Absolute Elsewhere

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GRAHAM BRAZIER INTERVIEWED (2004): The Brazier still burning

13 Oct 2010  |  6 min read

Graham Brazier's house has a boisterous doorbell named Kitty, a large platinum retriever which barks enthusiastically on the first knock, bounces at you on entry and then - after we have made our way downstairs to the kitchen-cum-library - promptly falls asleep under the old wooden dining table. Brazier's 102-year-old, double-brick terrace house at the top of Chinaman's Hill is a... > Read more

SOLOMON BURKE INTERVIEWED (2002): The rock'n'soul preacherman

11 Oct 2010  |  8 min read  |  1

Just exactly when soul music disappeared off radio and out of people's consciousness is hard to pinpoint. Soul - born in the church and taken to the street by Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and many others in the Sixties -- simply evaporated by the early 70s. Marvin, Otis and Sam were gone, and some say the golden age ended in April '68 with the murder of Martin Luther... > Read more

JOHN LENNON, REMASTERED AND RECONSIDERED (2010):

9 Oct 2010  |  6 min read  |  1

In what would be one of his final interviews around the release of Double Fantasy in late 1980, John Lennon said – as a married, settled man at 40 with a young child – he was interested in seeing if it was possible to have a life centred around a family and a child and still be an artist. “Could the family be the inspiration of art, instead of drinking or drugs or... > Read more

John Lennon: Woman (from Stripped Down)

GANG OF FOUR, A 100 FLOWERS BLOOM: Would you like politics with that?

7 Oct 2010  |  1 min read

The ideas and ideologies which came in the late 70s with punk, new wave and anarcho-pop threw up some extraordinary bands, not the least of which was Gang of Four, an outfit from Leeds whose 1979 debut Entertainment! brought together minimalist punk-funk bass and drums with guitarist Andy Gill's switchblade guitar and howling feedback. Oh, and over the top were Jon King's Marxist lyrics... > Read more

Gang of Four: Damaged Goods (1978)

PINK MARTINI, THOMAS LAUDERDALE INTERVIEWED (2010): Sweet and sophisticated

27 Sep 2010  |  4 min read

Yes it's true, says Thomas Lauderdale, he was deeply involved in politics in his adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon and had worked in a number of civic positions. “I would love at some point to run for mayor. I'd have to write the tell-all book before I do of course,” laughs this man who knows all the drag clubs, strip joints and high camp hangouts around town.... > Read more

Pink Martini: Over the Valley

JAH WOBBLE INTERVIEWED (1996): Spiritual traveller stay-at-home

27 Sep 2010  |  8 min read

The message had a kind of road-to-Damascus ring to it: “Jah will meet you at Bethnal Green tube station next to the ticket counter.” And there he is: Jah in jeans and a sweater. Not quite what Rastafarians have in mind. But, accidentally or not, this child of Stepney’s working class streets has chosen an appropriate nom-de-rock because, once behind the doors of his... > Read more

THE VIVID FESTIVAL, SYDNEY 2010: The laughin' Lou and lovely Laurie show

25 Sep 2010  |  5 min read

“This'll be my second old rocker today,” says the photographer. “I just did Peter Garrett this morning.” We're in a small foyer of the Sydney Opera House waiting for the married couple of “old rocker” Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, who have co-curated the Vivid Live component of the annual Vivid festival. There's a sense of palpable anticipation... > Read more

Boris: Attention Please

LIL BAND OF GOLD (2010): The journey of swamp pop from past to present

20 Sep 2010  |  6 min read

C.C. Adcock has done a lot of living in his 34 years, from playing in bands around his hometown of Lafayette in southern Louisiana when barely into his teens to making a glam-metal noise in LA, then backing the late Bo Diddley and Zydeco legend Clifton Chenier to hanging out with the undead . . . Yes, these days Adcock's music is used in the steamy swamp drama True Blood to conjure up... > Read more

Lil Band o Gold: Teardrops

TODD RUNDGREN INTERVIEWED (2010): Getting out his Johnson for you

19 Sep 2010  |  14 min read  |  1

Todd Rundgren laughs as he predicts the end the current model of on-line music sales which will disappear like the Sony Walkman and vinyl singles: “Because some songs are priceless, some songs are worthless . . . and some songs are worth exactly 99 cents”. He should know. In a 40-plus year career he's made songs, and whole albums, in each category. However although he... > Read more

Todd Rundgren: Hellhound on my Trail (from Johnson)

DEE DEE RAMONE INTERVIEWED (1998): Life in the grim lane

19 Sep 2010  |  8 min read

First, there is a moral here, honest. But there's a lot of drugs to get through first. So, let’s set the scene: the Chelsea Hotel on West Twenty Third, New York City, for decades home to the talented and the tragic. Within these thick walls Arthur Miller wrote three novels, a plaque outside acknowledges Dylan Thomas “from here sailed out to die” and upstairs Arthur C.... > Read more

The Ramones: Carbona Not Glue

THE NEO-FOLKIE BOHOS OF THE NINETIES: Talking New York City

13 Sep 2010  |  5 min read

In the early Nineties – three decades after the original urban folk movement in Downtown – there was a whole new neo-boho scene in New York. Michelle Shocked was just the first and copped the publicity but behind here were Kirk Kelly, Roger Manning and Cindy Lee Berryhill - all of whom dressed like fashionable alternative-Eighties types (black jeans), played like early Bob... > Read more

Cindy Lee Berryhill: Damn, I Wish I Were A Man

IAN McLAGAN INTERVIEWED (1999): Face, the music

13 Sep 2010  |  5 min read  |  1

Ian McLagan bangs away at the hotel piano and, without missing a beat, offers an unpublishable aside. Politely translated, the music business being what it was then, he wasn’t financially rewarded for his tenure in the Small Faces, one of the classic British bands of the Sixties. The Small Faces enjoyed a string of hits and, in January 1968, endured a notorious tour of... > Read more

Ian McLagan and the Bump Band: Hello Old Friend

LIKE, OMIGOD! THE 80'S POP CULTURE BOX (TOTALLY) (Rhino box set)

12 Sep 2010  |  2 min read

The Eighties was probably no more different or diverse than any other decade, but it does seem weird on reflection: Ronald Reagan and the Rubik Cube; the arrival of CDs, CNN and MTV; personal computers and ghetto blasters; Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta; Ozzy eating a bat and suave Duran Duran; cocaine and Jane Fonda's workout videos; Thriller; the departure of John Lennon, Bob Marley,... > Read more

The Dream Academy: Life in a Northern Town

JAMES McMURTRY INTERVIEWED (1990): In from the wasteland

6 Sep 2010  |  9 min read

The literary landscape of the American south sets it apart from that of the rest of the country. The hard indifference of William Faulkner’s world is reflected in his lean poetic writing; the inhospitable, suspicious small towns and brooding menace stand stark in Eudora Welty’s stories, and crippling heat brings sweat and malice from every pore in Tennessee... > Read more

James McMurtry: I'm Not From Here

MEAT PUPPETS INTERVIEWED (1989): Disney avant-metal rock

5 Sep 2010  |  7 min read

It's an old truism and therefore probably quite false, but it goes like this; ask musicians their influences and you can pick their sound. It certainly doesn't hold up when you speak to Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets from Arizona. After he’s ticked off The Beatles, Joe Walsh, Yes (!), and Black Sabbath, he then confuses things further by adding in the free-jazz group The... > Read more

Meat Puppets: Sexy Music

LOU REED'S BETWEEN THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION: Boxed for you in '92

30 Aug 2010  |  3 min read

Blame Dylan for box sets. It was his Biograph in November ’85 (16 unreleased tracks among the 53 spread across five albums, later three CDs) which began things by reaching 33 on the American charts. Sure, there had been box sets before – but mostly for dead guys. Dylan and CDs together proved there was money in this market. Then his spectacular Bootleg Series in 91 set... > Read more

R.E.M.; THE EARLY YEARS: Mumbling into the future

19 Aug 2010  |  3 min read

When R.E.M sneaked up in the early 80s with their debut album Murmur, few could have anticipated what the band meant – and would become. Just as Talking Heads had become the banner-waver for emotionally distant New York art-rock a few years previous, R.E.M were the band which announced college rock radio could be as influential as mainstream stations. And that “alternative... > Read more

MEAT PUPPETS 1982-88: Acid rock baked by desert grunge

16 Aug 2010  |  4 min read  |  1

In the more strange corners of the Eighties on the SST label there were -- between the dreadful Zappa-clown Zoogz Rift and solo projects by various Violent Femmes – thrilling bands like firehose, Black Flag and Husker Du. And the very wonderful Meat Puppets, a trio out of Phoenix, whose brains seemed completely fried by drugs, comics and the desert sun. And in that post-punk,... > Read more

Meat Puppets: No Longer Gone (from Forbidden Places)

BURT BACHARACH IN 1995: The slow rehabilitation

16 Aug 2010  |  3 min read

Mainstream pop culture has witnessed some peculiar pairings, none more so than when Noel Gallagher, mastermind and songwriter behind the Britrock band Oasis, climbed on stage in London recently to perform with Burt Bacharach. Gallagher, a 29-year-old mouthy wide boy from Manchester, would seem to have nothing in common with the urbane, tanned 67-year-old Bacharach, the elder statesman... > Read more

Gene Pitney: Only Love Can Break A Heart

MICHAEL JACKSON; LIVE IN '96: The man who fell to Earth

12 Aug 2010  |  6 min read

Somewhere around the midpoint of his often exceptional but undeniably messianic concert in Amsterdam 10 days ago, Michael Jackson fell to his knees and appeared to weep uncontrollably. Jackson -- whose stage craft was impeccable and dancing as exciting as expected -- remained hunched over and apparently sobbing on the enormous stage for what seemed a remarkably long time. But it... > Read more