Texan band, White Denim, are one of the most original around.

They cram more joy and sheer excitement at being let loose in a studio into their three or four minute explosions of noise that are probably most accurately described as exhuberant garage punk than practically anyone else currently recording.

That alone would be special enough. But it’s actually not White Denim’s real party trick.

more

Wilbert Harrison didn’t write ‘Kansas City’ - it was written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, when they were still in their teens.

Wilbert wasn’t even the first artist to record it - that was Little Willie Littlefield, whose version was released in 1952 and was promptly ignored by the majority of the record buying public.

But not by Wilbert. more

In hindsight it’s a little difficult to believe that Talking Heads started life as one of the bands at the core of the mid 1970s New York Punk scene, alongside other CBGB luminaries such as The Ramones, Richard Hell, Suicide and Television. Because, unlike most of their peers, Talking Heads broke free from their Punky roots and, through front man David Byrne’s uncanny ability to write incredibly catchy tunes, captured the imaginations of much larger, more mainstream audiences. Which meant that they survived for much longer and much more successfully than most of their peers - right until 1991 in fact. They even reached the Top Twenty. Regularly.

more

Mogwai are one of several bands that emerged in the mid ’90s playing music that was eventually labelled Post-Rock. Whilst the music the various Post-Rockers created didn’t sound that similar, it did all share a common musical ‘philosophy’. Of sorts.

Mogwai and their associates set out to create their own distinct music by, very stubbornly, insisting on sticking with traditional Rock instruments – guitar, bass, drums - but, very deliberately, only using them in very non-traditional ways. Using traditional Rock instruments to create rhythms and textures that sounded anything but traditionally Rock.

more

We left Jonathan Richman (see ABON 0188) having just been deserted by his first band - the, original, Modern Lovers - because of his decision to junk their Velvet Underground-inspired back catalogue and sound in favour of a new musical style that seemed to take Jonathan’s eternally optimistic world-view that had always fuelled the original Modern Lovers’ lyrics and apply it - in spades – to the music, the instrumentation, the production, even the album covers of everything he would do from then on.

more

The Modern Lovers were an early 70s band that shouldn’t really warrant more than the tiniest of mentions in the history of Rock.

Their recording career never managed to get beyond the demo stage. And no material of any kind - not even a single demo - was released during their 5-year long existence.

And if that wasn’t enough, they were a band that, by their own admission, were created with just one goal in mind - to replicate the sound of their heroes, the Velvet Underground. Their obsession even led them as far as hiring VU co-founder, original bassist and viola-wielding musical terrorist, John Cale, as producer of one of their demo-recording sessions (at which this version of ‘Pablo Picasso’ was created).

more