It's a Weird Premise for a Band - But I Like It.

I interviewed my favorite band of the moment Dry Cleaning for The New York Times, on the eve of the release of their wonderful new album Stumpwork - on which they've totally pulled off that tricky trick of retaining everything good about the debut but expanding upon it and making it different enough to be fresh. It was really nice to chat with Tom, Lewis, Nick & Florence when they were in LA for Primavera.  I was surprised by how hard they rocked when they took the stage - and enjoyed the visual incongruity that ensued, as captured in the snaps below.  The piece also includes some nice quotes from Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods, a friend of Dry Cleaning and an admirer. 

speak-sing / print-head

Here's a piece I did for Tidal looking at the roots - in postpunk, New Wave and Britrap - of the current speak-sing wave (which includes some of the most entertaining music of recent times and some of the most irritating).  I also made a playlist tracing the lineage from M.E.S. to Legss, mostly Brit but with  occasional dishonorary Americans included. 

I was invited by Pierluigi Ledda, co-founder with his wife Francesca of Reading Room, a bookshop and cultural space in Milan, to contribute to their website feature Love At First Browse - in which guest writers and culture-workers talk about 3 magazines that have meant the most to them. Didn't seem quite right to include Melody Maker during my era, but two others I've contributed to made the cut and I doubt you'll have much difficulty guessing the other one. Here's my choices.