New music
Salif Keita, Royal Festival HallThursday, 14 February 2013
The only time the great Malian singer spoke at any length to last night’s audience was when he said, “I don’t know my birthday. I don’t know the day or the year. So any day can be my birthday. So can you please stand up and dance for my birthday.”... Read more... |
CD: Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian VerseThursday, 14 February 2013
In theory, it’s close to impossible to achieve some semblance of mainstream success without being decried as a sellout by at least a proportion of your fanbase. Yet I don’t think there was a Scottish indie music fan who greeted this week's news that... Read more... |
CD: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push the Sky AwayWednesday, 13 February 2013
With BBC Four currently mourning the passing of the LP, it’s encouraging that some artists still like to confine themselves to the format’s time limitations and its implicit requirement that the songs etched into its silky surface should be... Read more... |
Fairport Convention, St George's Church, BrightonTuesday, 12 February 2013
Fairport Convention bassist and longest-serving member Dave Pegg is a genial raconteur. He is relating how he presented the band with the song “The Eynsham Poacher”, pretending it was his when really he had purloined it by taping it off someone,... Read more... |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Her Majesty's TheatreMonday, 11 February 2013
“You grow up. You really do. You mellow out…Your rage ceases to need a name,” Thus wrote Cave at 40, while moving out of his post-punk years. Ten years later the Australian goth returned to the wilder sounds of his youth. He started playing with the... Read more... |
CD: Camper Van Beethoven - La Costa PerditaMonday, 11 February 2013
Californian oddballs Camper Van Beethoven are best known for their strange song “Take The Skinheads Bowling” which established the group in 1985 and was re-popularised when used in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine. With the exception of a... Read more... |
Kraftwerk: The Man Machine, Tate ModernSunday, 10 February 2013
A giant arm sweeps across the rapt audience. The newly anointed onlookers all wear the same, white-framed, glasses. A chant is heard:“We are the robots.” Those congregating in the over-sized shoebox of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall could be at a cult... Read more... |
CD: Tegan and Sara - HeartthrobSunday, 10 February 2013
To hear them tell it, Tegan and Sara have always been pop stars. It was harder to see a decade ago, sure, when they were spitting out spiky guitar anthems in matching pixie haircuts, but the roots were always there. That the twins’ seventh record... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Conny Plank, Pied Piper, Jean-Luc Ponty, Cliff RichardSunday, 10 February 2013
Various Artists: Who’s That Man – A Tribute to Conny PlankThe list of acts Konrad Plank worked with is a Hollywood Walk of Fame of Krautrock. As an engineer or producer he was behind seminal albums by Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia, La Düsseldorf and... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show 9Saturday, 09 February 2013
Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Desk Radio Show, originally broadcast live from London's glamorous Dalston last Tuesday on NTS Live. Once again Joe found himself flying solo as Peter was off on his travels – although this time, rather than... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Richard ThompsonSaturday, 09 February 2013
Richard Thompson has been stretching boundaries and defying expectations for almost half a century. An unassuming 63-year-old with a neat beard whose sole concession to showbiz is his jaunty black beret, though nominally a folk artist Thompson... Read more... |
When Albums Ruled the World, BBC FourSaturday, 09 February 2013
The BBC has suddenly noticed that there used to be these really brilliant things called "albums", and now they're going out of style and out of date. Hence they're holding an Albums Season in all media (Danny Baker's Great Album Showdown, Steve... Read more... |
