A Few Forthcoming Releases (September)

Usual caveats apply – release dates can go up as well as down etc etc. The autumn deluge begins here. 
8th Sep
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE – Journey Into the Cosmic Infern (Very Friendly)
ARCTIC HOSPITAL – Neon Veils (Lantern)
CALEXICO – Carried To Dust (Touch & Go)
CAPITOL K – Notes from Life on the Wire Wi (Faith & Industry)
DAVID BYRNE [...]

OpenStreetMap

Not particularly related to music (which is why I have a miscellany in the header box), but interesting nevertheless. I confess to being one of those people who, on arrival in an unfamiliar place, has as their first priority the need to get hold of a map – this comes above even decent pubs, record [...]

Some old stuff I picked up recently

I haven’t bought very much music in a while now – a fact that will please my bank manager, but doesn’t really make for a lot of stuff to blog about. A few old things that I have picked up in the last few months include Live From Rome (Anticon 48), Sole’s wordy politically charged [...]

Lost In Music – another record shop goes down the tube

Glasgow loses another of its few remaining independent record shops next Sunday (31st) when Lost In Music closes its doors for the last time. The shop in De Courcy’s Arcade on Cresswell Lane in the West End was the last remaining independent shop in the area which sold new, as well as second hand, CDs [...]

Cult Albums: #11 THE WALKABOUTS – Ended Up a Stranger (2001)

When the Walkabouts emerged from Washington State in the late eighties, it was in the middle of the grunge boom. Despite being signed to Sub Pop, they never really fitted in with the punk-tinged hard rock ethos of their peers. Then when the alt-country thing happened a few years later, they simply rocked too hard [...]

Album: KINGBASTARD – Bastardize (Herb Recordings HERB006CD 2008)

The name Kingbastard conjours up visions of a group of moody, lank-haired blokes in black with a singer who sounds like a grizzly bear with a stick up its arse. Fortunately, it’s nothing of the sort. Bastardize is a collection of a dozen concise, eclectic electronic tracks produced by a guy called Chris Weeks. It’s [...]

Jerry Wexler 1917-2008

Jerry Wexler, producer, record company executive and tireless supporter of rhythm and blues and soul music has died aged 91.
Atlantic Records was set up by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson in 1947 with the aid of a loan from the Ertegun family dentist. It enjoyed steady, if unspectacular growth in its early years. The continuity [...]

UK Music Magazine Circulation Figures

The latest six monthly circulation figures are out. These are for the period January-June 2008.
No publishers are going to be leaping with glee, but Mojo, The Word, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Rock Sound’s figures aren’t bad. Q has shed 18,000 readers in 6 months, Uncut 4,000, NME 8,000 (one in eight) and Kerrang! nearly [...]