
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…

Nature is fantastic and everyone knows that, but there is a mild reticence when people tell you to reconnect with it, sounding like awful crusties. Sam Lee is probably worried he comes off a bit like that – he pretty much said as much in a recent feature with MOJO – but he needn’t. He…

We hadn’t heard of Parsnip before now, but on the strength of their new single ‘Behold’, we wish we had. Sugary sweet psychedelic music that remembered to write a song in the process? Yes please! We’re not surprised at all to learn that they’re an Australian band, because at the moment, all the great power…

The amount of incredible music that’s buried by time or happenstance is criminal, and one such LP that deserves all the love you can muster is Planetary Peace’s ‘Synthesis’… but what is it? For fans of modular synths, DIY charm, acid folk and heartbreakingly gorgeous music, this needs to be on your radar. A husband…

Reacting to contemporary life in 80s America, referencing Alvin Toffler’s ‘The Third Wave’ book, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May invented techno. They were the Belleville Three. Alongside them, Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter, James Pennington and others were at the forefront of the first flush of Techno. Everyone knows this already. Anyone with even…
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.
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
CONTACT: HOWDYPOPCORPSATGMAILDOTCOM