
If you’ve been reading the music press this week, there was some alarm or peevish glee (depending on where you were doing your reading) that vinyl sales had dropped. A Billboard piece stated that vinyl sales dropped by 33%, which is not insignificant. That’s selling 34.9 million units, down to 23.3 million in 2024. Are

At the country music awards, they didn’t nominate Beyonce for anything despite her all-conquering country LP and while many shrugged, many were irritated by the whole thing. The irritation came from all sides, but more importantly, so did the shrugs – apart from something for the shelf in the spare toilet or a sticker to

There’s something about golden era rap that just loves a fancy action figure, to place on your shelves next to your collected essays from hip hop journalism, tchotchkes, rap comics and high-end record middles and the like. It’s very wholesome, honestly. Well, Doom’s ‘Mm… Food’ is getting a reissue for its anniversary on November 15th,

Once upon a time, music retreated away from the bombast of Britpop and US rap-rock, and all over the place, more introspective bedroom producers were making tricky electronic music and singer-songwriters gravitated toward the acid-folk of the ’70s, focusing more on cottage industries and community. Tunng managed to straddle both worlds, with critics dubbing their

Look, most bands put a song out to let you know new things are coming, but not 2nd Grade. The power poppers from Philadelphia have chucked THREE whole songs at our ears and mercifully, they’re all really fun and filled with skuzzy pop hooks and jangly guitars. The revival of power pop is very welcome

Today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 84 – and to celebrate this, we’ve been treated to something rather surprising. While a lot of repackaged music from musicians can feel a little exploitative at times, churning out old stuff without much new going on, that’s not the case with this latest Lennon

The excellent GULP are having a party for the 8th instalment of their broadsheet counter-culture magazine, which features all the wonderful words, tidbits, diatribes and cool design we’ve come to expect from them now. The issue drops on Friday 11th October and you can get down in person at The New Cross in Manchester’s Northern

L’Impératrice are brilliant and pretty much everything they do is that brand of irresistible, smoother than silk, French disco pop. It brings us great joy to say that the new song they’ve quietly put out is exactly that. Now, there’s not a proper video for it yet – only a lyric video – but it…

Recife is the hidden gem in Brazil’s musical heritage. While Rio and Salvador get all the critical praise, Pernambuco has a wealth of super interesting music, with shape-shifting acid folk, gonzo rock, and now we’re looking toward Amaro Freitas who manages to combine that rural and rugged sound with sophisticated metropolitan goodness to make for…

In more ‘what did you think was gonna happen?’ news, the fallout over SXSW and their ties to the US Army continues and, of course, with SXSW being held in Texas, the Texans are of course acting up. If you stick your head out of the window and keen your ear, you may be able…

Metronomy are back, gang! Now, we will be using the plural here because that’s how you talk about bands, but is Metronomy just Joe Mount really? We’re not wholly sure, so we’ll swerve the whole thing. More important is that there’s a new song to listen to called ‘Nice Town’ and it’s really good. They (?)…
THERE’S NO MONEY IN THIS GAME ANYMORE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THE POP CORPS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH. HAPPY HUNTING.
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