In the week after Davy Jones' death at the age of 66, Brit pays tribute to the Monkees... So goodbye to David Thomas Jones (30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012), an Englishman who conquered America, archetype of the hairless boyband cutie. Never my favourite Monkee, Davy was one for the ... Read More...
Pop/Rock/Jazz/Folk
With the United Kingdom under threat from Mr Salmond and his bravehearts, in this week's music feature Brit searches for the essence of its four constituent members... The Scottish National Party has been mugged by power and, as Daniel Kalder so brilliantly explained, the northern Britons are faced with the frightening ... Read More...
An unusual musical collaboration, well worth a listen if you happen to be a fan of prog rock and/or jazz violin... French fiddler Stéphane Grappelli featured in my Unusual Jazz Instruments post the other week, and it has been brought to my attention that a tape of him jamming with Pink Floyd during ... Read More...
This week Brit looks beyond the saxophone, trumpet and piano for some less obvious jazz soloists. Here are four increasingly unusual lead instruments. You won’t believe the fourth… In the (extremely amusing) film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Bergundy, Will Ferrell has his hero reveal an unexpected talent for ‘jazz flute’ ... Read More...
We may be heading for economic meltdown, but music, as ever, has the power to console. Here are four songs about being skint... The theme is obvious enough as we head into 2012 amidst economic predictions that range from miserable to apocalyptic, but while compiling a list of songs about being ... Read More...
Daniel Kalder praises some German originals who seem to have sprung fully-formed from the head of Wotan. I first encountered Rammstein in an almost empty cinema on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street, during an afternoon matinee of the largely unloved David Lynch movie Lost Highway. Balthazar Getty had just broken into a house, ... Read More...
You don't get stuff like this anywhere else. Today, join The Dabbler's inimitable Teutonophile Malty, as he takes us on a dizzying tour of Germany's musical autobahns... Brit's post on the DNA of Greek and German music was intriguing and begs a (somewhat belated) response. Regarding the Greeks, well, I dunno really, Vangelis, Zorba, ... Read More...
It's New Year's Day, you've just woken up, and you've vowed never to drink again. This is a terrible mistake, as the only way to get through today is to get immediately back off the wagon with a pick-me-up. Here are some songs about booze. But first, for everyone who hid ... Read More...
Toby Ash shares some musical sunshine from New Orleans... Even with my own not insignificant blagging skills, I‘m not going to begin to pretend to have any deep knowledge, and certainly no clever insights, into the world of New Orleans jazz. I would be exposed as a fraud in a second. ... Read More...
Brit lists his complaints about his long-standing enemy Thom Yorke, composer of the greatest album by any British rock group... Objectively speaking, Radiohead are the second best rock group that Britain has produced, after the Beatles. This doesn’t mean that the Beatles and Radiohead ought to be your favourite bands. God ... Read More...
