This edition of The Essential 10 , our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The Replacements ; an act that managed seven studio albums over a tumultuous career that spanned 1979 to 1992 (and briefly 2012-2015). The Minneapolis band were well known for their often ramshackle gigs, the lo-fi garage band albums and an almost wilful resistance to make any attempt to become successful (see their shambolic appearance on SNL as an example). 1. I

I recently realised that after more than three years of listening, watching and writing (and of course, waffling) about music - I was...

We have collated a number of stories from the world of music that we think are quite interesting. Some of them, while not always directly...

Pitchfork magazine once called them the missing link between R.E.M. and Nirvana, so what is it about a band from Minnesota that were...

December is already a bad month for sad music anniversaries (Stuart Adamson, Kirsty MacColl and Terry Hall all died in December, amongst...

Most people have trouble naming the capital cities of more than a handful of countries - but what about US State capitals? Well, most...

It was a random song on a playlist I had on in the car yesterday that I hadn't heard in a while, coupled with the fact that there were...

What does it take to create the perfect indie pop song? Well, I suppose you first need to decide what constitutes an indie pop song....

Time for our occasional dip into the game we like to call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields. As ever, we need some sort of musical reference...

So, there are songs with made up names in them and there are songs about real people that the wider world won't know (parents, ex-lovers...

The first playlist of the new year - and it seemed appropriate (especially looking out of the window as I write this) for it to be our...

No, not that one! Chaotic. Dysfunctional. Awkward. Discordant. Cheeky. Rocking. Essential. Just a few of the words I can use to describe...