Fancy Supporting Independent Music?

Well, apart from pouring cash into the coffers of Song, by Toad Records by the millions, here are two excellent ways to do it:
Firstly, Kevin from mp3hugger.com has an enterprise called Indiecater which puts together a compilation album consisting entirely of songs by independent artists. I haven’t heard of any of the bands, which [...]

Barrett’s Privateers

I’ve just recently heard a couple of versions of an old folk song called Barrett’s Privateers, and neither quite captured my imagination.  Two groups I know - The Men They Couldn’t Hang, whom I love, and the now defunct Australian band Weddings, Parties, Anything, whom I quite like - have covered the song, and presumably [...]

Modernaire Strike Back!

Ruth (Chestie La Rue - what’s not to love about a name like that) from Modernaire has replied to my rambling nonsense about copyright and freebies, although she did so in a comment, so I thought I’d move it up here for your perusal:
Hello all. It’s Ruth here from Modernaire and The Moulettes. Sorry for [...]

Modernaire & the Culture of Ownership

I got an email a couple of days ago from Ruth. You may not think you know who Ruth is, but I bet you do really: she is in two of my favourite recent discoveries, The Moulettes and Modernaire. In fact, the only reason I know about Modernaire in the first place is [...]

Web Sheriff

After my difficulties with the Web Sherriff last week a few people left some angry posts about them being bastards and so on, and I kind of got stuck in myself, accusing them of living in the 20th Century, which is fair enough I think.
However, I think it’s time someone actually stood up for Web [...]

Jacques Brel - Why Always in English?

I assume you all know Jacques Brel, one of very, very few songwriters to write in a language other than English to actually be able to penetrate Western cultural awareness. In fact, I read here that Mojo magazine conducted a poll of British and American songwriters in 2000 and apparently Brel’s Ne Me Quitte [...]