Miscellaneous - April 2010

  by Admin

published: 6 / 4 / 2010

intro

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. These are very busy times at Pennyblackmusic. We are in the process of putting together a series of design and

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. These are very busy times at Pennyblackmusic. We are in the process of putting together a series of design and structural changes to the site and, in what is the first step in a set of developments that will happen gradually over the next few months, have a new look front page. There was also a Pennyblackmusic Bands Night on the 20th March at the Half Moon in Herne Hill, South London. We always knew that with the brilliant, but erratic Television Personalities headlining the bill that we were in for an unpredictable evening and an unpredictable evening was what we got. In our Features section Mark Rowland, in a summary of the gig, recalls a night of both great highs and crashing lows. I am especially grateful to writer Lisa Torem who made the trip from Chicago to attend the gig, and also photographer Alan Taylor-Shearer who drove down from Lincoln for the occasion. Alan took photos of all four acts on the bill and these photos can be found both accompanying Mark Rowland’s review and also in a separate ‘Photoscapes’. Also in our Features section, which has expanded a lot over the last few months, Ben Howarth in his ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ column asks whether the plans to cut 6 Music is entirely without merit. Lisa Torem and Jon Rogers debate whether in the twenty first century protest songs can have the same impact as they did in the past. In a double ‘This Metal Sky’ Jeff Thiessen argues the case for TV on the Radio being the best band of today and Metallica’s 2003 record, ‘St Anger’, being one of the worst albums of all time. Spencer Robertshaw in his ‘Evidently Spencertown’ poetry column meanwhile raps about his favourite website. In our interviews section, Jamie Rowland, in what is a long overdue first lead interview for the site, talks to Johan Duncanson from the much acclaimed Swedish pop act the Radio Dept. about his group’s forthcoming third album, ‘Clinging to a Scheme’. Our other main interviews this month are with Siobhan Fahey from bestselling pop act Shakepsear’s Sister who is about to release and tour with their first album of new material in over fifteen years; dark Californian experimentalists Xiu Xiu and 70’s stadium act Grand Funk Railroad. There are interviews as well with film maker John Edginton, who has made documentaries about both Syd Barrett and Robyn Hitchcock; rockabilly band Jack Rabbit Slim, who have just released their fourth album ‘Hairdo’s and Hairnets’, Swedish indie pop act the Electric Pop Group who have just put out their second album, and folk group Gabby Young and Other Aniamls In our Profiles section there are articles on Galaxie 500, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Mick Ronson. Mark Rowland examines the career of Big Star’s Alex Chilton who died last month and Sarah Johnson writes of attending the making of new rock TV show, ‘Evo Music Rooms’. There are live reviews of shows from Bad Lieutenant, Magnetic Fields, Dan Hicks and the Hot Jinks, the Hidden Cameras, New Model Army, James McCartney, Sarah MacDougall, the Twilight Sad, The Good The Bad, Waterstreet and the Telescopes. In our ‘Re:View’ section in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Fiona Hutchings examines Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut album, ‘Welcome to the Pleasuredome’, which is about to be released in an expanded edition and Carl Bookstein assesses the late Elliott Smith’s 1994 first CD, ‘Roman Candle’. Our Website of the Month is ‘The Vocalist', a one stop resource for singers from any approach. There are also 32 new album and single reviews. In our mid-month reviews up-date we put on-line another 20 reviews. We have a new writer this month. Paul Waller is based in Margate and a former fanzine editor. He contributed the Gabby Young and Other Animals interview. Thank you to Paul. Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Dixie Ernill, Benjamin Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Sarah Johnson, Anthony Middleton, Chris O’ Toole, Spencer Robertshaw, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem , Denzil Watson and Rachel Williams, all of whom contributed articles to this edition. Thank you too to Alan Taylor-Shearer both for his Bands Night photos and for the photos which accompany the Xiu Xiu interview Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ without whom none of this would be possible. We will be back with a reviews up-date in mid April and then at the beginning of May with a full edition. We hope then to be running interviews with the Clientele, Yeasayer, Jethro Tull, Batusis, Erland and the Carnival, Chris Olley, Anthony Reynolds and Musee Mecanique, as well as the usual range of features, live reviews, profiles and more album and single reviews. Thank you as always for reading. John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk