Musical Essays

Here we are with another playlist, and it's time to tap into the seemingly bottomless well of interesting and unusual cover versions. Ten more tunes - you might be familiar with some of these versions, but I'm guessing in a few cases, you may not even be aware of the original. 1. Weezer: Africa Photo: NHL While Africa may be considered by many to be a soft rock 'classic', few would have thought it coverable material for cool indie hipsters, Weezer, some 35 years later. Steve

The Paisley Underground sounds like a movement that might have been from the free love west coast of the 1960s - tune in, drop out, and all that. It wasn't, but it was another west coast thing, and very much rooted in some of those earlier sounds, especially the electro-folk guitar and garage rock sounds of bands like Love and the Byrds. Where, What, Who & When Image from PowerPop blog The movement centred on Los Angeles, and while its roots were back in sixties L.A., the soi

I thought for a change, and to challenge myself a little to stay up to date, that I would start dropping in the odd playlist of new songs! These could be from brand new bands, older bands you've still never heard of, and a few old pros that you will definitely know. All these tunes have been released in the last few months, and cover a few different genres, so hopefully something for everyone... 1. Kurt Vile: Zoom 97 Photo: Tore Saetra Here we have the opening track from Phil

I had considered some sort of even more long-winded and pretentious title for the article, including making some reference to his undoubted musical genius, but luckily opted against that route. Neil Finn has fully been a part of my life since 1988, when I first fell in love with the second Crowded House album, Temple of Low Men. I had heard one or two tracks on the radio and then seen a bit of an interview with them on some long forgotten Channel 4 show or other. I was hooked

Once in a while, I hear a song I either haven't ever heard before, or haven't heard in ages - and I think to myself - 'I really need to put that in a playlist'. Since all of our playlists have to be themed (it's the law), it is then a process of contriving something that fits the chosen song. Our Geography series of playlists has spawned many songs relating to actual countries and cities (and towns), but the song in question this time was about a non-specific city. Now, in th