Music

The Sound Of The Smiths

The Smiths provided the soundtrack to my student years in the North-East of England between 1984 and 1987, and it’s truly a heart-lifting experience to enjoy these songs again in all their remastered glory


So that’s how TVs work, thanks Björk

Icelandic pop pixie Bjork is bored of watching her TV so she takes it apart and then explains exactly how it works


What do you think Apple should change for iTunes 9?

Apple promised big things for the launch of iTunes 8 last September, and what did we get? A music recommendation engine and another layer of UI glossiness in the Grid view. Genius? Not really. What we really hoped for and expected was a complete ground-up revamp that prepped iTunes for the future. Why?


Ian McCulloch: the ‘best band in the world’

Another clip from SkyArts’ Songbook, featuring Echo & The Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch


Ian McCulloch: writing ‘Rescue’

Here’s a clip from SkyArts TV series Songbook, which featured a 50-minute interview with Ian McCulloch, singer with Echo & The Bunnymen


The Smiths - The Draize Train [Nottingham '86]

More Johnny Marr genius. Just couldn’t resist


Neil Finn + Johnny Marr - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Saw this and it almost made me cry. Sublime


Crumbs! It’s Scarlett Johansson

Hollywood sex siren Scarlett Johansson in quite good music video shock


Crawl home to PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey teams up Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age in Crawl Home
I’ve only ever seen this video on MTV2 online, so it’s great to finally track it down on YouTube. It’s excellent stuff. Enjoy.


Peter Lorre isn’t really dead. And neither, thankfully, is The Jazz Butcher

For those who don’t know, Pat Fish aka The Jazz Butcher is very nearly the greatest English songwriter of the 1980s. As Alan McGee, the man who signed Oasis, put it: “He’s good a songwriter as I have heard in my life - ever. He has been criminally overlooked by a world obsessed with celebrity, not worth.”