Robert Earl Keen is one of my favourite singers. I heard this song, Shades of Grey, for the first time last night.

There’s a studio version on last.fm.
xD.

I have commented before on the singer, Soulja Boy (see Video killed the radio star on this blog), with regard to people playing music out loud on their mobile phones:
The speakers are rubbish and any sound that comes out (quite apart from the lyrical delights of Soulja Boy’s wonderful hit, Crank Dat (Soulja Boy), which [...]

I haven’t been this excited about a music release since Garbage’s ‘Bleed Like Me’. Bauhaus were one of the most influential bands of the eighties and spawned, by accident, the entire gothic rock genre. Their first single, Bela Lugosi’s Dead is a masterpiece - ten minutes long, recorded in a single take - that you [...]

I love Eurovision and so I’m glad to see that we’ve chosen a halfway-decent song this year - ‘Even If’ by Andy Abraham. It’s an awful lot better than the travesty that was Scooch. I’m not sure that it has enough oomph to win, but I think it might do well; Andy comes across well [...]

Nickelback have re-released their song ‘Rockstar’. For those that don’t know, Nickelback are a popular beat combo. I rather like the song; however, VH1 has a different take on things.

VH1 have censored some of the lines. They are, with the inaudible word in italics,
the drugs come cheap
Everybody’s got a drug dealer on speed dial
and
Gonna pop [...]

Tom Watson links to a fascinating article on Rolling Stone magazine’s website about the deleterious effects MP3s are having on the quality of music, both in terms of fidelity and whether it’s worth listening to at all. The article, which is worth reading in full1, essentially says that people want to make music with more [...]

Despite everything else that could be talked about, lots of bits of the media are talking about the Royal blackmail - apparently, a minor Royal was being blackmailed with a sex and drugs video - so I’m starting a meme: what is the best tabloid headline you can invent for this story?
I’m going for ‘Royal [...]

I have stumbled and mumbled my way onto a meme on Chris Dillow’s website - top ten songs beginning with a letter of the alphabet. I’m choosing the letter ‘B’.
1. Brown Eyed Handsome Man - Buddy Holly and the Crickets2. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel3. Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley4. Bleed [...]

The Smashing Pumpkins have a special place in my heart - the first CD I ever bought was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Just goes to show that I was both cool and pretentious at a tender age. I’m listening to the new album, Zeitgeist, and it’s OK, but not up to Mellon Collie [...]

I’d like to recommend this article in today’s Daily Telegraph on Charlie Gillett by Peter Culshaw. Mr Culshaw sings the praises of Charlie Gillett, the hugely influential host of World of Music on the BBC World Service and, until his illness last year, of the Sound of the World on BBC Radio Four. I started [...]