Miscellaneous - July 2013

  by Admin

published: 30 / 6 / 2013

intro

Hello and welcome to the July edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine.Our lead interview this month is with Wayne Kramer, the guitarist and leader of the MC5, who speaks about his

Hello and welcome to the July edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. Our lead interview this month is with Wayne Kramer, the guitarist and leader of the MC5, who speaks about his seminal group; its continued legacy; his charity work running the US branch of Jail Guitar Doors, the aim of which is to provide musical equipment for prison inmates, and his forthcoming first solo album in over a decade. Our other main interviews for this month are with influential bassist Darryl Jones who talks about playing for both the Rolling Stones and Miles Davis; Steve Strange from New Romantic pioneers Visage who chats about ‘Hearts and Knives’, the iconic 80's group's first album in twenty-seven years, and Todd La Toure who speaks about taking over as vocalist with heavy metal giants Queensryche. There is also an epic two-part interview with all four members of reformed 80’s new wave/rock and roll group the Godfathers who speak about their current line-up and ‘Jukebox Fury’, their first album in seventeen years. Other interviews include much acclaimed Americana duo the Handsome Family about their latest album ‘Wilderness’; former Free bassist Andy Fraser; New York-based duo They Might Be Giants about their thirty year career; one-time Come and Live Skull front woman Thalia Zedek about ‘Via’, her fourth and latest solo album, and ex-Icicles Work singer Ian McNabb about his tenth and latest solo album, ‘Eclectic Warrior’. There are also interviews with Minnesota-based singer-songwriter Chastity Brown about her debut UK release 'Back-Road Highways' which combines elements of folk, gospel, blues and jazz; Leicestershire-based electronic/shoegazing group Kyte about their new album ‘Love to be Lost’, and tribute group the Sex Pistols Experience. Nick Dent-Robinson meanwhile profiles Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Convention for this year by talking to surprise headliner Alice Cooper; Fairport Convention members Chris Leslie, Ric Sanders and Simon Nicol, and Katherine Blake from the classical chart-topping Mediaeval Baebes who are also on the bill. Amongst our other highlights this month Adrian Janes profiles little known cult band the Honolulu Mountain Daffodils, which included the late Sound front man Adrian Borland on guitar, and whose singer Lord Sulaco died in May. There is also an article from Anthony Dhanendran on Ian Dury’s early 80’s albums ‘Lord Upminster’ and ‘4,000 Weeks Holiday’, both of which have just been re-released on CD. We have sixteen live reviews and Photoscapes. In our Regular Features section, Andy Cassidy in ‘AC’s A-Z of Music’ examines the cult of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards; Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ asks, after listening to the Duckworth Lewis Method’s hilarious new album ‘Sticky Wickets’, if too much emphasis is being put on misery in pop music at the moment, while Mark Rowland in ‘Rock 101’ reflects on the joys of the dying art of record shopping. In our Re: View section, in which we reflect on albums from the past, there are articles on psychedelic/stoner rockers Dead Meadow’s 2000 eponymous debut album; Allman Brothers guitarist and songwriter Dickey Betts’ group the Dickey Betts Band’s 1988 only album ‘Pattern Disruptive’, and the Primitives first album ‘Lovely’, which also came out in 1988. Our Website of the Month is ‘My Dad Rocks’, a music website for older fans. We are also running twenty-eight album and single reviews. As always, this magazine has come together through the hard work and talent of many people. Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Andy Cassidy, Dan Cressey, Nick Dent-Robinson, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Tom Fogarty, Tony Gaughan, Dave Goodwin, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, Chris O’ Toole, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem and Paul Waller, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the reviews only update. Thank you also Marie Hazelwood for the Photoscapes of Blondie and the Sundowners. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks for all his tireless work behind the scenes. We will be doing an album and singles reviews only update in late July and then will be doing our next big monthly up-date with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews in mid-August. We hope to run interviews then with Grant Hart, Booker T. Luke Haines, Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Arlo Guthrie, Alan McGee, Geoff Downes (the keyboardist with the Buggles, Yes and Asia), the Beat and the Short Stories. We will also have details about our fifteenth anniversary gig, Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic, John Clarkson, Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk