
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…

Stephen Steinbrink, who we hadn’t heard of until we pressed play on the below video, has a cool new song out. Let’s tell you some stuff first though, so you get the illusion of value for money, even though we’re doing this for free. There’s going to be a new album called ‘Disappearing Coin’ and…

There’s so many documentaries about musicians that focus on inevitable success or how lonely it is at the top, which is fine and all – but there’s more interesting stories than that. And so, to 1976 documentary about Bradford wannabes Punch. A Close Up North feature called Punch On The Road, it’s 30 minutes of…

Tina Weymouth’s group – Talking Heads – are going to get back together. That’s bait, obviously. They’re not planning on stepping on stage to make music together BUT it might be a sign that, in their age, things might be mellowing between the members of the group. In fact, they’re regrouping for a Q&A with…

Elvis’ comeback special in ’68 is a legendary moment in pop music. It marked a return to an artist’s roots for one, which wasn’t hugely heard of at the time and, furthermore, reminded everyone that Elvis could be insanely hot – especially when he appeared on screen in his Leather Daddy guise. Now, the TV…
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