Miscellaneous - December 2009

  by Admin

published: 14 / 12 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. It has been a hectic year for Pennyblackmusic. We have run over the course of the last twelve months headline interviews

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. It has been a hectic year for Pennyblackmusic. We have run over the course of the last twelve months headline interviews with Cabaret Voltaire, Damon and Naomi, the Skids’ Richard Jobson, the New York Dolls, Janis Ian, the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, That Petrol Emotion, Cornershop, Belle and Sebastian and Yo La Tengo. Amongst our other interviews, highlights have included A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Darren Hayman, Alan McGee, Simon Reynolds, Idlewild, Herman’s Hermits, Metric, Johnny Winter, Hood, the Trashcan Sinatras, Daniel Johnston, Pere Ubu, the Willard Grant Conspiracy, Jim Peterik, ATP organiser Barry Hogan, Hugh Cornwell, Jimmy Webb and in what sadly transpired to be his last interview the late, great Sky Saxon. There have been 120 live reviews and over 600 album and single reviews. We have also expanded our Features section. Three of our writers, Lisa Torem with ‘Rock Salt Row’, Jeff Thiessen with ‘This Metal Sky’ and Jon Rogers with ‘Hitting the Right Note’, have started new monthly columns, while Spencer Robertshaw began his own poetry section, ‘Evidently Spencertown’. Our regular writers Mark Rowland, Sarah Johnson and Ben Howarth also established on the site their own occasional series of podcasts. We also ran our first Bands Nights in two years in November at the Brixton Windmill in London which saw performances from the Left Outsides, Madam, Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts and the European. An early headline interview of the year was with Damon and Naomi, who first attracted attention with the late 80’s/early 90’s dream pop trio Galaxie 500. In some ways we have gone full circle for this final magazine of the year as our lead interview is with the other member of that band, Dean Wareham. He speaks to Anthony Strutt about Galaxie 500 ; the equally influential Luna, the band he formed after that, and ’13 Most Beautiful…’, his current project with his wife Britta Phillips, for which they have written a live soundtrack to accompany thirteen of Andy Warhol’s little seen black and white screen tests. In our other headline interviews this month Peter Allison talks politics with D. Wayne Love from the Alabama 3; Mark Rowland chats with Dan Treacy from the influential C86/punk band the Television Personalities and Lisa Torem speaks to acclaimed singer of blues, jazz and roots music, Maria Muldaur. There are interviews as well with James Chapman from Mercury Prize nominee and electronic act Maps; dub/techno/reggae hybrid Dreadzone; Seattle-based post rock act Trespassers William, and recent Bands Night stars Madam, the project of London-based singer-songwriter, Sukie Smith. In our Profiles section there are reviews of Nirvana’s new DVD ‘Live at Reading’, Depeche Mode fan film ‘The Posters that Came from the Walls’ and Doors documentary ‘When You’re Strange’. There are live reviews of gigs from the Clientele, Hugh Cornwell, Graham Coxon, the Alabama 3, Brakes, W.A.S.P., Moriarty, Jimmy Webb, Priestess, Cave Singers, the Duke and the King, Nick Garrie, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and A Place to Bury Strangers. In our Features section there are writers and photographers polls for both Album of the Decade and Albums of the Years. In both their ‘Hitting the Right Note’ and ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ columns, Jon Rogers and Ben Howarth look back on the last decade. Lisa Torem in ‘Rock Salt Row’ reflects with Fiona Hutchings on the theme of heartbreak in song writing, while Jeff Thiessen in ‘This Metal Sky’ argues the case for 90’s industrial trio Skinny Pup being Canada’s greatest export. In ‘Evidently Spencertown’, Spencer Robertshaw looks at some of those musicians died before their time. In our Re:View section, in which we look back at albums from the past, there are articles on Captain Beefheart’s influential 1969 album, ‘Trout Mask Replica’; Moby’s ’Wait for Me’ which while it came out earlier this year has now been re-released in an expanded deluxe edition, and unknown Manchester act the Turner’s 2006 debut album, ‘Wait for Me’. Our Website of the Month is ‘Musicares’, a charitable site which provides help and information for musicians in financial, personal or medical difficulties. There are also 32 album and single reviews. This magazine is put together through the hard work and enthusiasm of many people. Thank you to our current writing team of Peter Allison, Carl Bookstein, Aaron Brown, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Russell Ferguson, r.fisher, Tommy Gunnarson, Benjamin Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Sarah Johnson, Chris Jones, Jonjo McNeill, Sarah Maybank, Anthony Middleton, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O’ Toole, Spencer Robertshaw, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Olga Sladeckova, Kelly Smith, Anthony Strutt, Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem and Denzil Watson. Thank you also to our current photographers, Katie Anderson, Neil Bailey, Matt Williams and new recruit Alan Shearer-Taylor, who contributed the Alabama 3 photos to this edition. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks without whom any of this definitely wouldn’t have been possible. We are going to taking a break over Christmas, but will be back in early January with a reviews up-date and then towards the end of the month with a full edition of new interviews, features, live reviews and profiles. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk