CATEGORIES

THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS

BOTTLING CHAOS AND BREAKING THE CYCLE, ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

THE HARD WAY

IT'S BEEN A STOP-START ROAD TO GET HERE, BUT PALE WAVES ARE BACK WITH A PERFECT SUMMER POP ROCK RECORD. HERE, THE BAND TELL THE STORY OF UNWANTED'.

THE FIRST... DE'WAYNE

DE'WAYNE WALKS US THROUGH THE MOMENTS THAT SHAPED HIS LIFE AND CAREER SO FAR.

GREG PUCIATO

FROM THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN THROUGH HIS EXCEPTIONAL, EXPERIMENTAL CAREER SINCE, GREG PAINTS A PICTURE OF AN INCREDIBLY CREATIVE LIFE TO DATE.

REBIRTH

EIGHT ALBUMS IN, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD ARE READY TO BE BORN AGAIN. THIS IS THE STORY OF HOW THEY WENT BACK TO THEIR ROOTS, AND CREATED 'HOTEL KALIFORNIA'.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

MOTHICA IS A NAME YOU'LL HAVE SEEN BY NOW, BUT WITH NEW ALBUM 'NOCTURNAL' UNDER HER BELT, IT'S TIME TO GET FAMILIAR WITH ONE OF ROCK'S NEXT SUPERSTARS...

WORLDS AWAY

WITH THEIR HUGE NEW ALBUM, 'REMEMBER THAT YOU WILL DIE', POLYPHIA ARE ON COURSE TO TRANSCEND THE INCREDIBLE HEIGHTS THEY HAVE ALREADY REACHED. HERE, THEY TELL THE STORY OF HOW THEY TORE UP THE RULE BOOK AND BECAME ONE OF ROCK'S MOST UNIQUE AND FASCINATING BANDS...

ROCK'N'ROLL RIDE No 4

We've visited three rock'n'roll London locales before. This time, Tim Jones got on his bike for an eco-friendly lap around Richmond & Twickenham

GIMME DANGER

Andy Ellison's commitment to extreme performance has been lifelong, as has his enthusiasm for music of various stripes, from mod R&B and proto-freakbeat with The Silence and John's Children, to glam with Jet and onto punk with Radio Stars. He could have been a contender, though he was perhaps stymied by a penchant for perilous stunts. "I could've been killed any night," he tells some-time Radio Star, Rich Davenport.

Sparks and Re-Creation

It may be the best part of five decades since the brothers of reinvention first made a generation of UK pop-pickers choke on their Angel Delight with their startling first appearances on TV, but Sparks have been enjoying a revival in their fortunes – celebrated on celluloid, endorsed by Hollywood, collaborating with the cream of UK indie-pop and back in the Top 10. As Ron and Russell Mael’s 21st-century studio albums are reissued, they look back on those LPs and three other creative diversions since 2000 and vow to continue confounding expectations. “That muse won’t accept a divorce,” they tell Jeremy Allen.

STONES IMMACULATE

The first Rolling Stones shows in the capital sans Charlie provide the epitaph he deserves. Good tonight: Kris Needs

UNDER THE RADAR

Artists, labels, and magazines meriting more attention

Two-fisted tales from the vault

A Sid Griffin archive revamp is in the offing, and RC asked him and Cherry Red archivist Steve Hammonds to tell us what’s in store

The Collector

This month: music programmer and DJ Miche

NO LAUGHING STOCK

One of the great living Liverpudlians, Michael Head has plenty to smile about. But his has been a bumpy journey, as widely admired albums he’s made first with The Pale Fountains then Shack, under the aegis of The Strands and now The Red Elastic Band, have come either side of addiction-related potholes. Reanimating the latter project in some style at 60, fresh from another withdrawal induced by Covid lockdowns, he tells Pete Paphides how “I got my shit together, got focused” for his latest release, the Top 10 LP, Dear Scott.

THE ENGINE ROOM

The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music

The Meter Is Running Wild

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST FAREES AND METERS GUITAR LEGEND LEO NOCENTELLI DISCUSS THEIR DEBUT COLLABORATION, “THE MELTING”

STARDUST MEMORIES

Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust producer (and Beatles engineer) KEN SCOTT recalls the making of two of DAVID BOWIE and MARK RONSON’s most iconic albums.

Bartees Strange

THIS D.C. ARTIST’S LATEST ALBUM IS A CONVINCING REMINDER TO REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM — WHETHER IT’S THE MUSIC YOU WERE RAISED ON OR THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE

Lexi Rose

THIS PROLIFIC POSTER HAS AMASSED 500,000 FANS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF SOME OF HER IDOLS. AND ALL IT TOOK WAS ONE KINGS OF LEON CONCERT

Charlie Worsham

HOW THIS SESSION SLINGER AND SINGER-SONGWRITER SWITCHES NASHVILLE’S GUITAR SCENE INTO OVERDRIVE

Lindsay Ell

THE COUNTRY-POP STAR GEEKS OUT ON ANALOG GUITAR GEAR

GWAR

PUSTULUS MAXIMUS and BALSAC THE JAWS OF DEATH discuss exactly what you’d expect super-powered outer-space al iens to talk about: old-school vs. new-school gear

PLAY BALL

Sixty years ago, a man named ERNIE BALL forever revolutionized the guitar string industry — and the rest, as they say, is history…

The Badass Ambassador

DAVE MUSTAINE DISCUSSES HIS “BRAND AMBASSADOR” RELATIONSHIP WITH GIBSON — AND LET’S NOT FORGET HIS TWO NEW SIGNATURE FLYING V’S!

LIFE & DEATH

THE STRENGTH. THE COURAGE. THE CRUSHING NEW ALBUM. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, MEGADETH MAIN MAN DAVE MUSTAINE WITH AN ASSIST FROM GUITARIST KIKO LOUREIRO TAKES YOU DEEP INSIDE THE SICK, THE DYING... AND THE DEAD!

This Year’s Model

AFTER SERIOUSLY REINING THINGS IN ON THE LATEST OFFERING BY HIS MAIN BAND, FROST*, PROG-ROCK STALWART JOHN MITCHELL BRINGS HIS AX TO THE FORE ON THE NEW LONELY ROBOT ALBUM, A MODEL LIFE

JOHNSON AND JOHNSON

The Texas guitar great has concocted not one, but two albums bursting with new material — plus a few extras. “It feels good to clear out the vaults and to get everything out there…”

Fifteen composers at 30

What were the great composers getting up to as they reached three decades? Jeremy Pound looks at some notable examples

BACKSTAGE WITH… Cellist Guy Johnston

How did you come up with the inspiration for it?