The Prodigal Song: “Lost and Found”

Oh, okay, one more. This time, a snippet of something I’m probably going to review sometime this weekend: Kim Taylor’s “Lost and Found”, from her Little Miracle album. It’s a rather pretty thing – dramatic in its own chamber piano pop way, but somber enough to put one in mind of a sort of less sultry Hope Sandoval. Whatever your opinion of it, you can’t argue with the price: the free empeethree can be downloaded…

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Heaven Knows I’m Downloadable Now

Sticking with the theme of popular rock bands’ guitarists doin’ their own “string” (thing), I notice that My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel has emerged from under his floppy fringe, politely brandishing a brand new album, All Birds Say, which is due out at the (wag)tail end of August. Strangely, his website seems to wilfully ignore the existence of Broemel’s previous album, Lose What’s Left, presumably because it was made pre-indie-fame, as opposed to ignoring it…

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Shiflett Not Shiftless: Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants

Chris Shiflett, the Foo Fighter-who-isn’t-Dave-Grohl (no, not Taylor Hawkins. And no, not the goofy-looking guy what used to play extra guitar for Nirvana – Dirk Gently, or whatever his name was. Because Nirvana songs totally needed two guitars. Not him. The other one. Anyway) recently released his first album with his new side-band, The Dead Peasants. Which is an awful, awful band name, I know, but let’s not let that derail the very point of…

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Brad LP Scoop. Er.

So that headline’s a pun on the name of famous Dirk Benedict impersonator, Bradley Cooper, but I fear it doesn’t work very well. I can “face” that fact, arf, etc. Never mind, though, because none of that even matters. What does matter is that Brad – side project of feared Pearl Jam guitarist and turtle-fondler, Stone Gossard –  is gearing up to release their fourth studio album, Best Friends, on August 10. Pre-orders have started…

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Deborah Crooks: “It’s All Up To You”

Album name: It’s All Up To You Artist name: Deborah Crooks Genre: Folk Rock Released: 11 March 2010 Label: Deborah Crooks ZME Rating: 6/10 Website: deborahcrooks.com/ It’s probably my own fault for not having a wide enough frame of reference for this kind of thing, but still: the first comparison that came to mind when listening to Deborah Crooks’ It’s All Up To You EP was the relatively obscure 1992 solo album Izzy Stradlin made…

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iTunes Could Never Take The Place: Prince Declares Internet “Over”

Famous miniature person, Prince, has recently decided that rather than selling his new album, 20Ten (ugh) in shops or online, he would distribute it exclusively through unremarkable British newspaper, The Daily Mirror. Which is wonderful and admirable: free music from the likes of Prince is nothing to be sniffed at. Luckily, he’s given me something else to sniff at.

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Amber Rubarth: 12 Bar Club, London, 3/6/10

A matter of weeks ago, I took a short trip to London, during which I was serendipitous enough to catch an Amber Rubarth gig. Although that may be less down to serendipity, and more to the fact that I flew over specifically for it. She was also gracious enough to allow me to pester her with questions and bad jokes for half an hour or so. Now, following some internal complications and day-job-related lethargy and…

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Investigating The Mystery: A Word With Amber Rubarth

A matter of weeks ago, I took a short trip to London, during which I was serendipitous enough to catch an Amber Rubarth gig. Although that may be less down to serendipity, and more to the fact that I flew over specifically for it. She was also gracious enough to allow me to pester her with questions and bad jokes for half an hour or so. Now, following some internal complications and day-job-related lethargy and…

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We Do The News

Hello, you handsome several. Has your week been so jam-packed with exciting chases and perilous thrills that you simply haven’t had a moment’s pause in which to consult the wireless ticker for the latest and greatest goings-on in the mile-a-minute maelstrom that is the music “biz”? Then hark: we have a very special guest on-board to provide you with all the info you need. Our guest commentator for this week’s “news” is this famous dead…

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Scoring Joan Rivers

Bleurgh. Apologies for that. But! There is good news to share. And here it is: perennial ZME favourite, talented indie songstress and rather lovely person to boot, Amber Rubarth had a hand in scoring the new Joan Rivers biopic, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, which opens in US theatres on Friday. Of course, in some ways, this isn’t good news. One way it’s bad is because I’ll never see this film, a result of…

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