Author Archive
December 14, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast # 146: Harry Lyon
Welcome to episode 146 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat. Now – as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library to access each new episode; or via Anchor/FM you can get […]
December 13, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 350
The Black Crowes, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1992) I loved The Black Crowes back in the early 1990s – and I stuck with them for a while, good band; great players, even liked some of the stuff many of the members went on to do outside and away from the band. It was […]
December 13, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
RNZ Reviews: December 2018
Once a month or so I have a chat on RNZ on their Afternoons show with Jesse Mulligan. These things start – randomly and stop in much the same way. I hope to keep doing this. For a while at least. I think I started in December of 2015, so now nearly three years into it. Last year I […]
December 13, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: muscle-memory
i was thinking the other day about how my grandfather introduced me to a lot of great films – weird films, movies not meant for me – at that age. he took me to battletruck. (i was about 6). and we saw some tarzan movie that wasn’t particularly appropriate. (i had an older brother, still […]
December 12, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Bryan Ferry and his Orchestra: Bitter-Sweet
Bryan Ferry and his Orchestra Bitter-Sweet BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited If there was ever an artist that would know perfectly how to, er, “remake / remodel” oneself, it was always going to Bryan Ferry, right? First obvious proof – beyond his dapper, debonair, noir-meets-ageless charms and music and approach – it was the late-90s […]
December 12, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 110: Laibach – “Opus Dei”
Despite the Slovenian industrial band being around since the very start of the 1980s – and on record since at least the mid-80s I had not heard Laibach until the release of their 2003 opus, WAT. I kinda liked it. There was a world to discover. It arrived liked most musical letterbombs at that time […]
December 11, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 351
The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys Today! (1965) It’s about here – on their eighth album (already!) – that The Beach Boys start to grow up and away from the “Surf” songs; not that there’s anything wrong with the best of the surf songs. But here we get the start of the real sophistication – […]
December 10, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Avantdale Bowling Club: Avantdale Bowling Club
Avantdale Bowling Club Avantdale Bowling Club Years Gone By Avantdale Bowling Club is the name of the new project by rapper Tom Scott. He was the voice of Home Brew and @ Peace, the Average Rap Band too. A prolific rhyme-artist, Scott delighted in parading juvenilia; displaying awkward truths, social conscience and biting political commentary […]
December 10, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Theophanes Blues
watch as they dig deep filling emptiness inside with hurt from the outside. the slaves that clean the drain, will one day be all that remains. for we hope from high up and afar – never from right there, watching and waiting – that the bones of the spectators will be thrown into the sewer […]
December 9, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Michael Diamond/Adam Horovitz: Beastie Boys Book
Beastie Boys Book Michael Diamond/Adam Horovitz Spiegel & Grau It finally arrived – after so much talk and plenty of hype, the memoir of The Beastie Boys written by its two surviving members. When Adam Yauch (MCA) died from cancer in 2012 that was the end of the group. Respectfully and realistically Michael Diamond (Mike […]
December 7, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 109: Anthrax– “Among The Living”
You know this thing of The Big 4 – the thrash kings, Anthrax and Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer…well, if you’re gonna pick one, the correct answer is: “Slayer”. You’re allowed to pick any of the others, sure, it’s The Big 4. But Slayer is the correct answer for top pick. Second pick, for me anyway, […]
December 7, 2018 by Simon Sweetman