A Daily Telegraph Music Book Of The Year
'Music's equivalent of Schott's Miscellany'
Mojo
'A cross between rock-press fun and Schott's Miscellany - executed with charm and diligence'
The Word magazine
'For anyone needing guidance on living a righteous rock'n'roll life, there's no end of wit and wisdom'
Irish Times
'A vivid and consistently entertaining cornucopia of lists, miniature histories and Harris's own obsessions'
Q magazine
'An engaging adventure into the myths, legends and most importantly, the truths of rock'n'roll stardom'
Rock Sound
A review, and bass horror
November 30th, 2009
There’s a nice review of HHRR from Record Collector here, which like a lot of the stuff about the book, mentions the two pages that can teach you to play bass in half an hour. By way of a reminder/taster, some the choicest bass quotes from Blur’s Alex James include: “It’s like a child’s toy really”, “You can pick it up quite quickly… ten minutes will do it”, and “You don’t have to think about lessons at all – you can worry about your hair.”
Anyway, that’s the cool end of bassism, but we should also have a look at the not-so-cool side of the instrument. So check out this fella, and his ’slap’ skills. Go, beardman!
Tags: alex james, bass, reviews
Posted in The Music and The Lyrics | 1 Comment »
Noughties’ best song?
November 2nd, 2009
No post strike today, so the man arrives with the new (and first) album by Dave Rawlings, partner of the ‘Americana’ monarch Gillian Welch, often also lazily shorthanded as a ‘bluegrass’ artist – though it’s probably more helpful to think of DR & GW as specialists in an old-time version of what Gram Parsons called ‘Cosmic American music’.
Anyway, the Rawlings album is pretty good, all sparkling acoustic arrangments and harmonies pitched somewhere between Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (there’s a cover of Young’s Cortez The Killer) and an Appalachian front porch. It’s good to hear him and Welch doing their brilliant thing on the final track, Bells Of Harlem. But while we’re about it, here’s footage of the two of them doing the so-far-unreleased song Throw Me A Rope, which I think may be the best single compositional marvel of the last decade; like something from The White Album (Long Long Long/Cry Baby Cry), only even deeper. There are some embedding issues, so you’ll have to click ‘Watch it on YouTube’ and do so in another window, but please: have a listen.
Tags: dave rawlings, gillian welch
Posted in The Music and The Lyrics | No Comments »
Speed of sound
October 30th, 2009
There’s a piece by JH on the BBC news website about fan-life in the digital age, and the opportnunity to live in several different rock time-zones at once: “TV On The Radio or Crosby, Stills and Nash? Do you fancy losing yourself in the brilliant first album by Florence And The Machine, or deriving no end of entertainment from how awful The Rolling Stones got in the 1980s? Little Richard or La Roux? White Lies or Black Sabbath?”
Tags: digital music, itunes, spotify
Posted in The Albums (and singles) | No Comments »
Hail! Hail! Kiss!
October 28th, 2009
The new album by Kiss – or, rather, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and two other fellas – is called Sonic Boom, and though the odd outlet has thrown it some praise, it’s been widely shredded; this month’s Q, for example, gives it a princely one out of five. I’ve just skimmed through it, and I can’t quite clarify my thoughts: it’s a pretty see-through attempt to tap back into their magic c.1975-6, and sounds like they’re trying far too hard – but besides, the function of Kiss music is to make you marvel at its gonzo ludicrousness rather than swoon, and there’s something about old guys making this stuff that rather spoils it. So, by way of a reminder of how absurdly great they could be, here’s a Spotify 12-tracker, including the best hits, the splendidly-titled She’s So European, Ace Frehley’s bonzer solo single New York Groove, and Hard Luck Woman, in which they bizarrely choose to re-write Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. Oh, and for the full story of the gargoyle-kabuki look, turn to pages 120-1.
Tags: kiss
Posted in Spotify Playlists, The Look | No Comments »
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As inventive, untamed and adorable as a John Squire guitar solo
Tony ParsonsBuy the book from:
SpotifyPlaylists
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By way of a reminder of how absurdly great Kiss could be, here’s a Spotify 12-tracker, including the best hits and more
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One more playlist, before tea: a quick sprint through the lovely sounds of effects units
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A 12-tracker charting the wildly oscillating and usually disappointing progress of The Rolling Stones through the 1980s
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To enlighten readers further, a playlist inspired by the magic of less-than-gigantic music genres, as detailed on pages 78-80
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