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Lost in music: The peculiar life of Brian Wilson

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Brian Wilson couldn't surf. Can you dig that? The composer, arranger and lead voice of the legendary Beach Boys never learnt to ride a wave. The man who gave the world "Surfin' USA", "Surfin' Safari" and "Surfer Girl" didn't have a clue about waxing a board and hanging ten. According to his wife, Melinda, he didn't even like the ocean all that much.

Jerome Taylor: New video from Riz MC

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:57:43 GMT

It's a bit late because I've been out the office for most of this week but there's a great new music video from Riz MC - a Muslim rapper who is going places rather fast.

The Friday Playlist

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:43:26 GMT

This week's Spotify playlist is compiled by Chris Maume, Obituaries Editor of The Independent

Caught in the Net: How to be a number one fan

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

If your usual concept of a fan video tends to involve someone with sad eyes wearing a wig, miming badly in their bedroom, don't turn away immediately when I mention a Death Cab for Cutie fan video that has been getting some notice lately.

White Denim - Power trio on the road from Austin

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It's late afternoon when I meet up with White Denim in a shabby pub in Shoreditch. Just a few hundred yards up the road, expensively sunglassed Hoxton trendies are sipping overpriced lattes in boutique coffee bars, but this is another world entirely. Scattered tables are surrounded by mismatched chairs that look as though they've been salvaged from a dump. An old row of cinema seats along the wall is haemmorhaging stuffing. Grime and nicotine adorns the walls, along with fading rock'n'roll flyers from bygone decades. A few weathered punters perch atop rickety barstools, looking like characters from an Irvine Welsh novel waiting for their connections.

Terry O'Neill - Chairman of the boardwalk

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Frank Sinatra arrives at Miami beach with his entourage (including his stand-in, dressed in an identical suit and less well-dressed beefy minders) while filming 'The Lady In Cement' in 1968.

Putting the fun into funky house

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Funky house" has long referred to the smooth, vocal "handbag house" featured on releases from the Hed Kandi label. In the last year, though, it has been wrenched from the manicured grasp of wannabe WAGs, to be appropriated by young, urban Britain as the tag for its edgy re-imagining of classic New York house.

Observations: Hedonism or herbal tea? Choose your festival tribe

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

If you've ever been to a festival and had an inner battle between the hedonistic, 24-hour party animal in you and the calmer, sensible side that tells you when enough is enough, then this year's Secret Garden Party might be for you. Held on 23 to 26 July at Abbots Ripton Hall near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, the theme is the legends of Babylon and Eden, representing two sides of the human psyche.

Observations: Fishing: the new rock'n'roll

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It used to be that well-off rockers earned their dosh, then headed to rural retreats – the lifestyle Blur lampooned in "Country House". The epitome of the hellraiser-turned-backwoods-squire was the Who's Roger Daltrey with his trout farm. Now, though, messing about on rivers is being refashioned as a refuge from 21st-century life for disenchanted urbanites. Heavenly Records, the label that gave us the gritty Manic Street Preachers and London-worshipping St Etienne, have published a book of bankside reveries.

Bat for Lashes - Away with the fairies

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Musicians who claim to be doing something different are two a penny. Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, is one of the few who actually manages it. She is a singer and songwriter like no other. Since the release of her debut album, 2006's Fur and Gold, she has been quietly beguiling fans and critics with her dreamy soundscapes and fairy-tale theatricality. She sings of wizards, woodland creatures, mystical horses and being licked clean by bears, backed all the while by gentle strings, propulsive synths and tribal percussion. It's no wonder that she has been fêted by those other bastions of waywardness, Björk and Thom Yorke.

Observations: You can't keep a good diva down

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Poor Joyce DiDonato, leading an all-star line-up in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden, ended up with her leg in plaster on the show's opening night last Saturday. The American mezzo slipped and fell during the performance, fracturing her fibula. Despite the agony she pressed on, first with the gallant support of her tenor Juan Diego Flórez, later with a crutch. But on her blog she declared: "From here on out, I declare that no one (please!) ever ever wish me again to: 'BREAK A LEG'."

Observations: A-listers cover a hot topic with another charity record

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

From the shrinking sheep populations of the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda to the diminishing ice sheets of Greenland, the effects of climate change are ever present. And now here's another charity record – Rhythms del Mundo: Classics, released on Monday. It hopes to raise awareness of the threat to our planet, and like a lot of charity records, has attracted a fine pedigree of A-list contributors: the Killers, the Kooks and Editors all step up, combining forces with Cuban collective Rhythms del Mundo to perform Dad-rock classics like "Imagine" (performed by Jack Johnson) and "Satisfaction" (Cat Power) with a twist.

The Barometer: Vieux Farka Touré; Here We Go Magic; Lightning Dust; The Duckworth Lewis Method; Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek; Your Twenties

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The ten best rock'n'roll frontmen

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:00:17 GMT

Who are the best rock'n'roll frontmen of all time? Not solo artists but real frontmen - men that actually front bands. We choose some of our favourites.

The ten best: rock'n'roll frontmen

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:35:18 GMT

Who are the best rock'n'roll frontmen of all time? Not solo artists but real frontmen - men that actually front bands. We choose some of our favourites.

Laura Dockrill: A poet for the iPod generation

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Neither ugly nor shy, Laura Dockrill is "loving life" and, if you'll pardon the rhyme, it's easy to see why. A headline act at this month's Latitude festival, the young poet will this weekend launch her first novel and second book with a "magical afternoon of poetry, music and stories" at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, where she will be supported by her best friend, the singer Kate Nash.

The ten worst rock'n'roll comebacks

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:36:55 GMT

Following on from our ten best rock'n'roll comebacks, we take a look at some less successful rock'n'roll reunions.

The ten worst: Rock'n'roll comebacks

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:36:55 GMT

Following on from our ten best rock'n'roll comebacks, we take a look at some less successful rock'n'roll reunions.

Larry Ryan: A few words from LA band Warpaint

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:45:12 GMT

Warpaint are an LA based band comprised of three girls and one guy. I dropped the band a line and asked them a few questions. Here's what they had to say for themselves.

Make war, not love: the life and death of Allen Klein

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Allen Klein was the self-styled "biggest bastard in the valley" who managed the business affairs of both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for a brief period in the late 1960s.

Alice Cooper: Is it time for rock's oldest shocker to give up the gore?

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

"There are one or two subjects I have to ask you not to raise with Alice Cooper," his publicist warns me. "I hope you'll understand."

What a smash: A concept album about cricket

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In 1930, Don Bradman took time off from the day job to write some music. It accompanied the lyrics of an emotional ditty called "Every Day Is a Rainbow Day for Me" (having scored 974 runs in that summer's Ashes series he presumably identified with the sentiment) and the song was given a rapturous reception at its first public performance in Sydney's Grand Opera House.

The Friday Playlist: British image revisited

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:16:11 GMT

As Blur's reunion reaches an extended crescendo this week with a triumphant Glastonbury gig and their Hyde Park shows, it only seemed right and proper that this week's Spotify playlist would be Britpop thermed

Lift-off for U2's huge 360null tour

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Never ones to do things by halves, this week Bono and co. unveiled one of the strangest stage sets ever seen.

My Fantasy Band - Master Shortie

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Vocals - Prince
Prince is an amazing songwriter and performer. I have never seen him live but I have seen plenty of videos of him. I really hope to see him play in the future.