the Month’ is American webzine ‘The Dumbing of America’. There are also thirty two new album and single reviews. We put on-line another twelve album and single reviews in our reviews up-date in July. We have a new writer this month. r.fisher is a Californian-based musician and contributed the Megafaun review to this edition and the Implosion Quintet and Andy Nice reviews in the July reviews up-date. Thank you to him. Thank you also to Peter Allison, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Russell Ferguson, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Chris Jones, Jonjo McNeill, Sarah Maybank, Anthony Middleton, Chris O'Toole, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem and Denzil Watson, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the reviews up-date. Thank you also to guest reviewer Alan O'Hare, who contributed the Wild Swans live review. Special thanks to Matt Williams for his photos and our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ. We will be back towards the end of the month with another reviews up-date and then in early September with another extensive edition of the magazine with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews. We hope to be running then interviews with Cornershop, the Psychedelic Furs, Daniel Johnston, the Trashcan Sinatras, the Crocodiles, Le Volume Courbe, Her Name is Calla, Trombone Jerome and the Fiction Project and Matthew Simpson and to have the usual range of profiles, features and live, album and single reviews. Thanks as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk