
After his father bought a mine in Tucson, Arizona, Joseph Byrd grew up and found himself drawn to music. Initially, it was vibraphone and accordion in pop groups, he soon branched out into local TV arrangements and college jazz combos. A talented kid, he found himself in a fellowship at Stanford, where he rubbed shoulders

Orville Peck is one of the leading alt-country voices – thankfully, that means his musical choices, rather than simply branding him as ‘alternative’ because he isn’t a heterosexual man – although you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s the case. He’s got a new EP coming out on November 14th called ‘Appaloosa’ and there’s a song

We wanted to write something about this Whole Thing with Roisin Murphy, but didn’t get much further than “why can’t some people just shut their mouths about other communities, especially ones who loved them so much?” Well, we just watched a very sensitive and well thought out video essay from The Last Mixed Tape, which

There’s a certain twang in alternative rock that really works the gears of music nerds. You look at Pavement, Television et al, and you find that the discordant guitars aren’t simply playing out of key, but makes you feel a bit smarter. It’s a cunning trick. Well, we got that feeling from the new song

Hello there. We remembered that listeners of our related radio show – FREE RANGE – might like to read the tracklisting for the show, instead of just listening to the words being pronounced badly throughout it. It’s the last show of the year before the round-up of 2025’s best music, so the last time where

Matt Berry is a renaissance man and unswervingly cool. With the most charmed of lives, he acts wonderfully, but also has fashioned himself a corner where he gets to be a loved psychedelic record collector swine. He’s handsome too. What a guy! Well, he’s going to release a new LP called ‘Simplicity’ on November 17th,…

All the hipster girls fancy him, and all the boys wish they were mates with him – Bill Ryder Jones has carved a great niche for himself in recent years and with his new single – ‘This Can’t Go On’ – he might be about to release some career-best music. Here’s hoping eh? There’s also…

Smoke Fairies have been great for ages now, mixing road-movie twang with pastoral folk – and they’re back, which is great news for everyone concerned, and there’ll be a new LP called ‘Carried In Sound’ in November. There’s going to be gigs too, to accompany an album that’s promised to be a bit darker than previous…

Post 9/11, country music has gone into something of a freefall, which is why people love The Chick so fucking much. Of course, it’s not a completely dead scene, but there’s something incredibly ugly about the flag-shagging, say it to my face, MAGA-courting stuff that Nashville has been churning out. Some of the bigger names…
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.
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