Over the past few years, every time I’ve interviewed Paul Weller, the legendary English musician known as the Modfather, he mentioned that he was contemplating releasing an acoustic album. For an artist who’s taken as many twists and turns over the course of his 40-plus year career as Bob Dylan, it seemed no idle threat. […]
Wilko Johnson is supposed to be dead. Four years ago, when his fantastic album Going Back Home with The Who’s Roger Daltrey was released, he was on a victory lap of sorts. He’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer but, rather than retreat, he was in the midst of a whirlwind of activity. He’d been the […]
Former Oasis guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher on his new album, not looking back, and his brother. “I couldn’t have done it without David,” Noel Gallagher says, generously giving credit to his producer, dance and soundtrack legend David Holmes, for the remarkable left turn that his new album, Who Built The Moon?, marks for the […]
Last week, ex-Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher announced a new studio album under the name Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds — Who Built the Moon? will be released on November 24. On Monday, Gallagher premiered a single from the record, and it’s somewhat surprising. Titled “Holy Mountain,” the tune is a charging, up-tempo anthem with Noel’s pal […]
“We were kind of hoping they were going to use our backing track, but they re-recorded it,” Paul Weller tells me of the song, “Birth of an Accidental Hipster,” that he wrote and demoed with Noel Gallagher for the Monkees’ 2016 album Good Times. “It came about because someone in the Monkees’ office asked Noel […]
One of the most fascinating things about interviewing Ray Davies is how interested the legendary British songwriter and former frontman of The Kinks is in you. He’ll ask where you are calling from, what it’s like where you live, how your day has been and, if he’s spoken to you before, what you’ve been up […]
In commemoration of their 50th anniversary, The Monkees have pulled off the impossible with Good Times, the group’s first new studio album in 20 years. The LP is truly a timeless record that stands up proudly against their most revered recordings (i.e.-Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, Jones Ltd.) Marrying disparate strands of pop, folk, country, bubblegum and psychedelia, […]
Well, it’s here. After two decades between new albums, the Monkees release Good Times! today via Rhino Records…and it’s an appropriately-titled collection of songs. Featuring compositions written by the likes of Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Andy Partridge of XTC, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Good Times! carries […]
“Absolutely, categorically, fucking no,” Paul Weller says when asked if ever thinks, even fleetingly, about reforming his mod-influenced punk band The Jam, in the new film about the band, About The Young Idea. “To me it would be against everything we ever stood for.” Fans of The Jam are used to such pronouncements from Weller. […]
British rock icon Paul Weller stopped by Conan studios this week for a performance of the title track from his 2015 album Saturns Pattern. Below, enjoy the live rendition, for which Weller mans a piano: Stay tuned – a feature interview with Weller will grace this very website VERY soon! Related links: Stream Paul Weller’s […]
