Miscellaneous - May 2011

  by Admin

published: 5 / 5 / 2011

intro

Hello, and welcome to the May edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. At our last Pennyblackmusic Bands’ Night on March 26th, our writer and resident filmmaker Sarah Johnson filmed enough footage to make separate concert films of three of the acts on the bill, the Hall of Mirrors, Nick Garrie and

Hello and welcome to the May edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. At our last Pennyblackmusic Bands’ Night on March 26th, our writer and resident filmmaker Sarah Johnson filmed enough footage to make separate concert films of three of the acts on the bill, the Hall of Mirrors, Nick Garrie and Anthony Reynolds. The films run between five and seven minutes each, and there will be Vimeo links to them, which will appear on most of the pages of the site, from the weekend of May 14th and 15th Watched either separately or together, they give a good indication of some of the diversity and range of what a Pennyblackmusic Bands’ Night can offer. 21 year old singer Jessica Spencer proves herself a potential future match for Kate Bush and Tori Amos with her band the Hall of Mirrors’ ethereal brand of space pop. Nick Garrie, the gig's elder statesman at 61, playing solo with just an acoustic guitar to accompany him, in what was only his second ever London gig, captivates the audience with songs from his long neglected and only recently rediscovered 1969 masterpiece, ‘The Nightmare of JB Stanislas’. Anthony Reynolds in his first London gig in eight years meanwhile dons an oversized pair of glasses, and croons his way through set closer, the sultry ‘The Disappointed’ from his ‘British Ballads’ album. As well as Sarah’s films, we have another very full edition of the magazine this month, and are running twelve new interviews. Our lead interview this month is with the durable American band, the Meat Puppets. The Meat Puppets started out as a hardcore punk band, but over the years have also incorporated into their sound elements of psyschedelia, country and folk. Singer Curt Kirkwood talks about his group’s longevity, their unorthodox way of recording albums, and their forthcoming appearance (as I write!) at the Animal Collective’s All Tomorrow’s Parties. Our other lead interviews this month are with Bristol-based indie/art rock band the Blue Aeroplanes, whose new album ‘Anti Gravity’ is being released initially on vinyl; Scottish singer-songwriter James Grant, who has recently reformed his late 1980’s and 1990’s band Love and Money; seminal 60’s group the Zombies, who are about to release a new album, ‘Breathe Out, Breathe In’, and up-and-coming Australian folk pop outfit Cloud Control who have just completed their first British tour. There are also interviews with veteran hard rockers UFO; Canadian-singer-songwriter and political activist Bruce Cockburn, Indiana-born Amy Lashley about her debut album, 'Tales of a Homebody', and London-based electro pop outfit, H Bird, who have just released their debut album, ‘Operation: Fascination’, four years after playing their last gig. Our other three remaining interviews for this month are with violinist, arranger and singer-songwriter Jenny Scheinman; London-based performer Katy Carr who talks about her song ‘Kommander’s Car’ and a documentary she has been involved in, both of which are about Kazik Piechowski, one of the few people to escape from Auschwitz, and Indietracks Festival organiser Stuart Mackay who talks about his plans for his annual indiepop festival which will take place this year between the 29th and 31st July. In our Profiles section there is a feature on South London-based punk/rock ‘n’ roll group the Godfathers whose two late 1980’s albums, ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’ and ‘More Songs about Love and Hate’, have just been reissued, and also two reviews of recent live DVDs by Nik Kershaw and Yes. In our Live Reviews there are reviews of shows by Cloud Control, Asobi Seksu, Iron and Wine, Jeniferever, Barn Owl, the Primitives, Timber Timbre, KEN Mode and Crystal Stilts. There are also reviews there of this year’s JD Set in Glasgow, which sponsored by Jack Daniels saw Sharleen Spiteri, Ian McCulloch and Kate B Nash play a set of David Bowie covers, and a triple bill of garage rock in Ottawa from Davila 666, the Bare Wires and the White Wires. Amongst our Regular Features Jon Rogers in ‘Hitting the Right Note’ examines the case for pop music over rock and more serious art, while Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ reflects upon HMV’s declining fortunes as those of Amazon continue to expand. There is a ‘Photoscapes’ from photographer Matt Williams of Hampshire-based band Holy Your Horse Is, and three new poems from our resident poet, Spencer Robertshaw. In our Re:View section there are articles on both Derek and the Dominos’ 1971 only album ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’, and the Jayhawks 1992 third album, ‘Hollywood Town Hall’. Our Website of the Month is ‘Nutty Boys’, a site dedicated to 1970’s and 1980’s ska. There are also 23 album and single reviews. We have a new photographer this month, Marie Hazelwood. Marie is Liverpool-based and took the photographs that accompany the Jeniferever review. Thanks to Marie and Matt Williams for the Hold Your Horse Is photographs. Thank you to also Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Dixie Ernill, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Richard Lewis, Tara McEvoy, Chris O’ Toole, Spencer Robertshaw, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem and Paul Waller, all of whom also contributed articles to this edition or the April reviews up-date. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks. We will back in late May with an album and singles reviews up-date and then in early June with another new edition. We hope to be running interviews with the Cowboy Junkies, X, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Sarah Nixey, Rasputina, the Webb Sisters, Sarabeth Tucek, Jack Cheshire, Duncan Maitland, Andrew Vladeck and Samson and Delilah. This magazine is dedicated to the memory of X Ray Spex's Poly Styrene, who died on April 26th at the age of 53. Pennyblackmusic ran a lengthy three part interview with her in 2005. She was both a genuinely beautiful person and an extraordinary human being. May she be dancing now on a celestial plane. Thank you as always for reading, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk